4 Best Free Website Building Platforms : Which Is The Best For You
In this article you will come to know about free website building platforms.
Before going for any of these free platforms it is important for you to know that self hosted WordPress.Org is the best for making any website.
I don’t know why many bloggers make a list of free blogging platforms but never include WordPress.Org in it.
The fact is that the best free platform or software for making any website is WordPress.Org and you should definitely put WordPress above anything else.
So before introducing any free platforms I would like to tell you the limitations that you have to face with these platforms :
Limitations of free website building platforms :
Here are some points that you should keep in mind before going for free platforms.
1) Free is not actually free :
You get very basic features with free plans and generally you have to upgrade to paid plans to unlock useful features.
For example :
With Weebly website builder free plan you have to tolerate ads on your website and to remove ads you will have to upgrade to the paid plans.
2) You don’t own the content completely :
For many reasons your content can be blocked or removed on free platforms.
You might see many Ads around your free content that will not give you any benefits at all still you will have to tolerate the ads. Why ? Because the “Free Platform” is not yours.
On the other hand if you go for self hosted WordPress then you have all controls.
Better you read this article as well to know more about the difference between WordPress.Org and WordPress.com.
3) Limitations with features :
Where using WordPress.Org you get freedom to use your favorite plugins and themes. On the other hand with free platforms you get limited themes and restrictions on plugins.
Moreover to get all the useful features you will have to upgrade to costly plans.
4) No monetization :
Where free platforms give you the chance to save money while starting up but as you grow you will miss out on many monetization opportunities.
As we all want to earn money while growing a website but it becomes difficult to earn money with free platforms.
You need a self hosted WordPress website to get the most out of monetization opportunities.
5) Your domain is not branded :
You get domain name like your-business.blog-spot.com. So it will tell the visitors that the website is not self hosted but it is hosted on a platform actually.
Whereas with a self hosted WordPress.Org you get a domain like your-business.com which shows that you are the owner of your domain. It is more professional as you own your domain and it is not depended on a platform.
I heavily suggest to go for self hosted WordPress.Org instead of going for free platforms but if you still want to go for free platforms then here is the list.
Read the list till the end the last one is a gem.
Free web hosting platforms which might not be fully free : 🙂
As you have seen the limitations with the free website building platforms these are not fully free. There are some free plans and some paid plans and accordingly you get the features.
All in all free website platforms can be great for a static website as well and for many people it might work also.
Many times you don’t want to grow your website and if you don’t want to spend after web hosting then also free platforms might become useful.
Apart from all this I would still recommend WordPress.Org because domain and hosting has become so much cheap these days but here is the list of “Free Website Building Platforms”.
1) Weebly Website Builder :
Weebly is a well known website builder with superb features.
Weebly website builder has free and paid plans. So using free plans you can just start your website.
As mentioned earlier with free plans you don’t get all the great features.
Some great things with Weebly (affiliate link) are its Digital marketing and Social media marketing features.
Plus a time saving drag & drop website builder will get your website prepared in few clicks.
To remove the Ads from your site you will have to upgrade to the Weebly Pro plan which is a paid plan.
If you are planning for a small E commerce website then Weebly can be a great option for you.
But if you think your website will grow in future and you require more space then going for free WordPress.Org is the best way.
So all in all for E Commerce websites you may want to start with Weebly. Additionally you can write blogs as well with Weebly.
All technical and security related stuff are taken care of by Weebly itself. So all in you get value for what you pay to Weebly.
2) WordPress.com :
First of all it is very important to know the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.Org.
In many ways WordPress.Org is better than other free or paid platforms.
Talking about WordPress.com many beginners start with WordPress.com and then move to WordPress.Org.
WordPress.com offers you many plans and they give free plan as well.
There are limitations with free plan. To remove ads and to use all the features you will need to upgrade to paid plans.
Features are great but definitely you will need to pay for it.
3) Blogger.com or BlogSpot :
BlogSpot or Blogger.com is a free platform that many people start their online journey with.
The advantage with blogger is that you can earn some money from Google Ads but there is nothing more than this.
You get good templates and some nice designs to make your blog attractive.
Many people start with Blogger.com thinking that when they grow their website they will move on to WordPress but letting you know migrating to WordPress from Blogger is very difficult.
Obviously migrating to WordPress is definitely not impossible but why to face the headache when you have cheapest web hosts.
The best thing to do these days is to get a cheap domain and hosting and start with self hosted WordPress.Org.
All in all Blogger is good but there are a lot of limitations. After growing your blogs you will look for more option to monetize and at that time you will miss WordPress.Org for sure.
4) 000webhost : It’s a gem. Don’t miss out on it.
000webhost is the best amongst all free platforms. Basically 000webhost is an effort to introduce Hostinger web hosting as well along with free web hosting.
000webhost has been powered by Hostinger (affiliate link) which is a champion in providing web hosting in cheaper rate.
With free 000webhost you get limited features of paid Hostinger web hosting.
You get features like 300 MB of disk space and 3 GB of bandwidth with free 000webhost. So it can be a good start for you as a beginner.
000webhost also offers Zyro website builder but I would suggest to go with WordPress installation from cPanel.
If you go with WordPress installation in 000webhost then in future if you want to move to higher plans or other web host then it will be easy for you to carry out that migration.
Zyro website builder is also good but as we know website builders are more useful for smaller and static websites.
Conclusion :
So concluding this article I would say free platforms are good if you have plenty of time to waste.
On the other hand self hosted WordPress is something that you will eventually like to go for so why not begin with WordPress.Org only !!
Always remember you get more freedom and power when you are with WordPress.Org.
Secondly free platform is not always free. You have to pay for quality features and extra freedom. So always think twice before going for free platforms.
Moreover WordPress.Org or WordPress CMS is also for free. It is just that you have to pay for Domain name and Hosting. The Domain and hosting that you are paying for also belongs to you only. That is why we call it self hosted WordPress website.
In the end we need more free platforms like 000webhost so that when people grow their websites it can be easier for them to migrate from free platforms to the ultimate destination which is WordPress.Org.
Weebly (affiliate link) and other website builders are also great in their way for smaller and static websites but WordPress.Org should always be in your mind before going for other options.
So compare wisely between free platforms and self hosted WordPress.Org.
I hope this article will be helpful.
Other useful articles :
8 Legit Ways To Make Money Online.
10 Best Email Marketing Services.
Top 8 Best Performing Affordable Shared Hosting Plans with free domains.
