This is my complete guide on how the create a website for free in 2021. I hope you find it useful, but over this post and the next, I am going to show you possibly the easiest and quickest way to get a basic website up and running for free.
However, personally, I feel you should have a paid website service, for reasons I will explain shortly.
All will become a little clearer as you progress through this post. I just want you to be well informed and armed with the knowledge, that you can confidently go and set up your own basic website should you need to.
You can have a paid website up and running for as little as $5 per month. But if finances are tight then this is in my opinion the best and certainly an easy option for you.
What’s more, you will get some basic training completely free included with your free site… bonus!
What it takes to create a website
The best way to create a website is to get someone else to do it… …Simple right! Not quite.
With anything new, there is a learning curve, and I intend to try and make things as easy as possible for you. I am presuming you have little to zero knowledge on this subject, which is why I feel this post is so important for you.
Firstly, let me explain a few things to help you understand things a little better.
In the early days, websites had to be coded by developers using a programming language called HTML which still forms the backbone of the websites of today. There are other programming languages such as PHP, Jarva Script…. you get the picture. You probably needed some kind of science degree at the time.
Don’t panic!!!! I’m not going to be teaching you anything like this. It’s way past my abilities. Luckily, technology has moved on considerably now, making creating a website a lot easier. The actual code is created for you using some very clever software, again totally free.
Now when I say ‘How to create a website for free’ I need to be clear about one thing. When I say create a website, there is more to it, than just pushing a few buttons and ‘Hey Presto!’ your beautifully crafted website pops ups and everything looks wonderful.
No…. this happens when you get someone else to do all the work for you. Which would cost you a small fortune I imagine.
There a few things to consider when creating your website:
- Domain name:-
You can read more about what a domain is and tips on how to choose your perfect name here. It’s not crucial to you creating this free website though. But think about the name. - Hosting:-
All websites need hosting. It is where your website lives or a computer server where the website is stored. Your virtual home and your domain is your virtual address that connects to your hosting so that people can find your website. - Platform:-
What software is used to create your website - Design:-
This is a completely separate process. This is probably the hardest bit to get your head around and I have no idea what your creative abilities are at this stage, but I have posts that can help you more.
The design is the general style and appearance of your site. It involves such things as images, colours, layout, and typography (Fonts)
The best way to create a website
There are numerous ways to create an effective website for free with such platforms as Weebly, Wix, and Squarespace. However, I strongly suggest that you don’t use these platforms for reasons I will outline shortly.
The best platform to create your free website is WordPress because of its flexible and intuitive add-on capability.
WordPress is a free open source CMS (Content Management System). Open source means it’s free of use software that is made freely available which can be redistributed and modified. It is a platform that is continually updated by a global community that you can freely use to build and maintain a website with no knowledge of coding.
These add-ons are known as plugins that allow you to expand the functionality of your website. SEO tools, Contact Forms, Image Galleries, Security features and Shopping Carts. It also uses a template system known as themes, which can be customized in a variety of ways allowing you to create a more bespoke looking website.
Why paid websites are better than free websites
The platforms above all have both free and paid options. You have to understand that a free website is free for a reason. You will have limited capabilities, probably very little support from the provider’s technical team.
They work on the hope that you will at some point upgrade, but before you know it, you are paying for every special feature that you can think of. All of a sudden things have started to get expensive!!!
When I said a paid website service at the beginning of this post – I was really talking about the hosting of your website. Without a good website service provider, your website wouldn’t exist. You must have a good support team to help you along the way.
Over the years, I have found this out a few times with different providers I have used over the years. It makes issues for you a lot harder to resolve when they arise. If you can pay for some basic hosting – then do it, again I have gone into more depth in another post about this.
Weebly v’s Wix v’s WordPress
Before I explain I have used all three. They all have their place and are very good systems. Both Weebly and Wix are website builder platforms, both have a drag and drop style dashboard, the dashboard being the backend of the website that allows you to place elements on your page.
The websites you create in both Weebly or Wix are self-hosted within the platform itself on their own dedicated servers, so it’s something less to think about.
They both include Apps that can be added to your site to enhance the user experience.
However, there is a major issue that I feel you need to consider with these two platforms which are their inability to be transferred to another hosting provider. This means once you create your website on either of these two platforms you are stuck with them. Let me stress that again… stuck with them.
So if both companies decided to shut down so would your website. So make sure you have some kind of backup of your site. You may find another provider to host it. But I can almost guarantee a whole heap of trouble.
The WordPress platform on the other hand has probably been used to create more websites on the entire planet. It is estimated 455 million websites have been built with WordPress. Wow, that’s a lot of websites!
That is approximately a 35% market share of the whole world wide web at this current time and it’s still growing. Some of the biggest brands on the planet use WordPress as their site platform. There are some big names, so if it’s good enough for them, it’s good enough for you!
Another more solid reason why WordPress is the better option, you can move a WordPress website to another hosting provider relatively easily. The majority of hosting companies will already have a designated server for hosting WordPress websites.
Just a note: I recently moved a website I created for a client to a new provider and the new hosting company even did it for me. Bonus!
With a WordPress site, there is one thing you have more of, ‘CONTROL’ which is what you need in today’s online world.
WordPress also has literally thousands of free templates known as themes that can be used for your website. You can also buy themes for as little as $50 that has more functionality for your website. The list is pretty endless.
The system I am going to show you uses the WordPress platform, there will be some things that are not available to you, but will be if you have a paid account. This is really to help you understand how the site is performing, but the whole reason for this post is to create a website for free, which will be 100%. It will be a fully functional site for you to edit as you please.
So on to the main reason why you are here – let’s get to it and create your website. It’s linked to my number 1 recommended way to get started online.
You can read more here if you want more information
But what I will be showing you is completely free.
>>>> Click Here <<<<
and we’ll get started.