Can I Make a Completely Free Website Including Domain?
This is probably one of the most asked questions about websites, "How can i get a free website including Domain name? ".
Let us try to find the answer.
To get a complete working website you need three things,
- A Domain Name
- A Hosting Service
- The Website itself
A website will be completely free if you manage to get all three things free individually. Let's figure out if we can get them free.
Can I Get a Free Domain Name?
Domain name simply is the url name of your website. Its the number plate of your website as it is identified by this name.
Domain names are registered by Domain Name Registrars who charge different fees depending upon their facilities. So, you can get a domain name registrar who charges less than others but you can't get a registrar who gives you a free service.
Certain registrars give a free name, only if you buy other things from them, otherwise you must pay for a domain name.
Note: When you sign up for a free website service or a free hosting service, you get a sub-domain (yourname.serviceprovider.com), not a top-level domain(e.g. www.yourname.com).
For more information on Free Domains, see Is there a Free Domain Name?.
Want to Register a Domain Name at a low price, see How to Register a Domain Name.
Can I Get a Free Web Hosting Service?
Web Hosts serve your site to the world. Your web pages are stored on their computers and whenever someone visits your site a data transfer occurs between their server and the visitor's computer. Basically that's what they charge you for.
There are some web hosts that give you free hosting. This free hosting is limited as it lacks certain features, but if you are on a low budget then it can be a starting option for you.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Free Web Hosting
Advantages
- A Free Service.
- Offers you an email account.
- Fine if you're building your first website.
- Fine you're testing your web pages.
- Can provide the opportunity to Test Run a new website.
Disadvantages
- Less storage space.
- Less bandwidth.
- No SMTP allowed mostly. (Emailing disabled).
- Advanced features disabled mostly.
- Uptime is not guaranteed usually.
- Not fast enough.
Some of the companies that give better free hosting service are,
Note: If you're building an important website than you should not use a free web host, as a free web host can go down or out of business or may suspend their operation any time leaving your in trouble.
Can I Get a Free Website?
Surely, the website itself is the most important part of the job. It is the visual interactive stuff people are going to see and use.
You can have a free website in two ways, either build it yourself or use a free online builder.
Free Online builders are usually provided by Web Hosting Companies if you buy Hosting from them. These online builders are easy to use and can build a simple website quickly. A few builders also support some advance features as well. For a particular feature that you want to include in your website, check the builder's details with its web host. If you want to buy a web hosting service, see How to Choose a Web Host.
There are other online builders available too, which let you create a website for free, but you must host with them too, which is also free. So, what's the catch? The answer is that these companies have to earn revenue some how, so they put limitations on user's accounts in the form of no. of Hosted pages, storage or bandwidth, so that they can make you upgrade at some fee. Some will put advertisements on your site and some will split your Google Adsense's share with them if you have an adsense account.
Some of the advantages and disadvantages of these free services are,
Advantages
- A Free Website Builder.
- A Free Web Hosting Service.
- Easy to use interface.
- Fine if you need a basic site with few pages.
- Allows you to choose from a large no. of Website Design Templates.
- You don't have to learn anything.
Disadvantages
- Limited storage space.
- Limited bandwidth.
- Must choose a design from the available designs templates.
- Limited customization.
- Web pages must be hosted with the same service.
- Most are ad-supported. If not then they use other methods to generate income for them, which can be unacceptable to you.
- Some only allow you to build a few no of pages per website.
- Your own advertisements are usually not allowed. Some allow it, but split your revenue with themselves.
- No mailbox is usually given.
Some of the companies that give you this service are,
If you want an adventure, another way to get a free website is to build it yourself. You just need some time and devotion and you will be on your way to your own designed website. You can find most of the help here at this website to start with this. The good thing is that things learned once can be used over and over again. If you haven't already started, get a Quick Start on Website Building now.
Conclusion
In view of the information above, there are a few options that can be considered while building a website or free website. You can get some things free while some you can't.
Want to know my story? I started this website just with the cost of a Domain Name (around 9 $). For hosting i tried the Free Hosting offered by Free Hostia initially and it worked well. And i choose to built it myself, free of course.
Related:
Domain Names
Web Hosting
Publishing You website
Link to this page :
Copy and paste the following code in an html document to link to this page,