Want a website for free? Who doesn’t love FREE STUFF?! Here’s a quick review on three places to build a website for nothing, ideal for tight or non-existing budgets, ranked from best to worst:
IM Creator
Score: 6/10
In short: smooth, slick, quick. I built this in less than two hours:
www.imxprs.com/free/anz/webweaver-design
What I liked: Utterly cool templates to build a very decent-looking site, also the speed with which you can get up and running. Image uploads were seamless, easy and fast. Creating extra pages very straightforward. And at least it resizes for smaller screens (such as your smartphone).
What to watch out for: Your free URL is going to include the username you sign up with, don’t choose something embarrassing or daft if you’re going to use this site for business.
What I didn’t like: Editing text, for some weird reason, caused a lot of flickering and flashing. A bit off-putting.
Wix
Score: 4/10
In short: reasonable design, adequate choice of templates for business websites. It took me an afternoon to do this:
webweaverdesign.wixsite.com/webweaver
What I liked: Wix has this little helper called an ADI to ask you questions, then spits out an almost-ready site for you after only a few minutes. Goes scouring the internet in search of info on your business and adds it in (which you can edit). Who needs to think for themselves?
What to watch out for: Also be aware that your username and URL will work together, so be sensible.
What I didn’t like: the blogging section wasn’t smooth and intuitive. Took me a while to figure out. And oh woe! It doesn’t perform well on smaller screens, eek.
Weebly
Score: 2/10
In short: No. Really. Just no. It took me two afternoons to get this together:
What I liked: Well, I suppose the drag and drop editor is cool. And it’s responsive – resizing decently for smaller screens.
What to watch out for: There seems to be an issue with the kerning of letters on the headings? You might need an extra space between words in the headings to make them legible.
What I didn’t like: I could compose an essay. This is a slow, clunky, frustrating way to build a site. The slow loading of images was possibly the worst.
A few extra hints on how to build a site with a free website builder:
- Go in prepared: Have all your text and images ready before you start.
- Be consistent with your colours: Know the values (hex or rgb) of the colours you want to use.
- ALWAYS choose a platform that looks good on mobile devices, that’s the way things roll now.