It is logical that young firms keep their costs modest while producing anything for the first time, such as websites. People are satisfied with free website designers and free hosting providers since there are so many of them, but only until they reach a point where they realise the limitations of a free service. Although a free website is appropriate for a young business with a limited budget, if you intend to maintain a long-term business, you should consider investing in a premium website rather than a free website.

There is just too much to discuss when it comes to the technical aspects, which will mostly prevent you from expanding your online presence unless you opt to redesign the entire website, which will incur additional costs. So, as seen below, we will split them down into points.

7 Important Points Of A Paid Website VS A Free Website

1. Loading Speed

Most of the free website and hosting providers are slow in loading your website which will affect the performance as well as in Google ranking. For a paid website and hosting, you get to choose the design layout, disk space and bandwidth within your budget.

2. Layout Design

Limited layout design and some cases, outdated design for a free website provider. As for a paid website, they will be a wide range of options for the layout design. If you have more budget, hire a trusted professional to build a website according to your expectations, and you can atleast discuss more details with the professional.

3. Domain Name (example:www.your-domain-name.com)

Free website providers usually host your website under their domain name infront of yours, such as www.free-website.com/your-company-name, which looks unprofessional. For a paid website, domain name and hosting, you get to choose your preferred domain name.

4. Upgrades & Updates

Very soon, you will realise the limitations on a free website like adding new pages, functions and so on. When you need to upgrade them, you will start to spend your money, and in the end, it is not free at all. Some cases for a free website, you will have to pay after a trial period. It will be even more costly for the upgrades in the technical part.

5. Email Accounts

There are a few charges which you will not realise at the beginning like the professional webmail accounts (example:yourname@your-website.com). Other than this, there are some additional services which require you to pay too like the FTP access(main location to access for your website), image hosting, and website transferring(if you wish to host with your own domain name after your business starts to grow).

6. Complete Control Of Your Website

We have seen many free website providers shut down without prior notice, and imagine one day your customers see a notice of "This site is closed" or "Website is no more available", how will it affect your business? A free website does not allow you to save the website files usually, and all your effort will be gone. The best way is to hire a professional to build your website and insist that you must have a copy of the whole website.

7. Unnecessary Advertisements

Most of the free website and hosting providers will implement advertisement columns into your website, often taking away your customers' attention and distracting. In marketing point of view, they will be gaining free traffics for their paid advertisers from your real targeted audiences you built.