Today there are more services offering free websites than ever before. Google “free website” and immediately you’ll see links to Wix, Yola, Weebly, and even our favorite, WordPress. So why would you pay good money for a website if you can build one for free? By all means—if you can make a free website for yourself that works, go for it! There are a number of considerations to keep in mind, and we’ll outline them below:
Low Credibility
We have never seen a free website builder that lets you use your own domain without paying an extra fee to use your own domain name. Let’s face it. People just don’t respect a URL like myamazingsite.weebly.com the same way that they’re going to trust myamazingsite.com. And if your users don’t trust your site, how are they going to trust you? It more or less defeats the purpose of having a website in the first place.
But What About for Practice?
Do you want to play around with Weebly or Wix to see what you can come up with? Go ahead, but the bad news is that you’ll spend time developing content that works with their website builders, and then… it’s stuck there. You can’t export it to another platform. If the website builder is too limited to accommodate your needs, you’ll just need to start all over. What’s more, there is no guarantee that any website builder will stay in business (though the ones we linked to in our first paragraph are unlikely to go bankrupt any time in the foreseeable future). If that website builder should go out of business, you’ll lose you site and content.
Limited Storage, Bandwidth, and Server Resources
Most free website platforms allow you a limited amount of storage space for your website. These free website companies typically host hundreds or even thousands of websites that share the same server space, and they can’t afford to give you a lot of space for your data. Wix, for example, allows you up to 500 MB of storage space and 500 MB of bandwidth. The storage space is quite generous; photos and other site content should be small in order to load quickly for your users. The 500 MB bandwidth limit, however, means that your visitors can download up to 500 MB worth of data on your website before the site is suspended or blocked for the rest of the month. If your website becomes popular, it can be quite easy to run through that 500 MB limit, and the last thing you want is for your visitors to be blocked right at the peak of your fame. To put that in perspective, we typically don’t even worry about bandwidth on any of our paid hosting packages, as we always pick providers that allow unlimited bandwidth.
Link Farm Abuse
Have you ever stumbled upon a junk page full of links to irrelevant content that has no relationship to each other? Think: fake drugs, gambling sites, online scams, etc. Back in the old days of the web, building a network of sites that linked to each other was an easy way to boost SEO rankings. In modern times, link farming will get you into trouble with all the big search engines. Some free website providers will use your website for link farming, which, trust us, you don’t want to be a part of.
In all seriousness, if your needs are simple and you don’t need your own domain name, a free website builder may be the right choice for you. To avoid looking spammy or getting involved in a link farm, we recommend using one of the free platforms we linked to in the first paragraph. These are all reputable providers who won’t disappear on you, and whose offerings and limitations are clearly stated. If your needs can’t be accommodated by a free website builder service, contact us! We can help you find a solution that matches both your needs and your budget.
