Free is a really great word in advertising, isn’t it? It immediately grabs the attention of the reader [ see the image in this post for an example] , promising something for nothing – at the same time blinding them to any pitfalls that may be in the small print of the deal that seems too good to miss!

Right now in the web design and web hosting business, there are plenty of FREE offers scattered about, however, some are more expensive than others and some can become a real nuisance to you and your business further down the line.

So you’re skint or on a super limited budget for your start-up, that’s perfectly fine – but be aware of a couple of pitfalls that you may not have thought about at this point, bearing in mind that you’ve already been blinded by that magical word FREE!

First off – no matter what the blurb says – there WILL be a learning curve, it’s inevitable, you should expect it and allow plenty of time for this education process. Frankly, in many ways it might be beneficial for you to learn how things work ‘under the hood’ of your own website, which could be useful knowledge further down the line.

Free website offerings generally also insist on having their own branding on your website – built by xxx get your free website click here – will probably appear at the bottom of every page, not a problem if you don’t mind your clients knowing that your site is a freebie. Although it could be interpreted by some surfers that you haven’t invested much in your business and are trying to do everything on the cheap!

Extras generally cost extra, depending on the supplier this could range from providing security certificates, adding email addresses, extra hosting plans, and increases in the second year. These bits and pieces can start to add up.

Then there’s the question of support – if you have a problem where do you turn?

Let’s face it there’s only so much a company can strip out of its pricing to offer a FREE or nearly free deal and the cost-cutting ax normally falls on the customer service department. Some of these firms are now working toward offering support exclusively via text or chatbots on their websites. The ultimate cheap solution – get a machine to do it!

Now you’re a new user, so you probably find it hard to explain to another person just what’s gone wrong or what you are trying to sort out – so just take a moment to think about how you might go about explaining that to a chatbot that has a limited number of answers programmed into it! The whole process becomes just another frustration, leading to more wasted time and effort for you.

And when it comes to leaving, some of these firms are not very keen on fond farewells – in fact, many of them seem to delight in making things awkward.

You may be ready to move on, hire a designer to build a bigger and better website for you, BUT now you find that it is almost impossible to move your domain name from the existing supplier, that your content is locked into their system, and is going to take a lot of time and effort to get back and you have a contract that says they own all the content on your website? 

So when the adverts say FREE, they don’t really mean free, as with so many other things the old Latin quote holds true

caveat emptor

The principle that the buyer alone is responsible for checking the quality and suitability of goods before a purchase is made.