The Truth About "Free" Websites

You've probably seen the offer, or had the phone call. A brand new website for your business, professionally designed, with nothing to pay upfront. All you have to cover is a small monthly fee for hosting and support.

It sounds like a good deal, especially if you're a tradesperson or a small business owner who just needs something decent online without a big bill. But a website with a monthly fee attached isn't free. It's a website you're paying for in instalments, and often one you never finish paying for.

That doesn't make every provider a cowboy, and it doesn't mean paying monthly is always a bad idea. But before you sign up, it's worth understanding what you're actually buying.

Where the Money Really Goes

Nobody builds websites for nothing. If the design is free, the cost has to be recovered somewhere, and that somewhere is the monthly fee. A small monthly figure is easy to say yes to, because it never looks like much on its own. It looks rather different once you add it up:

• £30 a month is £360 a year, or £1,800 over five years.
• £60 a month is £720 a year, or £3,600 over five years.
• £100 a month is £1,200 a year, or £6,000 over five years.

Those are the kind of numbers that buy a properly built website, not a template with your logo dropped in. The difference is that at the end of five years of monthly payments, you may have nothing to show for it.

What Hosting Actually Costs

Hosting isn't a scam. Keeping a website online costs real money, and any honest web designer will charge you something for it, us included. A website needs a server, a domain name, a security certificate and someone keeping an eye on it all.

But for a typical small business website, that adds up to a modest amount each year, and it's usually a fraction of what a "free website" fee works out at. So when a monthly fee is described as being for hosting, it's fair to ask what the rest of it is paying for. Usually the answer is the website you were told was free.

The Real Catch: You May Not Own It

The price isn't actually the biggest problem. The biggest problem is what happens when you want to leave.

With many of these deals, you're effectively renting. The design and the code stay with the provider, and sometimes the domain name does too. Stop paying, and your website can simply disappear, along with the web address your customers know you by, the one printed on your van, your business cards and your invoices.

That can leave you in a difficult position. Moving to someone else may mean starting again from scratch, and if you can't take your domain with you, you may lose the search rankings you've spent years building. The longer you've been with a provider, the harder it is to walk away, which is rather the point.

Questions to Ask Before You Sign

If you're looking at a "free" or pay monthly website, ask these questions and get the answers in writing:

• What's the minimum term? Twelve months is very different to thirty-six. Find out how much notice you need to give, too.
• What's the total cost over five years? Include any setup fees, annual increases and charges for changes.
• Who owns the website? If the contract doesn't say, don't assume the answer is you.
• Whose name is the domain registered in? It should be yours or your business's, whoever arranged it.
• What happens if I leave? Will you get the site's files, or just your text and photos? Is there an exit fee?
• What's included? Check whether content changes, security updates and support are covered, or charged as extras.
• Is it mine to take elsewhere? Could another web developer pick up your website and carry on with it?

A good provider will answer all of these without any fuss. If the answers are vague, or the salesperson wants a signature today, take that as your answer.

When Paying Monthly Can Make Sense

To be fair, spreading the cost isn't wrong in itself. If you're just starting out, cash is tight, and you need something online this week, a monthly plan from an honest provider can be a sensible way to get moving. Some are upfront about their terms, let you leave without penalty and hand over everything when you go.

The word to be wary of isn't "monthly", it's "free". If you can see the full price, you can decide whether it's good value. The trouble starts when the price is hidden behind the word free.

What We Do Instead

At Cotswold Code, we think you should know what you're paying for. We quote for the work up front, and you own the finished website outright, with no licence fees and no lock-in. We charge for hosting because hosting costs money, and that's all that charge is for: £100 a year, against £360 a year for a £30-a-month deal. You do pay for the build separately, but once it's done, it's yours.

If you've been offered a "free" website, or you're already paying for one and you're not sure what you've got, get in touch. We'll happily look over the deal and tell you honestly what we think. A no-obligation chat really is free.