Choosing A Cheap Website Or A Free WebsiteWhat do you choose, a cheap website or a free website as a new business? When pennies are tight, getting a cheap website set up is appealing.
Startup companies are in a bit of a dilemma; startup meaning no funds whatsoever and building the business from personal savings.
If you want people to find you online, you need a website. But most smaller businesses don’t have the budget to hire an expert developer. That is where free website builders come in.
You don’t need to know what CSS is or how to tinker with HTML the apps do the heavy lifting. With the advent of AI, building a website has become even quicker.
As a new company do you get a free website designed yourself (there are a few resources on the internet where very basic websites can be built) or do you invest in the future and go to a designer?
Technology has moved on quickly, so a free website does not necessarily look free any more, they can look very professional and not ‘off the shelf’.
A designer will charge for a basic website, this could be £100 or could be £1000 depending on the designer.
A free website is not actually free of charge, there are costs associated such as hosting fees and other add on’s.
Different budget web designers offer ‘startup packages’ that are low priced – but how do you select a web designer?
Lets look at the options available:
Obviously it is free, and using a free site program you have nothing to loose. As a brand new company all you really need is a presence on the internet, not a all singing and dancing website (yet). But as things grow and your business develops, then you can build up.
The downsides? OK, for something free you are taking the risk that the ‘look’ is not professional and your brand is starting off not good at all. Cheap website design is not always professional.
Balance this up with needs and means. All web design agencies will encourage you to ‘invest’ in a site of-course because they want your money. But like building a house, you do need to do it one step at a time, overspend on the foundations and you cannot complete the house.
Some of the companies that offer free website design would be:
These companies are just some of the many that offer free website design. However there are costs involved or ‘add ons’ for small companies, one man bands or startups.
Website hosting is never free, it can be very low (for 50p per month for example) but this is normally a lure to get you to sign up with additional costs kicking in 6-12 months down the line.
Even Google how offers a free web building program called Google Sites which as they themselves say ‘allows users to “effortlessly create impactful team sites.
Over the last 10-20 years new web building programs have come onto the market and many are not difficult to differentiate from ones that are designed by a web design agency.
The website creation process is so easy, anyone could do it, mainly because the setup dashboard includes an interactive checklist for you to build your website with a simple step by step process.
As technology moves forwards design styles and images become more and more professional meaning that low cost web design and free web building programs are a go to for many small businesses.
If you are on a tight budget, look for a website builder that offers a free plan as well as affordable premium plans.
That way, you can get started for free, then advance to the premium plans as your budget allows and when you are most likely to take advantage of premium features.
Finally, look for affordable premium plans with features that save or make you money, such as a free domain and email marketing and e-commerce functionality.
Looking ahead to the future, the future of web building seems to be the way forwards.
Getting rid of web designers and the expense of updating web pages and updating themes by just installing a few buttons and hey presto, a new modern web page is up and live within seconds.
This seems to be the case as many of the leading companies such as Google and WordPress now offer free web building for startups and individuals.
Web building has been going on now for a long time, and it has been simplified to it’s core.
Web coding and web development needs training and intelligence whereas web building has been made simple for anyone to be able to create a new website.
The UK has a diverse variety of cultures and levels of education, web building has been crafted to be accessible to everyone making it a 1,2,3 process.
There are positives and negatives of web building programs.
The positives would be:
The negatives would be:
Web building programs on the ‘premium plan’ or ‘business plans’ offer a monthly fee (anything from £5,00 per month to £50,00), the idea being if they can get thousands of companies subscribing it is an easy monthly income.
The more features that are offered, the higher the monthly fees will be, features such as:
The positives are that you are getting a more professional looking website (hopefully) and a second set of eyes to guide you.
The downside? Well, website are expensive and £1000 (even though it is a lot of money for a company that has nothing) is not a lot for a designer. So you will not get very far in real terms.
Also, there are designers and designers, choose the wrong one and you may as well wave farewell to £1000.
Even if you are a new company, investing in your website is important.
Cheap websites are not easy to get ranked online (referred to as SEO, being found by your target visitors).
The reason is to do with the coding.
Using programs WordPress is wise, not necessarily expensive, but if you want to get people to your website, using an established web development program is best.
Choosing a marketing company to handle your SEO can be challenging, as no-one really knows how each of the search engines rank all UK websites.
On reflection, advice would be to use a free resource to get something set up to start with, as and when funds are available you can then build things up from the bottom up.
If a website is not your main business tool (like an on-line shop) then a presence is just fine (if you are an accountant for example).
Website design prices do vary from agency to agency. If funds are tight, a cheap website may be best in the short term. Bur remember that your website is your shop window and needs to reflect your brand.
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