Websites and hosting decision
Tilda
A small, useful subset of Tilda (templates + block editor + static publish + AI copy) is realistic for a capable developer to build and run; recreating the full polished editor, large block library, integrations, and hosted platform is substantially more work and operational cost.
Visit website↗$15/mo
$180/yr
Read off the official pricing page.
$100one-off80 h to build
$50/mo8 h/mo upkeep
On cash alone, building overtakes the subscription at 4 seats.
Open-source builds that already do this
Every project below is open source and already does this job today. Fork one, self-host it, or take the parts you need - the build prompt further down assumes an empty file, and this is the shortcut past that. Licences differ; check the one on each card before you ship. All Tilda alternatives, with the arithmetic →
What a replacement has to do
- Create a page from blocks or a template, edit content (text/images/blocks) in the visual editor, connect domain/publish, and collect form submissions
What it still won’t have
- Large built-in block library and hundreds of designer-made templates
- Polished visual editor (Zero Block) with advanced responsive/animation tools
- Hosted infrastructure, automatic scaling, backups, and uptime SLAs
- Built-in integrations and one-click payment/CRM plugins
- Built-in analytics, SEO guides, and platform-level team/collaboration features
What remains hard
- Product polish and ongoing maintenance
First-year cost
Keep paying
Paying is—cheaper in year one.
On cash alone, building overtakes the subscription at 4 seats.
Money you would actually spend
Time you would spend
—
What you would spend
What we assumed
The verdict above measures whether you could build it. This one is only about money.
Runnable build prompt
Build a minimal block-based website builder in Node.js + Next.js (React) with a Postgres database and S3-compatible object storage. In scope: a) a small library of 15 responsive blocks (cover, text, gallery, form, CTA, footer), b) a visual editor that composes pages from those blocks and saves page JSON, c) a renderer that exports pages to static HTML/CSS and a Publish button that uploads to S3 and returns a public URL, d) a form backend that stores submissions in Postgres and forwards to an email/webhook, e) integrate an LLM (OpenAI-compatible) to generate block copy from a short prompt. Out of scope: WYSIWYG Zero Block parity, marketplace of templates, advanced animation builder, built-in payments, multi-site account billing. Provide input validation, error handling, unit tests for editor API and publish pipeline, and basic CI to run tests.
How we checked
How the score was reached
- Partly verdict base52
- An open-source build was found+5
- 5 cited sources+3
- Price verified on pricing page+3
- 3/3 assessment runs agreed+4
- Evidence score67
The base comes from the verdict. Everything under it is a check that either happened or did not, and each one is a fact frozen in this record rather than a judgement made at render time - so the same evidence always produces the same number.
How scoring works →Cited sources · 5
Every page the run actually retrieved.
- official productTilda main page
- official pricingTilda Pricing
- official docsTilda Features
- open sourcewebstudio-is/webstudio
- open sourceHugoBlox/kit
Integrity checks
What held up, and what did not.
