Welcome to our guide to using a free website builder. Perfect for everyone who is looking for a simple and cost-effective way to create their own websites.
This guide will tell you all you need to know about the pros and cons of using free website builders. While you might face limitations like having ads featured on your site, we think that they offer you a great start in building your online brand and we’ve found some great website builders that let you use their services for free.
A website builder is simply a piece of software that lets you create your own website without having to do any coding. So that whether you want to make a site for your business or just for fun, a website builder will make it quick and easy.
So which is the best free website builder? Well, it depends what you are looking for. After all, some website builders are better for overall design than search engine optimisation (SEO) and vice versa. So here are five of the best free website builders to get you started:
Wix lets you use a drag-and-drop editor, a decent range of templates and a host of handy analytics all for free. It’s nicely easy to use and works great on a mobile too. Some people might find that its templates are hard to switch around, but we think that Wix is a great option for beginners. Just note that the free version of Wix will display ads that could obviously make your site look cheap. But for making a fully functional website and being able to adjust the text, fonts and colours with ease, then Wix is hard to beat.
A big part of the appeal of Wordpress is the fact that it creates content that is optimised for SEO, and it’s wonderfully mobile-friendly too. You’ll also benefit from a strong range of themes as well as a good amount of plugins to increase the versatility of your site. There is also the option for web hosting with Wordpress.
Again, the free version of Wordpress will put adverts on your site and it’s worth noting that it’s not the simplest website builder that you’ll come across. However, for a fully customisable free website, then we’d have no hesitations about recommending Wordpress.
Want your website to get good rankings on Google? Then definitely check Weebly out. This comes packed with SEO tools that will make it much easier to achieve brand visibility. As well as this, you’ll gain a wealth of analytics, and there is an integrated CMS package too. The drag-and-drop editors work simply enough for even newbies to get involved. The downsides of using Weebly are that you’ll be faced with ads in the free version and that the choice of themes isn’t quite as big as we’d hoped for. Still, we think that Weebly offers you a very cost-effective way to get some good SEO rankings.
GoDaddy is about so much more than domains and web hosting. After all, it’s got a great drag-and-drop website builder that is remarkably easy to use. You’ll also benefit from the fact that it features speedy page loading times and your websites will all be fully mobile-optimised. There’s also 24/7 customer support on hand should you get stuck. The disadvantages of using GoDaddy are that it doesn’t feature as many SEO tools as you get with other website builders featured here. However, for an easy way to build your own site and access web hosting and domain names, GoDaddy is definitely worth a closer look.
This is an innovative brand that uses artificial intelligence to help build your website for you. You’ll have to answer a questionnaire and then follow the suggestions about what kind of website you want to create. It sounds crazy, but it’s actually fairly easy to use, and your site will benefit from quick loading times and be fully mobile-friendly. Not only that, but the sites you create will also feature SSL-level encryption to make sure that they stay safe and hack-proof. The limitations of Jimdo are the fact that you’ll face a smaller range of design options and some of the basic building features are a bit lightweight.
Any free online website builder will need to pass multiple tests before we recommend it to you. Here are the key criteria of all decent website builder that we test for:
Any free website builder should be easy enough to use for even a total newbie. You should find a handy drag-and-drop editor that simply lets you create the site that you are looking for.
You should find that the website builder has enough leeway to cover all manner of purposes and functions. So from creating an image-heavy website to one that features a lot of posts and text, your website builder should be able to handle all of this.
No one wants to be stuck with just one template when creating their websites. We like those website builders that feature dozens of templates with a wealth of customisation features for altering the colour and feel of the site.
All good website builders will have SEO tools that make sure that your site doesn’t vanish in the search engine rankings. Plus there should be applicable tools for monetising your site via ecommerce as well as a range of marketing features too.
Obviously any good free website builder won’t cost you a penny to use. However, we realise that many of these website builders will have premium options and we’ll be checking that they are worth paying a little extra.
We like those website builders who feature 24/7 customer care. After all, you never know when you’ll need help for when your website goes down.
We realise that not everyone will have used a website builder before. So we thought that we should create this handy guide that will give you an easy start in creating your very first website.
Pretty much anybody. Obviously, these website builders are targeted at anyone without any coding experience, but even expert coders use website builders to get a faster and simpler way to create their own sites.
You can make pretty much any kind of site with a web construction kit. It could be your own personal site, a site for your own business, or even a site dedicated to anything from real estate to restaurants. Just note that more powerful websites will require more powerful tools, and that anything involving financial transactions or sensitive personal information will need the highest levels of security.
You can use an easy website builder free to create a simple, standalone site. However, if you’re looking to create something a little more in-depth then you might need a content management system (CMS). After all, a CMS will give you a more flexible way to manage content on your site such as blogs and posts, while being able to stay on top of the website theme.
It’s so easy to use a website builder for free. Here is a quick rundown of what you need to do:
Yes, free website builders like Wix and Jimdo both let you make multilingual versions of your sites. You’ll usually have to make some adjustments in the settings section to access this feature, but from here, you can enjoy having many different language versions of the same site.
Yes, as there is no requirement to use the same free website builder and domain brand. The same applies for hosting too. However, it's worth noting that using the same free website builder and hosting service can speed up the whole process.
Just because you are using a free business website builder doesn’t mean that your site should slip down the search engine rankings. This is because most of the free website builders on this page will have their own specialist SEO tools. Such tools allow you to optimise the content so as to make it more search engine-friendly. Plus you’ll receive a wealth of reports and analytics to see how well your pages are performing in the online rankings.
We think so. While there will be a few disadvantages in terms of ads, as well as having a limited number of templates and SEO tools, you should find that a free website builder will let you make a good-looking, user-friendly and attractive website.
Website builders are limited in the way that they only let you create sites based upon their own templates. This means that you’ll be restricted to a limited number of themes and you won’t be able to customise them any further than that. Plus website builders might not be so great for managing a lot of content and you’ll find that you have more success with a CMS instead.
Read our guide to see how you can use a free website builder. Plus we can show you the best domain registrar so that you can get your site up and running in next to no time.
Our guide is here to show you whether you can run a website for free with the best free website builder. Just note that you might face some fees when you use the best hosting provider.
Take a look at our guide to see the best free website builder that will give you a simple way to create your own site. Perfect for taking all of the pain out of creating your own online space.
Make sure that you read our guide to see whether a free website builder is really free, or whether there will be hidden costs. After all, you have to pay money at some point to use the best website builder.
Be sure to read our guide where we’ll use the example of the best free website builder to show you what a website builder is. Good news for anyone looking to create their very first website.
We have shown you lots of different free website builders that can all give you a great way to create your own website without spending a single penny. Not only are these websites free to build, but they should give you a variety of themes, as well as being SEO-optimised and mobile-friendly too.
Obviously, we can expect to see even more free website builders being unleashed as more brands compete to take a share of this increasingly competitive market. So watch this space to make sure that you are always using the best free website builder.
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