Do You Have to Pay for a Website? Free Platforms vs. Your Own Website

Does building a website cost money? Actually, it doesn't have to 🌸 There are quite a few free website builders now, like Google Sites and the free version of Wix, where you just sign up and start laying out pages. So what does a paid website add? This post sorts out the differences between the two, so you can pick what fits your needs.

What free website platforms offer

The nice thing about free platforms is that you don't have to spend money upfront: open one up, arrange your layout and you can go live. If you like doing things yourself, they're a great choice too.

Generally, free versions have a few things in common:

• The web address is usually a subdomain of the platform, meaning the platform's name appears in your URL.
• Pages often show the platform's branding or ads.
• Using your own domain usually requires upgrading to a paid plan.
• Your website lives on the platform, so layouts and features are mostly what the platform provides.

That's simply how free plans are designed. Knowing this up front makes it easier to compare when you choose.

What costs come with your own website

"Your own website" usually means a website on your own domain, on hosting you can manage. The costs roughly fall into these items:

• Domain: about US$15 to US$30 a year, and we suggest registering it under your own name.
• Hosting & SSL: your website needs to live on a host, and SSL is that little padlock in front of the web address.
• Building fee: if you hire someone, it's priced by the number of pages and features.
• Maintenance: security updates and backups later on can be handled yourself or handed to a maintenance plan.

Taking our Brand Website as an example, the Starter plan at US$510 includes the first year of hosting, SSL and backups. From the second year, you renew the hosting and domain yourself, or switch to monthly maintenance.

Rent or buy outright: the difference is who owns the website 💡

Besides free versus paid, the other thing to sort out is renting versus owning.

• Renting: you pay monthly, and the provider looks after hosting, backups and updates; if you stop paying, the site goes offline and the code isn't handed over.
• Owning: you pay once, the source code and files are handed to you, and later you can move hosts or switch to someone else for maintenance.

ZYVARENO Digital offers both. Small Shop & Studio Website is a monthly rental; Brand Website is a one-time purchase: once it's delivered and paid in full, the code and design files made for you are yours, and you can move them to any host. You're not tied to us.

What our Small Shop Website looks like

The Small Shop Website is US$20/month with one plan that includes every feature.

• It includes a home page, About Me, work or services, a price list, and contact info with a map.
• Pick from all 15 templates, with unlimited work photos.
• Hosting, SSL and backups are included, and the address is a platform subdomain.
• Online booking, LINE booking notifications, tickets and returning-customer records are included, with real customer support on LINE.

You can use your own web address too, since custom domain hosting is included, and there are no platform ads on your site ♡ No contract, no setup fee, stop anytime.

Already on a platform? You can still move later

If you're already running your business on a platform like Wix or Shopline, you can move to your own website too. Website Moving offers a Platform Move plan from US$735 which includes rebuilding the site (up to 20 pages), moving your articles and images, and 301 redirects for old URLs so old links automatically go to the new addresses. You'll also get a URL mapping report at delivery.

After a move, your Google rankings may go up and down for a while. We map every URL that gets traffic one by one and submit a new sitemap, but we can't guarantee rankings. The new site is built and tested separately before switching over, and your old site keeps running during the build. You'll cancel the old platform yourself, and we'll give you step-by-step instructions.

Free isn't better than paid, or the other way around. It just depends on how far you want your website to go– You can start by visiting the Small Shop Website examples to see what it really looks like, or visit Pricing & Plans to compare what each plan includes. If you'd like to chat, feel free to visit Contact Us and leave a message. Consultations and quotes are free ✨