Free Website

[kenjonbro]

I want to set up my own motoring website - which basically would be about the latest car news .
I've seen lots offering free websites- so what are the disadvantages of these ? Are there any hidden costs involved ?
And which is the best free website provider ?
Thxs

[Buenchico]

Problems with free website services can include . . .

1. Advertising: The service provider might embed ads into your web pages (which, on some sites, might be of an 'adult' nature, or otherwise contain advertising that you're not happy with).

2. Awkward URLs: Paying a fairly small amount of money to set up a website will get you a web address such as kjbcars.co.uk. Using a free site means that you'll probably get stuck with something like thisfreesite.com/users/k/kjbcars.

3. Download limits: Free sites often limit either the number of visitors to your site within a given period or the amount of data transferred within that period. So, if your site becomes popular, people trying to access it for the first week or two of each month might experience no problems but those trying later in the month will simply see a message saying "This user has exceeded his data limit for this month. Please try again next month". (Meanwhile you'll be getting emails urging you to pay for a 'premium' service that doesn't have data limits).

4. Unreliable servers: If you're not paying them any money, the owners of free sites have no incentive to minimise their server downtime. Visitors might experience frequent error messages.

5. Constraints upon site design: Many free sites require you to use their own site-building software (rather than using a proper web design program and then uploading your masterpiece to the web). So you can't really get the result that you're seeking.

6. No linked email service: If you register the domain name 'kjbcars.co.uk' you can easily (and cheaply) get email sent to you at addresses such as [email protected] or [email protected]. Without your own domain name you'll have to use a different email address.

7. No ability to embed external services into your pages: For example, if you have a 'proper' website you can use an external messageboard service, embedded into your web pages, for people to comment on the issues your site relates to. You can't do that with most free sites.

So you might want to consider spending a fairly small amount of money on a 'proper' website.

However a compromise route (that's massively popular these days) is to use a free blog. You get quite a bit of control over content and layout and can choose whether others can post their comments on your site. Although Google seems determined not to put any money into further developments, Blogger remains one of the most popular (and easiest) sites to use:
https://www.blogger.com/
Wordpress is its biggest rival:
https://wordpress.com/

[VHG]

Set up a blog or even a Facebook page.

Far easier to do and little or no cost.

[kenjonbro]

thanks excellent answers

[galeck1947]

There is a free website creator called wix.com and you can make your own using its features totally free