The Free Plan: Real Enough to Test, Not Enough to Ship

Framer's free plan publishes to a .framer.website subdomain. Good for testing a template before buying, bad for anything with a client's name on it. The moment you need a custom domain or to remove Framer branding, you're on a paid plan. That's by design, not oversight.

For context: Framer raised $100M at a $2 billion valuation in 2025. They don't need to give much away. But the free tier is genuinely useful for evaluating templates and learning the canvas before you commit.

The Mini Plan (~$10/month annually)

One CMS collection. Custom domain. Good for a single landing page, a personal bio site, or a portfolio with no dynamic content. If your site is five static pages and a contact form, this is everything you need. No reason to pay for Pro unless you're adding a blog or project listings.

The Basic Plan (~$20/month annually)

This is where most personal sites and freelance portfolios live. You get up to 100 CMS items across collections, password protection for client previews, and 50GB bandwidth. The CMS allowance is enough to run a blog with 80-90 posts and a projects section. For a template store with 5-10 templates and a small blog, Basic is sufficient.

The Pro Plan (~$30/month annually)

10 CMS collections, custom code injection, 100GB bandwidth, and higher form submission limits. This is the right tier for anyone running a multi-section CMS site: blog + templates + case studies + team page. Also essential if you need to inject custom scripts for analytics, chat widgets, or affiliate tracking. Most serious template sellers and small agencies sit here.

The Scale Plan (~$100/month annually)

20 CMS collections, 200GB bandwidth, advanced analytics, and a custom proxy. This is agency territory. If you're managing multiple content streams, running high-traffic SEO content, or need enterprise-level controls, Scale makes sense. For a solo template creator or small studio: overkill.

The Hidden Cost Most People Miss: Annual vs Monthly

Paying monthly adds roughly 33-40% to your annual cost across all plans. If you're running a client site or your own business site for longer than 6 months, the annual plan wins on pure arithmetic. The only reason to stay monthly is short-term projects: campaign landing pages, event sites, or anything with a defined end date.

How to Pick Your Plan Without Overthinking It

Count your CMS collections first, not items. Each blog, project listing, team page, or testimonial section is a separate collection. If you have more than three, you're on Pro. If you need custom code for analytics or third-party scripts, you're on Pro. If you have fewer than three collections and no custom code needs, Basic is fine. Start there. Framer makes it easy to upgrade when you hit the limit.

One practical tip: if you're building for a client, price the Framer plan cost into your service fee. It's a recurring cost, and the client will eventually own the site. Either charge for it or hand over the subscription from day one to avoid a billing headache six months later.