I tried every FREE website builder. This is the best

Summary

In this video, the creator shares their journey to build a free, one-page website for their gardening YouTube channel. After testing seven popular free website builders, they found most to have intrusive ads or limited customization. Wix and WordPress.com were criticized for their ads and URL issues. Jimdo and Ucraft also had ads, while Square had minor design limitations. Canva was close to perfect but had a less desirable URL. Ultimately, the creator chose Carrd for its minimal ad, great design, and customizable URL, achieving a free, professional-looking website without spending a dime.

Takeaways

• 🌱 The speaker is a YouTuber with a gardening channel seeking a free, one-page website.
• 💳 They were previously spending a lot on web hosting and domains but now want to avoid costs.
• 🔍 The speaker researched and tried seven free website building tools.
• 🌐 Wix was the first tool tested but was unsatisfactory due to ads and an undesirable URL.
• 🌐 WordPress.com was also disappointing with limited customization options and ads.
• 🌐 Jimdo and Ucraft were both given low ratings because of intrusive ads.
• 🛒 Square was better, with a smaller ad and more design flexibility, but had some odd limitations.
• 🎨 Canva was a close second, with a good design and a small ad, but had a less desirable URL.
• 🏆 Card was the winner, offering a perfect fit for a one-page website with a small ad and customizable URL.
• 📝 The speaker emphasizes that the 'best' free website builder depends on individual needs and preferences.

Q & A

What is the main goal of the person in the transcript?

The main goal is to create a simple, free, one-page website for their YouTube gardening channel, 'Good Harvest', without spending any money.

Why did the person decide not to use Wix for their free website?

They decided against using Wix because the free plan included an intrusive ad that scrolls with the website, and they were unhappy with the URL, which included an extra part they couldn’t remove.

What was the person's experience with wordpress.com?

The experience with wordpress.com was disappointing because they couldn't change fonts and colors without a Premium plan, and the interface was confusing. Additionally, the free plan also placed a large ad on the site.

What were the main issues the person encountered with Jimdo and Ukraft?

Both Jimdo and Ukraft had large, amateur-looking ads, particularly on mobile versions, which made the websites look unprofessional.

How did Square perform as a free website builder?

Square performed better than some other tools, with a small ad hidden at the bottom of the page, but it had design limitations, such as not allowing a black background or removing the header, which impacted the overall design.

Why did the person rate Canva as a runner-up?

Canva was rated as a runner-up because the design was close to what they wanted, the ad was small and in the footer, but they didn't like the URL and there was a strange white bar on the mobile version.

What made Card the person's favorite free website builder?

Card was their favorite because it allowed them to choose their own URL, had the smallest ad of all the tools, and the design looked great both on desktop and mobile. It met all their needs for a one-page website.

Why did the person emphasize the importance of the URL in their website decision?

The person emphasized the URL because many free website builders automatically assign a URL with extra, unwanted elements, which made the website look less professional. Card allowed them to choose a cleaner, more personalized URL.

What conclusion did the person reach after testing seven different website builders?

The person concluded that there are many free website builders, but each has its own limitations, especially with ads and design restrictions. In the end, Card was the best fit for their specific need of a free, one-page website with minimal ads and good design flexibility.

What lesson does the person share about using free website builders?

The person shares the lesson that while many free website builders are available, it takes effort to find the right one for specific needs, and each comes with compromises, such as ads or limited design options.

Outlines

00:00

🌱 Journey to a Free Website for a Gardening Channel

The speaker, a YouTuber with a gardening channel, expresses frustration with spending money on web hosting and tools. They resolve to create a free, one-page website for their channel, requiring only a photo, video space, and a contact section. After researching, they test seven free website tools, starting with Wix. Despite Wix's popularity, the speaker finds the free version unsatisfactory due to intrusive ads and an undesirable URL. They give Wix a one-star rating for its free plan's limitations.

05:02

🌐 Exploring Free Website Builders: Trials and Tribulations

The speaker continues their quest for a free website builder, trying WordPress.com next. They find the platform confusing and limited in its free version, unable to customize fonts and colors without a premium plan. Like Wix, WordPress.com also displays ads on free sites. The speaker rates it one star for similar reasons as Wix. They express skepticism about the recommendations they found online, which praised Wix without mentioning its free plan's drawbacks. Subsequently, they try Jimdo and Ucraft, both of which also include ads and receive a two-star rating for their amateurish appearance and limitations.

🏆 Discovering the Perfect Fit: Card Stands Out Among Free Builders

The speaker's search leads them to try Square, which, despite its focus on e-commerce, offers a better ad placement and more design flexibility. They give Square a three-star rating for its small ad and design limitations. Canva, known for graphic design, impresses as a website builder, receiving a four-star rating for its minimal ad and good design options, though the URL is not customizable. Finally, the speaker finds Card, which allows for a perfect design match, a tiny ad, and the choice of a custom URL. They award Card a five-star rating, deeming it the best fit for their needs.

Keywords

💡Free website

A 'free website' refers to a website that can be created and hosted without incurring any cost. In the context of the video, the creator is seeking a platform that allows them to build a website for their YouTube channel without any financial investment. The video explores various tools that offer free website building services, highlighting the trade-offs and limitations often associated with free options.

💡Wix

Wix is a website builder platform that was mentioned in the script as one of the first tools the creator tried for building a free website. It is known for its drag-and-drop interface and is widely recommended. However, in the video, the free version of Wix was criticized for including a scrolling ad and a non-customizable URL, which were deal-breakers for the creator.

💡URL

URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator, which is the address where a website is located on the internet. In the video, the creator expresses dissatisfaction with the URLs provided by free website builders, as they often include the platform's name, making it less professional. The creator prefers a clean, custom URL without additional prefixes.

💡WordPress.com

WordPress.com is a website building platform that offers a free tier, which was tested by the creator. It is different from WordPress.org, which is an open-source content management system (CMS) that requires a web host. The video highlights that WordPress.com's free plan was disappointing due to its limitations on customizing fonts and colors, as well as the presence of ads.

💡Jimdo

Jimdo is another website builder mentioned in the script. It was tried by the creator as part of the search for a free website builder without intrusive ads. Unfortunately, like other tools, Jimdo's free version also included noticeable ads, which the creator found unappealing for a professional-looking website.

💡Ucraft

Ucraft is a website builder that was tested by the creator. It was one of the tools that included ads on the free version of the website, which the creator found to be a significant drawback. The video suggests that ads can detract from the professional appearance of a website, especially for someone with a public presence like a YouTuber.

💡Square

Square is primarily known as a payment processing company but also offers free website building services. In the video, Square is highlighted for its minimal ads and focus on e-commerce, which makes it a better fit for businesses looking to sell products. The creator found Square's website editor to be somewhat limited but appreciated the small ad placement.

💡Canva

Canva is typically recognized as a graphic design tool, but it also offers website building capabilities. The creator was impressed with Canva's ability to closely match their design vision and appreciated the small, unobtrusive ad in the footer. However, the URL provided by Canva for free websites was not as clean as desired.

💡Carrd

Carrd is a website builder specifically designed for creating one-page websites, which was the creator's requirement. The video concludes that Carrd was the most suitable option for the creator due to its clean design, minimal ad presence, and the ability to choose a custom URL without additional prefixes.

💡E-commerce

E-commerce refers to the buying and selling of goods or services using the internet, and it often involves processing payments online. In the context of the video, Square's focus on e-commerce is mentioned as a reason for its website builder's design, which could be beneficial for businesses looking to sell products on their website.

💡Customization

Customization in the context of website building refers to the ability to modify the appearance and functionality of a website to fit specific needs. The video discusses the varying levels of customization available on different platforms, with some free plans offering limited options, which can be a barrier for users seeking a unique look for their website.

Highlights

The individual's desire to create a free website for their gardening YouTube channel.

The rejection of spending money on web hosting and domain names after previous excessive spending.

The discovery of seven free website tools recommended by others.

Initial attempt at designing a website on Wix within half an hour.

Disappointment with Wix due to the presence of a scrolling ad and an undesirable URL.

The realization that Wix's free plan is not suitable due to limitations and ads.

The distinction between wordpress.com and wordpress.org and their different offerings.

The frustration with wordpress.com's free plan, which requires a premium plan to customize fonts and colors.

The observation that both Wix and wordpress.com include ads on their free websites.

The trial of Jimdo and Ucraft, which also included annoying ads.

The exploration of Square as a website builder, known primarily for payment processing.

The limited design customization options in Square's editor.

Canva's runner-up position as a graphic design tool that also builds websites.

The satisfaction with Card's website builder for its minimal ad and customizable design.

The importance of choosing the right free website builder based on individual needs.

The conclusion that Card was the best fit for the individual's one-page website needs.

The final website for the YouTube channel being free of cost and meeting the individual's requirements.

Transcripts

guy like me I've spent too much money on

websites I'd pull out that credit card

for web hosting I'd throw Canadian

dollars at tools and buy too many domain

names for bad business

ideas but I'm tired of spending money my

next website has to be free as in 0 I

don't want to spend a

dime the website is for good harvest my

super popular gardening Channel on

YouTube I don't need anything special

just a simple onepage website is fine

it needs a splashy

photo a spot for a few videos and I ran

out of space but this is a contact

Section could I do it could I translate

this into a free website like this stick

around this is the story of how I did

just

that to start I did some research and I

found seven free website tools that seem

to be recommended most often the first

one I tried was Wick

Wix seem to be recommended everywhere

all right took me about a half hour but

I've been able to design my site on Wix

I think it looks pretty good so now

let's publish it but when I hit publish

I knew instantly Wix wouldn't work for

me G so it looks like free websites on

Wix have this ad that scrolls with the

website it's kind of a deal breaker and

on top of that check out the URL they

gave my free website I wasn't able to

get rid of this part of the URL which

kind of sucks I could deal with this but

not

this I'm giving Wix one star ugly ad

ugly URL so that's just to know from me

and remember I'm just rating wix's free

plan not Wix as a whole actually like

Wix as a website builder if you use the

paid plans seeing how bad wix's free

plan was got me suspicious because when

I had Googled best free website builder

tons of people had been suggesting Wix

they never even mention mentioned the

big ugly ad instead they praised Wix for

super arbitrary things so I was feeling

skeptical when I tried my next tool

wordpress.com not WordPress but

wordpress.com they're two different

things wordpress.org is the open source

CMS you can download for free and upload

to any web host wordpress.com is a

separate hosted service so don't get

them mixed up and don't come at me in

the comments and say you should have

tried wordpress.org no it's not free I

mean technically it's free but you'd

also need a word Press host and I'm

telling you there are no good free

WordPress hosts anyways wordpress.com

was also a disappointment so I'm just

setting up my free site and they say I

need a Premium plan to change fonts and

colors come on I know it's a free

product but that's that's corny I was

able to design my website to look how I

want it but to be honest it took me a

while I found wordpress.com confusing I

mean look at how the interface keeps

switching and Chang changing as I

navigate through it that's just kind of

odd and once I published my website I

noticed that like Wix wordpress.com also

put a big ad on free websites so

wordpress.com gets one star two big ad

hard to use and can't change colors I

mean come

on at this point I started to worry was

every free website builder going to

include some dumb little limitation

designed to annoy and frustrate me

enough so that I'd go for their paid

version

cuz guess what the next two that I tried

Jim do and youthcraft both had annoying

ads here's

jimdo and here's

ukraft I can't have ads like this I'm a

big time YouTuber but seriously these

ads just look amateur and they're even

worse on

mobile Jim do and ukraft you both get

two stars too

okay okay I know I'm not blaming these

companies it's a free website what right

do I have to complain I just think we

can do better than this so let's keep

going fortunately next up was square and

they were better even if you don't know

Square you've probably used their

checkout at like a coffee shop before

they're a Payment Processing Company

which means they help businesses take

payments they offer free websites in

hopes that you'll sell things on the

website and then they can process

payments which means they're especially

focused on e-commerce websites which

doesn't really matter to me I got

nothing to sell overall my Square

website looked pretty good the ad was

really small and hidden at the bottom of

the page I like that unfortunately this

editor is just oddly limited for example

I can't seem to get this white to be

black so Square had these style options

I could choose from but none of them let

me have just a black background and

white button weird weird and I can't

remove the header I don't need a header

remember I'm just building a onepage

website Square clocks in at a solid

three stars small ad but weird design

limitations next up was canva canva was

definitely the runner up typically I

think of canva as a graphic design tool

not a website builder but I've been

pretty impressed I was able to get

really close to the design I wanted and

when I finally hit publish I was pleased

to see the ad was small and hidden on

the

footer the only downside I'm not crazy

about this URL they give free websites

I'd much prefer it to be like

this plus they've added a weird white

bar um that I can't get rid of on mobile

I could be doing something wrong I

honestly don't know in any case canva

gets a solid four

stars small ad good design kind of lame

URL so Cano was pretty close to what I

needed what could possibly be better

well you probably haven't heard of this

next tool card and it was my winner it's

for building onepage websites which is

exactly what I need okay so card is

looking like a perfect fit I've been

able to get the design looking exactly

how I

want and when it came time to publish

they let me choose my own URL which was

great almost every other website Builder

just automatically assigned me a

URL plus see if you can spot the ad it's

really small right here that's the

smallest ad of any tool I

tried so I'm really happy with card and

also look how nice it looks on mobile

that's

perfect overall card is a perfect five

stars tiny ad great design and a great

URL thanks card so here's what surprised

me I was able to design something pretty

similar to my original mockup with all

of the

tools for me the main differentiator was

the annoying ads they put on free

websites and the

URLs example this is just not great I

much prefer this turns out there are

lots of free website tools out there but

it takes some effort to find the right

one for you I mean I had to make the

same website seven times before I found

car

and even then it doesn't mean card is

the best free website builder it just

means card was what worked best for me

in this particular case for example if I

had needed a free e-commerce website I'm

guessing Square would have worked better

but that's just theoretical all I know

is that card was what I needed today now

I have a beautiful free website for my

little YouTube channel and I can proudly

say it didn't cost me a

dime