5 Things to Consider Before Accepting a Free Website

There are some cases where websites are offered for free, usually by a friend, a friend of a friend or a website company offering a special promotion. It’s certainly an attractive cost-saving offer to consider. However, as with most things in life, free things usually come with a price and websites are no exception.

If you are offered a free website, here is a list of considerations before you accept.

1. Timescales

How quickly do you need your website to be live? Can you make demands on the time of the web designer building your website? If your web designer has offered their services for free make sure you have a contract which specifies timescales. If you have no contract in place you could be waiting til the cows come home before your website is ready. If you are prepared to wait then fine but make sure you work out the cost this will have on your business and whether you can afford to be at the mercy of someone else’s work schedule.

2. Making Changes

Are you able to make changes to your website in future? Have you been offered a content management system so you can make your own changes or are you relying on a web designer to make the changes for you? Make sure you establish what happens if you need to make updates to the website once it has been launched. It is unlikely that your web designer will offer a free website and free updates as and when so find out how much these changes will cost – or whether they are prepared to do them. Ensure that you can work with your web designer to carry out the changes within a specific time frame. One of the most common complaints from clients who have received free websites is that they can’t make any changes to their site. There is nothing more frustrating for visitors, customers or potential clients to visit a website with out of date content. Make sure you aren’t going to fall victim to out of date content on your free website.

3. The Web Designer

Have you researched the web designer or web design company who is offering to give you a free website? What is the standard of their work? Have you seen a portfolio of previous websites designed? This is important as there is no point accepting a free website if the work is shoddy. Bad design is bad for business. It’s unlikely that a free website is going to have the time, consideration and effort put into it that a paid website will have. How can this person offer services for free? Are there any other hidden charges, not necessarily up front but further down the line?

There is usually a reason why people offer their services for free and more often than not, it’s quality that suffers. Be wary of trusting your business image and online identity with someone who indicates they can afford to give away work for free.

4. Hosting

Do you know where the website will be hosted? Do you have access to the website files on the server? Some web designers offer hosting as part of their web design services. This means that your website will be hosted on their server or by a third party. Make sure you understand where your website is hosted and whether you have the right to transfer the website to another server if you need to in the future. Also find out if there are any future hosting costs. Hosting is normally paid monthly or annually so find out how much you will be charged for this in future.

5. Ownership

Who owns the website once it’s completed – or even half finished? If you haven’t paid a penny for the website then don’t be surprised that you don’t own it. Most paid websites and quality web designers will offer you a contract at the beginning of the project which will specify ownership of the website. This is important especially for future changes – making updates to the site, transfering the website to another hosting company or changing your web designer or company. If you don’t own your own website you could end up losing it, for example, if your web designer goes bust, quits or sets off for months on their travels. You need control over your own website to protect and develop your business. Unless you have a contract in place it’s very unlikely that you will have many rights particularly if no money has exchanged hands.

These are just a few of the dangers to watch out for when you think about accepting the offer of a free website. Whilst it can be cost saving initially, in the long term you need to consider what the cost is to your business. When you’ve waited months to get your site, you can’t make changes to it, you don’t own it and it looks like a design put together with last century’s design skills, you may be counting the cost of your ‘free’ website.

With something as important as your business website, you have to know who to trust. Like most things in life, parting with money for quality and service is usually an investment worth paying for.

Blog post by: Jinny Ursell, Jin Designs

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