BoldGrid is a drag-and-drop website builder that runs on top of WordPress, aimed at people who want WordPress’s flexibility without coding. BoldGrid’s core plugins are free, and its premium WordPress Website Builder bundle costs $5/month billed annually ($60/year), but you also need your own WordPress hosting and domain. Our verdict: BoldGrid is a solid, inexpensive way to build WordPress sites with templates and a visual editor, though Elementor and the native WordPress block editor have overtaken it in popularity. Visit BoldGrid.
Updated October 2026.
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BoldGrid at a glance: key facts
| Item | BoldGrid (October 2026) |
|---|---|
| Starting price | Free community edition; premium bundle $5/mo billed annually |
| Renewal price | Same yearly price per Connect Key (one website per key) |
| Best for | WordPress beginners and small businesses who want templates and drag-and-drop editing |
| Free domain? | No; BoldGrid doesn’t sell hosting or domains |
| Hosting included? | No; works with any WordPress host |
| Money-back guarantee | Not stated on the pricing page |
| Rating | 3.8/5 (our assessment) |
Pros:
- Free core plugins and a free Connect Key to start
- Hundreds of page designs and industry templates
- Built on WordPress, so you own your site and can move hosts
- Includes backup and migration tools (Total Upkeep)
- Cloud WordPress staging for testing sites before launch
Cons:
- You must buy and manage your own WordPress hosting
- Smaller community and template marketplace than Elementor
- Premium support is ticket-based only
- More moving parts than all-in-one builders like Wix
What is BoldGrid?
BoldGrid is a suite of WordPress plugins, themes and services for building and managing WordPress websites. It was created by the team at InMotion Hosting and is sold through BoldGrid Central, a free dashboard where you manage your products and sites. BoldGrid also develops W3 Total Cache, one of the most widely used WordPress caching plugins, with more than 49 million downloads from the WordPress plugin directory according to BoldGrid.
BoldGrid’s main products are:
- WordPress Website Builder: templates (“Inspirations”) and setup tools that create a complete starter site
- Post and Page Builder: a visual drag-and-drop editor with pre-built content blocks
- Crio SuperTheme: an advanced WordPress theme with detailed design controls
- Total Upkeep: automated backups, restores and site migrations
- Cloud WordPress: cloud staging sites for building and testing before you go live
BoldGrid says it is not a web host and doesn’t sell domains. You install BoldGrid on any WordPress site, hosted wherever you like.
How much does BoldGrid cost in 2026?
BoldGrid’s products are activated with a Connect Key, and each key covers one website. A free key gives you the community editions of the plugins. Premium editions are sold yearly. Prices below are from BoldGrid’s pricing page in October 2026.
| Product | Price (billed annually) | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| BoldGrid Central (free key) | $0 | Community editions of the builder, Post and Page Builder and Total Upkeep |
| Post and Page Builder Premium | $2.50/mo | Premium blocks, sliders and premium support |
| WordPress Website Builder | $5/mo | 200+ page designs, Post and Page Builder Premium, Total Upkeep Premium, 15 Cloud WordPress installs, premium support |
| WordPress Creator Bundle | $8.25/mo | Everything in the Website Builder bundle plus the Crio Pro SuperTheme |
| Crio Pro SuperTheme | $3.25/mo | Advanced theme customization |
| Total Upkeep Premium | $2.50/mo | Premium backups, restores and migrations |
| Total Cache Pro | $8.25/mo | Caching, WebP conversion and CDN integration |
What else will you pay for?
Because BoldGrid isn’t a host, your real cost includes WordPress hosting and a domain name. Shared WordPress hosting from mainstream providers often starts at a few dollars a month on long introductory terms, with higher renewal prices, while managed WordPress hosting costs more. Compare options in our managed WordPress hosting guide.
What are BoldGrid’s best features?
Inspirations and templates
BoldGrid’s WordPress Website Builder guides you through choosing a theme and an industry design (for example photography, real estate, music or marketing), then installs a complete starter site with pre-filled pages. The premium bundle includes more than 200 page designs.
Post and Page Builder
The Post and Page Builder adds a visual, drag-and-drop editing experience to WordPress with pre-designed content blocks and no shortcodes. BoldGrid reports more than 1.4 million downloads of the plugin from the WordPress repository. The WordPress.org listing shows 50,000+ active installations, an update in September 2026 and compatibility tested up to WordPress 7.1, so the plugin is still actively maintained.
Crio SuperTheme
Crio is BoldGrid’s advanced theme. It gives fine-grained control over the design of headers, footers, typography, colors and layouts through a visual interface, making it suitable for designers who want to build custom sites without writing CSS.
Total Upkeep backups and migrations
Total Upkeep handles scheduled backups, one-click restores, fault protection during updates and site migration between hosts. Few website builders bundle a backup tool like this.
Performance with W3 Total Cache
Because BoldGrid sites run on WordPress, speed depends heavily on your host and caching. BoldGrid develops W3 Total Cache, whose free version handles page, browser and object caching. Total Cache Pro ($8.25/month billed annually) adds a WebP image converter and CDN integration, and BoldGrid has partnered with Bunny CDN for content delivery. You can use W3 Total Cache with or without the rest of the BoldGrid suite, which makes it a useful add-on for any WordPress site.
Cloud WordPress staging
Cloud WordPress lets you build, stage and test a full WordPress site in BoldGrid’s cloud before moving it to a live host. BoldGrid notes that Cloud WordPress isn’t hosting: sites live on a demo URL without email. When you’re ready, you migrate the site to your host.
What are the downsides of BoldGrid?
You manage WordPress yourself
BoldGrid sites are WordPress sites, so you’re responsible for hosting, updates, security and plugin compatibility. That’s more work than an all-in-one builder such as Wix or Squarespace. The trade-off works in your favor on ownership: you control your files and database and can switch hosts whenever you like.
Smaller ecosystem than Elementor
Elementor and the native WordPress block editor (with block themes) now dominate WordPress page building. BoldGrid has fewer third-party add-ons, tutorials and template sellers. See our Elementor review for the main alternative.
Support is limited on free plans
Free users rely on BoldGrid’s knowledge base. Premium customers get a dedicated, ticket-based support team, but not live chat or phone support.
Theme lock-in
BoldGrid’s layouts rely on its own plugins and themes. Switching to a different page builder later means reworking pages, as with most WordPress builders.
Is BoldGrid easy to use?
BoldGrid is easier than building a WordPress site from scratch, and its starter sites give you a finished structure quickly. But you still need to install WordPress, connect a domain, and learn the WordPress dashboard, which is harder than signing up for a hosted builder.
How to build a site with BoldGrid
- Sign up for BoldGrid Central and get a free Connect Key (or buy a premium bundle).
- Install WordPress on your host, or start on Cloud WordPress if you want to build before choosing a host.
- Install the BoldGrid plugins and enter your Connect Key to activate them.
- Choose an Inspiration: pick an industry design and theme, and BoldGrid installs a starter site with pages and sample content.
- Edit pages with the Post and Page Builder, replacing sample text and images and adding blocks.
- Set up Total Upkeep backups, connect your domain and publish.
If you build on Cloud WordPress first, use Total Upkeep or BoldGrid’s migration tools to move the finished site to your live host. Test forms, contact details and links after the move, since staging URLs differ from your final domain.
Before you start, pick a site name. Generate ideas with the namechk domain name generator and check that the domain and social handles are free with the namechk username and domain checker.
How does BoldGrid compare with alternatives?
| Builder | Starting price | Hosting included | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| BoldGrid | Free; premium $5/mo billed annually | No | WordPress beginners on a budget |
| Elementor | Free plugin; paid plans and hosting available | Optional (Elementor Hosting) | Designers and agencies on WordPress |
| Wix | $17/mo billed yearly (Light) | Yes | All-in-one hosted sites |
| Squarespace | $19/mo billed yearly (Basic) | Yes | Design-led hosted sites |
WordPress powers a large share of the web; see our WordPress statistics for context, or browse the best website builders to compare hosted options.
How we evaluated BoldGrid
This BoldGrid review is based on BoldGrid’s official pricing page, product descriptions and FAQ, plus the WordPress.org plugin directory listing, as of October 2026. We compared BoldGrid’s pricing, features, hosting requirements and support against Elementor, Wix and Squarespace. We did not build a test site; feature descriptions reflect BoldGrid’s documentation.
Is BoldGrid worth it in 2026? Our verdict
BoldGrid is worth it if you want a WordPress site, like the idea of ready-made industry templates and a simple drag-and-drop editor, and want to keep costs low. The $5/month premium bundle (billed annually) adds useful extras such as backups and cloud staging. If you’d rather not manage hosting and updates, a hosted builder is simpler; if you want the largest WordPress design ecosystem, Elementor is the stronger choice.
Our rating: 3.8/5 (our assessment). If BoldGrid fits, get a free BoldGrid Connect Key and test it on Cloud WordPress before installing it on your live host.
FAQs
Is BoldGrid free?
Yes, partly. BoldGrid offers a free Connect Key through BoldGrid Central that activates the community editions of its WordPress Website Builder, Post and Page Builder and Total Upkeep plugins. Premium editions cost extra, starting at $2.50 per month billed annually for single plugins and $5 per month billed annually for the full WordPress Website Builder bundle, as of October 2026.
Does BoldGrid include hosting?
No. BoldGrid says it is not a web host and doesn’t provide domains or hosting. BoldGrid products install on any WordPress site with any host. BoldGrid’s Cloud WordPress lets you build and test sites on a demo URL, but it isn’t web hosting, so you’ll need a WordPress host and a domain to publish your site.
Is BoldGrid still being developed in 2026?
Yes. BoldGrid is active in October 2026, selling premium plugins, the Crio SuperTheme and bundles through its website, with free community editions on WordPress.org. BoldGrid also develops the W3 Total Cache plugin. Its page builder is less widely used than Elementor or the native WordPress block editor, but the products remain available and supported.
Is BoldGrid better than Elementor?
Elementor is more popular and has a larger ecosystem of templates, add-ons and tutorials, making it the better choice for most designers. BoldGrid is simpler and cheaper, with ready-made industry starter sites, built-in backups through Total Upkeep and cloud staging. Beginners on a tight budget may prefer BoldGrid; designers usually prefer Elementor.
Who makes BoldGrid?
BoldGrid was created by the team at InMotion Hosting, a US web hosting company, and is sold and managed through BoldGrid Central. BoldGrid’s products work with any WordPress host, not just InMotion. The BoldGrid team also develops W3 Total Cache, a widely used WordPress caching plugin with tens of millions of downloads.
How much does BoldGrid cost per year?
BoldGrid’s WordPress Website Builder bundle costs $5 per month billed annually, or $60 per year, and the WordPress Creator Bundle with the Crio Pro theme costs $8.25 per month billed annually, or $99 per year. Each Connect Key covers one website. Hosting and a domain are extra because BoldGrid doesn’t provide them.
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