You’ve decided to build a WordPress website and are determined to do it all for free. Before you get started, let’s explore the reality of creating a completely free website and what that entails.
Can you make a WordPress website for free? Yes, you can technically create a website on WordPress without spending a dime. Before you get too excited, know that the road to a free website is paved with sacrifices and compromises.
Should you make a WordPress website for free? No. Unless you want to create a website for a personal hobby, aim for ‘budget-friendly’ at minimum.
When you start building a website, you will find all sorts of cool themes and plugins, each promising conversions, ease of design, and more. It’s like walking through a shopping mall with thousands of kiosks and shiny new products that grab your attention. With so many options available, you may find it challenging to keep yourself from spending more than you first anticipated.
A solid plan will help you navigate the journey to an affordable but sustainable website. I’ll walk you through what you’ll need, what’s worth spending money on, and the places where you’ll have to decide what features are worth it to you. In the end, you won’t have a free website, but you’ll feel confident about the costs you choose to take on. We will also tally up a realistic cost at the end.
Free WordPress Website: The Dream vs The Reality
Domain Name
One of the first compromises you’ll have to make when aiming for a free website is the domain name. Free usually gets you a subdomain, such as “mysite.wordpress.com.” If you’re blogging stories to share with friends or chronicling your model car-making journey, this option will be fine for you.
If you want to create a professional and credible online presence, a custom domain name is a non-negotiable necessity. A custom domain name will cost you money, depending on the popularity of the domain you decide on and the TLD you choose, like .org or .com. However, with a little creativity, you can pick up something cool for cheap.
Hosting
Now that you have a good domain name, you need to figure out where to point it. This will be your hosting or where that website will live.
If your website hosting is entirely free, it’s likely to be plastered with ads. You won’t have control over the ad content, which can negatively impact your website’s user experience and credibility. It can also be a major turn-off for your visitors.
Basic Features
If you can live with the ads, consider that free websites often come with significant limitations on storage, bandwidth, and customization options. If you’re the creative sort who wants room to grow and experiment with different features, you will find these limitations stifling. Want to upload high-quality images or videos? You will hit your storage limit in no time. Are you dreaming of customizing your website to match your unique brand? You will have restrictions on what you can change on the front end.
| Feature | WordPress.org | WordPress.com |
|---|---|---|
| Ads | Full control over ads | Limited ads, unless on Premium Plan |
| Plugins | Full access to plugins | Limited plugins, unless on Business Plan |
| Customization | Full customization options | Limited customization |
| Hosting | Self-Hosted | Hosted by WordPress.com |
Here’s a good article with some depth about WordPress.com and WordPress.org. For our purposes, what matters here is that WordPress.com is free with restrictions until it’s not. If you want a custom domain, Google Analytics, or customizations, it will cost you. WordPress.org is free, and you pay a host to manage what’s under the hood, leaving you with free reign on everything else.
Find Compromise
How do you balance the need for customization, functionality, and an ads-free platform? A combination of open-source and managed hosting.
Hosting costs will vary based on the power you need under the hood and the traffic you’re expecting. A solid shared and managed WordPress hosting instance shouldn’t break the bank to get started. You can explore dedicated instances and higher-powered stacks when you need them later.
There are also some things you can’t put a price on. Going for the free option often means you miss out on essential customer support and security features that come with paid plans. If something goes wrong or if you encounter technical difficulties, you might end up feeling stranded with no one to turn to for help.
Final total: $130 per year
Domain $10 yr, WordPress.org software $0 yr, Basic Hosting $120 yr ($10 mo)
**Note: Some hosting companies include free domain names with a hosting plan. This is an OK option, but I don’t suggest it if you ever want to change hosting. Moving domains can be a pain, and you’ll have to pick up the tab on the cost of the domain name.
Free Websites Aren’t Very Functional
At this point, you have made the biggest decisions surrounding the “free website” journey. From here, what gets added to your total will be based on an equation that balances your time, skills, and the functionality needed for the website.
There are options available for Free Themes and Premium (paid) Themes. If you are happy with a simple, classic design and are willing to spend a small amount of time, you can get by with the former. If you are heavy into aesthetics and find all the latest UI/UX trends a must-try, then the latter would be worth the cost.
There are free plugins for just about every need. And Freemium plugins, where you start free but pay to add more features. And Premium plugins, such as fully featured eCommerce. The slope gets slippery here when you start adding up monthly bills. It’s important that you evaluate the feature set and what you want vs what you need at the moment. If you buy every cool tool you see, you’ll be out of ‘budget-friendly’ territory really fast. I know this from experience. I’m a sucker for a free trial.
Opinion: Chasing A Free Website Hurts You In the Long-Run
I completely understand the appeal of “free.” But at the end of the day, investing in your website is also an investment in your brand and your online success. A quality web presence requires thoughtful spending, which means being willing to purchase necessities like a custom domain, reliable hosting, and possibly premium themes and plugins.
And just like any other marketplace, you want to reward hard work with your spending dollars. This encourages developers to create more products and better features and keeps the quality of work front and center. If we never paid for anything, there would be no incentive for the brilliant people making this stuff to make us anything ever again. I certainly don’t want that, and you don’t either. Because it means your free options will deteriorate or disappear altogether.
Yes, you can create a free WordPress website. But if you’re serious about your online presence, there are better ways to go than free. The sacrifices and limitations that come with a completely free website will hinder your ability to create a professional, credible, and successful web presence. Make informed decisions, invest wisely, and you’ll be on your way to crafting a website you feel good about and worth spending money on.
