Can AI build a website for a small business?
Yes, and both Durable and FreeWebGuy use AI to do it. The difference is what happens after the AI has produced a draft. On Durable, the draft lands in your editor and you take it from there. On FreeWebGuy, the draft goes to a person on our team, who checks it against your brief before you ever see it.
Durable sells a tool and the speed of its first draft; its own page says 'Ready to go online in 30 seconds.' FreeWebGuy sells the finished site. We use AI to build fast, and a person checks every first version before you see it.
If you want the longer answer on what AI can and cannot do for a business site, read Can AI build my website? It covers what the drafts get right and wrong, and why the check matters.
How much does Durable cost?
Durable costs $25 a month for its Launch plan billed monthly, or $22 a month billed yearly, which is $264 for the year. Grow is $49 monthly or $41 yearly. The yearly toggle on the pricing page is labeled 'Save 15%'. There is also a free plan, which is a private preview rather than a published site.
Launch includes the things a business needs to go live: your own domain connected, or one registered free up to a $20 value, custom forms, analytics, a built-in CRM, unlimited booking synced to your calendar and 1,000 AI credits a month. Grow adds unlimited team members, personalized onboarding, a $40 domain credit and 5,000 AI credits a month.
FreeWebGuy costs $0 to build and $15 a month for hosting once you approve the preview, so a year is $180 and three years $540. The $15 covers hosting with SSL, your domain connected, a phone-first layout, SEO basics, a contact or request form that emails you, the AI builder for your own edits and the platform's 24/7 chat support. The pricing page lists the few things that cost extra.
Who finishes the site after the AI draft?
On Durable, you finish it. The draft gives you a layout and text to react to, and then the work that makes a site yours is on your side: replacing generic sentences with how you describe the business, swapping stock photos for your own, checking the service list, the hours, the phone number and the mobile view, and doing it again each time something changes.
On FreeWebGuy, we finish it before you see it. The brief takes about 3 minutes and asks for the things only you know. The first version arrives within 48 hours of it; bigger sites, or briefs missing key details, take a few days more. You then tell us what to change, and reasonable revisions before launch are included until the preview matches your brief.
After launch the two look more alike: you can make your own edits in your site's AI builder, and the platform's 24/7 chat support is there when you get stuck. The difference is that you start from a site a person has already checked, not from a draft.
What does Durable's free plan include?
Durable's free plan gives you a private website preview on a durable.site address, 300 AI credits to try the generator, a CRM that holds up to 10 customers and help-center support. It is a way to see what the AI produces for your business before you pay. To publish on your own domain you move to Launch.
FreeWebGuy's preview works the other way around. You do not generate anything; we build the whole site from your brief and send you a private link. You read every page, ask for changes and decide. Hosting at $15 a month begins only when you approve the site and set up your SMBcrm plan. Sending a brief charges nothing and commits you to nothing.
What about a CRM and booking?
Durable bundles a CRM and unlimited booking into its Launch plan, which matters for a business that wants contacts and appointments in the same place as the website from day one, at $22 to $25 a month.
FreeWebGuy handles booking with a Book button. It opens the scheduler you already use, whether that is Square, Vagaro, Booksy, Acuity, Calendly, Jane or something similar, or, if you have none, a request-a-time form that emails you each request. A built-in calendar with reminders, a CRM, email marketing and automation come with SMBcrm plans from $97 a month, and those plans are optional.
So if a bundled CRM is the reason you are shopping, Durable includes one at a lower price than the SMBcrm plan that would add it to a FreeWebGuy site. If the website is the reason, FreeWebGuy builds it and Durable does not.
Which costs less over three years, Durable or FreeWebGuy?
FreeWebGuy costs less: $540 over three years against $792 for Durable Launch billed yearly or $900 billed monthly, at the list prices both showed on October 14, 2026. Durable's free domain up to $20 on Launch narrows the gap by a year of registration; a domain for a FreeWebGuy site is about $10 to $25 a year at the registrar.
The cash figures leave out your hours, which is where the two part. On Durable the hours are yours in year one and in every year after. The website cost calculator will add them at whatever rate you choose; it sets no default because only you know what an hour of your week is worth.
Neither price buys a site you can carry to another host as a file. Durable says it will transfer your custom domain to you when you cancel, and notes that the transfer takes a couple of weeks and has a minimum subscription time. A FreeWebGuy site goes offline if you cancel; your domain, logo, photos and text stay yours, and we can help you gather them if you ask. The team behind FreeWebGuy has built 1,000+ websites.
