If your business doesn’t have a website yet, Netlify is one of the easiest places to put one. Start on the free plan, use your own domain, and have an AI assistant write and publish the pages for you.
Netlify Partner link
Short answer
Netlify hosts websites. You (or an AI assistant working for you) hand it the files, and it puts them online at a web address, with free HTTPS. The Free plan costs $0 and has a hard monthly limit, so it can’t run up a bill.
It works well for a small, local business that needs a simple site: a one-page site, a few pages about your services, a landing page for an offer, or a small free tool like a calculator.
What you can host on Netlify
Most small businesses need one of these. Netlify handles all of them the same way, so you can start small and add more later.
One-page website
Your name, what you do, where you are, your hours, and a way to get in touch. For a lot of local businesses, that’s the whole site.
Multi-page website
Separate pages for services, prices, an about page, and a contact page. Add a blog later if you want one.
Landing pages
A single page for one offer, event, or ad campaign, built so you can tell whether it works.
Free tools
A quote calculator, a checklist, or a quiz that answers a common customer question and brings people to your site.
You can also publish a site without making an account first. Netlify’s Netlify Drop (Netlify Partner link; we may earn a commission if you buy a paid plan. How this works) lets you drag a folder of website files into your browser to put it online.
How it works with an AI assistant
You don’t need to write code. AI assistants such as Grok Bot, Gemini, and Claude can write the pages, and Netlify offers tools built for this, including the Netlify MCP server, which lets an AI agent create and deploy projects for you. Here’s the basic flow:
- Describe your business. Tell your assistant what you sell, who your customers are, your service area, your hours, and how people should contact you. Include photos and your logo if you have them.
- Review a draft. The assistant builds the site and publishes it to a private preview link. New projects on Netlify’s current plans start private, so nobody sees it until you say so.
- Ask for changes in plain English. “Make the phone number bigger.” “Add a page about our prices.” Each change gets its own preview link you can check on your phone.
- Publish and connect your domain. When it looks right, the site goes live. Your assistant can keep updating it for you later, so you’re not stuck waiting on a web designer.
Example request to your AI assistant
“Build a one-page website for Rivera Plumbing in Tucson. Include our services, a service-area list, our phone number, and a contact form. Publish it on Netlify as a preview so I can look before it goes live.”
Add a contact form and send leads where you want
Netlify has forms built in. Your assistant adds a normal web form to the page and switches on Netlify’s form detection, and Netlify collects every submission for you. There’s no form plugin to install and no server to run.
You can ask for this in one sentence. When I set up a site with Grok Bot, I asked for a contact form, and it built the form and connected it to Netlify Forms. You can do the same with any assistant that can edit and deploy your site.
Then decide where the submissions should go. According to Netlify’s form notification docs, you can:
- Get an email for each new submission.
- Post to Slack if your team lives there.
- Add rows to a Google Sheet using Netlify’s Zapier integration.
- Send leads to a marketing or sales tool, such as Mailchimp or Salesforce, also through Zapier, or to almost any other tool with a webhook.
You can also see and export submissions in your Netlify dashboard. Netlify also strips out harmful code that people try to submit.
Domains made easy
Every site gets a free web address ending in netlify.app right away. When you’re ready for your own name, you have two options:
Buy a domain in Netlify
Pick a name in Domain management and buy it. Netlify sets it up for you, including DNS and the security certificate. See Register and buy a domain.
Connect a domain you already own
Add it in Domain management, then update one or two DNS records where you bought it, or let Netlify manage your DNS. See Bring an existing domain.
HTTPS is free
Netlify adds a free Let’s Encrypt certificate to custom domains and renews it automatically, per the HTTPS docs. Visitors see the padlock, and you don’t pay extra for it.
Your AI assistant can walk you through any of these. If you also want email at your domain, such as you@yourbusiness.com, that’s a separate service. Here’s how to try Google Workspace free.
Netlify pricing
Last verified Oct 31, 2026. Prices come from Netlify’s official pricing page and may change. Prices in USD, as listed on netlify.com/pricing.
Free
$0 forever
300 credits a month
Build and deploy free forever
- Custom domains with free SSL
- Deploy from AI, Git, or the API
- Unlimited Deploy Previews
- Projects stay private until you publish
- Hard monthly limit, so you can't be charged
Personal
$9 a month
1,000 credits a month
Ready for real traffic
- Everything in Free
- Smart secret detection
- 1-day observability
- Priority email support
Best value (per Netlify)
Pro
$20 a month
3,000 credits a month
Ship faster as a team
- Unlimited team members
- Private org repos and shared environment variables
- 3+ concurrent builds
- 30-day analytics
- More credits: 5,000 for $33, 10,000 for $63, 15,000 for $95, 20,000 for $126 a month
Enterprise
Custom pricing
Contact Netlify sales
For large organizations
- 99.99% SLA
- SSO and SCIM
- 24/7 support
Netlify plans are based on monthly credits. Different kinds of usage use up credits at different rates:
- Production deploy: 15 credits
- Bandwidth: 20 credits per GB
- Web requests: 2 credits per 10,000
- Compute: 10 credits per GB-hour
- AI inference: varies by model
A small brochure site with modest traffic usually fits well within the Free plan. If you publish changes many times a day or get a lot of traffic, keep an eye on your credits in the dashboard. Netlify emails you at 50%, 75%, and 100% of your limit.
Watch: What is Netlify?
What is Netlify? A short overview from Netlify’s official YouTube channel.
Watch on YouTube (opens in a new tab)
Honest limits
- Netlify hosts your website. It doesn’t give you email at your domain, a booking system, or an online store out of the box. You’d add those with other services.
- If you go over the Free plan’s monthly credits, Netlify pauses your sites until the next month unless you upgrade. One project going over pauses every project on the account.
- Netlify only accepts credit cards for paid plans (Enterprise customers can also pay by ACH or wire).
- Sending form entries to a Google Sheet or a marketing tool uses Zapier or a webhook, which is another account to set up.
- AI assistants make mistakes. Read every page before you publish it, especially prices, hours, and phone numbers.
Frequently asked questions
Is Netlify really free?
Yes. The Free plan costs $0 and includes 300 credits a month. It has hard monthly limits, so it can’t be charged for extra usage. If you need more, the Personal plan starts at $9 a month.
Do I need to know how to code?
No. You can describe what you want to an AI assistant such as Grok Bot, Gemini, or Claude and have it build and publish the site. You can also drag a folder of finished files into Netlify Drop (Netlify Partner link; we may earn a commission if you buy a paid plan. How this works).
Can I use my own domain name?
Yes. You can buy a domain inside Netlify or connect one you already own by updating its DNS records. Netlify adds a free HTTPS certificate and renews it automatically.
How do I add a contact form?
Ask your AI assistant to add a Netlify form. Netlify collects the submissions and can email you, post to Slack, or pass them to a Google Sheet or a marketing tool through Zapier or a webhook.
Can people see my site before I’m ready?
Not on Netlify’s current plans. New projects start private, and you can share preview links for feedback before you publish.
What happens if my site gets a lot of traffic?
Your usage counts against your monthly credits. Netlify warns you at 50%, 75%, and 100%. On the Free plan, sites pause at the limit until the next month unless you upgrade.
Learn more
Want to see a real build? Read how to build a headless website with Gemini and Netlify. For Netlify’s own getting-started material, see What is Netlify? in its docs.