Framer

Framer is a visual editor that designs and hosts websites without code. It suits a freelancer, consultant or small studio that wants a polished marketing site and is comfortable with a design-style editor. It is less suited to large shops, complex memberships or sites that need a lot of custom back-end logic.

On the maker's pricing page, the Free plan gives you a free Framer domain and a bandwidth allowance, and the page notes that you must upgrade to a paid plan to connect a custom domain. Basic is listed at US$10 a month and Pro at US$30 a month. Our price above is converted to Australian dollars, so confirm it at checkout.

• Free: build and preview a site on a Framer address.
• Basic: for a live site on your own domain.
• Pro: for larger sites with more traffic or content.

• Pick a template close to what you need and replace the text and images.
• Build the home, services, about and contact pages first.
• Set page titles and descriptions for each page.
• Upgrade to a paid plan, connect your domain and publish.

Larger sites move to the Pro plan. Site plans are billed per site, so several sites add up. Check bandwidth and page limits against your expected traffic before you launch.

Webflow is similar but has a steeper learning curve. WordPress is more flexible and needs more maintenance. For a blog or paid newsletter, see Ghost.

Framer is the website layer in the Freelance Web Design Studio stack, paired with Figma for design.