Website Building for Small Business Owners
In this era of digitalization, a website plays an important role. It helps establish the online presence specifically of any small business or individual.
Such an individual business owner can use the website to show his or her knowledge on a particular topic. Different businesses, organizations, and people can even use a website to promote their companies and business online.
But the website that such organizations create should have an easy-to-use interface. This means the website should be easy for users to navigate.
Only after this will the users use it in the future. Moreover, it should also have a good design with several customization features. These customization features help the website owners to modify the look of their website.
Modifying the website regularly is important in this dynamic environment.
Due to the dynamic environment, people tend to change their preferences from time to time. So the website owners should also aim to modify their websites regularly. This modification can be in terms of designs, font colour, background colour, features, etc.
All such features on a website are possible only through a website-building platform. So opting for a website-building platform is a crucial task for businesses and individuals. Such a platform helps people create their websites.
There are many free website-building platforms. These platforms provide a free custom domain along with the hosting service to their users. All such services are provided at no cost.
So, the people who are beginning as a Blogger can use such platforms. They can create personal blogs using free website-building platforms. Since these platforms are free, they have fewer features as compared to the paid platforms. But, these features are enough to help you create a website.
Let us have a look at different platforms that can help you to create a website for free. This article will even describe the different features that these free website building platforms provide.
Some of these platforms may even have a paid version. But you can use the free version to create your website.
Create Best Free Website Builder
1. WordPress.com, free website builder for beginners
The people can easily create their free websites on wordpress.com. This software is a free site builder that is owned by Automattic. These people generally include new bloggers, organizations, or reputable brands.
Some of the brands that use wordpress.com to create their websites include Spotify, TIME, and TED.
But the platform is one of the best options for beginners as it makes it easy to create their websites from scratch for private blogs or other purposes on wordpress.com.
One of the best elements of wordpress.com is that it helps the users by providing them with a free website hosting facility.
To begin working on wordpress.com, these users need to create an account. Once the account is created, you can simply follow the installation process. The installation process is a guide that helps you create your website.
You can also design the look of your website on wordpress.com. This is possible due to the hundreds of customizable themes on this platform. These themes are flexible and will help you create a mobile-friendly site as well.
Apart from the different themes, wordpress.com also has a page layout feature. As the name suggests, the page layouts feature allowed users to improve the look and design of their website’s pages.
This feature provides several predesigned layout options for different website pages. The users can use these layout options to create a basic template for their pages.
Hence, it helps people easily create their website and customize the look of their pages. Pages that have the predesigned layout options on wordpress.com are as follows:
- Contact page
- About Us page
- Home page
- Menu page
- Blog page
- Team Page
- Services page
- Portfolio page.
But there can be situations when you do not like these predesigned page layouts.
In such cases, the software also has another alternative. WordPress.com’s free inbuilt tool of the platform called the block editor. This editor helps users customize the look of their predesigned layouts.
Let us understand this with the help of an example.
We assume that you want to use the home page layout feature. The layout has space for a picture. But the photo that you can place here is circular. By using the block editor, you can change the shape of the photo or even add or remove new pictures.
URL structure: a subdomain hosted by wordpress.com.
[Your username].wordpress.com
For example: xyz.wordpress.com
Migration feature: There is scope for migration.
2. Blogger, build a website
Created in 1999, Blogger is another free best website builder. Different people who want to share their knowledge with others through a website can use Blogger. Blogger helps them create a free website with an easy-to-use interface.
Blogger has many easy to use templates. The users can use these templates to enhance the look of their website. These templates offer several background images and flexible layouts to the users.
To further improve the appearance of the website, the users can also change the colour and font of the layouts.
Apart from the design and layout features, Blogger also provides a free subdomain to its users. These users can also earn income by posting different advertisements on websites.
The advertisement element is provided due to the Google Adsense facility of the software. Blogger also helps to create a free website design with certain other features.
These features include:
- A free SSL certificate.
- Ad campaigns
- Google interactions
- A simple text editor.
- Built-in analytics.
In the end, after creating your website you can easily store your content. This content can be different posts, photos, etc. Storing is done on Google for free.
URL structure: [Your username ].blogspot.com
For example: xyz.blogspot.com
Migration feature: There is scope for migration.
3. Jekyll, website builder for free
Jekyll is a free website maker. The software helps to convert raw text into static websites. Users can host this website on different hosting platforms.
This software is also a major element behind all the GitHub pages. This helps the users host their website or content on GitHub pages for free. Besides these, people who do not have any technical knowledge in the field can also use Jekyll to create websites.
This is because the software supports HTML and Markdown for website pages. Markdown is one of the most appropriate choices for creating pages with a simple structure.
Jekyll helps the users to govern the appearance of their web pages through its different layouts. The users can choose from four different layouts.
Layouts include different templates with different fonts and colour backgrounds. The users can choose any layout according to their preferences and requirements.
URL structure:
Sub domain name: www.example.com.
Custom domain name: blog.example.com
Apex domain: example.com
Migration feature: There is scope for migration.
4. Jimdo, online site builder
You can even get your website created on Jimdo. Under its free and paid plans, Jimdo helps users create their web pages. The users can opt for the free plan available of Jimdo to create a website.
The software has different features that help to make the website attractive and easy to navigate. Some of these features include the commenting system, the Google Analytics function, and social bookmarking.
Just like other website builders, Jimdo also has designing features. People without any technical skills can even use these designing options to enhance the look of their web pages.
The platform has some of the best drag-and-drop website builder templates. By using these templates, the users can easily edit or reframe their content accordingly.
These users can also check out the “template filter” option of jimdo. This option helps people to find a template with several features. The newer templates of the software also provide a “suggested layouts” option to the users.
As the name implies, suggested layouts recommends to users a set of predefined layouts. These layouts can help you automatically place your content and elements in different blocks.
Using the suggested layouts option, people can make different types of pages for a website. These pages include the home page, About Us page, services page contact page, and blogs or posts pages.
But there can be situations when the users do not like these predefined layouts. In such cases, they can even create their own layouts. This is because, as the name suggests, suggested layouts are only suggestions.
Users can use these suggestions to help them create a layout. You can easily edit, delete, or add new elements to the predefined layouts placeholder content. This will help you create a personalized website with the perfect pages.
Migration feature: There is scope for migration.
5. Ucraft , make a website for free
Ucraft is yet another free builder. You can create web pages on this platform under its different free and paid plans. The software helps you connect to an existing domain and provides SSL security at no cost.
So, it is one of the best platforms to create a website for free. But the disadvantage of Ucraft is its limited features on the free plan. Users can only create 15 pages with Ucraft’s free plan.
Besides, the disadvantage you craft has special features as well. The designing and layout options will help you modify the appearance of your web pages according to your requirements.
These design options and styles include different fonts, spacing, and colours. Users can also select from a number of templates. The modern and elegant templates help to enhance the look of the websites.
URL structure: customname.ucraft.net
Migration feature: There is no scope for migration.
6. Webstarts
Webstarts is one of the most popular website-building platforms. It has approximately 4 million users and claims to be the top-rated free website builder.
You can create beautiful custom websites on this platform. These websites can help you share information with the public. You can also create an online store or blogging website on Webstarts.
Creating a website on this platform is a very easy task. First of all, you need to choose a design for your website. There are hundreds of design options in the software.
You can even customize these options by using the drag-and-drop editor in Webstarts. After choosing a specific design, you will receive a free custom domain. You are now ready to drive traffic to your website.
Just like other website builders, Webstarts also has different layout options that can help you govern the look of your web pages. Whenever you choose a specific layout, you can even modify it.
To modify it, you need to click on the different objects in the layout. Once you click on the objects, you can rearrange them according to your preferences. After clicking on an object, you can see gray-colored objects called handles.
You can reframe the look of your object by clicking and dragging on these handles. In the end, you can save the page when you are satisfied with the required layout.
Similarly, you can create different pages of your website with the same layout. For this, you need to copy a layout and use it with different page names.
URL structure: customname.webstarts.com
Migration feature: There is scope for migration.
7. Site123, use a free website builder
Site123 website is an easy-to-use website builder. Using this software, users can create one-page website or multi-page websites. Creating these websites is easy due to a good choice of plugins in the software.
The users also get access to SSL and SEO settings. To begin using the platform, you need to sign up at site123. After the signing process, the users receive daily emails related to the software and its functioning.
Besides this, the platform also has a collection of pretty templates and themes. All such design options are responsive. Different design options that help you enhance the layouts of your web pages are as follows:
- Layout width: The layout width helps the user set the scale of your webpages.
- Header opacity: The header opacity allows users to easily customize the theme of their header.
- Header size: Header size helps to determine the importance of the header as a feature on your web pages.
- Header font style: a particular header font style describes the look of your header.
- Menu link style
- Menu font size
- Header style
- Header logo background colour
- Background pattern library
Hence, the software consists of many features that can help you improve the look of your website. You can change the header size, font colour and menu font size according to your preferences.
URL structure: accountname.site123.me
Migration feature: There is scope for migration.
8. Webflow
Webflow is a drag-and-drop builder that is meant for designers, developers, or advanced users. These users can create a free and responsive website in their browser using this platform.
After this, they can host their website on world-class servers. This complex tool offers users numerous customization options. These options assist users in improving the appearance of their web pages.
This is possible by employing different layouts of Webflow. The software has collection field and conditional visibility feature options that help create layouts.
Users can use the software’s responsive designs in addition to the layouts. These designs help to preview and adjust layouts or create a new layout.
All such features provide more flexibility in creating web pages. In the end, you can also immediately see your designs due to the visual editor of Web flow.
These web pages can be created by using raw materials. After this, the users need to organize their elements and create reusable symbols. The software also helps the users design websites with real content. This is possible by working directly with e-commerce products and CMS data.
URL structure: yourwebsite.webflow.io
Migration feature: There is no scope for migration because the platform has no migration tool.
9. IM Creator
IM Creator is a great website creation platform with a simple and fast user interface. People with less knowledge of coding can create a website in minutes on IM Creator. This software consists of an industry-leading editor.
This editor helps users modify the appearance of their web pages according to their niche. For this, the users can choose from different designs, layouts, and templates of the software.
The templates help make the website visually impressive. This is because of the different animation effects, visuals, and layouts in the templates.
You can use IM creator’s free website building tools in addition to the templates. These tools will help you add some more elements to your web pages.
The users can also use the SEO tools of the IM creator. These tools aid in increasing website traffic and leads. Moreover, the content that you add to your website is responsive. This means it adjusts automatically to any device, be it a tablet, smartphone, or PC.
Thus, IM Creator is one of the best free platforms for building websites. Be it a 1-page website or a 1000-page website, IM Creator will help you make any website.
It also helps you connect your custom domain and provides free site hosting. The websites built with this software are hosted on free servers provided by Amazon and Google.
Conclusion
So, these are some of the free website building platforms. You can easily create websites with different pages using these builders. Your choice depends on a variety of factors.
These factors may include the designs, layouts, templates, migration features, etc., of the software. Sometimes, your choice may also be influenced by the type of site you are willing to create.
Since all the platforms are free to use, you always have the option to stop using any software. This means there is less risk when making your choice.
You can also check out our other articles. This article helps you create websites at very low rates.