Advice on creating a FREE website

Jonno71

Hi everyone

Firstly, apologise if this is in the wrong area.

I could do with some sound advice on starting a free website. I have heard that there are those out there, but if anyone has any sound suggestions, that would be great as I'm new to this and not sure what is out there.

What I am looking for is something that is customisable. Has a gallery section (I already have the option to buy the domain name). A site I can attach a forum too (I already have a forum up and running) and option to add items for sale.

Any advice would be most welcome.

facelikebambi

Hi

Wordpress.com is probably the most popular free service, but not sure it will provide a forum or e-commerce. Drupalgardens.com is also worth a look - probably a bit more flexible. Both services offer a free, hosted site and you can use your own domain name for a very small free.

Considering the functionality you are after, I'd probably advise spending £5 a month on a hosting package that enables you to install Wordpress or Drupal out-of-the-box. Then you can expand these free content management systems to do whatever you need (social sites, forums, ecommerce, galleries). This has a bit more of a learning curve, of course.

A lot of hosts (e.g. 1&1) offer their own 'site builder' tools but they are usually very limited.

Jason

fwor

You could also take a look at Moonfruit - a family member has theirs set up there, forwarding their own domain to it so that it doesn't have moonfruit in the name.

It has most of the features you need, but beware, you only have limited space before you have to migrate up to one of their paid packages.