Free Website Building - Pros and Cons

During the last years, the trend of website building has gained momentum – nowadays, every person can be a proud owner of a professional website, representing him, his business or product. It is no longer a commodity reserved for the high of class – the technological advancements allow anyone to open and maintain a website, no prior knowledge in computing required.
As technology progressed, a new product emerged – free website building. The computing capabilities made it possible, the storage spaces became large enough and the interfaces grew better in user experience.
This article will review this trend, while taking a professional and business-oriented perspective. We will observe the various limitations of such systems and hopefully will assist a business owner to reach an educated decision – whether he should pay for a website or get it for free.

Free Website Building – Who Needs It?

In the contemporary website building market, the updated target audience is “everyone”. It is no longer a privilege of the monetarily fortunate and it's not restricted to large-scale corporations. Every person can now be the owner of a professional website, with luxurious design and SEO capabilities in no time. The technological barriers were almost removed, so that people who know only basic computing (in most cases, having worked with Word is enough) are more than capable in reaching impressive results while using automated, simple tools. Commonly, the process includes picking up a starting layout or template, customizing it and inserting content – all done using a simple interface – so that anyone can open a website – we wouldn't risk using a cliché if it weren't true.
Like most products created for mass consumption, different audiences and groups have utterly different needs and requirements. When speaking of free website building, these differences emerge in an apparent manner. Examples of such differences you may find while comparing a person to a business, comparing a wealthy company to an independent worker, comparing a knowledgeable tech-guru to someone who's making his first steps in computing, and many more.
Building a website for free is not necessarily suited for everyone, when businesses are the specific target audience for which the differences are critical – a person would not be financially affected, if his blog went offline for several hours, but for a company, even minutes can render critical.

Free Website Building – Pros and Cons

The main advantage of free systems is, obviously, the price-tag. If cost is critical and the builder has limited financial resources devoted to maintaining a website, there's only so much you can do to beat “free”. All the same, one must remember that in most cases, the companies that run the free service have a financial interest – making money, simply put. If selling the product is not the source of income, one is advised to investigate what is.
In most cases, we will be facing commercials. It is a widely spread concept in systems and programs that offer a free service, and it provides the basic source of income to the company that supports the system. The meaning is that while opening up a website, you sometimes agree to place advertisements in your website. Sometimes it's tolerable, but for a business, this could mean financial losses.
In addition, most free products are offered as-is, with no guarantees, service or insurance. Therefore, if the website goes offline or gets damaged in any way – no monetary agreement would often mean that you are not entitled for any service or assistance.
In many other cases – the system itself would be limited, in comparison to the paid product. Examples contain, but not restricted to: lack of features, lack of abilities to attach a domain, the impossibility of opening up a mailbox and more. A person, who considers trusting his business with such company, should go over the terms of service and determine, if a missing feature will not be required in the future. This could lead to additional charges and payment requests for enabling the specific feature to use, or being forced to move the website to a different company – which is rarely simple.

Free Website Building – Response to Business Owners

For business owners, big and small, the set of considerations is different from the one that a private person might care about. As the success of a business heavily relies on the quality of a website, the looks of it, its location in search engine result pages and its technical proficiency – cheap may cost you dearly.
An important consideration business owners are required to think about is the ability to get service and support. For a company that runs a website building service, customer support requires financial resources. Thus, companies who offer free services rarely offer support and assistance, that may render critical for business owners. Who shall you talk to, if the website goes offline? Who can answer your technical questions? Is there a person to talk to, or is it just a form to fill out and hope for a reply? Are there specific departments that attend different inquiries – such as support, customer service, development and more?
In addition to the aforementioned, free services often restrict owners of features that might be critical for a business. Such features might include the impossibility to design (and then the owner is asked to pay significantly for the ability to implement a professional design), the inability to attach a domain, lack of access to SEO-related tools and many more. It is not so bad that a personal blog or a professional portfolio does not rank high in search results, but a business that fails to appear high enough in the search results, basically does not exist.

Free Website Building – Free, Opposed to Trial

With the technological progress, companies started offering a mediatory service – the one that takes the best from both ends. Such services offer something that's called “free trial”, and they are basically at the peak of the technological progression.
This approach dictates that the service itself will remain paid for – an advantage for business owners and private customers that seek the stability of a paid service – while getting the chance of experimenting for free.
What is it good for?
Well, for starters, you don't pay for a pig in a poke. Companies that offer you a timed trial actually provide you with the complete product, but for a limited period of time. This approach allows the customer to experience the product, get to know it, learn it and only pay if the product fulfills their needs. Most systems, including “open source” ones, do not allow you to test out the product de facto without opening up your wallet first – a situation that leads to hardships as the website owner can't get used to the content management system that he already invested money in.
Furthermore, trial-based systems allow you to get working during the trial period. If you are capable of comprehending the intricacies in a swift manner and you have made the decision to work with that particular system, you do not have to wait until the trial expires in order to start building the website. In most cases, you can have a complete and functional website even before you are required to pay for it.

Free Website Building – What Shall You Choose?

In many areas, the cost is one of the signs of quality. When discussing the world of the Internet, the price ranges vary – but there is a consensus that a free product will often be inferior to products that cost money.
For a business, payment is often a guarantee of safety – from the moment that a financial agreement is concluded, the business is obligated to provide a quality product and the customer is obligated to pay for it. When a product is offered for free, no guarantee can be made regarding its quality and the quality of the service for it. Thus, for a business, the recommendation is to put the website building aspect within the budget and pay for it – a good company will provide you a product that will return the investment made into it.
If you choose a free product to represent a business, you should at least carefully examine the fine-print: consider what will be missing, what is impossible, what requires payment and what limitations are there. Fixing damages will cost you more than purchasing a quality solution in the first place...