The Disadvantages of Using a Free Website Builder for Your Business

We all love free products to help us personally and professionally. But when it comes to free website builders, they’re not necessarily the best things to consider. While free web builders have their advantages in terms of a free website and the many free templates that come with them, there are many more disadvantages stacked up against them.

Website Builders Often Come Branded

It’s great for small businesses to be able to get their website online quickly and in the cheapest possible manner. However, free web builders often need to be linked back to the builder so your website will look unprofessional. Usually, at the bottom of your site, you will have a “powered by” link, and that generally consists of “Powered By Free Website Builder”. It doesn’t look professional at all and it will make customers think you’re not serious.

Such Builders Aren’t as “Free” as They Make Out

While the setup of a website using the builder’s features is often free, there are many other features that you could benefit from that aren’t free. For example, builders will give you disk space and bandwidth to keep your website online. However, you will usually miss out on other features such as email accounts, MySQL database, and sometimes even a parked/addon domain name – which means you’ll have to use their subdomain as well.

Limited Storage

We stated above that features are very limited and the storage and bandwidth often given to you aren’t beneficial. It will often run out quickly and that means your website is either going to go down or you’re going to be unable to upload additional content until you pay for extra features.

Limited Customization

Free Web Builders often make out they are easily customizable, and while that may be true, customization is limited. This means that you can only be as creative as the tool allows, which is something that puts many webmasters off. You will never get the chance to create that dream website you have set out to achieve, and in reality, the only way of achieving such a website is to get it custom made or take advantage of the many other resources out there.

Additional Advertisements

You will get the “powered by” link at the bottom of your site as basic, but some builders also require you to place advertisements. This isn’t at all professional, and often, you will have to advertise one of your competitors.

Free website builders, of course, provide many other benefits, but from looking at the disadvantages above, it would be much wiser to consider a free WordPress theme on a WordPress CMS installation. You’ll get more freedom and when your business grows you’ll also have access to premium themes.

If you have an online masters in business administration (online MBA), you will already know how important presentation is to a business. If you don’t have a degree, presentation of a website is the key to the success of any business.

Free web builders don’t give off the professional presentation that is often desired by customers, but they do provide many other benefits for smaller businesses on a tight budget, so they can be considered in that respect. You can also use web builders to create blogs but you should consider using WordPress; learn how to start a blog.