AI website generators fall into two groups, and only that distinction makes a comparison useful: some build a page inside their own platform, where it stays (IONOS, STRATO, Wix, HubSpot), others hand you source code you can run elsewhere (Hostinger AI Builder in agentic mode, Lovable). Both groups advertise the same first pass: from a few answers you get a complete page in minutes. The difference shows up on the second step and at the exit, and on those points the providers themselves write surprisingly clear sentences. The builders cost 7 to 177.31 euros a month, HubSpot 0 to 1,470 euros, Lovable 0 to 50 euros, as of September 2026. Legal pages and accessibility are handled by none of these tools.
My own pages are built as source code by an AI employee, and the page you are reading is one of them. Even so, a generator is the more sensible choice for plenty of businesses, and I say which ones further down. How a grown site gets renewed is in Modernizing a Website With AI, and if you are still deciding whether to build at all, the process is in Getting a Website Built: Steps, Options.
Two different products, one name
The builder with AI in front of it. IONOS, STRATO, Wix and HubSpot added an AI entry point to their existing builders: you describe your business, the AI picks layout, template, copy and images, and then you land in the familiar editor. What you end up with is a page in the provider's own format, with the same running costs and exit limits as a builder without the AI entry point.
The generator that writes code. With Hostinger's agentic mode and with Lovable, a real project comes out at the end: there a Node.js project with React and Vite, here React and TypeScript in a repository. The result is software you can start somewhere else.
The first draft looks decent in both groups, but only the second hands you the result as files. "It's mine" is still the wrong question: fonts, images, libraries and connected services come with licences of their own, and whatever hangs on the provider's backend does not move along automatically. Three other questions are useful: can I get the files, am I allowed to use them, and does the result run without this provider?
What to compare before the first draft impresses you
Six questions decide it, and none of them can be read off the draft:
- What does the first pass actually produce? Structure and design are almost always decent. Check instead whether services, opening hours and prices are true or whether the AI invented something plausible.
- How good is the copy in your language? Not whether it is grammatical, but whether it sounds like your business.
- Do you get the source code, and what may you do with it? Is there an export, in what format, and which parts of it hang on the provider's licences or services?
- Can you run the site elsewhere? That is a different question from the export.
- What about legal pages and accessibility? Both are obligations and rarely part of the package.
- What does it cost after the promotional period? The advertised price is rarely the one you pay in year two.
The comparison, as of September 2026
All figures come from the providers' product, pricing and help pages, retrieved on 19 September 2026. Prices are the regular ones, not the promotional rates of the first months.
Squarespace is not in the table because I documented its exit, not its plans. And no table answers which tool is best: that depends on what comes after the first pass.
The second step is the one that counts
The first draft is the easy exercise, because the task is open: some reasonable page for a business of this type. The second task is a closed one, and that is where the products separate. It sounds like this: three columns in the price table instead of two, the third collapsing on a phone, and below it a form whose entries land in your inbox.
In a builder, the answer depends on whether the provider anticipated that element. If they did, it takes two minutes. If not, there are still extensions, apps or embedded code blocks, as far as your plan allows them; and if nothing turns up there either, the task is finished before it started. With a generator that outputs code, there is almost always a route: another pass with the AI, the built-in code editor, or someone who can read the source. None of those is free.
So work through your own task in order: does it work out of the box, via an extension, with custom code, or only after an export? The further back the answer sits, the more maintenance hangs on it. The honest question before choosing a tool is therefore not "which one produces the prettiest draft" but "how many closed tasks do I have ahead of me": for a business card online, none; for a booking flow, a members area or measurement that reaches into the enquiry, many.
The exit: what the providers write themselves
You do not have to take my word for this part, you can read it. Wix writes in its help centre that your site must run on Wix servers, because the SaaS architecture does not support external hosting given its proprietary technology: the content belongs to you, the website as a whole cannot be taken along. Squarespace describes that only part of your content exports as an XML file while many page types do not, that images and videos cannot be exported in bulk, and that the export cannot be imported into another Squarespace site.
For IONOS, STRATO and HubSpot I found no documented route to the source code on the product and pricing pages. That does not prove there is none, only that it is not described there. If you want to know for certain, ask the sales team before you sign how the finished site can be taken out as files, and keep the answer in writing.
Hostinger, by contrast, has its own help page on code export that also names the limits: you get the frontend and logic files as a Node.js project, the data from the built-in backend stays behind, and there is no way back into the tool. Lovable creates a private repository in your GitHub account when you connect, syncs in both directions, and states that it stays with you even after you disconnect.
That is not a verdict on the builders, it is a distinction that belongs in front of the contract: a site that only runs on the platform where it was made is not a website, it is a rental. That is fine as long as you know you are renting.
Language: where the first draft slips
Hardly any draft fails on grammar today. The places where it slips anyway are usually the same four:
- Shifting address, because sections are generated separately: the home page speaks casually, the services part formally.
- Marketing filler instead of services: "Tailored solutions for your success" sits where it should say what you do, for whom, and what it costs.
- Invented details: opening hours, founding years, headcount, awards. The AI fills gaps with something plausible unless someone tells it that a gap must stay a gap.
- Wrong technical terms, especially in trades, health and legal work, where a nearly right term gets expensive.
IONOS and STRATO have the home advantage in German here, with a German-language product and, according to STRATO, German data centres. That changes nothing about the principle: the generated text is a draft, not a result.
Legal pages and accessibility stay with you
This is not legal advice, it is the context before choosing a tool.
Imprint and privacy policy. Commercial sites need the mandatory details under section 5 of the German Digital Services Act, easily recognizable, directly accessible and permanently available. Help for that exists: IONOS sells an add-on together with a law firm, others point to templates. That the details fit your business and stay complete is guaranteed by none of them. Budget this as its own item, not as a checkbox in the builder.
Accessibility. The German Accessibility Strengthening Act has applied since 28 June 2025, namely to the products and services listed in its section 1, among them services in electronic commerce: offerings through which consumers conclude a contract by electronic means. A site that only informs does not fall under it merely because it has a contact form. Micro-enterprises offering services are exempt: fewer than ten employees and at most 2 million euros in annual turnover or balance sheet total. Anyone who sells and sits above that threshold should know the requirement before building, because retrofitting it is the most expensive change of all.
Who a generator is right for
A builder with AI is the sensible decision if you are starting from zero, need a manageable site, have nobody in-house who maintains technology, and want predictable costs: for 7 to 20 euros a month you get hosting, a certificate, updates and a support line in your own language. The full calculation is in What Does a Website or Landing Page Cost?. A generator that outputs code pays off instead if you want to keep developing the site, if it has to connect to something else, or if it bothers you that your public presence hangs on a subscription.
One case argues clearly against it: a grown website with content from years of work. A generator builds something new from a description and fills in what it does not know, and then invented services and prices sit on your real page.
What an AI employee does differently from a generator
In my business this work is done by Ralf, an AI employee with exactly one job. He gets the address of an outdated website and delivers a modern version for the phone in one go: every piece of content carried over, better structured, online as a demo on request. More than 20 client websites have been built that way, and he ships kevinwelter.com himself.
The difference from a generator is not speed, it is direction. A generator starts from a description and invents the rest. Ralf starts from your existing site and invents nothing: no services, no prices, no reviews. What is missing is marked as a placeholder and listed in the report. That this rule is not a formality is shown by three cases from real work: a price list hidden inside an auto-play slider, a logo.png that held a sports club crest, and a navigation built on jump marks that would have made entire subpages unreachable after the rebuild. That is why every go-live is preceded by a build, screenshots and a click test, and nothing goes live without approval.
The second difference is the one this article is about: the result is source code, built with Node.js and Next.js, and it runs wherever you want, in my case on my own cluster, in the community course on a free service. How he works and where I hold him back is on Build a Website With AI: How Ralf Works.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best AI website generator?
There is no best one, there is the one that fits your second task. For a small site without special requirements, IONOS and STRATO are cheap and German-language; forms, a store and marketing from one source come from Wix and HubSpot. If you want to keep developing or move the site, take a tool that hands over code, meaning Hostinger in agentic mode or Lovable.
Is there a free AI website generator?
For building and trying out, yes: IONOS has a free plan, HubSpot a permanently free tier for up to two users, Lovable a free plan with daily credits, as of September 2026. What is not free is the domain, the removal of provider branding and the legal pages; who a free website is still enough for has its own post.
How good are the AI generators from IONOS and STRATO?
Both include the AI website generator in the plan, together with a text and image generator and an SEO assistant, both German-language with German support. For a standard site that is a rounded offer. The product pages name no route to the source code, so ask about it before you sign.
Can I move an AI-built website later?
That depends on the tool, not on the AI. Wix writes itself that the site must run on Wix servers, Squarespace exports only part of the content as XML. Hostinger hands the project over as a Node.js package, without backend data and without a way back; Lovable creates a GitHub repository that stays yours.
How to take it further
Take twenty minutes and give a generator of your choice the same job twice: first the open one ("build me a site for my business"), then the closed one, a change you actually need. The first answer shows how good the marketing is, the second whether the tool fits you. Then read one single help page from the provider, the one on export. If you would rather have an AI employee who carries over your content instead of inventing new content and leaves you source code instead of a subscription: Ralf and the other finished roles are ready to load in my community Claude Practitioners, and you can put your second task up for discussion there beforehand. What that kind of start looks like in a small business is in AI for Small Businesses; if it is meant to be a single landing page, Creating a Landing Page: Guide and Tools takes it from there.
