How to Start a Website for Free or Low Cost - 21 Tools to Consider

Sales today often hinges on a website. You need some sort of presence online to participate in the many marketing channels available. While you can build a site or page within Facebook or other walled gardens, as they are often called, your best strategy will entail having your own presence directly on the Internet.

Various studies from sources like eMarketer, Selling to Small Business, and other authorities show that approximately 50 percent small business owners either do not have a website or dislike their website. I started to ask clients and prospects why and the two answers I received were: “It is too expensive to build a good website” and “I just need something simple.”

This post is to help you solve both of those problems. The following 21 services offer free to low cost website builder tools. I’ll make two important suggestions at the end of this post after you’ve read about these tools.

1. Google Sites offers a good range of templates. You can publish with just a few clicks and publish.

2. DoodleKit offers a limited free version with up to five pages, plus a blog.  It offers step-by-step instructions so when you ask a question, you can actually follow the answer. Plans start at $14/mo.

3. Wix is a free Flash website builder.  Some will argue that a Flash website is not as SEO-friendly (or Google-friendly, if you prefer), but the search giant and other search engines have made great strides in reading and ranking Flash sites. However, you and your customers must have a flash player installed to be able to see a Wix site.

4. Moonfruit is a Flash-based website builder.  I liked the ability to start building and testing it without even registering. The free option was advertising-free.  Affordable plans start at $6/mo.

5. Weebly lets you create a free website and blog.  It is Flash-based, which means another easy drag and drop interface.  You don’t have to be a techie to use it.

6. Webstarts is very intuitive and fast loading. As you start into editing your site, a helpful little window opens with the option to watch a tutorial video.

7. WordPress offers free blog hosting, but for $15 per year, you can get a custom domain name of your own.  Most services that are free have a subdomain structure, as does the free WordPress option, with URLs that look like yoursite.wordpress.com.

8. Yola.com offers a very easy process with just four fields to get started.  The service then walks you through various options and templates to get a free site going.  

9. Webs.com is one of the best known site builders. They have millions of users and sites. Like most of the tools/services here, Webs provides all the tools you need to create a professional-looking website in just minutes.

10. Jimdo.com has a unique option that allows you to build an actual online store, not just a website.  You can list up to five items for free.  

11. Qapacity.com is a powerful free website builder and offers one of the more robust solutions I’ve seen.  It is a website combined with a private social network-like functionality.

12. GoDaddy.com offers free ad-supported Web hosting when you purchase a domain name through them for as low as $7.49/year (multiple year purchase).  You can create a five-page Web site with their drag and drop tools.

13. Intuit owns Homestead.com which provides a low-cost website builder. 30-day free trial, then $4.99/mo. You can add a Paypal shopping cart, too.

14. Yahoo.com has a robust small business website offering that starts at $7.46/mo when you purchase a year at once.

15. Network Solutions, one of the leading domain registrars, offers a low-cost website builder tool. Their offering comes with a free domain name and plans start at $6.95/month.

16. Bluehost.com is another host that I use and recommend. I manage a number of my own sites through them and have found their tech support to be excellent. Plans start at $7.95/mo.

17. Ruxter.com will let you build a mobile-enabled website for free and then plans and text options start at a per message charge of $20 per 500 messages (which do not expire). Great if you have a mobile consumer as a target customer.

18. ezWeb123.com starts you right at the design step of the build-a-website process.  

19. Microsoft offers Office 365 as a small business suite and part of it includes building a website via Sharepoint. Free trial, then $6/user/month.

20. Jigsy.com offers a free plan, then pricing starts at $10/mo.

21. Sitecube offers a range of templates and starts at $5.95/mo.

Overall, when you build your own, you’ll have to invest about two to three hours of your own time to understand how the templates and galleries and tools work. After you build your site, head to Google and register your site within Google Places aka “Claim Your Business Listing.” Even the simplest of sites can bring you traffic and business if you are found by local searchers. Also, If possible, look for options at these site builders to enable your site for mobile users (think Smartphones like the Android-powered or iPhone/iPad powered devices). If you make your site load faster and cleanly on a mobile device you’ll be one step ahead of your competition.__________________

TJ McCue runs TechBizTalk, a product review site for small biz owners and a do-it-for-you website builder service called Simple Website.