As is well known, everything that is free is encouraging in its own way. Why should we pay for something when we can get it for free?
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People looking for a budget solution to create their own website have certainly encountered various proposals to build a website with free wizards, which with a few clicks allow you to enjoy your own, in addition, “free” website. It sounds inviting. Not only will it be fast, but it will also be free. Perfect combination. However, is it possible? Only the fundamental question arises – is this the right direction when it comes to building a website? Is there a catch in the perfect combination of fast and free website development?
It would be too good if such a solution had no flaws.
I think that in addition there will be more than one disadvantage or even a few. So check why a free website from an online website creator is an idea that needs to be considered at least twice.
Trust
First of all, it is an unprofessional solution that does not inspire trust among users. In addition, it is associated with the inability to have an email address from your own domain. Therefore, you still need to use external mail services. It does not look inviting or attractive in the eyes of potential customers, because external email addresses do not inspire much trust and show a serious approach to others.
Limitations at every step.
A free website builder is primarily a number of limits that limit the full range of possibilities and, in a way, narrow the field of activity.
The first limitation you will have to deal with is the hosting parameters, which are kept to a minimum. Even with paid third-party hosting providers, there are limits to disk space or monthly transfer, so think about the limitations of the service that offers such hosting for free.
In addition, usually, this type of hosting achieves worse results than with a paid operator due to the greater number of users belonging to one service. This affects the loading speed of the page which will most likely have worse results.
It also means a limited scope for page construction. Free wizards only allow you to configure certain elements on the website to some extent. It is not possible to interfere with the system and individual elements in any way you want.
In fact, we are mostly limited to posting texts and static graphics. Many functions and non-standard solutions are beyond the reach of the free wizard. So we have to build a website to the extent that the creator allows us, not our imagination.
Another limitation is technical issues.
One of them is the inability to back up your website yourself. In the event of data loss or accidental deletion, we have a narrow field of action.
The problem also arises when you want to stop working with a free service. Without a complete copy, data transfer from such a service is very difficult. It may even turn out that in such situations the easiest way is to remove and abandon the existing project and start everything from scratch again, this time on a commercial solution.
In addition, the construction of the website in terms of SEO is significantly difficult due to the range of possibilities of free plans. Generating visits from an internet search engine is not so easy. It mainly boils down to getting traffic from most paid marketing platforms or simply by other methods than the search engine.
This approach requires mainly off-site activities (outside the site), i.e. all backlinks, mentions, word of mouth marketing, or social media. It is not possible to squeeze the maximum potential from the website for possible SEO activities (linking method, headers, relevant directives in .htaccess and robots.txt files, etc.).
Unwanted ads on the site.
Another problem with free website builders is the ads that appear on some websites.
By agreeing to the free service, we also agree to advertise banners or pop-ups on our own site. They make it difficult to browse the website, and thus make the content available on it difficult to receive.
Such a site is not encouraging to return or become its regular reader.
Are you sure about the free website?
In fact, the first three points relate to the various barriers and obstacles that are associated with a free website. There are literally different brakes that stop the wings from fully spreading. However, there is an effective solution to this. Switching to a paid premium plan will unlock some of the above-mentioned restrictions.
Thus, we will get more disk space, the monthly transfer limit will increase or we will use our own professional internet domain. In addition, the previously dormant configuration functions of the website will be unlocked or unwanted ads will disappear.
In other words, what was impossible before is now at your fingertips. Of course, the scope of activities is further limited to the possibilities of a given wizard, but the limit has certainly been widened.
Unfortunately, the problem is that a free website is in practice not that free. Sooner or later you have to use a paid plan, because “in the wash” quickly turns out that the free functions are able to satisfy only very undemanding users and are not a professional enough solution.
The payment itself, in turn, seems beneficial because it is divided into appropriate cycles and on a monthly basis it is an expense of a few dollars. It seems little – especially when this amount is compared to the cost of a professional website.
However, looking at the annual payment, it turns out that a free website costs several hundred dollars. Over time, such a subscriber payment can confidently equal the one-time cost of a professional and proprietary website.
In addition, such “installments” are never paid back. When buying a car in installments, e.g. after five years of monthly payments, we become the owner of the vehicle. In the case of the website, we pay for the service for life, never becoming its full owner.
Then who is the free website for?
It is impossible not to notice the quite critical approach to the subject of free pages from the creator. However, this is actually the case.
By agreeing to a free service, we have to accept the smaller or larger restrictions that will appear on the road over time. There are quite a lot of such limits. Both technically, visually, and functionally.
Even if at first it seems that we do not need paid extras, their lack will become more and more bothersome with time. Thus, the originally free website will become a paid subscriber service, which will still not be a solution that gives unlimited freedom.
So who are these types of services for? Certainly largely for enthusiasts or hobbyists and for any user whose requirements are very minimal and truncated.
Yes, for testing or playing, the free service will certainly be sufficient. In turn, any enterprise should think twice about this form of building an image on the Internet. A commercial solution that will allow you to be independent at the beginning of your adventure with the website is a much better method.
Such a road is additionally more scalable and more susceptible to modifications resulting from the company’s growth due to the lack of limitations listed in this entry.
Therefore, it is definitely better to be the owner of the website than just its leaseholder.