Free website for small business: what you really get (and what it costs later)

Searches for "free website for small business" have grown fast this year, and it is easy to see why. Every builder advertises a free plan, and a lot of new owners do not want to spend money before the phone rings.

A free website can be a reasonable first step. It can also quietly cost you jobs. This guide explains what free plans really include, where the costs appear later and how to decide if free is enough for your business.

Where you can get a free website

• Website builders with a free plan. Wix, Square Online, Weebly and similar tools let you build a basic site without paying.
• Your Facebook page. Not a website, but many owners use it as one. We compare the two in Facebook page vs website.
• Directory profiles. Yelp, Angi, Nextdoor and others give you a free listing page.

One option that is gone: Google used to let you build a simple website inside your Business Profile. Google shut those sites down in 2024, so if you had one, it now redirects or shows nothing. Your Google Business Profile still works, it just needs a real website to link to.

What a free plan usually includes

• A drag and drop editor and a few templates.
• Hosting on the builder's servers.
• An address on their subdomain, something like yourname.wixsite.com/site.
• A banner or footer advertising the builder.
• Limited storage and pages.

The hidden costs of a free website

1. You do not get your own domain

A customer who sees joesroofing.com trusts you more than one who sees joesroofing.wixsite.com/mysite. To connect your own domain, nearly every builder asks you to upgrade. Read how to buy a domain name to see what that costs on its own.

2. Someone else's ads on your site

The builder's banner tells every visitor you did not pay for your website. For a contractor asking someone to trust them with their home, that is the wrong first impression.

3. The features that get calls are often paid

Contact forms that email you, a custom domain email, removing branding, better speed and analytics are usually behind the paid plans. Once you add them, a "free" site often costs $15 to $40 a month.

4. Your time

Building a site that actually brings in calls takes more than picking a template. You need to write the text, choose photos, set up the call button, test it on phones and make sure Google can read it. Most owners spend several evenings and still end up with something that looks unfinished.

5. You may not own it

On most builders you cannot move your site somewhere else. If you leave, you start over.

When a free website is good enough

• You are testing an idea before you commit to it.
• You get all your work from referrals and only need something to point people to.
• You have no budget at all this month and need to be online today.

In those cases, a free site with your name, services, area, photos and a phone number is better than nothing.

When you should pay for a real website

• You want people who search Google to find and call you.
• You compete with other local companies that already have professional sites.
• You want to look established enough to charge a fair price.
• You do not have the time to build and maintain it yourself.

A real website does not have to be expensive. We break down the real numbers in how much a contractor website costs, and the parts that matter most are in what a contractor website needs.

If you go free, do these five things

1. Put your phone number at the top of every page and make it tap to call.
2. List every service and every town you cover, in plain words.
3. Use real photos of your work, not stock images.
4. Link the site from your Google Business Profile and Facebook page.
5. Check it on your own phone. If it is slow or messy there, customers will leave. See why your website is slow on phones.

A middle option: see it before you pay

If the reason you want free is that you do not want to pay for something you have not seen, we built our offer around that. We make a free preview of your site first, and you only pay if you like it. A landing page starts at $100 at founding prices, with hosting and maintenance included. See the pricing page.

Frequently asked questions

Can I get a website for my business for free?

Yes. Builders such as Wix, Square Online and others have free plans. You get a site on their subdomain with their branding, and most useful features need a paid plan.

Does Google still offer free websites for businesses?

No. Google shut down the free websites made with Google Business Profile in 2024. Your profile still works, but the site built inside it was turned off.

Is a free website bad for SEO?

Not by itself, but a free plan usually means a long subdomain address, ads from the builder and limited control, which all make it harder to look trustworthy and rank for local searches.