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Fairpage vs WordPress
Plugins to update, or nothing to update

Stay on WordPress when you need its plugins, WooCommerce or the code and the server to yourself. Move to Fairpage when you would rather not run the site: forms, search settings, visitor counts and hosting are built in, for $99 a year.

Join the waitlist

14-day free trial · WordPress’s prices checked 20 October 2026

Stay, or move

Stay on

WordPress

70,000+free plugins

  • You need a plugin for something specific

    Memberships, courses, events, a directory: the plugin directory lists more than 70,000.

  • You sell online

    WooCommerce is free and runs a full shop. Fairpage has no shop on Lite or Plus.

  • You want the code and the server

    WordPress is open source under the GPL, and runs on any host you choose.

  • A large site with many authors

    Roles from Contributor to Administrator, with drafts sent for review before they go live.

Move to

Fairpage

$99a year, Plus

  • You would rather not run a site

    No plugins, theme or PHP to update. Hosting and the server are Fairpage’s to keep.

  • Edits should match the site

    Text edits use the site’s own styles; on Plus the AI can change the design too.

  • The yearly cost should be one price

    Plus is $99, and Lite $29. A WordPress site’s host, builder and plugins add up apart.

  • Your coding agent builds it

    It writes HTML in a folder and pushes it, with no theme to learn.

What changes when you move

Edits built from the site’s design

WordPress’s Editor role can change, restructure or delete any page, and paste in HTML and scripts. Any Editor can lock a block from its toolbar, and unlock it again; a lock an Editor cannot undo is set in code by a developer.

On Fairpage anyone on the site edits text and pictures, or asks for a change in words. On Lite every change uses the site’s own fonts and colours: ask for something outside them, and the AI makes the part that fits and says what it left. On Plus it can add to them.

Forms and search settings without plugins

On a self-hosted WordPress site a form, search titles and backups are each a plugin, often with a yearly licence, and each one is another thing to update. WordPress writes only a basic sitemap itself.

On Fairpage a form keeps its entries and mails them to you. Every page has its own search title, description and share image, the sitemap is written for you, and you can undo changes from the site’s history.

Side by side

WordPress.com plans as listed on wordpress.com/pricing; self-hosted costs from the hosts’ and plugin makers’ own pricing pages, all on 20 October 2026.

WordPress Fairpage Plus

A year, worked out

A small business site, self-hosted, after the first year
$404 a year: host, Divi, a forms plugin
$29 a year, Lite
The same with a managed host and paid plugins
$623 a year: Kinsta, Elementor Pro, two plugins
$99 a year, Plus
A shop with a catalogue and checkout
$300 a year, WordPress.com Business, with WooCommerce
– No shop on Lite or Plus

Price and running

Price
Software free; a host and paid plugins, or WordPress.com
$99 a year; Lite $29 a year
Hosting
On WordPress.com, or a host you choose and pay
Included
Updates
Self-hosted, plugins and themes are yours to update; WordPress.com updates them
Nothing to update
Custom domain
Free for a year on WordPress.com’s annual plans
Included

Building

Start from
A theme, a page builder, or blocks
A template, a brief, your current site, or your coding agent
Extend it
70,000+ free plugins
Embeds and connections; no plugins
The code
Open source; PHP on your own server
The site’s HTML and files, in a folder

Editing

Where people edit
The block editor
On the page, and lists in Content
Keeping the design intact
Block locking; a lock editors cannot undo is set in code
Text edits use the site’s own styles; AI changes wait in a draft
Changes asked in words
AI assistant on WordPress.com
About 1,600 changes a year included
History
Revisions of posts and pages
Changes to the whole site, and you can undo them

What a website needs

Forms
A plugin such as WPForms; a block on WordPress.com
Entries kept, mailed and sent on
Search titles and sitemap
Sitemap built in; search titles need a plugin, or WordPress.com Premium
Included
Visitor counts
A plugin or another service
Built in, without cookies

Ownership

Taking it with you
Posts and pages as XML; files and the database from your host
Files and uploads as a zip, lists as CSV
Best for
Sites that need one particular plugin, sell online or have many authors, run by someone who wants the server
Owners who would rather not run a site, with one yearly price and nothing to update

Moving from WordPress

Your WordPress site stays online until you move the domain.

  1. 1

    Paste your site’s address

    In New site, Fairpage reads the site, its pages and posts, and shows what it will make before it starts.

  2. 2

    Check the pages and posts

    Pages keep their addresses; posts become a list in Content on Plus. Old links redirect.

  3. 3

    Point your domain

    Add it in the site’s settings and set the records Fairpage shows. Then cancel the host.

A website
with nothing to update

We’re opening Fairpage to a few people at a time. Leave your email and we’ll write when it’s your turn.

One email, when it’s your turn. Nothing else.

Start when it opens

We’re opening Fairpage to a few people at a time. Leave your email and we’ll write when it’s your turn.