Updated 2025 • Honest pros & cons of free website options for small businesses
"Free" can mean different things: truly zero-cost hosting with limitations, free plans that include ads or a subdomain, or a free preview/demo of a paid service. This guide explains the practical options available in 2025 and helps you choose the right path for your small business.
Below are common free choices, their best use case, and the trade-offs to expect.
Truly free static hosting — ideal for technical users who want control and zero monthly fees.
Easy to start, blogging-ready, but shows WordPress branding and uses a subdomain.
Fast one-page sites with drag-and-drop simplicity; often free for simple business landing pages.
Gather these items first to avoid delays and mistakes when creating a free site.
If you plan to scale or rely on leads, buy a custom domain (≈ $10–20/year). A domain instantly improves trust and SEO compared to a free subdomain.
Follow these practical steps whether you're using GitHub Pages, WordPress.com, Carrd, or Google Sites.
Decide on Home, Services, About, Contact and one lead-driving page (e.g., Prices or Bookings).
Pick based on your skills: GitHub Pages for developers, WordPress/Carrd for non-technical users, Google Sites for simple internal pages.
Use the checklist assets. Keep headlines clear and phone/email visible on every page.
Publish on the free plan, test on mobile, and ask friends to find you on Google — then iterate.
Free demo preview — no credit card required. (Ongoing managed hosting from Congero is a paid service.)
Free sites are great to start — but consider upgrading if you need professional trust, conversions and local search visibility.
A custom domain (yourbusiness.com) removes ads, builds trust and improves SEO. Free plans usually force a subdomain (yourname.provider.com).
To rank locally you need structured data, meta tags and analytics — features limited on free plans. Managed services handle this for you.
Free builders rarely offer unlimited edits or fast help. If you expect regular changes, a managed subscription saves time and risk.
Get a free professional preview of your website in under 60 seconds. See the design before deciding whether to keep a free DIY site or move to a managed plan.
GET FREE DEMO PREVIEWEven on a free plan you can follow these basics to get traffic from Google and local customers.
Each page needs a single H1 describing the page, plus location-based service pages for local SEO.
Keep titles under ~60 characters and descriptions under ~155. Include your main service and suburb (e.g., "Plumber in Melbourne").
Compress images, add descriptive alt text, and keep layouts simple — mobile-first performance matters for ranking.
Answers to common worries and quick fixes to keep your free site effective.
Most free plans are free as long as you stay on the provider’s free tier. However, limitations (storage, bandwidth, ads, subdomains) remain unless you upgrade to paid plans.
Google ranks pages on relevance and quality. A free site can rank well if it has strong content, good structure, and local signals. That said, a custom domain and faster hosting typically help rankings.
Yes. Exporting content varies by platform — static HTML from GitHub Pages is easy to move, WordPress.com offers migration tools, and Carrd allows export on paid plans. Plan your content structure early to ease migration.
Get a professional page preview in under 60 seconds — free demo, no credit card required. See whether a DIY free site fits or if a managed solution (with domain, hosting, SEO and unlimited updates) makes more sense for your business.
GET MY FREE DEMO PREVIEWCongero offers a free demo preview. Managed websites start from a flat monthly fee; demos are free so you can compare options risk-free.
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