Free Web Page Design
Our new Free Template, a complete free website, and some more flexible low cost alternatives
Free Web Site Template
Get a professionally designed website template for free. Simply sign up for our free newsletter on the left hand side of this page.
A Completely Free Website
Get the Microsoft Office Live "Basics" account.
Free Page Design Software
- 1&1
offers free software with hosting plans
Online Site Creation
NEW - If you need free website design, you can get a free, professionally designed, website template right here, right now. Simply sign up for our free newsletter on the left hand side of this page, and we'll send you a link via e-mail so you can download the package. This is a complete, 6 page, CSS formatted and professionally designed site that includes all source files and has no usage restrictions.
What "Free" Means
Is there such a thing as free web page design? Kind of. Whatever free design you receive, you will always need to spend some time customizing it for your own use. For example, if you download our free template, you will need to customize the graphics for your own business and create content for each web page. Or if you create a website using a free online design tool, you will need to spend the time and effort required to customize it for your purposes. Since "time" usually translates to "money" for most business people, "free" always has this qualification.
Additionally, even if you get your site design for free, you'll still need to obtain a domain name, and web hosting (a place online where you can park your website). You usually have to pay for each of these items.
Is it possible to get a completely free website, including design, domain name, and hosting?
A Completely Free Website
Well, yes, and from non other than Microsoft. Bill Gates has been in a very philanthropic mood lately, so you can now get a completely free website, including one free domain name, free hosting and free e-mail accounts at Microsoft Office Live (only the Office Live Basics is free). Actually, there's really no philanthropy at work here (even though Mr. Gates very commendably now runs the worlds largest charitable organization), according to the FAQs on the site, this is an advertiser-supported model (the FAQ says "our advertisers' content will not appear on the Web site you create for your own company").
You can create your free website by using Microsoft's online "Site Designer" tool. As of this writing, you get free hosting, 5 e-mail accounts, 30 MB of Web site storage, 10 GB of bandwidth, no setup or hidden fees, online customer support, website statistics and daily backup (data retained for 30 days).
Pretty sweet deal, yes? Yes, it is, but there are some limitiations. First of all, you must use the Microsoft provided online tools to design and change your site, so you are pretty much locked into the design options offered. Secondly, you will be limited if you need to do any programming on your site to implement functions you may need to conduct online business.
Build Your Website Online
If you need more flexibility, you'll need to obtain your own hosting account. You'll pay a monthly fee for web hosting, and also pay the annual renewal fee for your domain name. However, these costs can be relatively low - for example, GoDaddy is offering a 5 page website designed with their online design tool (see below) for $4.99/month, and they throw in the domain name for $1.99.
GoDaddy, offers the use of their WebSite Tonight® online web building software that makes creating a site relatively easy. GoDaddy currently offers over 670 different site design templates to choose from. The WebSite Tonight® sofware has many features, including Flash intros, RSS Feeds, password-protected pages and adding your own HTML, to name just a few.
As with all online site building software, you'll need to prepare and upload the images that will appear on your website, including your logo (if you don't want to design your own logo, you can always get one produced by a professional designer, or obtain one quickly and easily online from a company like www.logoworks.com.
Online Website Creation Taken Up One Notch
If you're looking for a really professional design but don't want to pay a lot, check out site2you. They have exceptionally good looking professionally deisgned templates available, and for about $60, you can go through the online process of choosing your template and creating your site. Once you are done, they will help transfer your website to the host of your choice, and leave the design on their servers so you can come back and make changes.
Free Web Design Software
Another option is to buy software that allows relatively simple creation of websites. Such software is usually much easier to learn and use than a program like Dreamweaver. Additionally, this type of software is usually at a price point quite a bit lower than professional web design programs, It's not free, but it greatly reduces the cost of creating your website compared to hiring a professional designer. Like the online option, it may be difficult to get a fully professional looking sites.
One host that seems to provide an excellent deal is 1&1. They offer full versions of web page creation software and freeware if you sign up for one of their hosting packages (at the time of this writing they offered NetObjects Fusion which provides a simplifed method of creating websites (compared to working with a program like Dreamweaver).
If You Own an Apple Mac with OS X
Apple, in their Ilife ’06 software package (which ships on every new Mac), recently came out with a program that makes creating a website very simple, and produces elegant if simple results. I've used it to create a site in a few minutes and publish it instantly to the internet (read more about this in my iWeb blog post).
The downside – to use all the features and take advantage of the simplicity, you’ll need to subscribe to their .mac online service for $99/year. This will probably not be acceptable if you’re a business and need your own domain name. If you don’t use .mac, you can still save the site and publish it to your own web host (additionally, not every advanced feature works if posted to a host other than .mac).
Note: I receive some compensation if you purchase products mentioned on this page.
