Free Web Sites Guide

Free Web Sites / Free Hosting

If you're just starting out maybe you'd like to start with a free site to see if site building is for you. Perhaps you don't have the money to invest in something you're unsure of, maybe you're group or organization does not have the budget for a web site. There can be lots of reasons for not buying a domain and subscribing to a web host. For those that fit into this category there's free web sites available with free hosting that don't cost a dime.

Don't confuse a free web site with free hosting, there is a big difference and I would recommend a free site over free hosting because of the reliability factor. Free hosting can be OK if you find the right host, but many free hosts have poor uptime and very crowded servers, making for very slow page loads. Free websites with free sitebuilders are much more reliable.

I've compiled a list of free websites / free site builders, with a descending order of my most recommended to least.

Top Picks

wordpress.com
Free hosted Wordpress

weebly.com
500mb storage space, unlimited pages.

zoho.com
Unlimited pages.

doodlekit.com
100mb storage.

blogger.com
Google blog / web site

2nd Picks

bravenet.com
Cool web tools

hubpages.com
Formerly Squidoo

moonfruit.com
Free and paid options

wix.com
Nice templates

yola.com
1gb storage

Social Media

I'm not a big fan of the whole social thing but they definitely serve a role in site building and promoting dot com sites.

facebook.com

twitter.com

tumblr.com

Free sites can be used in different ways, I like to use them for link building to my main dot com sites. The experts say just publishing a free site and linking to your main site will have no SEO value unless you promote the free site as well. Personally I think you can build your own 'link farm' using dot coms and free sites all linking to each other and I'd guess it has to help in promoting all of the sites involved.

A free site can also be a fun, no pressure way of starting out on the web. I would highly recommend a free site to anyone contemplating a web site but don't want to make any kind of commitment. If I were in that position I would choose wordpress.com. Originally designed as a blog platform, it's much more than that now. They are huge, have millions of users, have lots of plugins and are very stable. What many fear in using a free site is that the site will shut down leaving them to have to create their site somewhere else. Although there are no guarantees, I'd guess wordpress.com will be around for a long time to come. There are lots of choices but that's my top pick.

Last updated 3-11-16