---
title: "Is Framer's free plan enough? (2026)"
canonical: "https://elliotli.dev/blog/is-framers-free-plan-enough/"
pubDate: "2026-10-16T00:00:00.000Z"
author: Elliot Li
description: "Framer's free plan publishes a real site with CMS collections and 1 GB of bandwidth — but no custom domain and no commercial use. When it's enough, and when it isn't."
tags: [framer, pricing, platform]
---

**Framer's free plan is enough to build and learn — not enough to run a site.** It publishes on a framer.website subdomain, carries 1 GB of bandwidth, and skips a custom domain entirely. For $10/month, Basic fixes all three.

The free plan is not a trial. It does not expire, and Framer keeps improving it. Here is exactly what it covers, the two walls it hits, and when $0 is genuinely the right answer.

## What the free plan includes

- **A framer.website subdomain.** Your site is live and shareable, just not on your own domain.
- **1 GB of bandwidth per month.** Fine for a portfolio with light traffic. Tight for anything with images and visitors.
- **CMS collections for building.** You can structure content, remix templates, and explore the tool.
- **Up to 1,000 pages.** Effectively unlimited for a personal project.
- **Collaboration for up to three editors.** Enough for a small team to experiment.

Framer's own framing is blunt: the free plan is ideal for non-commercial use. That is the second wall.

## The two walls

**Wall one: no custom domain.** Custom domains are a paid feature. For a business, a subdomain reads as provisional — and for SEO and email, your own domain is the point. This alone decides it for most sites.

**Wall two: non-commercial use.** Framer positions free for personal projects. Running a business, taking payments, or representing a client on a subdomain is both against that spirit and bad practice.

Both walls fall at the same price: **$10/month for Basic**, billed yearly, which also raises bandwidth to 50 GB and adds a custom domain.

## When free is genuinely enough

- **Learning the tool.** Framer's editor is best learned by rebuilding something. The free plan is the classroom.
- **Remixing templates.** Most [free templates](/free-framer-templates/) run fine on free while you decide.
- **Personal projects.** A photo log, a wedding page, a reading list — a subdomain is fine.
- **Prototyping for clients.** Build the direction on free, then upgrade when the client signs.
- **Freelancers testing the waters.** Keep the free site; upgrade only the site you are paid for.

## When it is not

- **Any business site.** Custom domain, always.
- **Any client site.** They pay for their own plan — that is the professional baseline.
- **Photo-heavy portfolios.** 1 GB of bandwidth runs out faster than you think.
- **Anything with real traffic.** Bandwidth overages do not exist on free — the site simply degrades at the limit.

## The upgrade math

Framer bills per site, not per account. That has a pleasant consequence: your hobby project can stay on free forever while a client site runs on Pro. Nothing forces an all-or-nothing upgrade.

- **Free → Basic ($10/month)** — custom domain, 50 GB, 2 CMS collections. The right move for a personal site.
- **Free → Pro ($30/month)** — adds redirects, staging, 10 collections, 100 GB. The right move for professional or client work.

Both prices are yearly billing, as of October 2026. The full breakdown lives in [Framer pricing explained](/blog/framer-pricing-explained/).

## The bottom line

Use the free plan as a workshop, not a storefront. Build, learn, and remix on $0 — then spend $10/month on the one site that represents you or a client. That is the cheapest honest path into Framer, and it is exactly how the plans are designed.