Free website question

Answer above covers it really. The Wix, 1&1 and such products all make their money on the monthly fees and add ons and, in my experinece, you end up paying more in the long run for a worse result that something that is professionally done.

Wordpress.com will let you set up something basic in a similar way to Wix for free but you do have adds and, again, there are charges for certain add ons. tumblr.com is another free online option though its more 'blog' based.

Smb3088 wrote: »

Is wix free though after the set up ? Or do they start to charge..

Wordpress is more of a blogging sight.
I’m wanting to offer yoga Pilates , personal training and home sitting style business...

What website would you recommend, low cost and easy to maintain?

Err, no. Wordpress is one of the most widely used content management systems used today. Although it does have its own website, Wordpress is nothing like Wix. People have used it for blogging (as with pretty much every CMS out there) but it is far more then that.

Wix is free to start up and you get own own domain name - and the free version will likely have adverts for Wix in various places. Its a live advert for them, essentially.

Something like a Wix could well do the job for you. But as with anything that is free, there are trade offs. It will lack customisation tools, you will have a domain name which will probably include the name 'Wix' and therefore people will be less likely to find it on a search engine, remember it, and it will look unprofessional.

As for what I would suggest, it is at this point I will say you need to do your research. but before any of that - you need to decide what you want from the website - this should drive your choice of host and platform. It is one of the most annoying things as a web developer I have - people want a website but dont stop to think about what they want from it, and therefore dont get the result they want.

Professional developer here. Stumbled across your thread so thought i'd stick my ore in. I tend to work on more complex projects but often get enquiries for this kind of thing. Here's the advice i'd normally give people.

Totally free website builders are useless. They won't look professional, and you'll quickly hit some kind of limitation that will require you to pay to upgrade. Oh and you will be stuck with an ugly domain name as they don't give free domain registration.

If you just want a standard website (homepage, gallery, contact form, e.c.t) go with Wix. There was a time is was horrible, but actually I recommend it to everyone these days. The designs are nice, clean and professional.

If you want to sell and take payments on your site then you need an e-commerce platform. Here be dragons. Don't mess around with this one, go with a well known provider. Squarespace is my recommendation.

DIY/Wordpress ? Honestly don't bother.

The thing is about all of these options, is they are a small piece of the puzzle. A website alone won't help you. You need to drive traffic towards it. Businesses spend thousands every week doing just that either by advertising or for SEO work.

If i'm sticking my ore in, here's some business advice. Forget the website, focus on your product. If you need to be able to sell online register with Etsy or whoever. Otherwise setup a Facebook Business Page. You get instant access to a large audience for free. Focus on the important things, a website won't make you money.

angelicajames wrote: »

If your niche is related to Yoga I would suggest going with Yola is a better option as mentioned above WordPress most widely used content management systems etc Almost 30% of websites built on Wordpress. Make a free website builder with free hosting and a free website address.

English lessons are also widely available on all platforms.

Yola and Yoga have absolutely no link whatsoever, so I am unsure of the recommendation rationale here.

I would highly recommend not using a free website address. The idea is for people to find your website, if your website address is some long elongated name such as yola,com/name/name/name.html - nobody is going to find your site. Also domain names are really cheap unless you are going for something very mainstream - you are talking maybe £4,5,6,7 a year in some instances. If your company cannot afford that then you might aswell give up from the start to be honest.

Agree with everyone else saying don't go with a free option. If you're serious about your business, invest a little bit of money in it. A domain name only costs about £10 a year, and web hosting will only be a few quid a month. It'll pay for itself in no time compared to whatever you'll come up with from a free website builder.