There is an awful lot of free web development software and even complete website services – Google’s Sites and Weebly are just two examples of essentially free blog and website creation+operation services that are available today. How do these free services make money? Well in the case of Google and Microsoft it is online ads and downstream services. Others like Weebly and WordPress make money on the upgrades to premium Website services. But whatever the motive, developers and end users have substantial blog and Website services available for free.
This means end-users and developers themselves are able to pitch their services on the Web with their own personal blog or website for minimal out of pocket costs. Of course these out of pocket costs are such things as the domain name[ like JavaScriptures.wordpress.com – try it as an example of a nearly free website which uses a free Web Blog] and online storage and broadband hosting services which deliver your website pages to users – all of this is to be had for a grand total cost of $0.0. Yes, that is zero dollars and zero cents.
But as always, nothing is absolutely free.First, there is the website design and development time. Either you or a third party have to design the website. Then either you or a Web Developer implements the systems. But as you see in the screenshot above, most of the top website creation systems have great tools both design templates plus fast and powerful designers so it is possible for the absolutely new beginner to develop a website that not only looks good but also performs well for most of the tasks intended for normal website usage.
Even better, many of these tools are easy to remember how to operate – one can do it yourself editing content and adding new pages, galleries plus stories/posts. So again, “nearly free” website developers can lower their costs by doing their own operations including updates and new material. However, there are some costs associated with operating a “nearly free” website. Some services insert ads into your website[usually on the footer]. Others charge for additional storage space beyond a set limit so if the total disk space required for your pages, images, and video go over a limit – sometimes as low as 100Mb you get charged for the extra space. Likewise if your site becomes so popular that that downloads go over another limit, the amount of downloading your site is allowed for free, you also can get charged.
Nearly Free Website Services
After consulting with some web colleagues plus a careful Google tour has uncovered some of the more promising Nearly Free Website services. Now all of the Free Website Service provide free Design and Development Services. On the operations side, the free quickly changes to to nearly or not so free. Doteasy is an example – 100MB of diskspace, 1GB of free data transfers per month, but web host or domain name costs $7.
So there are dozens of free services, but look for 300MB of free space or more, no banner ads, 2GB or more of free data transfers per month and very good web site creation, design, and building tools. There are also a number of very good free blogging services. They are of particular interest because Blogs provide good design templates plus the ability to create individual webpages linked by sophisticated pulldown menus. In sum, free blogs can also easily create integrated, professional looking websites as well. Thus the table below lists in alphabetical order some of the better “Nearly Free” Web and Blog Services with their strengths and weaknesses. Here is what is common to all of these top-notch Blog and/or Website creation services:
1)The website domain name and bandwidth for the site is free;
2)The storage space to 2GB [and often more] is free;
3)The website creation software and templates are free and are uniformly good if not first rate;
4)The page and/or post editing software is also top-notch; most offer either visual or HTML edit [and some both];
5)Users can add and edit the images and style of the websites to their hearts content;
6)There are widgets and menus to give the site a pro-look and feel;
7)There a slew of unique extra features that we try to highlight in the table below:
| Vendor | Strengths | Weaknesses |
| Google Blogger Example Site |
100s of designs or import blog HTML and Visual editors Multi-users, multi-sites Unlimited storage and |
awkward editing and widget susage simple tracking services blogger ads in footer |
| Google Sites Example Site |
groups – multi-user, multi-sites link to Google Apps and Docs 3 dozen complete design templates 10GB storage, unlimited bandwidth |
crude design and edit tools footer ads for Google Sites variable response time hard to get pro styling |
| Microsoft Web Matrix Example Site |
Large set of design creation options Sophisticated Visual Studio editor Database and media tools |
Big learning curve Lots of bugs on load Hosting services costs Proprietary tools, services |
| SquareSpace Example Site |
Powerful Design/Layout editor Very good page/post editor Blog stats and blog import tools |
Hosting services costs Small set of plugins, templates |
| Typepad Example Site |
dozens of widgets and good stats Visual+HTML edits Strong set of smartphone features |
Some confusing edits Free Micro Blogs are very limited Few design themes before upgrade |
| Weebly Example site |
Good site designer Very easy + powerful editor unlimited pages and blogs allowed unlimited storage and data transfers |
Small set of design themes Mixed editor response time Small set of blog features |
| Wix Example Site |
Flash based Very strong Designer Very strong editor Multiple sites easily created |
Mixed response time Flash still NA on iPad, etc Ads embedded on free |
| WordPress Example Site |
Good set of Design options Great editor for pages & posts Multi-sites, multi-users Lots of unique extras Designs easily exported to full WP |
Missing plugins, CSS, JavaScript support Expensive premium features Ads for WordPress on footer |
As you can see the blog services are quite robust and have the fewest costs associated with them. All of the blog services are able to create either blog posts or Web pages linked to pulldown menus. So it is easy to create professionally styled websites which have a blog forum as a bonus. All of the tools provide robust and easy to use page/posting editors often with HTML edit capabilities. But the real change is that several of the services have made their free hosting option quite limited. SquareSpace and Microsoft Web Matrix openly charge for their web hosting – at fairly dear rates. Likewise Typad’s free hosting services are limited and WordPress is starting to move in the Typepad direction – with fairly expensive monthly charges for domain name $12-17/yr, CSS – $15/yr, ad free site at $30/yr or more storage space beyond the default 3GB is $20/year for 5GB of additional storage
After trying all 8 of these website services three stand out. From the Blog side WordPress and Google Blogger offer good design choices, solid editors, and a raft of “extra ” services that all the other blogs and website services come up short in 2 or 3 cases. From the Website services side Weebly has the best combination of design creation capabilities with some wonderful blog post and page design+editing capabilities. Beginning users will find Weebly very approachable while at the same time capable of delivering very well styled blogs and websites. The screenshot at the top of the page is an example of Weebly in action. So follow our individual reviews of the top 3 Nearly Free Website and Blogs available on the Web:
Google Blogger – for the unlimited storage and great set of services;
Weebly -for the many design and editing options
WordPress- for a top set of features including imports or exports to so many other blogs
Read these reviews, view the powerpoint above and decide for yourself which Blog or Web site service meets your needs most closely.