A free website for everyone, now that sounds like a good deal, you see advertisements everywhere for free websites.  No doubt you landed here looking for a free website deal.  I’ve often wondered if these free website deals any good, do they stand up against paid for, low cost websites developed by experienced website professionals like WN6 Creative.

My first question is – What’s the catch?  It’s often said nothing in life is free so are these free websites really free?

The second question is – can web designers compete and do they need to?

I’ve selected one of the most popular free website providers Wix.com to look at and investigated exactly what they offer.

To new clients Wix promises to help create a professional website with ease, design it in HTML5 without any code knowledge, change and add things with a simple drag and drop tool.  Interestingly they don’t provide much detail about features they try to get you to sign up and using the product before you understand everything and make a discerned decision.

The headline features of Wix.com websites are

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• Hundreds of Design Templates
• Free Domain Names
• Drag & Drop HTML5 Editor
• Free Hosting
• Shopping Carts, Payment Features

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• Social Features
• Add video, Slideshows, Image Galleries
• Google Friendly
• Wix App Market
• Publish in Seconds

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Cost – Free Website but there are catches see below

The things I’ve found that Wix don’t make a big deal of…

• The free website will have a domain something like this www.username.wix.com/sitename
• You are limited to 500mb storage space.
• You may get 100’s of templates to choose from but when you have chosen one you are stuck with it, if you change your mind you need to start from scratch
• There’s no built in news and blog application, essential in today’s web world for keeping customers up to date and keeping your site ranking on Google
• With the free website you have advertisements in the header and footer of your website…hmm not good at all.   Plus no access at all to ecommerce tools.
• Their recommended premium website package is £120 per year or £10 per month but it’s missing a heap of features you would get as standard in a base build from WN6 for only a little more.  Plus the on going cost of £100 is less than Wix

Conclusion
It may look like a quick and free start at the outset but in the long run if you intend to grow your business you would be better speaking to WN6 Creative first.  We can deliver a great starting platform for only a little more than £120 one off investment and an on going hosting fee of only £100 per year.  Plus as you grow you can have custom design, choose from tens of thousands of off the shelf themes, hundreds of additional features plus you get your own domain and unlimited content and bandwidth.

All in all a free website may sound like a great idea when you are starting a new business but almost always, you loose on features, flexibility, ownership, personalisation, plus an array of other issues.

If you do need a website and are on a limited budget, then approach a professional web designer explain to them what you need and how much you can afford and get them to put the best package together.  The if you like ask WN6 Creative the same question, there’s almost always a solution that can work with you as your business grows.

Something’s in life are worth having a go at yourself, but would you attempt to put a new roof on your house, fit a new kitchen, service your car, almost always the professional can make a much better job and gain you better value for money.  Think about your business and ask yourself could an amateur do better than me … the answer is almost always no.  So why risk your website when it is the only part of the business open 24/7 and in view of every internet user in the world.

Contact WN6 Creative design today