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#1
Salla Highest score on the list
A Saudi platform, Arabic by origin: the merchant dashboard is in Arabic and the local payment methods are named on its own page. The price is $82.50 a month on a yearly subscription.
The merchant dashboard and support pages are in Arabic
Local payment methods named one by one, and a domain with the paid plan
The price is $8.00 a month billed yearly, and it prints the domain’s renewal beside its free year, which few platforms here do. Its promise of right-to-left writing, though, is withdrawn by a newer page of its own.
The domain’s renewal price is written beside its free year
The sales commission is written out for every plan
Shopify What you get: 7 of the 7 capabilities we could read
The price is $19.00 a month billed yearly. It advertises a zero commission on sales, on condition you use its own payment product, which its published country list does not offer in Egypt or Saudi Arabia.
A wide app store and round-the-clock support
Hosting with no published storage cap
What you get: 7 of the 7 capabilities we could read
A Saudi platform, Arabic by origin, and it states outright that it takes no commission on sales. The price is $83.00 a month, though the figure shown changes with the country you browse from.
No commission on sales, in its own words
An Arabic dashboard and an English one too, with local carriers named
The advertised $17.00 a month is on a yearly subscription, — for the year. Its plans page never says what the price becomes after the first year, and describes its dollar figures as "for reference only" because the price varies by country.
A permanent free tier and a domain free for the first year
The price is $13.00 a month billed yearly, and the page prints the monthly figure beside it on the same line. The language list it publishes does not include Arabic.
Site123 What you get: 2 of the 5 capabilities we could read
The plan card prints $5.80 a month, and the questions on the same page name a figure far above it. The page shows two plans while its own questions name four.
The price is $12.00 a month billed yearly, and higher if you pay monthly. The company publishes in its own help pages that it has no built-in way to write right-to-left text.
Jimdo What you get: 2 of the 6 capabilities we could read
The price is $12.00 a month on a one-year contract, and it is the one platform here printing its price with tax included. Its free tier receives no customer support at all, by its own grid.
We read every one of these companies’ own pages: the pricing page, the cart, the refund terms, the support page. What follows is not a summary of what a company says about itself, it is what we found written there and what we did not find. The order is the order of the scores, and the card under each name redoes the arithmetic in front of you.
This site is funded by commission from the companies listed, when you sign up through “Visit site”. No agreement has started yet. Rankings are computed from the score alone. Link disclosure
#1
Salla
Arabic by origin, with the local payment methods named
7.2Good
A Saudi platform whose dashboard and theme store are in Arabic, and which names the local payment methods one by one on its own page. The flaw is that tax invoicing sits a tier above the entry plan, and that it publishes no renewal price and no readable commission rate.
Arabic and right-to-left support10.020%
Price and billing transparency8.525%
Published features7.735%
Support availability2.020%
Term demanded
12 months
Paid today
990.00 SAR
Then per month
—
Three years
—
Renewal against the opening price
—
VAT is added at the checkout according to your billing country. We have not walked this company’s cart to measure it.
Full Arabic support: built for the Saudi market and fully prepared in Arabic
And what it does not say: No renewal price, no storage figure, and no support hours or channels on the plans page. Its commission rate is injected by JavaScript and cannot be read from the page.
The price is $82.50 a month on a yearly subscription. The entry plan carries 3/5 of the items we count, and connecting your own domain is among them.
The free tier connects no domain and activates neither electronic payment nor shipping, so it is a showcase rather than a shop. Linking to the tax authority is named in a tier above the entry one.
Everything here is in Arabic without exception: the dashboard, the themes and the help pages. The local payment methods are named one by one, with two of them marked as still coming.
In its favour
An editor interface in Arabic
Supports building right to left
No commission on sales
Against it
No published support hours
No refund window published
Suits: Anyone selling inside Saudi Arabia who wants everything in Arabic.
Does not suit: Anyone who wants to read the commission and the renewal before signing up.
Not yet measured: speed, uptime, support reply time, the control panel, and a refund actually claimed. Those five need a bought plan and a measurement round, and none of them is in the score today.
The only one publishing Arabic as an editor language, and a promise quietly withdrawn
6.7Fair
It is the only platform here publishing a language list for its account and editor interface with Arabic in it. The flaw is that its right-to-left promise rests on an older page, while a newer page of its own describes the same setting as changing nothing you typed.
Price and billing transparency9.925%
Published features7.035%
Arabic and right-to-left support5.020%
Support availability4.020%
Term demanded
not published
Paid today
—
Then per month
—
Three years
—
Renewal against the opening price
—
VAT is added at the checkout according to your billing country. We have not walked this company’s cart to measure it.
This setting affects small pieces of system text that your visitors see… it will not change any of the content you’ve entered.
And what it does not say: No plan renewal price, no free-tier limits on the pricing page, and no refund window we could find.
The price is $8.00 a month billed yearly, and the domain’s renewal is written beside its free year. The entry plan carries 3/5 of the items we count.
The entry plan carries a commission on store sales, falling with an upgrade and disappearing only at the top tier. Multi-language and auto-translation sit at the top tier alone.
Its own page calls its Arabic translation a beta and invites visitors to help translate it. Its phone support is marked English-only in its own words.
In its favour
An editor interface in Arabic
Support around the clock
A narrow premium for paying monthly
Against it
Publishes no right-to-left support
No refund window published
Suits: Anyone wanting a single page and an account interface in Arabic.
Does not suit: Anyone relying on the layout mirroring to the right.
Not yet measured: speed, uptime, support reply time, the control panel, and a refund actually claimed. Those five need a bought plan and a measurement round, and none of them is in the score today.
The deepest selling platform here, and its zero-commission condition cannot be met from here
6.7Fair
For anyone selling seriously, the app store and the machinery behind it have no match on this page. The flaw is that the zero commission it advertises is conditional on using the company’s own payment product, which its own published country list does not offer in Egypt or Saudi Arabia.
Published features10.035%
Price and billing transparency6.825%
Support availability4.020%
Arabic and right-to-left support3.520%
Term demanded
12 months
Paid today
$228.00
Then per month
—
Three years
—
Renewal against the opening price
—
VAT is added at the checkout according to your billing country. We have not walked this company’s cart to measure it.
If your country isn’t listed, or if Shopify Payments doesn’t support your business category, then you need to use a third-party payment provider.
And what it does not say: No renewal price on the pricing page, and no list of the themes that support right-to-left although the company sends the buyer to check for one.
The price is $19.00 a month billed yearly. The company publishes its admin in thirty-six languages, with Arabic first in its list.
The commission on the entry plan applies to every sale through an outside payment provider, and falls with an upgrade rather than disappearing. The free trial runs three days, and no plan includes a free domain.
The UAE is on the list of countries where its payment product works; Egypt and Saudi Arabia are not. So a seller in Cairo or Riyadh pays the commission on every order with no published way to remove it, while a seller in Dubai does not.
In its favour
What you get: 7 of the 7 capabilities we could read
An editor interface in Arabic
Support around the clock
Against it
Publishes no right-to-left support
Paying monthly costs a good deal more
Suits: Anyone selling from the UAE or outside the region who wants depth.
Does not suit: Anyone selling from Egypt or Saudi Arabia who counts the commission on every order.
Not yet measured: speed, uptime, support reply time, the control panel, and a refund actually claimed. Those five need a bought plan and a measurement round, and none of them is in the score today.
No commission on sales, and a price that changes with the visitor’s country
6.7Fair
A Saudi platform that states outright it takes no commission on sales, with an Arabic dashboard and help centre and local carriers named. The flaw is that the figure on its pricing page differs with the country you browse from, and the page never says so.
Price and billing transparency8.525%
Arabic and right-to-left support8.520%
Published features7.535%
Support availability1.020%
Term demanded
12 months
Paid today
996.00 SAR
Then per month
—
Three years
—
Renewal against the opening price
—
VAT is added at the checkout according to your billing country. We have not walked this company’s cart to measure it.
No, there are no fees charged on sales for the Essential, Growth, and Professional packages
And what it does not say: No renewal price, no payment-processing percentage, no storage figure, and no support hours except on the top tier. The page never says its price differs by country.
The price is $83.00 a month on a yearly subscription with no commission on sales. The entry plan carries 3/5 of the items we count.
The free domain sits in the two higher tiers, not the entry plan, which gives you connection of a domain you already own. The free tier has no domain, no advanced payment methods and no chat support.
We read the same pricing page two ways: the server-rendered copy gives riyals, and the page rendered from Cairo gives Egyptian pounds at a figure that is not a conversion of the riyal. A Saudi reader and an Egyptian reader face different products at the same address.
In its favour
An editor interface in Arabic
Supports building right to left
No commission on sales
Against it
No published support hours
No refund window published
Suits: Anyone selling in Saudi Arabia who counts the commission on every order.
Does not suit: Anyone comparing the price from outside Saudi Arabia.
Not yet measured: speed, uptime, support reply time, the control panel, and a refund actually claimed. Those five need a bought plan and a measurement round, and none of them is in the score today.
A mature editor, and a language list without Arabic
6.5Fair
A widely used platform, and its editor as complete as any on this page. The flaw is that the account-and-editor language list Wix publishes itself does not include Arabic, and that it files right-to-left support across the whole editor as a feature request not yet built.
Price and billing transparency9.525%
Published features7.135%
Support availability4.920%
Arabic and right-to-left support3.520%
Term demanded
not published
Paid today
—
Then per month
—
Three years
—
Renewal against the opening price
—
VAT is added at the checkout according to your billing country. We have not walked this company’s cart to measure it.
Currently, right-to-left text is supported in many areas of the Editor… However, in some areas of the Editor such as in the Organize Images panel for galleries, right-to-left text is not supported.
And what it does not say: Wix publishes no renewal price on its plans page at all, and describes its dollar figures as for reference only because the price varies by country.
The advertised price is $17.00 a month on a yearly subscription. The entry plan carries 4/5 of the items we count, and selling is available on it with no platform commission.
The domain is free for one year through a voucher whose conditions are written out: a new domain from Wix only, on a first paid subscription, redeemable within sixty days, and not usable to renew a domain you already own. The second year’s price is not published.
Wix publishes its help centre in twelve languages, Arabic not among them, and phone support in ten, Arabic not among them. Right-to-left runs through its paid translation tool rather than a setting in the editor.
In its favour
Supports building right to left
Support around the clock
A narrow premium for paying monthly
Against it
No Arabic interface published
No renewal price on the page
Suits: Anyone building in English who wants a broad, capable editor.
Does not suit: Anyone wanting an Arabic interface or a known second-year price.
Not yet measured: speed, uptime, support reply time, the control panel, and a refund actually claimed. Those five need a bought plan and a measurement round, and none of them is in the score today.
Both prices on one line, and no Arabic in its list
6.1Fair · provisional
A simple start that prints the yearly and monthly prices on the same line, with a free tier that allows selling. The flaw is that its published language list does not include Arabic, and that its free domain is not on the entry plan.
Price and billing transparency8.825%
Published features6.535%
Support availability2.020%
Term demanded
12 months
Paid today
$156.00
Then per month
—
Three years
—
Renewal against the opening price
—
VAT is added at the checkout according to your billing country. We have not walked this company’s cart to measure it.
And what it does not say: No renewal price, no refund window on the pricing page, and no storage figure on the two lower plans.
The price is $13.00 a month billed yearly, with the monthly figure printed beside it. The entry plan carries 2/5 of the items we count.
The free tier carries the platform’s ads, and removing them is a line item on higher plans. The free domain sits in the top two plans, not the entry one.
The language list in its own page footer runs past twenty, and Arabic is not among them. Nothing is published about writing direction.
In its favour
No commission on sales
A permanent free tier
$13.00/mo billed yearly
Against it
Arabic not yet measured
What you get: 4 of the 7 capabilities we could read
No published support hours
Suits: Anyone wanting a simple start with both prices clear.
Does not suit: Anyone building in Arabic.
Not yet measured: speed, uptime, support reply time, the control panel, and a refund actually claimed. Those five need a bought plan and a measurement round, and none of them is in the score today.
A quick start, a permanent free tier and round-the-clock chat. The flaw is that the plan card and the page’s own questions name two different prices, and that its Arabic page shows the card with no price at all.
Price and billing transparency10.025%
Published features5.035%
Support availability4.920%
Arabic and right-to-left support1.520%
Term demanded
not published
Paid today
—
Then per month
—
Three years
—
Renewal against the opening price
—
VAT is added at the checkout according to your billing country. We have not walked this company’s cart to measure it.
Language – Change the language for your entire account, including the Website Editor interface.
And what it does not say: The page says the account language changes the editor’s language, and nowhere publishes which languages exist.
The price is $5.80 a month, with a domain free for the first year and a 14 days guarantee. The entry plan carries 4/5 of the items we count.
The page shows two plans while its own questions name four, and no term is written beside the price. The free tier sits on a subdomain and carries the platform’s tag.
The support centre is published in Arabic on a subdomain that declares the language and direction in its page tag, and that is real. But the Arabic pricing page drops the one number a reader came for.
In its favour
Support around the clock
A narrow premium for paying monthly
No commission on sales
Against it
What you get: 2 of the 5 capabilities we could read
No Arabic interface published
Suits: Anyone wanting a simple site quickly and Arabic written support.
Does not suit: Anyone who wants to know exactly what they will pay.
Not yet measured: speed, uptime, support reply time, the control panel, and a refund actually claimed. Those five need a bought plan and a measurement round, and none of them is in the score today.
Design worth envying, and no right-to-left writing
5.2Poor
Its templates and editor are as good as this market offers for anyone writing in English. The flaw is that the company publishes, itself, that it has no built-in way to write right-to-left text, and that the workaround it suggests sits outside its support.
Published features8.235%
Price and billing transparency6.725%
Support availability3.520%
Arabic and right-to-left support0.020%
Term demanded
12 months
Paid today
$144.00
Then per month
—
Three years
—
Renewal against the opening price
—
VAT is added at the checkout according to your billing country. We have not walked this company’s cart to measure it.
There isn’t currently a built-in way to add right-to-left (RTL) text to a Squarespace site.
And what it does not say: No renewal price on the pricing page, and no figure for the domain’s second year although the first is free.
The price is $12.00 a month billed yearly, and rises on monthly billing. The entry plan carries 2/5 of the items we count.
The entry plan carries a commission on store sales and a higher one on digital content and memberships, and neither goes away without upgrading. The free domain renews at what the company calls its standard rate, whose figure it does not publish.
The help centre is published in ten languages, Arabic not among them, and the company states its translated guides are machine-translated with no human review. Its chat tells a visitor it is unavailable in their language and asks for English.
In its favour
No commission on sales
$12.00/mo billed yearly
Against it
No Arabic interface published
Publishes no right-to-left support
Suits: Anyone writing in English who wants design handled for them.
Does not suit: Anyone building an Arabic site.
Not yet measured: speed, uptime, support reply time, the control panel, and a refund actually claimed. Those five need a bought plan and a measurement round, and none of them is in the score today.
A price with tax included, and a free tier with no support
3.6Poor
The one platform here printing its price with tax included, so the figure you see is the figure you pay. The flaw is that its free tier receives no customer support at all, in its own grid, and that what it offers instead of a refund is a European statutory right that does not travel to a Gulf or Egyptian buyer, nor to a business.
Price and billing transparency9.725%
Published features2.835%
Support availability1.020%
Arabic and right-to-left support0.020%
Term demanded
not published
Paid today
—
Then per month
—
Three years
—
Renewal against the opening price
—
VAT is added at the checkout according to your billing country. We have not walked this company’s cart to measure it.
And what it does not say: No monthly price published, no renewal price, no named support channels, and no second-year domain price.
The price is $12.00 a month on a one-year contract with tax included, and a domain free for the first year. The entry plan carries 3/5 of the items we count.
Support is graded by response time rather than by channel: hours on the top plans, a workday or two lower down, and nothing on the free tier. The cancellation right runs fourteen days for consumers where such a right exists, and not at all for businesses.
Its published language list runs to seven, Arabic not among them, and its help centre likewise. The cancellation right it offers is conditional on the buyer’s country.
In its favour
A narrow premium for paying monthly
No commission on sales
A permanent free tier
Against it
What you get: 2 of the 6 capabilities we could read
No Arabic interface published
Suits: Anyone wanting a final price with no tax surprise.
Does not suit: Anyone relying on the free tier who will need help.
Not yet measured: speed, uptime, support reply time, the control panel, and a refund actually claimed. Those five need a bought plan and a measurement round, and none of them is in the score today.
Use this table once you know what matters to you. Start with the column that fits your project: response from your audience's city, the first payment and renewal if budget is the constraint, or the reply language if you will lean on support. Narrow the list with the filters below. Every “Not yet measured” cell is a criterion left out of the score until we check it, not a zero. Reading one row: Salla scores 7.2, it scores 10.0 on Arabic, it answers from Riyadh in 0 ms, you pay $990.00 today and then —/mo, and it was checked on 23 September 2026.
Arabic support: all three support replies came in Arabic. Servers in the region: a data centre in the Gulf or Egypt on the tested plan. Built-in store: a built-in store on the tested plan. Renewal under $8: the monthly renewal price.
The table is wider than the screen: scroll sideways for the entry and renewal prices, the first payment, published support hours and channels, and the refund window
Service
Score
Price
Support
Features
Refund
Renewal jump
Term demanded
Entry
First payment
Renewal
Refund window
Published features
Support hours
Arabic support
Checked
Salla
7.2
8.5
10.0
7.7
2.0
—
12
$82.50/mo 12 mo
$990.00
—/mo
7 days
3/5
no published support hours
English
Strikingly
6.7
9.9
5.0
7.0
4.0
—
—
$8.00/mo not published
—
—/mo
7 days
3/5
support around the clock
English
Shopify
6.7
6.8
3.5
10.0
4.0
—
12
$19.00/mo 12 mo
$228.00
—/mo
7 days
1/5
support around the clock
English
Zid
6.7
8.5
8.5
7.5
1.0
—
12
$83.00/mo 12 mo
$996.00
—/mo
7 days
3/5
no published support hours
English
Wix
6.5
9.5
3.5
7.1
4.9
—
—
$17.00/mo not published
—
—/mo
14 days
4/5
support around the clock
English
Weebly
6.1
8.8
Not yet checked
6.5
2.0
—
12
$13.00/mo 12 mo
$156.00
—/mo
7 days
2/5
no published support hours
English
Site123
5.5
10.0
1.5
5.0
4.9
—
—
$5.80/mo not published
—
—/mo
14 days
4/5
support around the clock
English
Squarespace
5.2
6.7
0.0
8.2
3.5
—
12
$12.00/mo 12 mo
$144.00
—/mo
7 days
2/5
support in business hours
English
Jimdo
3.6
9.7
0.0
2.8
1.0
—
—
$12.00/mo not published
—
—/mo
7 days
3/5
no published support hours
English
No service matches these filters.
Reading window: 23 to 24 September 2026 · every figure read on the company’s own pageNot yet checked means the criterion is excluded from the score until we check it
Which builder for your project?
No single builder suits every project. These are cases we hear about often, each with the criterion that decides it, the builder that leads on it among the ones we recommend, and what to watch for.
An online store
A store needs backups, a certificate, email and a staging site. What matters here is what the company includes in the plan, not what it sells you at checkout.
Most published features among the builders we recommend (4/5): Wix, scoring 6.5. What to watch for: no Arabic interface published.
For a first site, what protects you is being able to back out: a published refund window, written exclusions, and billing that states the renewal and its price.
Longest published refund window among the builders we recommend (14 days): Wix, scoring 6.5. What to watch for: a refund window of 14 days.
“From $8.00 a month” is true and misleading at the same time. That price usually comes only with a prepayment of several years, and it rises at renewal. Before you compare monthly prices, compare two numbers: what you pay today, and what you pay in the first 36 months.
Take the services that led a criterion this round and compare the first-payment column with the first-36-months column before you decide: a small first payment does not mean a small cost.
Scroll the table sideways for the 36-month total and the monthly average.
Service
You pay today
First 12 months
First 36 months
Monthly average over the first 36 months
Salla
$990.00
$990.00
—
—
Shopify
$228.00
$228.00
—
—
Wix
—
—
—
—
Strikingly
—
—
—
—
The table shows US dollars before VAT, as the builders list them. Add VAT for your country, convert at the rate on the day you pay, and remember that your card fees can add a little. In your currency: Salla's first payment of $990.00 is about 3713 SAR before VAT, and about 4269 SAR with 15% VAT in Saudi Arabia, at the rate on 24 September 2026.
Choose the prepayment length you are sure to stay for. If you might leave within a year, compare the first-12-months column, not the 36.
Where the prepayment is longer than the period, the whole prepayment is shown because nothing shorter can be bought at that price. Prices in US dollars as shown on the providers' sites. For reference, $1 ≈ 3.75 SAR ≈ 3.67 AED ≈ 48.5 EGP at the rate on . Add VAT (15% in Saudi Arabia, 5% in the UAE, 14% in Egypt) where not included. mada and Fawry are accepted by: .
What the small print means
Plans pages use words that sound clear, but what they mean is in the terms. These are five we read in every review, what they usually mean, and what to do before you believe them. These definitions are a general guide from the terms we read, not measured figures. Every number on this page comes from the company’s own page.
“Unlimited”: Unlimited storage and data transfer come with a file-count (inode) cap and a CPU cap, and an active store can hit the cap within the first year. Ask about the file-count cap before buying if you are building a shop.
“24/7 support”: Means the chat is open, not that anyone answers in Arabic or within minutes. We read the hours, the channels and the languages a support page names. Reply time we have not measured: that needs a paid account, and it is not in the score today. Try it yourself: send a question in Arabic before you pay. What we found: 0 of 9 services state on their support page that they reply in Arabic.
“Free domain”: First year only, then renewed at market price ($12 to $20). It may be held back if you cancel. Register the domain in your own name, and check its renewal price.
“Money-back guarantee”: Usually excludes the domain and add-ons, and runs from the purchase date, not the activation date. Read what is excluded, and count the window from the purchase date.
“Free migration”: Usually between similar platforms only. Moving from a site builder or a dedicated server is paid. Check that your site is the kind they move for free. What we found: 0 of the 9 builders on the list advertise free migration.
Before you pay
Before you type in your card number, take ten minutes for these steps. Each one protects you from a mistake that recurs across these companies’ pages. Every review on this site lists the refund window, how to cancel and the renewal price for its builder.
Confirm the refund window and whether it covers what you bought. Many builders exclude the domain and add-ons, so only part of the money comes back.
Know how to cancel: from the panel or by phone only. Some builders cancel only by ticket or phone, which eats into the refund window.
Put the renewal date in your calendar with the new price. The new price is charged automatically, often without a clear reminder.
Confirm you can export a full backup yourself. That copy is what lets you leave if the service goes bad.
Choose the server region before paying; some services will not change it afterwards. Changing region after the account exists means moving the site all over again.
Message support in Arabic before buying and time the reply. What happens with a pre-sales question tells you what will happen after the sale.
What these companies’ own pages said
We read the pages of 9 companies in one day. We bought no plan and wrote to no support desk. What follows is not a judgement of service quality; it is a count of what each company says about itself on its own page: how far the price rises, how long it demands up front, what it promises, and what it does when you ask for your money back.
Three numbers summarise what we found, all computed from the same list you are about to read.
0/9median renewal jumpwhat the offer price becomes at renewal, in the middle of the list
0/9print the renewal on the pricing pageof the 9 companies we read
0/9publish Arabic supportof the 9 companies we read
The third number is the one that matters to an Arabic-speaking reader: nothing on this list promises Arabic on its own page. The companies that publish their support languages name English, Spanish and German, and the list ends there.
What the score means, criterion by criterion
The score is out of ten: four sub-scores multiplied by their weights. For each criterion below: what it means in a buyer’s terms, where every company stands on it, and the formula that produced the number.
Price and billing transparency
25%
The renewal jump alone is not enough: a company demanding four years up front at a flat price can cost you more than one that raises its price after a single year. So this criterion adds four things — the jump, the term demanded, whether the renewal is written down at all, and how much leaves your card today.
Site12310.0
Strikingly9.9
Jimdo9.7
Wix9.5
Weebly8.8
Salla8.5
Zid8.5
Shopify6.8
Squarespace6.7
Site123 sits at the head here (10.0); Squarespace sits at the foot here (6.7).
The formula as we apply it: The plan we price: the paid plan a buyer reaches first that lets you connect your own domain, because a free tier is a different product living on a subdomain. Renewal price written down: 10 or 0. The premium for paying monthly instead of yearly: 10 points when they match, falling as the gap widens. Monthly billing offered at all: 10 or 0. The domain’s second-year price: 10 or 0. Price transparency = 40% renewal + 20% premium + 20% monthly offered + 20% domain.
Arabic and right-to-left support
20%
This criterion asks what the English lists do not: is the editor interface in Arabic, can a site be built right to left, are there Arabic templates, and is support offered in Arabic. Each answer comes from the vendor’s own published language list and its own help pages, never from a tick mark in somebody else’s table.
Salla10.0
Zid8.5
Strikingly5.0
Shopify3.5
Wix3.5
Site1231.5
Jimdo0.0
Squarespace0.0
Salla sits at the head here (10.0); Squarespace sits at the foot here (0.0).
The formula as we apply it: Arabic: an editor interface in Arabic 35%, a site buildable right to left 35%, Arabic templates 15%, support in Arabic 15%. Each is 10 or 0, and each answer comes from the company’s own published language list or its own help pages, never from a third party’s table.
Published features
35%
The seven items are not worth the same to someone running a small site: a daily backup saves a site, an email address does not. So each feature is weighted by what it is worth, not counted.
Shopify10.0
Squarespace8.2
Salla7.7
Zid7.5
Wix7.1
Strikingly7.0
Weebly6.5
Site1235.0
Jimdo2.8
Shopify sits at the head here (10.0); Jimdo sits at the foot here (2.8).
The formula as we apply it: Published features: a written renewal price is worth 3.0 points, selling with no commission 2.5, a free tier 2.0, a free domain year 1.5, and connecting your own domain one. Ten in total, and an item the page does not name does not count.
Support availability
20%
We do not know how long they take to reply, because that needs a paid account. What we do know is what they publish: when you can reach them, on how many channels, and in what language.
Site1234.9
Wix4.9
Shopify4.0
Strikingly4.0
Squarespace3.5
Salla2.0
Weebly2.0
Jimdo1.0
Zid1.0
Site123 sits at the head here (4.9); Zid sits at the foot here (1.0).
The formula as we apply it: Published support hours: 10 points for around the clock, 5 for business hours, 0 when none is published. Channels: 10 points for all three. Arabic support published: 10 or 0. Support availability = 40% hours + 30% channels + 30% Arabic.
How to read a number out of ten
Eight and above: the company writes down what you will pay and when, and gives you a way out. There is no nine on this list, and that is not modesty on our part — we did not find a page that earned one.
Seven to eight: a mostly clear page with one flaw worth reading before you pay.
Six to seven: the advertised price is far from the real one, or the term demanded is long, or something basic goes unmentioned.
Under six: the page hides more than it says. The company still has a link here, because the decision is yours, but read the weaknesses first.
Where two scores tie after rounding, the higher unrounded sum ranks first. No position is moved by hand.
What we did not measure, and why you should know
We bought no plan from anyone on this list, ran no site on one, and sent no question to a support desk. That means speed, uptime and real reply times enter no score on this page.
That is a choice, not a hidden gap: we published what can be verified today instead of waiting for a purchase budget, and we state its limits. When we buy and measure, those criteria enter the arithmetic, the scores move, and the change appears in the changelog with its date.
Until then, what you are reading answers one question precisely: what does this company say about itself, and does it say it clearly?
The scoring model changed: five criteria that assumed we had bought the plan became 4 that are read from the companies’ own pages — price 25%, Arabic 20%, features 35%, support 20%. Speed and uptime left the score entirely until they can be measured on a bought plan, and the page says so everywhere.
Each measurement's points are now rounded to two decimals before they are weighted; no score changed.
Frequently asked
What does a website builder really cost in the first year?
Among the builders we recommend, the first 12 months cost between $228.00 (Shopify) and $996.00 (Zid), counting the whole prepayment where it runs past a year. That is roughly 855 to 3735 SAR before VAT.
Should I buy the domain from the builder?
Not necessarily. The free first-year domain is convenient, then it renews at market price, and some terms hold it back or deduct its fee from any refund. Registering it with an independent registrar keeps the domain separate from the website builders and makes moving later easier.
Can I move later, and what does it cost?
0 of the 9 companies on this list publish free migration on their plan page: . It is usually the dashboard to the dashboard only; moving from a site builder or a dedicated server is a paid service, and some terms cap how many sites move free.
Is a free plan enough for my site?
For a simple portfolio, perhaps. For a site that receives customers, no; free services usually come with ads and no backups. We did not measure any of them in this round.
Torn between two builders? Compare them head to head
Pick any two and get a criterion-by-criterion comparison with the same weights.
