Beyond ‘Free’: Why Your Business Deserves More Than a Free Website

The Free Website Trap: How It Can Cripple Your Online Business

   Building a free website should not be an option for any digital business or brand. Creating a free website as the foundation on which you build your business or brand is the first step to failure. We know a free website sounds good since many businesses always try to reduce their startup cost to the lowest when starting.

Don’t get me wrong, creating free websites is not that bad, free websites can be created by those who want a website they can build today which comes with little opportunities to start, brand, and scale their online business. I’m sure that is not what you want as a business or brand. 

Having a free website should not be an option when building a business or brand

– the business bird

 With all the companies offering these free website hosting services, you may have wondered why businesses and organizations still choose to pay, to own a website. Your doubts will be addressed by this post and by the end you will be ready to make the right decision for your business or brand.

What is a free website?

Simply put, a free website is a website you set up without paying any money. These types of websites are set up using platforms that provide free hosting services. Do not confuse this with a website service that offers you a free registered domain for paying to host your site with them or a self-hosted website hosted on a paid hosting plan.

This is different because most web hosting providers, usually offer free services especially to their new customers to help reduce on cost of getting started, but remember it is not completely free as you still have to pay a certain amount to get started. 

Reasons why a Free Website is Bad for your Business or Brand and Why you Should Avoid it at all Costs

Let’s get started.

1.  Poor performance 

  Free websites are usually attributed to poor performance. The companies offering these free website services often limit the resources attributed per website. This makes web pages load slower than they could if you had opted for a paid service rather than a free one.

This can negatively affect your business or brand as slow loading times mean your customers have to wait for longer periods to access pages on your website. Slow-loading pages can greatly affect your rankings in search engines.

2. Poor website security

     Free websites are mostly not secured. They are bad for both your business and your customers. These types of websites are vulnerable to hackers, some of the providers who offer platforms to create free websites are hackers who want to steal your data for their gains.

Security issues can greatly hamper the credibility of your website in the eyes of your customers and search engines. This can greatly affect your SEO rankings. As an online business or brand, it is your responsibility to make sure your customers are protected online while visiting your site unfortunately, these free website services can hardly guarantee you this.

3.  Lack of tech support or customer service

   Free website solutions offer little or no customer service when you encounter difficulty while using their service. They care less if a portion of your website has issues or not, in other words, “you are on your own”. No business should need this. 

4.  Free websites are very difficult to monetize

It is a common practice among free website providers to make your website a dumping ground for ads. This is disadvantageous to your business or brand as you will have no control over these ads placement on your website nor are you even going to earn any money from the revenue generated by these ads.

These providers make it extremely difficult for you to be able to monetize your website using any option. For example, placing ads or affiliate links on your website which you can have control over and earn revenue is almost completely impossible. As a business or brand monetizing your website is key to sustaining your business. You should consider paying to launch your website.

5. Low disk storage and limited bandwidth

    Free website companies offer a very limited storage and bandwidth capacity. They often host many websites for free so they offer a limited amount of storage on their servers which is to be shared by many websites. They claim it is free but most of them will ask you to pay if you need additional storage.

As a business, you want a website service provider that gives you the ability to easily scale your business without worrying too much about your storage and bandwidth capacity. Some paid web hosting providers offer you unlimited storage and bandwidth capacity. This makes scaling your business or brand much easier.

6. Website backup is unavailable

     Free website service providers make it impossible for you to back up your website. That’s a big business risk because should in case your site comes under an attack or let’s say if your site happens to malfunction, it is going to be impossible for you to restore your data and bring your website back to its previous state.

7. Your website won’t have a custom domain

A domain name is your website’s equivalent of a physical address. It is what a user enters into the web browser to access your site such as ahvisoft.com. Free websites can not get a true domain name that reflects their business or brand. The domain names free websites usually have are branded domain names which can be highly unprofessional in the eyes of your customers. An example of a free domain can be yoursitename.wordpress.com. 

 You can see instead of having just yoursitename.com you now have your site name plus the name of the free web hosting provider. However, even though some free website services will offer you a chance to upgrade your subdomain to an actual domain name for a small amount, it doesn’t make it free anymore and you can often get something better at almost the same cost by paying for an actual domain name and hosting your business website properly.

Read our article on best web hosting for small businesses, most of them offer a free domain for the first year if you host your website with them and the domains are completely safe to use for your business or brand.

8. Your website can be shut down at any time 

For any unfortunate reason like the failure to adhere to terms and conditions provided by the free website service, or if your provider goes out of business, your website can be shut down or removed from the internet permanently. If this happens then all your hard work is gone, all your data is gone and your customers will not be able to contact you anymore. Say goodbye to your business or brand. 

9. Lack of responsive designs and customization 

   Many of these free website services do not provide the right tools needed to design your website and to give it a professional look and feel. There are no options for you to upload and use a professional theme from other sources, the result is you will end up with a business website looking unprofessional. 

They also have limited support for mobile devices, especially for customization and website update purposes. These services make it hard or impossible to customize or update your website on the go using your mobile. Most of their services are designed to work properly only on desktops. This can be disadvantageous for a business or brand.

10. Your provider may sell your information to third parties

   Let’s be realistic. Free website providers are not running a charitable organization. They are operating a business and every business needs to earn some revenue in other to stay in business. It is quite safe to say most free website providers sell your data to other companies who use this information for their businesses. Most of these free website providers outline these in their terms and conditions for you to read before signing up, so it’s quite legal and if you fail to read it and go ahead to start using their service then you can’t blame them for violating your privacy. 

11. Your website won’t look authentic 

  Yeah! that’s the truth. Free websites do not look authentic in any way. Your business or brand should avoid using this at all costs as it gives your customers a negative perception of your brand. Such websites can’t be trusted by customers, your customers will find it difficult to entrust their data to you. In business your customer’s data plays an important role in your decision making, it helps you to serve them better so you need to make sure they are comfortable in providing you with this data. A free website will only help to frustrate your plans. 

 Final Thoughts

   There are more than 11 reasons why a free website is a no-no for any business or brand but these 11 reasons above are enough to let you make the right decision about the future of your online business.

Creating a website for your business is like laying the foundation for a sturdy, flourishing enterprise. While ‘free’ might sound tempting, it’s crucial to recognize that free websites often come with limitations that can hinder, rather than help, your growth.

Think of it this way: You wouldn’t build a store on borrowed land, would you? Similarly, a free website might limit your branding, functionality, and customization options, which are vital for attracting and retaining customers.

Imagine the frustration of hitting a roadblock when you’re on the brink of expansion, only to realize your free platform can’t support your ambitions. Your business deserves a home that can adapt, grow, and evolve with your dreams.

Investing in a professional website is an investment in your business’s future. A professional website is where you paint your brand’s story, create a seamless user experience, and build credibility. You should embrace the power of a tailored, professional website – it’s the launching pad for your online success!”

Remember, a solid foundation ensures your business can soar to greater heights. So, ready to give your business the home it truly deserves?

Keep aiming high, fellow entrepreneurs!