Websites and development
Tilda website: build it yourself or hire someone? Cost, limits and when custom code pays off
You can build a Tilda website yourself for free: the Free plan gives one site of up to 50 pages on a tilda.ws subdomain. A custom domain needs Personal at $10 a month billed annually. Freelancers on Contra quote $500 to $3,000 a project. VITON13 builds custom sites instead, from $113.
What is Tilda, and who is it for?
Tilda (Tilda Publishing) is a website builder where you stack ready-made blocks in a visual editor: covers, text, galleries, forms, a cart. Tilda counts more than 550 blocks and 210 templates, and Zero Block lets a designer lay out anything else. Hosting, SSL and an image CDN come with the plan. It suits campaign landing pages, portfolios, service sites and small shops their owners edit themselves.
Outside Russian-speaking markets it is a niche choice: W3Techs counts Tilda on 0.8% of all websites. On the .ru domain it runs 27.4% of sites with a known CMS, second only to WordPress at 33.4%, which is why many Tilda price lists quote roubles.
It suits landing pages for a campaign or launch, portfolios, service sites of a few dozen pages and small shops whose owner wants to edit everything without a developer. Marketing teams use it to ship new pages without waiting in a development queue.
How do you build a Tilda website yourself, step by step?
Start with a plan, not the editor: Tilda's beginner guide says to settle the structure, study competitors and sketch the page on paper. Then follow seven steps.
- Decide what you are buildingOne page with one action, or several sections. List each page and the customer question it answers.
- Gather the material firstCollect copy, photos, logo, prices and contacts before you open the editor, or placeholders go live.
- Sign up and start the trialAn account on tilda.cc is free; Tilda describes a two-week trial with every feature and no bank card.
- Pick a template or a blank pageStart from a template or add blocks. Set fonts and colours once in Site Settings for every page.
- Connect forms and analyticsChoose where enquiries land: email, a messenger or a CRM. Add Google Analytics.
- Fill in the SEO settingsGive each page a title, description, readable address, heading tags and image alt text. Check it on your phone.
- Choose a plan, connect a domain, publishA custom domain needs a paid plan. After publishing, add the site to Google Search Console.
Can you build a Tilda website for free?
Yes, but a free Tilda site suits a test or a portfolio rather than sales. The Free plan never expires and allows one site of up to 50 pages at name.tilda.ws. Tilda's FAQ lists what it leaves out:
- a custom domain, which is a paid feature;
- form data capture and payment systems;
- Google Analytics and Yandex Metrica, leaving only the built-in statistics;
- code added to the T123 or T868 blocks, and editing the Head tag;
- the product Catalog, Feeds and the Webmaster's panel;
- part of the block library.
Mind the way back: return to Free after a paid plan or the trial, and connected forms, payments, products and posts are deleted after 30 days.
How much does Tilda cost in 2026?
| Plan | Billed annually | Month to month | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | $0 | 1 website of up to 50 pages on a tilda.ws subdomain, key blocks only |
| Personal | $10 a month, $120 a year | $15 a month, $180 over 12 months | 1 website, all blocks, custom domain; 1,000 pages and 1 GB per Tilda's Russian page |
| Business | $20 a month, $240 a year | $25 a month, $300 over 12 months | 5 websites and source code export |
| In roubles | 500 and 1,000 a month | 750 and 1,250 | Personal and Business on the Russian page |
One site means Personal; two or more, or a code archive, means Business. It is rent with hosting included: five years of Personal billed annually cost $600 at today's prices, Business $1,200.
How much does it cost to hire someone to build a Tilda site?
Hiring help costs from a few hundred dollars to several thousand, and the spread comes from the work, not the platform: a template with your copy takes hours, research, copy, custom design and integrations take weeks.
| Who builds it | Published price | What the price covers |
|---|---|---|
| Freelancers on Contra (marketplace estimate) | $25 to $75 an hour, or $500 to $3,000 a project | Sample listings: a store at $2,000, a no-code site at $2,500 |
| Tilda Experts directory | Each designer sets a rate | 1,000+ designers; no commission, Tilda is not a party to the deal |
| Freelancers on FL.ru, Russia | 3,000 to 5,000 roubles for a template site; 100,000+ for a custom one | The marketplace's own range, not one seller's price |
| Kontora, Russian studio | Landing page from 120,000 roubles; multi-page Tilda site from 300,000 | Interview, competitor review, prototype, copy, standard blocks |
| Webtronics, Russian studio | Template one-pager from 100,000 roubles; custom multi-page from 300,000 | Design, layout, content, CRM, payment and delivery integrations |
Before you sign: the project lives in your own Tilda account, the plan is billed to you separately, and edits after launch are agreed in writing.
Can you run an online store on Tilda?
Yes, for a modest catalogue. Tilda lists a cart, product cards with filters, promo codes, discounts and order emails; its builder page names PayPal, Stripe and Verifone among payment systems, and cash on delivery works too.
Tilda recommends Personal for one shop and Business for two or more; Free has no catalogue. Russian sellers also get 1C and MoySklad sync and product import from Ozon and Wildberries.
Where does Tilda hit its limits: speed, SEO, custom logic and leaving?
Tilda has fewer limits than critics claim, but two are hard: server-side logic and leaving.
| Area | The facts | What it means for you |
|---|---|---|
| Speed | HTTP Archive, September 2026: 47.9% of 49,085 Tilda sites pass Core Web Vitals on mobile; WordPress 48.3%, Wix 80.9%, Next.js 35.7% | Heavy images and widgets slow any site |
| SEO | Titles, descriptions, heading tags, alt text, readable URLs, robots.txt, sitemap.xml, 301 redirects, canonical tags | Enough groundwork; content and demand decide visibility |
| Custom logic | The T123 block embeds HTML, JavaScript and CSS; forms send webhooks | Code runs in the browser; no server or database of your own |
| Size | Up to 1,000 pages per site and 1 GB on paid plans | Pages are built in the editor, Feeds or the Catalog |
| Leaving | Export only on Business; forms need an active plan; changing exported code outside Tilda is forbidden | Leaving means a rebuild and a redirect map |
| Billing | Unpaid: unpublished, domain disconnected after 5 days, project kept 6 months | You pay for as long as the site is needed |
Note the speed row: on average, Next.js sites pass less often than Tilda sites. A framework does not make pages fast; image weight, fonts and scripts decide. Leaving for speed? Ask for measurements before and after, not a promise.
When does a custom Next.js website pay off over Tilda?
A custom site pays off when you are paying for workarounds: code pasted into blocks, widgets doing a server's work, hundreds of near-identical pages built by hand.
Self-check
Is Tilda enough for you?
Tick what is true for your project: more ticks, tighter limits.
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Your result: Tilda is probably enough: build it yourself on Personal or hire a Tilda designer.
How can VITON13 help if you are on Tilda or leaving it?
The plain answer first: we do not build or maintain Tilda sites. If Tilda is enough, hire a designer through Tilda Experts or follow the steps above. We build custom sites and move addresses with redirects.
Cost calculator
Price your own site
Pick a route and add what you need at launch.
Your estimate
- AI-assisted
- from $113
- Human-led
- from $173
- Timeline
- 3–5 working days
stages can overlap; the written estimate fixes the dates
Get a written estimate in 1 working dayStarting prices of VITON13 packages; the written estimate confirms scope and price. Tilda plans, domain and hosting are not included.
The Next.js rebuild is meant for a site whose copy and design already exist, such as your Tilda site: $73 AI-assisted or $93 human-led, 5–8 working days. Moving the addresses with a URL map and redirects costs $53 AI-assisted or $73 human-led and takes 3–5 working days.
How VITON13 builds a site instead of Tilda
We do not assemble Tilda sites; if the builder is enough, staying is the honest advice. We build a custom Next.js site that belongs to you. Copy and photos can come from your Tilda pages; you send them. AI-assisted: AI drafts and a developer checks every page. Human-led: a specialist builds and AI assists.
Business website development
- Price
- $113 AI-assisted or $173 human-led
- Timeline
- 3–5 working days
Landing page development
- Price
- $73 AI-assisted or $93 human-led
- Timeline
- 5–8 working days
Website migration without SEO loss
- Price
- $53 AI-assisted or $73 human-led
- Timeline
- 3–5 working days
AI-assisted: AI drafts inside defined steps, a person directs and checks every result. Human-led: a specialist does the work and AI assists.
What is included
- Up to 5 pages: home, services, about, contacts and one service or case page
- 1 CMS or data source your team edits without a developer
- 1 enquiry form with tracking, delivered to your email or CRM
- 1 launch: domain routing, SSL and pre-launch checks
- 1 language edition
- Delivery: 3–5 working days once the brief and materials are approved
Not included
- Building, editing or maintaining Tilda sites
- Copywriting, translations and photography
- Online payments and booking engines, sold as separate services
- Redirects from old addresses, sold as the website migration package
- Paid hosting after launch, and any promise of rankings or enquiries
Revisions: 2 revision rounds before launch
Get an estimate in 1 working dayWritten estimate within 1 working day
Example
PILOTPilot in progress
No published move off Tilda yet
VITON13 has not published a client move from Tilda with traffic or enquiry figures, so this guide invents no results. The yearly plan totals are Tilda's published prices multiplied by 12, and the speed figures are platform averages from HTTP Archive.
What this does not prove
- Platform averages for Core Web Vitals do not show how fast your own site will be on Tilda or on Next.js.
- Studio and marketplace prices are marketing starting points, not an estimate for your project.
Questions and answers
How much does a Tilda website cost per year?
The platform alone: Personal is $120 a year billed annually or $180 at $15 a month; Business is $240 or $300. Free has no custom domain, forms or payments. Design work is billed separately.
What happens to a Tilda site if you stop paying?
Tilda's FAQ says the site is unpublished and the custom domain disconnected five days after the subscription expires. The project is kept for six months, so renewing brings it back; after that it is deleted automatically.
Can you export a Tilda site and keep editing the code yourself?
Only on Business, as a zip of static HTML, CSS, JavaScript and images. Tilda's rules forbid changing that code outside the platform, forms need an active plan, and Tilda CRM and Members stay behind. Moving away usually means rebuilding.
Is Tilda good for SEO?
It covers the groundwork: titles, descriptions, heading tags, alt text, robots.txt, sitemap.xml, 301 redirects and canonical tags. Rankings depend on content, demand and links, not the builder, so distrust anyone selling quick positions.
Do you need to code to build a site on Tilda?
Not for a site of ready blocks: pages are assembled visually, and Zero Block lets a designer lay out sections without code. A developer is needed for your own JavaScript, an unusual webhook integration or logic the builder lacks.
Can AI agents work on a Tilda site?
Yes. Tilda has an AI assistant that drafts pages and text, and on 8 October 2026 it announced an MCP server, still in beta. An agent such as Claude or Cursor can create pages, edit Feeds posts and update products through a key whose permissions you set.
Does VITON13 build Tilda websites?
No. We build custom Next.js sites, rebuild sites from website builders, move addresses with redirects and design landing pages. If Tilda is enough, hire from the Tilda Experts directory, which lists more than 1,000 designers.
Sources
- Tilda, Pricing —
- Tilda, Plans and Billing FAQ: Free plan —
- Tilda, Plans and Billing FAQ: unpaid subscription —
- Tilda, Russian plan limits page (pages and storage) —
- Tilda, Russian FAQ: free website and trial —
- Tilda, All features —
- Tilda, Website builder —
- Tilda Help Center, Code export —
- Tilda Blog, MCP server —
- Tilda Experts —
- W3Techs, Tilda usage statistics —
- W3Techs, CMS among .ru websites —
- HTTP Archive, Core Web Vitals Technology Report —
- Contra, Tilda freelancers —
- FL.ru, Tilda website freelancers —
- Kontora, Tilda website prices —
- Webtronics, Tilda websites —