So you want to create a website for free. You’ve already found many free website builders that will host your website for free – but none of these sites allow you to have your own domain.
WordPress, for example, offers you a free website that looks pretty good, but Your website will always be found as a WordPress subdomain, like yourblog.wordpress.com. With WordPress you can host your own domain on top of it – but you have to pay.
Reading: How to create a website with a domain
So can you actually create a website with your own domain name for free? Or is it impossible? Today we’re here to help you answer that question.
Editor’s Note: I’ve been using BlueHost since launching my site and I trust them unrestricted. I’ve been able to grow my website to over 100,000 visits per month with Bluehost and love their customer support and reliability.
I highly recommend using Bluehost for your first website and you can start now for 3 $.95/month, an exclusive offer only available here from Bebusinessed! If you decide to make a purchase, I will receive a small commission.
Yes, you can
First of all, some people may tell you that it is impossible to start a website with your to create your own domain for free.
That’s not true! You can certainly create a website with your own domain for free. The only limitation, and the only thing you really have to pay for, is the domain name itself.
Typically, when you set up an account with a free website builder, you get a free subdomain that acts as the temporary Address of your website while it is under construction.
However, once your website is set up, you can add a brand new (or previously purchased) domain name to your free hosting account.
Yes , You paid for the domain (which costs about $10 per year), but the rest of the site is free.
Remember that a custom domain name is a valuable asset for any business. It gives your business and website a more professional look. It shows customers that you’re willing to pay that small $10 fee to give yourself a more professional presence on the web.
With that in mind, it’s not surprising that modern website builders are offering you often allow your website to connect your own custom domain name.
Here is a list of website builders that you can use to do just that.
Website builders that you can use to create your own domain name
Weebly
Weebly is one of the most popular website building tools on the internet today. It offers free hosting accounts as well as an education account for teachers. The drag-and-drop interface makes building basic websites and hosting blogs surprisingly easy. Best of all, you can connect your own custom domain to Weebly.
Squarespace
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Squarespace is a web hosting service that offers an all-in-one solution for your website creation offers. The service is aimed specifically at bloggers, musicians, podcasters, and designers, but many small businesses also use the site builder. No matter what kind of business you run, you can connect your own custom domain to Squarespace for free without much effort.
LetsEat
As the name suggests, LetsEat is a website Builder who is aimed specifically at the hospitality industry. It helps restaurants design, host and manage their own websites online. You can connect a custom domain to this website builder to give your website a professional look.
Wix
Wix is arguably the best looking free website builder out there today is available, and a popular solution for businesses and home users alike. The company offers free hosting plans, although paid hosting plans start at around $5 per month. The website builder itself is extremely easy to use and is based on HTML5. You can drag and drop elements onto your site, drag elements to rearrange them, and use free templates. Wix recommends purchasing a domain name through its service, although you can also bring your own custom domain to the platform.
Ultimately, the vast majority of website builders allow you to import your own custom domain. The only real limitation is finding one that offers it for free with a reasonable amount of bandwidth.
For example, most website building tools offer free hosting and free custom domain setup, but many of these services will do offer only your most basic levels of bandwidth and storage (think for example 20-100MB free storage and less than 1GB bandwidth).
How do I get a free domain name?
Nobody really gives out a domain name online for free without receiving anything in return.
Fortunately, many website builders offer you free domain name registration if you buy an annual plan, for example.
Of course, after the first year, you will have to pay the annual domain name renewal fee.Sometimes the site will bother you to renew the domain through their own renewal service, which costs, for example, $15 per year instead of the usual $10 fee. If that’s the case, don’t be afraid to buy your domain through a third-party site.
Unless you win a contest or get a domain through a friend, there’s no way you can get one for free to get domain names online without paying at least anything in return.
How to create a website for free with a previously purchased domain name
If you have already purchased a domain name in the past, or if you bought a domain name from someone else, then it’s easy to connect that domain to your free website hosting account.
Usually you just need to log in to the website where you host your domain have registered name. Then change the NS records for your domain according to your custom website builder’s instructions (usually you just change two fields in your domain control panel to something like NS1.YourNewWebHost.com and NS2.YourNewWebHost.com.)
Once you’ve done this, it tells your domain to look up your web host’s servers for content information. Then your domain will be populated with content from your free web host.
How to buy a new domain name
If you don’t already have a domain name and you want a custom domain for your new website, then you may have to bite the bullet and pay the fee.
To register a new domain, you need to work with a domain registrar like NameCheap or GoDaddy.
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It doesn’t matter, where you buy, you can expect to pay around $10 for a one-year registration of your custom .com domain. If you lock your domain for an additional 2, 3, 4, or 5 years, you might get a small discount, but that $10 fee is still pretty hard to beat.
Of course, certain extensions vary in price . For example, sites ending in .net typically cost $2 or $3 more than a .com domain, as do sites ending in .org.
There are dozens of new top-level domains today -Domains, e.g. or TLDs that make your site end in all sorts of crazy combinations – including .club or .us.com. These TLDs vary greatly in price and are often owned by private resellers. In general, .com is the safest choice when buying a brand new domain. It’s recognized worldwide.
Why you should pay more than “free” for your website
Editor’s Note: I strongly recommend BlueHost for your first website, and you can get started now for only $3.95/month. BlueHost makes it incredibly easy to create a new website with one-click automatic WordPress blog install. Creating a free website with your own custom domain sounds like a great way to save money.
But free websites are rarely a wise practice in the long run.
For example, allow free web hosting providers usually do not allow you to display your own ads on the website. In fact, many of these sites show their own ads (they must be making money somehow, right?)
Another problem is that when you sign up for free hosting, your site becomes ridiculously slow – especially if images or videos are hosted on your website. Web hosts can’t afford to give tons of bandwidth to free users, so you end up getting the trickle of bandwidth left over after paying users have had their fill.
Lots free web hosters also fill your website with their own branding. For example, they can’t let you edit their website’s footer, where they display a link to their own website and other brand information. Not only is this unprofessional, it can also trick users into leaving your own website.
One last problem is the lack of disk space. For example, free web hosts may only give you 20MB to 100MB of storage space, which is barely enough to upload more than a handful of images.
For all of these reasons, it always makes sense to create a paid website the best option for legitimate businesses or individuals who want to put a professional face on the world. It’s a small price (often just $4 or $5 a month for basic hosting) that gives you a big return on investment.
And of course, once you plan to upgrade to paid web hosting, no web host will give you trouble ready to use your own paid domain name.
To make a long story short, yes, you can create a website for free with your own domain. But usually it’s better to pay the $4 or $5 per month plus the $10 per year domain registration fee.
Editor’s Note: I have BlueHost used. b> since the launch of my website and trust them implicitly. I’ve been able to grow my website to over 100,000 visits per month with Bluehost and love their customer support and reliability.
I highly recommend using Bluehost for your first website and you can get started right now at $3 .95/month, this is an exclusive offer only available here from Bebusinessed! If you decide to make a purchase, I will receive a small commission.
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