A free business website is a real thing. Several of the big website builders offer a plan that costs £0, forever, and for a specific kind of business it’s genuinely the right call. But “free” is doing a lot of work in that sentence, and if you’re weighing one up for your business, you deserve the full bill before you commit. So here it is: what free actually includes, what it quietly costs, and the honest cases where you should take it anyway.
What a free business website actually gets you
A free website plan is the builder’s entry tier: a template, a visual editor, hosting on their servers, and a live site at no monetary cost. That much is real. What defines the free tier is what rides along with it:
- Their branding on your site. A banner or footer telling your customers this site was made free with the builder’s product.
- Their adverts, on some platforms, placed on your pages for their benefit, not yours.
- A subdomain address like
yourbusiness.wixsite.comoryourbusiness.wordpress.com, instead ofyourbusiness.co.uk. - Locked features. Connecting your own domain, removing adverts, taking payments and most business-grade features live behind the paid upgrade, which is the entire commercial point of the free tier.
None of this is a scam. It’s a free sample, working exactly as designed. The question is what it costs you to run a business on a free sample.
The real bill for a “free” website
The costs in pounds
You’ll still need a domain name, typically around £10 to £15 a year for a .co.uk, because asking customers to visit a subdomain address undermines the trust a website exists to build. Print it on a van or an invoice and see how it feels. Many businesses then discover they need the very things the free tier locks: their own domain connected, adverts removed, an email address at their domain. At that point they’re on a paid plan anyway, and free was a corridor rather than a destination.
The costs in hours
This is the bigger number and nobody itemises it. You are the designer, the copywriter, the photographer and the person who makes it look right on a phone. Here’s an honest way to size it: jot down your estimate for each job below, using your own speed, then add it up.
| The job | Ask yourself |
|---|---|
| Learning the editor | How long before I can move things without breaking things? |
| Writing the words for 5 pages | When did I last write a page about my business? How long did it take? |
| Finding and sizing images | Do I have decent photos of my work, or does that job start at zero too? |
| Making it work on mobile | Am I checking every page on a phone as well? |
| Every future change, forever | Who updates prices, hours and services next year? |
For most first-timers that adds up to a lot of evenings. Multiply your total by what an hour of your work is worth and you have the true price of the free website. We’ve done a fuller version of this exercise in the DIY versus done-for-you maths, and it changes how most owners see the word “free”.
The costs in impressions
The advert in your footer says “this business chose the £0 option”. Your customers may never consciously read it, but they absorb it, the same way they’d absorb a hand-written sign on a shop door. For some businesses that’s fine. For a business asking strangers to hand over hundreds of pounds on trust, it works against every other signal you’re trying to send.
When a free website is genuinely fine
Take the free option, sincerely, if any of these fit:
- You’re testing an idea. Validating whether anyone wants your product before spending money is exactly what free tiers are for.
- It’s a hobby or side project that might never need to earn money.
- You need a placeholder this week while a proper site is planned, though it’s worth first asking whether you need a website at all yet.
- The alternative is nothing. A free site with your services and phone number beats no web presence. Not close.
The pattern in all four: free suits businesses that aren’t yet asking strangers for meaningful money. The moment real customers judge you by your website, the free tier starts costing more than it saves.
When it’s time to pay, what should you pay?
The step up doesn’t have to be a leap. The honest middle of the market is a paid builder plan plus your continued labour, or a done-for-you service where the work leaves your plate. Our guide to what you get at every website price point walks the whole ladder, and the cheap-versus-trap guide shows what a safe budget option must include.
For scale: MarketingDone4U builds a 5-page website for £99 a month with the copy written for you, hosting, SSL and professional email included, live in 7 working days once we have your completed form, content and access details. It’s a managed service on a minimum 12-month term; we own the site unless you buy it out (buyout available), support is email or ticket, and extras are £50 an hour. Terms in the open, as ever, on our pricing page.
Free versus £99 a month isn’t really a price comparison. It’s your evenings versus your money, with your public image riding on the choice. Pick deliberately, and pick once, because rebuilding later is the most expensive route of all.
Frequently asked questions
Can I really get a free business website?
Yes. Several major website builders offer permanently free plans with a template, an editor and hosting included. The trade-offs are the builder’s branding and adverts on your pages, a subdomain web address rather than your own domain, locked business features, and every hour of building and updating being yours.
What’s the catch with free website builders?
The free tier exists to convert you to a paid plan. Your own domain, advert removal, payments and business email all sit behind the upgrade. Add the builder’s branding on your pages and the hours you’ll spend building it, and free functions as a sample, not a finished business tool.
Do I still need to buy a domain with a free website?
The free plan gives you a subdomain address, such as yourbusiness on the builder’s domain, at no cost. A proper address like yourbusiness.co.uk typically costs around £10 to £15 a year, and on most builders connecting it requires moving onto a paid plan first.
Is a free website OK for a small business?
It’s fine for testing an idea, a hobby project or a short-term placeholder, and it always beats having no website. Once strangers are judging whether to trust you with real money, the builder branding, the subdomain address and the amateur feel start costing more than a modest paid option would.
What should I upgrade to after a free website?
Either a paid builder plan, keeping the work yourself for a modest monthly fee, or a done-for-you service. As a benchmark, MarketingDone4U provides a five-page site with copywriting, hosting, SSL and professional email from £99 a month on a minimum 12-month term, live within 7 working days once we have your details.
Want this done for you? See our web design plans, or compare every service and price in one place.
