For most companies, an online presence is not optional. While social media profiles help, they leave you at the mercy of algorithms, and the platform could delete your account anytime for any reason.
Having a website for your company ensures you have a permanent online presence that you control. Picking the best free website builder to get you online means looking into more than just features and hosting, though—it’s also about finding the so-called poison pill.
Essential Free Website Builder Features
Every company has different requirements for its website, but there are some universal features needed for website builders to be considered functional. I looked at those needs specific to SMBs to create a list of must-have features.
- Ability to publish. There’s a growing trend in free website builder plans to allow access to the builder but not to publishing. For example, a SITE123 sales rep advised me that with its free plans, websites are only visible to logged-in SITE123 users, even after hitting the publish button.
- Domain customization. Even if you use the free subdomain that most free plans offer, you need to be able to customize the initial part of the name. For example, an auto-generated subdomain on Square might be “jklasud-43587n.square.site.” Free builder plans should allow you to change the “jklasud-43587n” section to your brand name.
- Server resources. Storage limits, bandwidth, page limits and server response speed all play into the resources available for your website. While many builders make you dig for the information, verifying that the builder you choose allocates enough resources for your website to function is important.
Overall, Google Sites, HubSpot and Square trend toward the top in these vital categories. WordPress.org, while powerful, is dependent on which free host you choose in these areas.
Value
Value on a free plan may sound a little odd. After all, it’s free; how much more value can you get? Well, there’s more to it than that. The value of free website builders comes from the look of your finished website, ease of use, hosting resources, such as storage limits, and the cost of upgrading later on.
HubSpot, Google Sites and Square easily provide outstanding value, with WordPress.org trailing slightly behind just because it has to be paired with hosting.
Domains
The idea behind using a free website builder is to get your site online for free. But there’s one more piece of the puzzle beyond a builder and hosting to get your website online.
You need a domain to serve as your website’s address so it can be found. Because regulating groups such as the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers require small fees for each domain name, and domain registrars must pay several thousand a year to operate, it’s rare to find a free custom domain name.
Most custom domain names run between $10 and $50 annually if they aren’t high-demand names. However, some top-level domains (TLDs), the two-, three- or four-letter extensions after your chosen name, such as .io and .ai, tend to cost more than extensions such as .com and .info.
Domains generally come in two flavors: a custom domain name and a subdomain name on the website builder’s provided domain. Most free website builders include a free subdomain. A subdomain will usually be your website name ending in a period before the website builder’s provided domain name. So, a subdomain will look something like “websitename.builderdomain.com,” where “builderdomain.com” is the primary custom domain name the builder owns.
While rare, some builders allow you to point a custom domain name you registered through the builder or a third-party domain registrar to your free website. Still, most require you to upgrade to a paid plan to point a custom domain name.
Every entry on our list except WordPress.org provides free subdomains, with Google Sites and HubSpot allowing custom domain name pointing if you register a domain name with one of the best domain registrars.
Mobile Optimization
The world is becoming mobile first. More web traffic takes place on mobile devices than desktops, according to StatCounter. Unfortunately, many website builders are still struggling to catch up. Most default to design for desktop with automatic mobile optimization.
While automatic mobile adjustments usually handle adjusting menus and page width just fine, it can lead to images and other elements overlapping or text being shoved into a long column of lines.
While programming is catching up, it’s important to look for web builders that let you design on a mobile preview and offer some mobile-only items, such as header and menu adjustments, or marking which photos to include or exclude.
None of the free builders lead the pack in mobile optimization, but Square and HubSpot are making strong steps in the right direction.
Limited Poison Pills
I’m sure you noticed some big names from other best-of website builder lists missing from mine. The reason is poison pills. The catch, or poison pill, of many free website builders is unfavorable requirements to use the service for free. For some, those poison pills don’t have a reasonable antidote for small businesses.
For example, I’ve left Wix off of this list because, in spite of how powerful its builder is, Wix’s free plan places ads at the top of your website. While that may be perfectly fine for personal use, it can destroy your credibility as a business to have ads you don’t control on your website, especially when it is a banner ad at the very top.
Likewise, GoDaddy was disqualified because its “free” website builder plan doesn’t let you actually publish the website without upgrading to paid hosting. The only thing that is free is access to the builder.
Most free website builder poison pills revolve around placing “built by” branding somewhere on the website, adding advertisements to your site or providing very restrictive hosting resources meant to push you into upgrading to paid plans. Some are barely worth noting such as Google Sites’ small information icon in the bottom left of pages. Others are more serious and could limit your site’s functionality or damage your credibility.
Go into the idea of a free website builder with your eyes open and evaluate the catch of each offer to see if it is one you can live with before committing to that builder.
Square, HubSpot and Google Sites generally have the fewest poison pills in their offerings.
