If you’re looking for a visual editor for your Jekyll site, two names come up quickly: CloudCannon and Jekyll Builder. Both let you drag and drop, both work with Git — but their pricing and philosophy couldn’t be more different.
This comparison is honest. We’ll tell you when CloudCannon is actually the better choice.
The Short Version
- CloudCannon: $49–149/mo. Built for agencies managing multiple client sites with non-technical editors.
- Jekyll Builder: $0–15/mo. Built for developers and solo creators who want visual editing without enterprise pricing.
If you’re an agency billing clients, CloudCannon’s team and permission features justify the cost. If you’re building your own site or working solo, paying $588/year for visual editing is hard to justify.
Visual Editing: How They Compare
Both tools let you edit Jekyll sites without touching raw Liquid or HTML every time. The implementation differs:
CloudCannon adds proprietary editable attributes to your HTML templates. Content editors can then click and edit those regions in a live preview. It works well — but those editable tags are CloudCannon-specific markup. Move away from the platform and you’re cleaning up their tags from your templates.
Jekyll Builder uses a GrapesJS-powered canvas. You design components visually and the tool outputs standard Jekyll Liquid templates — no proprietary markup. The output is plain Jekyll code you can take anywhere.
Git Workflow
Both tools are Git-based at their core. Your site lives in a GitHub (or GitLab) repository, and edits are committed back automatically.
CloudCannon has more advanced branching features and editorial workflows — useful for agencies where developers and editors collaborate on the same repository with different permissions.
Jekyll Builder’s Git sync is simpler and available on the $15/mo Pro plan. Push a design change, it commits. For most solo use cases, that’s everything you need.
Pricing Side by Side
| Jekyll Builder | CloudCannon | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes — unlimited editing | No (14-day trial) |
| Entry price | $0/mo | $49/mo |
| Pro features | $15/mo | $49/mo |
| 3-year cost (1 site) | $0–$540 | $1,764+ |
The math is stark. If you’re not using CloudCannon’s agency features, you’re paying for seats you don’t need.
Lock-in: The Real Question
Neither tool locks you into a hosting provider — your code lives in Git and you can deploy anywhere.
The lock-in question is about the editing layer:
- CloudCannon’s
editabletags are in your HTML templates. They work fine as data attributes and don’t break Jekyll — but if you move to another editor, you’ll want to clean them out. - Jekyll Builder outputs clean Jekyll. There’s nothing to remove if you decide to edit templates by hand later.
For most users this is a minor point. But if “owning your code completely” matters to you, Jekyll Builder’s output is cleaner by design.
Which Should You Choose?
Choose Jekyll Builder if:
- You’re a solo developer or small team
- You deploy to Cloudflare Pages or GitHub Pages
- You want to start for free and upgrade only if you need Git sync
- You don’t need multi-user editorial workflows
Choose CloudCannon if:
- You manage client sites where non-technical editors need to make content updates
- You need granular branch permissions and editorial review workflows
- Budget isn’t a constraint
The Bottom Line
CloudCannon is a well-built product. It’s just priced for agencies. If you’re not an agency, Jekyll Builder gives you the same core visual editing capability for significantly less — or free.