What a free website actually costs you

Nobody builds websites for nothing. When someone offers you a free site, the correct question is not whether there is a cost, but where that cost has been moved to. There are four common answers, and only some of them are good for you.

1. The cost is in the hosting

The build is free, then hosting is billed monthly at several times its real cost. It works out fine if your site earns well, and badly if it does not, because the bill arrives regardless.

2. The cost is in your ownership

The site is free, but the domain is registered to the agency and the content lives in a system you cannot export. Leaving means starting again. Check whose name is on the domain before you agree to anything.

3. The cost is in your data

Free platforms that own your customer list are selling access to it, whether by marketing to your buyers directly or by showing them competitors alongside you. If you cannot export your customer list today, it is not really yours.

4. The cost is a share of sales

The builder takes a percentage of what the site earns. This is our model, and it is worth being clear about its trade-off: if you sell a great deal, you will pay more than a one-off build fee would have cost. What you get in exchange is that a site which sells nothing costs you nothing, and that your builder has an ongoing reason to care whether it works.

Questions worth asking anyone

• Whose name is on the domain registration?
• Can I export my customer and order data today, in a standard format?
• What does it cost me to leave, and how much notice do I need to give?
• What exactly do you earn from this arrangement?
• What happens to my site if your company closes?

A builder who answers all five without hesitating is probably one worth working with. That is true of us as much as anyone, which is why our answers are published rather than kept for the sales call.