Not everyone can afford to spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars a year to create and maintain a website. Most of us don’t have enough money to pay for a website which can only be a fun hobby. Fortunately, some top page builders provide the option to create a website for free.
However, the free site creation plans often have some restrictions that can only be removed by switching to a paid plan. This article discusses some of the best tools for building websites in terms of their offerings and limitations, so you can see if their free plan will be suitable for your needs.
Wix
There are only a few free website builders more known to the general public than Wix. Wherever you turn around, on TV and on the Internet, there is Wix advertising everywhere. That is why it is not surprising that many people decide to use Wix to build their free website.
Wix offers many options for creating a free website. You can use the drag and drop function to build your site from scratch, or you can answer a few simple questions so that Wix can guide you through this process. There are also various customizable templates that allow you to quickly create a website.
What I really like about Wix is its drag and drop wizard. I followed the path to answer questions about my future site and received many projects that were quite good. The drag-and-drop constructor is an important driving force for Wix. It also provides a full Application Center, offering both free and paid applications that can add functionality to your site.
If you choose the upgraded plan, you will get the following features:
- Increased capacity to 20 GB
- Increasing bandwidth to unlimited
- Free domain
- The possibility of starting an online store
- Email campaign function
- Website supporting application
The free subscription is great for creating personal and small startup sites such as blogs. Otherwise, you must switch to a paid plan.
Site123
Like other page construction tools, Site123 lets you easily create sites using a wide range of customizable templates that are suitable for music, party, photo, restaurant, CV, and other websites.
What I really like about Site123 is the feature that lets me create my pages in over 80 languages, which means I can make my site multilingual. As countries become more diverse, the multilingual website is becoming less luxurious and more of a requirement.
The free plan has a lot of restrictions. You only get 500 MB of memory and 1 GB of bandwidth. In addition, you have a Site123 subdomain, which means you’ll have to tolerate ads. In addition, you do not receive any email addresses with your free subscription. If you want to run an online store, unfortunately, you have to switch to a paid plan.
Upgrading to one of Site123’s paid plans gives you the following features:
- Free domain
- More space and bandwidth
- Ability to remove Site123 ads
- Email marketing options
- E-commerce functions
This platform is the best offer for basic websites and especially for users who want to create a multilingual information page. Limited memory and bandwidth make anything that could be more meaningful impossible.
SimpleSite
As the name suggests, thanks to SimpleSite, you can quickly build a website. Its free websites are optimized for mobile devices and you can choose one of several themes to create your own site.
The advantage of SimpleSite over other free site builders is that by using the free plan, you have the option of selling products to a limited extent. I sell collectibles on the website and thanks to SimpleSite I can sell up to five products without having to update my account. I was also able to integrate PayPal, facilitating payment processing. I decided to use my website to sell some of my higher class products, such as advertising signs.
Of course, there are many limitations to the free plan:
- The site is limited to 15 pages
- The number of images is limited to 300 for the entire site
- The video is limited to 600 seconds (ten minutes)
- Limited font and design options
- Forced use of SimpleSite subdomain name
- No email addresses
- SimpleSite ads on every page
Two update options are available: Pro and E-commerce. Thanks to these plans you get:
- Unlimited pages
- Unlimited number of photos and video minutes
- Unlimited design and font options
- Free domain
- No ads
- Five email addresses
- Ability to sell products online (five for Pro and unlimited quantity for E-commerce)
The free plan is suitable for small websites or limited online stores, such as short-term fundraising or the sale of several hand-made products. You will add something else and you will have to move to a higher plan.
WordPress
WordPress is used by many people who want to build a free website because the templates are more solid than those on other platforms. While WordPress does not offer a drag and drop wizard, it provides many templates from the ever-growing list of categories.
WordPress.com was the first free site creation tool I used. I chose it because you get 3 GB of disk space, 3 to 6 times more than on other platforms. I also liked the variety of templates compared to other sites. There were enough tutorials on the Internet, even considering the lack of a drag and drop wizard.
The free WordPress.com plan is best for a blog and informational sites that do not require deep personalization. For most other sites, you’ll need to upgrade to a paid subscription.
The best solution is to use Premium or Business plans because they offer all of the following features:
- Free domain
- Chat and e-mail support
- Unlimited Premium themes
- At least 13 GB of disk space (Business has unlimited)
- The possibility of running an online store on the WordPress website
By the way, Soshace has written an excellent post at Designer Daily about creating a website with WordPress.
Weebly
Weebly allows you to quickly create websites using the drag and drop wizard along with an excellent selection of pre-configured templates.
One thing that I appreciate when it comes to building a website with Weebly is that it offers various design features that I haven’t seen from other manufacturers. For beginners, Weebly offers video backgrounds, which makes the site more multimedia than other options. It also offers an image editor, which allows you to modify images on an ongoing basis instead of installing additional software. I could even include animation effects to add a fun element to my site.
Like Wix, Weebly also has an Application Center with various tools that you can add to your website for more functionality. Some applications, such as online store applications, will be restricted to free users.
The main reason why people like Weebly is to be able to sell products online.
Weebly offers three paid plans that provide the following features:
- Free domain
- Google Ads loans
- Unlimited storage
- Advanced site statistics
- Password-protected files
- HD video and audio
- Ability to save members
- It is possible to sell products online using the Weebly.com cash register
A free subscription is OK if you want to start a personal blog, resume-website, and even launch a wedding announcement page. Otherwise, go to a paid plan.
Free plans are limited but are a great starting point
Although free websites may not be suitable for advanced websites, they are still a great starting platform for others. Those who are just starting to design their websites can feel comfortable with the wizard, and then, when the time is right, it’s easy to switch to paid plans.
Free website builders are often the starting point for successful running businesses. If you work hard to create great content and design, you can come to the point where your site will be too big to be served by the free website builder – this will be a big problem. It also means that your website is successful. So, thanks to the website builders, you can explore a world of opportunities, including the ability to make real money on your brand.
Infographic: Summary of free website builders overview
About the author: Helen L. is the author of the website Clasy Website Builders, where you can find more information about the work she’s done on reviewing the free web site builders.
