Full Transcript
Lauren: So my friend is starting a business and she goes... I'm just gonna use Wix, it's free! And I'm thinking... if it's free, what's the catch?
Honor: Welcome to the 805 Web Minute with Lauren and Honor... We make interwebs and website stuff make sense... Let's get into it.
Honor: Okay so here's the thing about free website builders... they have to make money somehow, right? And usually that means putting ads on YOUR website.
Lauren: Wait, ads? Like... on my business website?
Honor: Yeah. With Wix's free plan, there's a banner at the top of your homepage that says "Made with Wix." It's advertising them, not your business.
Lauren: Oh no... that's like opening a bakery and having a sign out front that says "This baker couldn't afford a real oven."
Honor: Exactly! And here's the kicker... 75 percent of people judge a business's credibility based on its website design. So that little banner is doing real damage.
Lauren: Okay so... let me guess... you can pay to remove the ads?
Honor: Yep. That'll be 17 bucks a month for Wix. So now you're not free anymore.
Lauren: Right, so the free plan is basically a trial that makes you look bad until you upgrade.
Honor: Pretty much. And then there's the domain name trap.
Lauren: The what now?
Honor: Free plans give you a web address like... yourbusiness dot wixsite dot com. Not exactly professional.
Lauren: Oh that's like having a business card that says "I rent my office from Wix."
Honor: Right. So you upgrade to get a real dot com. And they advertise domains for like 99 cents... but that's year one only. Renewal jumps to 13, 14 dollars a year. Add domain privacy so strangers can't look up your home address... that's another 10 to 20 bucks a year.
Lauren: Okay so we're already at like... 17 a month for no ads, plus 25 to 40 a year for the domain stuff...
Honor: And we haven't even talked about the features you actually need. Want to sell stuff online? That starts at 23 to 29 a month. Plus transaction fees on top of that.
Lauren: Wait, they take a cut of your sales too?
Honor: Squarespace charges 3 percent on their basic ecommerce plan. So you sell a thousand dollars worth of stuff, that's 30 bucks to Squarespace... before the credit card fees.
Lauren: So my "free" website could easily cost 30, 40, 50 bucks a month once I add all the things I actually need.
Honor: Exactly. And we haven't even talked about the time cost. Industry estimates say a DIY website takes at least 20 to 40 hours. If you bill 50 bucks an hour at your actual job, that's 2,000 dollars of your time.
Lauren: Oh... so it's not just the money, it's all those hours watching YouTube tutorials at 10pm when you should be asleep.
Honor: That's like hiring yourself to do a job you're not qualified for... and paying yourself in frustration.
Lauren: Okay so what's the takeaway here? What should people do?
Honor: Before you commit to a free builder, add it up. What will you actually pay after removing ads, getting a real domain, and adding the features you need? And what's your time worth?
Lauren: So the moral of the story is... do the math. Free usually isn't free, it's just hidden fees with extra steps.
Honor: Exactly.
Lauren: And if you want to skip all that... give YouGrow a call!
Honor: Yeah, with us it's 79 dollars a month. No hidden fees. No ads ever. No upfront design cost. We handle everything... updates, maintenance, all of it. Month-to-month, cancel anytime. And we're right here in Arroyo Grande.
Lauren: Love it. Alright, this has been 805 Web Minute. Thanks for listening.