You've seen the ads. "Build your website for free!" It sounds perfect when you're just starting out or trying to keep costs down. But here's what those ads don't tell you: that “free” website might end up costing you far more than a professional one.
I'm not saying this to sell you something. I'm saying it because I've watched too many local business owners waste months on free platforms, only to start over when they realize what they're missing. Let me walk you through the real costs.
The Ads They Put on Your Site
The first thing to understand: free website builders make money somehow. Usually, that means putting ads on your website.
With Wix's free plan, there's a banner at the top of your homepage advertising Wix—not your business. (We break down the full Wix cost comparison here.) Weebly's free and Personal plans include Square ads (Square bought Weebly in 2018). Some platforms are more subtle about it, but the message to your visitors is clear: this business couldn't afford a real website.
75% of consumers judge a business's credibility based on its website design. An ad banner screaming “Made with Wix” at the top of your page doesn't exactly inspire confidence.
Want those ads gone? That'll be $17+/month for Wix, $10+/month for Weebly. You're no longer free.
The Domain Name Trap
Free plans give you a website address like yourbusiness.wixsite.com or yourbusiness.weebly.com. Not exactly memorable. Not exactly professional.
So you upgrade to get a real domain like yourbusiness.com. Here's where it gets interesting.
Domain registrars love promotional pricing. You'll see ads for "domains starting at $0.99!" What they don't emphasize is that those prices are for year one only. Renewals often jump to $13-20/year or more. Some registrars increase renewal prices significantly—for example, that $2.99 first-year .com domain might renew at $13.99/year.
Then there's domain privacy. Without it, anyone can look up your personal name, address, and phone number in the public WHOIS database. That protection usually costs another $10-20/year.
So your "free" website now costs $25-40/year just for the domain. Still not terrible—but we're just getting started.
The Features You Actually Need
Free plans are designed to get you hooked, then upsell you on everything useful:
- Removing ads: $10-17+/month
- Custom domain: Requires paid plan + annual domain fee
- E-commerce: Starting at $23-29/month (and that's before transaction fees)
- Analytics: Basic on free; meaningful data requires upgrade
- SEO tools: Often locked behind higher tiers
Squarespace, for instance, lets you add ecommerce on their $23/month plan—but charges a 3% transaction fee on top of payment processing. Sell $1,000 worth of products? That's $30 to Squarespace, plus another $29+ in credit card fees. Want to eliminate that 3%? Upgrade to their Commerce Basic plan.
These costs add up faster than most people expect. A "free" website with basic ecommerce can easily run $30-50/month after all the upgrades.
The Time You'll Never Get Back
Here's the cost nobody talks about: your time.
Learning a new platform. Figuring out why your header image looks blurry. Trying to make your mobile version not look terrible. Watching YouTube tutorials at 10pm when you should be with your family. (Sound familiar? We cover this in depth in Why Your DIY Website Might Be Costing You Customers.)
Industry estimates suggest DIY websites take at least 20-40 hours for even a basic site—and that's for people who pick things up quickly. More complex projects can easily hit 100+ hours.
Let's do some math. If you could bill $50/hour for your actual trade—plumbing, accounting, whatever you do—then 40 hours on website building just cost you $2,000 in potential income. At $100/hour, that's $4,000.
And you're not done after launch. Free platforms require ongoing maintenance. Updates. Security patches. Figuring out why something broke. That time never stops adding up.
The Customers You're Losing
Slow websites don't just frustrate people—they cost you money. Real money. (We dig deeper into what makes a website fast and why Google cares.)
A site that loads in 1 second has a conversion rate 5x higher than a site that loads in 10 seconds. For ecommerce, a 1-second site converts 2.5x better than a 5-second site.
Free website builders tend to be slow. They load extra code to power their drag-and-drop editors. They host your site on crowded servers. The result? Pages that take 4-5 seconds or longer to load on mobile.
57% of consumers won't recommend a business with a poorly designed mobile website. And industry research shows 79% of shoppers who have trouble with site performance say they won't return to buy again.
Every second your site lags, potential customers are clicking back to Google and finding your competitor instead.
The Accessibility Lawsuit Risk
This one's serious, especially in California.
In the first half of 2025 alone, 2,014 ADA website accessibility lawsuits were filed—a 37% increase from 2024. California ranks #3 in the country for these lawsuits, with 380 cases in just six months.
These lawsuits target websites that aren't accessible to people with disabilities—things like missing image descriptions, poor color contrast, forms that can't be navigated with a keyboard. DIY builders make it easy to create these problems without realizing it.
Think an accessibility plugin will protect you? 22.6% of ADA lawsuits in 2025 were filed against sites that already had accessibility widgets installed. Those overlay tools don't actually fix underlying accessibility issues—they're just a band-aid that lawyers see right through.
The average settlement for these lawsuits? Several thousand dollars, plus attorney fees, plus the cost of actually fixing your site. That's a hefty price for a “free” website.
When Free Actually Makes Sense
I'll be honest: there are situations where a free website builder is fine.
Testing an idea: If you're not sure your business concept will work, a quick free site to gauge interest makes sense. Just don't expect to grow with it.
Personal projects: Portfolio site for fun? Hobby blog? Free is fine.
Temporary placeholder: You're building something better and need a simple landing page for now.
But if you're running an actual business—especially one where customers find you online—the hidden costs of "free" almost always exceed what you'd pay for a real solution.
The Real Math
Let's add it up. (For a complete breakdown of all your options, see our guide: How Much Should a Small Business Website Cost?) A “free” website that you actually use for business:
- Paid plan to remove ads and get features: ~$17-30/month ($204-360/year)
- Domain name with privacy: ~$25-40/year
- Your time building and maintaining: 40+ hours (value: $2,000+ at $50/hr)
- Lost customers from slow load times: Incalculable
- Accessibility lawsuit risk: Thousands if you're unlucky
That's not free. That's expensive—and you're still doing all the work yourself.
31% of U.S. shoppers avoid small businesses that don't have websites, and businesses with websites grow 2x faster than those without. You need a website. But you don't need the headaches that come with "free."
What YouGrow Does Differently
For $79/month, you get a professional website with none of these hidden costs:
- No ads. Ever. Your site promotes your business, not ours.
- Fast-loading. Built for speed from the start, not slowed down by bloated page builders.
- Accessible. We build with accessibility in mind so you're not gambling with lawsuit risk.
- Managed forever. You never touch it. Email or call us when you need a change—we handle it within a business day.
- Everfresh Guarantee. Your site never gets stale. We include a complimentary design refresh every 3 years—no extra charge.
- Month-to-month. No contracts. Cancel anytime. We earn your business every month.
We're based right here in Arroyo Grande—your neighbor, not some faceless company across the country. Call us at 805-439-6288 and talk to a real person who knows the SLO County market.
No setup fee for founding members. Everything included.
Your time is worth more than fighting with a “free” website. Let's talk.