When a potential hosting client is comparing providers in 2026, they are not just looking at storage limits and bandwidth allocations. They are looking at the complete package and one feature that has become a standard expectation at every price point is a website builder.
Wix built a billion-dollar business on the premise that building a website should not require technical knowledge. Squarespace built another one on the same premise. The hosting clients comparing your plans to competitors know these platforms exist, and a meaningful proportion of them will choose a hosting provider who offers an equivalent tool over one who does not all else being equal.
The problem, historically, has been that offering a website builder as an independent hosting provider meant either building one from scratch not a realistic option or paying substantial fees for a white-label solution that would make the feature economically unviable at shared hosting price points.
Sitepad solves this problem cleanly. It is a professional drag-and-drop website builder that integrates directly with cPanel, is available at a price point that makes it viable for hosting providers of every size, and gives your clients the visual editing experience they expect from modern website builders without you having to build anything or pay enterprise software rates.
At $9 per 6 months from Tremhost currently $4.50 with the 50% off promotion Sitepad costs less per month than most basic SaaS subscriptions. Here is the complete guide to what it is, what it does, and why it is worth adding to your hosting stack.
What is Sitepad?
Sitepad is a website builder developed specifically for web hosting environments. It integrates directly with cPanel, allowing hosting clients to build, edit, and publish websites from within their existing hosting control panel — without installing additional software, without leaving the cPanel environment, and without any technical knowledge beyond the ability to drag, drop, and type.
Unlike generic website builders that operate as standalone SaaS platforms, Sitepad is designed to live inside your hosting infrastructure. The sites your clients build with Sitepad are hosted on your server, served through your infrastructure, and managed alongside their other hosting account resources. There is no dependency on external servers, no additional monthly cost passed to clients, and no conflict with existing hosting account features.
Sitepad has been adopted by hosting providers worldwide and is included in cPanel’s ecosystem as a recognised third-party integration. It works with the same domain, DNS, and SSL configurations that your clients already have on their hosting account — a site built with Sitepad lives on the client’s domain, uses their existing SSL certificate, and sits in their public_html directory alongside any other files they choose to manage.
Who needs Sitepad: the clients you are currently losing
Before getting into what Sitepad does, it is worth being specific about the clients who will benefit from it — because these are the clients you are either winning or losing based on whether you offer it.
The small business owner who has never built a website. This is the most common profile. A local restaurant, a freelance consultant, a personal trainer, a boutique retailer — someone who needs a professional web presence but has no interest in learning WordPress, no budget to hire a developer, and no time to figure out a complex CMS. They want to pick a template, add their information, and have a working website. Sitepad is built for this person.
The client who is comparison shopping against Wix or Squarespace. In 2026, a significant portion of prospective hosting clients are actively weighing “should I get hosting and a website builder, or should I just use Wix?” For a client on the fence, your ability to say “we include a free website builder with every plan” tips the balance. Without it, you are sending them to Wix.
The client who wants a simple site alongside a more complex one. Some clients run a primary WordPress site for their main business but want a simple landing page or microsites for specific campaigns or products. Sitepad gives them a quick way to build these without the overhead of a full WordPress installation for each one.
The client who tried WordPress and found it overwhelming. Not every client who installs WordPress via Softaculous finds it the right tool for their needs. Gutenberg, themes, plugins, updates — for some clients it is more than they want to deal with. Sitepad is the simpler alternative that keeps them on your platform rather than sending them to a hosted builder.
The client migrating from a hosted builder. Clients who are currently paying separately for Wix or Squarespace may switch to your hosting if you can offer an equivalent building experience with hosting included. Sitepad is not identical to Wix — nothing is — but for clients whose needs are modest, it is a compelling consolidation.
What Sitepad offers: the complete feature breakdown
Drag-and-drop visual editor
Sitepad’s editing interface is a true visual editor what clients see while editing is what their visitors will see on the published site. Every element on the page is draggable, resizable, and editable with a click. Text, images, columns, sections, buttons, contact forms, maps, social links, galleries all placed and configured visually without touching code.
The editing experience is comparable to the major hosted website builders. Clients who have used Wix or Squarespace will find the interface familiar enough to use immediately without a learning curve.
For clients who have never built a website before, the visual approach means they can understand what they are doing and see the result immediately a learning curve that is measured in minutes rather than hours.
Template library
Sitepad includes hundreds of professionally designed templates covering a wide range of business types and use cases — restaurants, portfolios, professional services, retail, photography, events, blogs, and more.
Templates are fully editable they are starting points rather than rigid structures. Clients can replace any element of a template with their own content, change colours and fonts to match their brand, add or remove sections, and reshape the layout to their needs.
For clients who do not want to start from a blank canvas, templates mean going from “I need a website” to “I have a website” in a single session.
Mobile-responsive design
Every Sitepad template is built to be responsive it adjusts automatically to look correct on desktop, tablet, and mobile screens. Clients can preview their site in each screen size from within the editor and make device-specific adjustments if needed.
In 2026, mobile responsiveness is not a feature it is a baseline requirement. A website builder that produces non-responsive sites is not a viable product. Sitepad’s responsiveness is built into the template system, meaning clients cannot accidentally produce a non-responsive site by choosing a template.
Built-in SEO tools
Sitepad includes per-page SEO configuration meta titles, meta descriptions, custom URLs, alt text for images, and structured data for specific page types. These are the foundational on-page SEO elements that every website needs and that clients using a simple builder might otherwise not think to configure.
For small business clients who care about appearing in Google search results for local queries — which describes most of the clients who will use Sitepad having SEO tools built into the builder rather than requiring a separate plugin or manual configuration is a meaningful convenience.
Contact forms and lead capture
Every Sitepad site can include contact forms that deliver submissions to the client’s email address. For a small business website, a working contact form is often the primary conversion mechanism it is how prospective customers reach the business owner.
Forms are added and configured visually without any coding or third-party form service subscription. For clients who would otherwise need to research, install, and configure a contact form plugin or pay for a SaaS form tool, this built-in capability removes a friction point and a cost.
E-commerce capabilities
Sitepad includes basic e-commerce functionality product pages, a shopping cart, and payment integration — for clients who want to sell products or services directly through their website without deploying a full WooCommerce or Magento installation.
For clients with small product catalogues a photographer selling prints, a consultant selling a course, a small retailer with a dozen products Sitepad’s e-commerce tools provide what they need without the overhead of a dedicated e-commerce platform.
Blog functionality
Sitepad includes a blog module that allows clients to publish posts, organise them by category, and display them in a chronological feed. For clients who want a simple business website with a news or updates section, this provides blogging capability without requiring a separate WordPress installation.
Integration with cPanel features
Because Sitepad lives inside the cPanel environment, it has natural access to the client’s hosting account features. Domain configuration, SSL certificates managed through FleetSSL, and file storage all operate through the existing cPanel infrastructure. Clients do not need to manage separate credentials, separate billing, or a separate platform to use their website builder — it is all part of their hosting account.
How Sitepad benefits you as a hosting provider
A marketable feature that competes with standalone builders
“Free website builder included with every plan” is a sentence that belongs on your hosting plan comparison table. It answers a question prospective clients are asking before they ask it, and it directly competes with the primary marketing message of Wix and Squarespace — that building a website should be accessible to everyone, regardless of technical background.
With Sitepad in your stack, you can make that claim honestly. Your hosting plans include a free, functional, professionally designed website builder. That is a feature a meaningful proportion of prospective clients will respond to.
Reduced churn from clients who want simplicity
Client churn driven by platform dissatisfaction “WordPress was too complicated,” “I couldn’t figure out how to build my site” is preventable if you have a simpler alternative available. Clients who might otherwise give up on self-managed hosting and move to Wix can be retained if you can offer them a builder that meets their actual needs.
Sitepad does not replace WordPress for clients who need it. It gives the clients who do not need it a viable alternative on your platform.
A legitimate upsell opportunity
For hosting providers who offer tiered plans, Sitepad can be positioned as a feature of higher-tier plans — “starter plan includes cPanel, premium plan includes cPanel plus website builder.” The license covers your entire server regardless of account count, so the cost of offering it on higher-tier plans is zero beyond the license fee. The perceived value to prospective clients is significant.
Differentiation from budget competitors
The budget shared hosting market is crowded and price-competitive. Features — rather than price — are often the more defensible differentiation strategy. A hosting provider who offers CloudLinux-isolated, Imunify360-protected, LiteSpeed-powered hosting with a free website builder is describing a meaningfully different product from a basic Apache shared hosting plan, even at a similar price point. Sitepad is one of the components that makes that differentiation credible.
Sitepad vs WordPress: which clients should use which
This is a question worth addressing directly, because some hosting providers worry that offering Sitepad will cannibalise WordPress adoption — and WordPress, through Softaculous, generates platform stickiness that is valuable.
The reality is that Sitepad and WordPress serve different client profiles with minimal overlap.
Clients who should use WordPress: Anyone who needs content management at scale, a blog with regular publishing, a full e-commerce store, membership functionality, complex custom design, or the ability to extend their site’s functionality with plugins. WordPress is a CMS first and a website builder second — it is the right tool for clients who are managing content, not just publishing a brochure.
Clients who should use Sitepad: Anyone who needs a straightforward, visually designed website a homepage, an about page, a services page, a contact form and does not need to update it frequently or extend its functionality beyond what Sitepad provides natively. Small businesses, professionals, event pages, portfolio sites, landing pages.
The clients who would benefit most from Sitepad are frequently the ones who would struggle most with WordPress. Offering both means you have the right tool for every client profile — and clients who start on Sitepad and outgrow it can move to WordPress without changing hosts.
Sitepad pricing: Tremhost vs alternatives
White-label website builder solutions for hosting providers: Enterprise website builder integrations — platforms designed for hosting providers to offer under their own brand typically cost $50 to $200+ per month depending on account volume and feature tier. These are viable for large hosting operations but economically impractical for independent providers.
https://tremhost.com/clientarea/store/licenses
Buying Sitepad directly: Sitepad licenses purchased through other channels typically cost more than Tremhost’s pricing, which is already positioned as the most competitive legitimate source for this license.
Buying from Tremhost:
- Sitepad License: $9 per 6 months (~$1.50/month)
- With the current 50% off promotion: $4.50 per 6 months (~$0.75/month)
At $0.75 per month during the promotion, Sitepad is the cheapest feature addition available for your hosting stack in terms of the ratio between cost and marketing value. You are paying less than $1 per month to add “free website builder included” to every hosting plan you offer — a feature that competing platforms charge clients $15 to $25 per month to access as a standalone product.
Sitepad is also included free in Tremhost’s VPS and Dedicated license bundles alongside cPanel, CloudLinux, Imunify360, LiteSpeed, JetBackup, WHMReseller, Softaculous, and FleetSSL.
Setting up Sitepad on your cPanel server
Getting Sitepad available to your clients involves three steps:
Step 1: Order your Sitepad license from Tremhost at tremhost.com/licenses.html. Activation is instant and free installation assistance is available.
Step 2: Sitepad integrates into cPanel as a feature accessible from the client’s control panel dashboard. Once installed, every cPanel account on your server has access to the Sitepad builder under the Website Builders section of their cPanel.
Step 3: Update your hosting plan feature listings to include “Free website builder with drag-and-drop editor” and start using it as a selling point in your marketing.
That is the complete setup process. There is no per-account configuration, no client onboarding required, and no ongoing maintenance beyond keeping the license current.
Frequently asked questions
How many sites can a client build with Sitepad? Clients can build sites on any domain or subdomain associated with their hosting account. There is no limit on the number of Sitepad sites per account.
Can clients export their Sitepad site to another platform? Sitepad publishes static HTML files to the client’s hosting account. These files are accessible through the standard cPanel file manager and can be downloaded or migrated like any other hosting account files.
Does Sitepad conflict with existing WordPress installations on the same account? No. Sitepad and WordPress can coexist on the same hosting account, serving different domains or subdomains. A client can run a WordPress blog on their main domain and a Sitepad landing page on a subdomain simultaneously.
Is Sitepad available in multiple languages? Yes. Sitepad supports multiple languages in both the editor interface and the published sites, making it suitable for hosting providers serving non-English-speaking clients.
Does Sitepad work with CloudLinux CageFS? Yes. Sitepad is compatible with CloudLinux and operates correctly within the CageFS isolated environment.
Can I white-label Sitepad under my own brand? Sitepad offers customisation options that allow hosting providers to present the builder under their own branding rather than the Sitepad name. This is a useful option for hosting providers who want to offer a cohesive branded experience to their clients.
What support does Tremhost provide for Sitepad? All Tremhost licenses include 24/7 support. Installation assistance is free, and ongoing support for license-related issues is available around the clock.
Sitepad as part of the complete hosting bundle
Sitepad is included free in Tremhost’s VPS and Dedicated license bundles — part of the nine-license package that gives you everything your hosting server needs in a single order.
VPS License Bundle: $15/month ($7.50 with 50% off) Dedicated License Bundle: $16/month ($8 with 50% off)
At bundle pricing, Sitepad is included alongside cPanel, CloudLinux, Imunify360, LiteSpeed, JetBackup, WHMReseller, Softaculous, and FleetSSL a complete professional hosting stack for $7.50 per month. If you are setting up a new server or reviewing your existing licensing, the bundle is the most rational starting point.
The bottom line
Offering a free website builder is no longer a differentiating premium feature in the hosting market it is becoming a baseline expectation. Clients comparing providers in 2026 expect to see it on the feature list, and its absence is an objection you have to overcome rather than an advantage you can exploit.
Sitepad gives you the ability to offer a genuine, functional, professionally designed website builder to every client on every plan — for $0.75 per month during Tremhost’s current 50% off promotion. It adds a marketable feature to your plans, reduces churn from clients who find WordPress too complex, and positions your hosting offering against the standalone website builder platforms that are your real competition for new clients.
At under $1 per month, the question is not whether Sitepad is worth adding to your hosting stack. The question is why you would not.
Order your Sitepad license or get it included free in the complete hosting bundle at tremhost.com/licenses.html. The 50% off promotion is live now.
