2026 author website comparison
An author website needs your books with buy links, a bio, events and a newsletter signup. BookBub Author Websites and Zenpage both have free plans made for authors, and Heya, which we make, has a free 3-page author template with every cover, buy links, reviews and events, at name.heya.bio.
Heya is ours, so read its row with that in mind. Every other number comes from each company's own pages, checked on October 26, 2026.
Free plans, selling books direct and what your own domain costs.
| Builder | Free plan | Paid plan | Custom domain | Sell books direct | Made for authors |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BookBub Author Websites | Yes, no time limit | Pro, $9.99/mo | Free year 1, then $15/yr | Not stated | Yes |
| Zenpage | Free forever | None | Connect yours free | Yes, 0% commission | Yes |
| Tertulia for Authors | No, 14-day trial | Not stated | .com free year 1, then $15/yr | Yes, on Pro | Yes |
| Squarespace | No, 14-day trial | Basic, $19/mo yearly | Free year 1 on annual plans | Yes, 2% fee on Basic | General builder |
| WordPress.com | Yes, with ads | Personal, $4/mo yearly | Personal, $4/mo yearly | Not stated | General builder |
| Amazon Author Central | Free | None | N/A | Sells on Amazon | Author page on Amazon |
| Goodreads Author Program | Free | None | N/A | N/A | Profile on Goodreads |
| Heya | 3 sites, 5 pages each | Pro Lite, $3/mo | Pro Standard, $6/mo | No, link your stores | Author template |
Swipe the table sideways to see every column.
Prices are in US dollars. Tertulia's plan prices weren't shown on the pages we checked.
BookBub Author Websites gives you a free plan that doesn't expire, plus a Pro tier at $9.99 a month. You get author templates, a blog, a press kit, events pages, and unlimited retailer links and email signups. It also comes with a free custom domain for year one, which renews at $15 a year.
Zenpage is completely free forever, with no paid plan at all. You get an ad-free site on yourname.zenpage.io, or you can connect your own domain for free. It lets you list unlimited books, events and posts using 8 templates and 39 colour schemes, connects to 6 newsletter tools, and sells print, ebooks and audiobooks at 0% commission (just Stripe's 2.9% + 30 cents).
Tertulia for Authors says over 8,500 authors use its builder, which offers a 14-day trial instead of a free plan. You pull your books in by ISBN or ASIN, and it sets up reviews, events and a blog. Upgrading to Pro adds email marketing plus direct audiobook and ebook sales without per-sale fees, and annual plans give you a free .com for a year, then $15 a year.
Squarespace doesn't have a free plan, just a 14-day trial to test things out. The Basic plan runs $19 a month if you pay for the year (or $25 month to month) and charges a 2% fee on online sales. If you pick an annual plan, your domain is free for the first year.
On WordPress.com, the free plan gives you 1 GB of storage and no limit on pages or posts, though it puts ads on your site. Paying $4 a month, billed yearly, for the Personal plan gets rid of the ads and throws in a free domain for the first year.
Amazon Author Central is free to use and sets up your official page right on Amazon. It shows your books, your sales rank, an events list and a blog feed, and includes an image creator. Once you sign up, it can take up to 2 days to get verified.
The Goodreads Author Program doesn't cost anything and gets you an official badge on your Goodreads profile. You can hook up a blog, run book giveaways, and answer reader questions through Ask the Author. Because it lives on Goodreads, you can't use a custom domain with it.
Heya is ours. You can start building without an account, sign in with Google when you're ready to publish, and export a ZIP of your plain HTML, CSS, fonts and images on Pro Plus at $15 a month. The free tier (no credit card) gives you 3 sites at name.heya.bio with 5 pages each and a small Made with Heya badge, while Pro Lite is $3 a month for 20 pages and no badge. Heya's 3-page author template has your new release, all your covers with buy links, reviews, events and a newsletter button.
Put your latest book right at the top of your site, with buy links going out to every store where people can get it. After that, you want a page for each book or series you've written, a photo of yourself with a short bio, a spot for press and reviews, and a list of your upcoming events and appearances.
Don't skip a newsletter signup, because a mailing list is the audience you actually keep if a social app or a store changes its rules. If you use our 3-page author template on Heya, it's already set up with your new book, every cover and its buy links, your reviews, an events list and a button for your newsletter.
Both the Goodreads Author Program and Amazon Author Central are free to use. Amazon puts your books, your sales rank and your events together in one place, while Goodreads lets you run giveaways and take reader questions with Ask the Author. The catch with both of them is that neither one gives you your own website, and you can't put a custom domain on them.
The best move is to go ahead and claim both of those free profiles anyway. Then, set up a separate site of your own that has links out to every store where your books are sold, and point your Amazon and Goodreads pages straight to your site.
We checked each builder and author program on October 26, 2026 from a US connection, using their pricing, product and help pages. The facts come from BookBub's author pages, zenpage.io, authors.tertulia.com, squarespace.com/pricing, wordpress.com/pricing, author.amazon.com, Goodreads Author Program.
Plans change often. If a number here is out of date, email hello@heya.page and we'll fix it.
BookBub Author Websites, Zenpage and Tertulia are all built specifically for authors. Zenpage is free forever and lets you sell print, ebooks and audiobooks at 0% commission, aside from Stripe's 2.9% + 30 cents fee. BookBub gives you a free plan or a $9.99 monthly Pro plan. If you just need your books, buy links, a bio and events, Heya is free and has an author template ready to go.
Yes, you have a few free options. Zenpage is free forever, BookBub Author Websites has a free plan with no time limit, and Heya's author template is free to use at name.heya.bio. You can also get a free ad-supported plan on WordPress.com, or just claim the free author pages that Amazon Author Central and Goodreads host on their own sites.
Yes, depending on the builder you pick. Zenpage lets you sell print, audiobooks and ebooks at 0% commission, while Tertulia's Pro plan covers direct ebook and audiobook sales with no per-sale fees. Squarespace lets you sell on any plan (though Basic takes a 2% cut), whereas Heya doesn't have a checkout, so you just link each book out to your stores.
A custom domain makes you easier to find online and looks cleaner in a book's back matter. Zenpage lets you connect a domain you already own for free, while BookBub and annual Tertulia plans both give you a free domain for the first year that renews at $15 a year. On Heya, a custom domain comes with Heya's Pro Standard tier at $6 a month.
Build without an account, then sign in with Google to publish on name.heya.bio. 3 sites, up to 5 pages each, no credit card.