Website Creators Which Host For Free

'The best things in life are free' goes the old adage: but we all know that's not true for everything. But if you can get reliable hosting for free, why wouldn't you take advantage of it? Hosting a website can cost a good chunk of change on an annual basis, and this is especially true if it's a big website with a lot of traffic. So why pay a hosting provider to run servers, data security, and development when a great free website creator would be willing to cover the costs themselves?

As a qualifier, most free website hosting is attained on a 'freemium' basis: that means that the builders make their money when individuals pay to upgrade to premium services. So do your research and discover what's available on a free plan before committing: there's nothing more frustrating than getting a free service that you think will cover all the bases… just to have to turn around a short bit later that you'll need to pay because you're exceeding bandwidth or traffic limits.

The website builders listed below WILL give you a deep, fully functional website for free. Better yet? There's no 'trial version' limits.

WIX

No bones about it, next to Word press, Wix is one of the most popular website builders out there. And unlike many other website builders, the Wix platform specializes in helping you build a website which is friendly to search engines, and might just help you get a leg up on SEO. Wix is easy to use, featuring the new standard in website builders: drag and drop editors. It has a vast library of free themes and templates for websites, and it's not too difficult to find one that looks stellar for whatever your website's niche happens to be. Free websites are limited to 500 megabytes of storage and 1 gigabyte of bandwidth, but come with Google analytics built-in and amazing website support. The downside? Your website will feature advertisements from the builder.

WEBSITE BUILDER

Website Builder is an up-and-comer in the market which is gaining a lot of significant traction, in part because they're rather less intrusive than Wix. Like most other website builders, they offer a lot of stellar themes and templates with an easy drag and drop builder, negating any need to know a stitch of code before launching your website. Free websites will feature ads, but they're subdued and always in the footer.

SITEY

Sitey is another free website builder which hosts your site for free. On the free plan, you get 50 megabytes of storage: which is relatively small, all things considered, so this wouldn't be the best option for image-heavy sites or stores. And there's a file upload cap: 5 megabytes. But you get a free mobile version of your site automatically, and access to a large image gallery to help you fill your website. Bandwidth is capped at 1 gig, but social media is easy and quick to integrate. Like the two website builders above, free websites will feature some ads.

WEEBLY

Weebly is a great free website builder, and has been around long enough to corner a significant market share. Its free plan offers a great deal of options without limitation (goodbye bandwidth caps!) and doesn't cap your number of website pages. And unlike other options, some of which charge to integrate a shopping cart, Weebly just charges a small percentage of every transaction.

JIMDO

Jimdo is a dark horse in the website builder category, only recently starting to gain traction. Rather than providing a mobile version, all of its templates and themes are entirely responsive. With Jimdo's free website, you can get up to 500 megabytes of storage for free, and can upload up to 5 products in a shop without having fees on any transactions. Great for portfolio websites and larger online stores.

WEBSTARTS

Like Jimdo, Webstarts is another lesser-known website builder. It's free, but offers the least amount of pages and server perks: free websites can only have 5 pages, 10 megabytes of storage, and a paradoxical 5 gigs of bandwidth. But it's clear they're intending to get more market share: they've recently released more themes and templates, and as their market share grows you're likely to expect more improvements to their service.