What happens to your website if your website builder shuts down or raises prices
Updated June 23, 2026
If your website builder shuts down or raises prices, you keep your content but can lose the design and the platform it runs on, because you were renting them. Wix confirms in its Terms of Use that you cannot export a Wix website (WP Astra, 2025). The way to stay safe is to keep your own copy of your content, control your domain, and avoid being locked to a single company.
Quick answer
- Wix states in its own Terms of Use that you cannot export a Wix website to another platform (WP Astra, 2025).
- Squarespace allows only a partial export of basic content, not your design (SaffireTech, 2026).
- Google Domains closed and transferred its customers to Squarespace in 2023, a real example of a platform changing hands.
- Subscription website builders commonly cost $16 to $159 per month, and that price can rise while your website is locked in (Verlua, 2026).
- You lower the risk by keeping your own copy of your content, controlling your domain, and avoiding lock-in to one company.
What happens to your website if your builder shuts down
You keep what you wrote, but the parts you rented can vanish. On a closed builder the design templates and the platform code belong to the company, so if it closes, those pieces stop working and you usually cannot lift the full website out. DreamHost (2025) describes a website as four parts: content, design, data, and infrastructure, and a closed builder typically lets you keep only the first one. That is why owners often have to rebuild from scratch on a new platform.
What happens if your builder raises its prices
You either pay the new price or do the work of leaving, and leaving is the hard part. Subscription website builders charge a recurring fee, and once your website lives inside the platform your options shrink. Plans commonly run from about $16 to $159 per month across the major builders (Verlua, 2026), and that figure can climb over a five-year period. A free building tool like Expert Built removes that risk on the build side, because there is no building subscription to raise. You pay only for hosting.
Has a website platform actually shut down before
Yes, more often than people expect. Google Domains closed and transferred its customers to Squarespace in 2023. Before that, Posterous and Vine were shut down entirely, and Movable Type was sunset for new users. None of these were small, unknown services, which is the point: even large platforms change hands or close, and when they do, the owners who kept their own content and controlled their domain had a far easier time moving on.
Can you get your content out before a builder closes
Only partly, on most builders. Wix lets you pull blog posts out through an RSS feed but not your full pages or images, and the move is partly manual (Duplicator, 2025). Squarespace supports a partial export of basic content but not your design (SaffireTech, 2026). The practical takeaway is to keep your own copy of your content and to control your domain from the start, so a platform change does not mean losing everything. We break down how to test a platform in what website data portability means and how to check if your builder lets you leave.
How much can website builder prices rise over time
Enough to matter for a small business budget. Across the major subscription builders, monthly plans span roughly $16 to $159 depending on the tier and features (Verlua, 2026), and because billing is recurring, a modest increase repeats every month for as long as you stay. Cost is already a barrier: 27 percent of United States small businesses still have no website, and cost is one of the top reasons given (Zippia, 2025). A free building tool keeps the build itself out of the subscription entirely, so you pay only for hosting.
How does Expert Built lower this risk
Expert Built is built to keep you in control. It is free to use, so there is no building subscription that can be hiked, and there is no lock-in to us. You describe your business, Expert Built turns your description into a detailed prompt for an AI website builder, and your finished website lives on your own Bluehost account. You control your hosting, your domain is yours, and you can edit the website anytime by describing what you want. For the deeper question of who controls what, see do you own your website if you built it with a website builder.
What you can do right now to lower the risk
Three steps protect you no matter what platform you use today. First, check whether you can export your full website, not just a few posts. Second, keep your own copy of your content and images so you are never starting from zero. Third, make sure your domain is registered in your name; ICANN grants the right to use a domain rather than outright ownership (DreamHost, 2025), but that right moves with you, so your address stays yours.
What you keep if the platform changes
| If the platform shuts down or hikes price | Closed all-in-one builder | Website on your own account (Expert Built + Bluehost) |
|---|---|---|
| Your content (text, images) | Kept, but hard to export | Yours, keep your own copy |
| Control your hosting account | Tied to the platform | You control your own Bluehost account |
| Control your own domain | Tied to the platform | Yes, your domain is yours |
| Building-subscription price hikes | Recurring, you are locked in | None, Expert Built is free to use |
| Locked to one company | Yes, while you keep paying | No lock-in to Expert Built |
Frequently asked questions
What happens to your website if your website builder shuts down
You keep the words and images you added, but you can lose the design and the platform that ran your website, because you were renting them. Most closed builders make it hard to export the full website, so you may have to rebuild elsewhere. You lower this risk by keeping your own copy of your content, controlling your domain, and choosing a setup where your website lives on an account you control rather than locked inside one company.
Can a website builder raise your price after you sign up
Yes. Subscription website builders charge a recurring fee that can change over time, and you have limited leverage once your website lives inside their platform. Plans commonly range from about $16 to $159 per month (Verlua, 2026). A free tool like Expert Built has no building subscription to raise, so you pay only for hosting.
Have website platforms actually shut down before
Yes. Google Domains closed and transferred its customers to Squarespace in 2023. Earlier platforms like Posterous and Vine were shut down entirely, and Movable Type was sunset for new users. Platforms change hands or close more often than people expect, which is why staying in control of your content and your domain matters.
Can you export your website before a builder closes
Only partly on most builders. Wix states in its Terms of Use that you cannot export a Wix website to another platform (WP Astra, 2025), and Squarespace supports only a partial export of basic content (SaffireTech, 2026). So it is worth keeping your own copy of your content and controlling your domain, so a shutdown is an inconvenience, not a disaster.
How does Expert Built lower this risk
Expert Built is free to use, so there is no building subscription that can be hiked, and there is no lock-in to us. Your website lives on your own Bluehost account, so you control your hosting, and your domain is yours. Keeping your own copy of your content protects you further.
What should you do right now to lower the risk
Check whether your current platform lets you export your full website, keep your own copy of your content and images, and register your domain so you control it. ICANN grants you the right to use a domain, not outright ownership (DreamHost, 2025), but that right moves with you between registrars, so your address stays yours even if you switch platforms.
The bottom line
A website builder can shut down, get acquired, or raise its price, and when it does, the safest position is staying in control of the parts that matter. If you keep your own copy of your content, control your domain, and avoid being locked to one company, a platform change is an inconvenience instead of a disaster.
That fits how Expert Built works. It is free to use, your website lives on your own Bluehost account, your domain is yours, and there is no lock-in to us. You describe your business, Expert Built turns your description into a detailed prompt for an AI website builder, and the website comes out tailored to you, not generic. To see how the pieces fit, read how Expert Built works, or weigh the spend in is it worth paying someone to build a website.