Should I Use a Free Website Builder

Using a free web builder might feel like your best option. There are many advantages of doing so but there are also disadvantages as well and it is a good idea to think about both so that you can decide whether they will be worth it for you.

Advantages

• A free web builder will not cost you any money. This means that if you have a very low budget or no money to spend at all, then you will be able to still use one. You will be able to put together a website, with no or little web building experience and not pay any money to do so.
• You will be able to try out a web builder without committing to paying for it first. If you have never used one before, you may not want to pay out the money and then discover that it is not for you. You may find that you just do not enjoy making your own website or that you feel you are not good enough even with the web building tools. You should find them easy enough to use and that you can design something good but it is something that it is likely you will want to try out first.
• You might want to try different types of web builders before you commit to paying for one. They do differ in how they work and how you use them and so it can be good to look at a few of the free plans / trials so that you can play around with them and have a go to see which will be the easiest for you to be able to use.

Disadvantages

• A free web builder will not have all of the features that you will get if you pay for one. Often it will just be a very basic set up so that you can play with it a bit. You will find that the company will be trying to encourage you to use a paid plan and so they will want you to be excited by their web builder but feel like it is missing useful features so that you are prepared to pay the extra money for one.
• There are some companies that will not allow you to publish the website that you produce with their web builder. There are others that will allow you to publish but only using a sub domain of theirs. This will not only look unprofessional but it could confuse search engines if you then swap to a unique domain after a while.
• When you do publish using a free plan, you will often find that it will have an advert for the web builder in it. This can be pretty intrusive, sometimes large or scrolling on your page. This means that it will not look professional and you may not want this on your website.
• A free website builder might be a limited free trial. This means that it might have all the functionality of a paid for plan, but it will not last long. These can be great for trying out the web builder, but you will have to pay eventually or else you will lose what you have done in the free trial.
• Other free web builders may not be limited but you could find that you will not have access to all of the functions. You might be limited on how many pages you can make, how much storage you have, how many items you can have in your shop etc. These will vary depending on the one that you pick. If you have very limited requirements, then you might find that there is a free one that will have all the features that you need, but this is unlikely as the free plans are designed to be so limited that you are encouraged to pay for a plan. The web building company need to make some money from somewhere!