There are several platforms that allow you to build websites for free without purchasing a domain name or hosting. Each platform has its own advantages and disadvantages, and the best choice depends on your specific needs. Beyond being free, a good website builder should offer a clean, easy‑to‑understand URL structure and display no ads or only minimal ads, so that the site appears professional.
This guide recommends free website builders including Carrd, Google Sites, WordPress.com, Canva, Wix, HubSpot, and Square.
Although these builders are free, they do not suit public‑facing websites, brand‑focused sites, or projects requiring extensive customization. You also cannot use your own custom domain or create a personalized URL structure and even if a platform allows it, the platform will impose some restrictions. Furthermore, free website builders generally offer poor SEO support, which significantly lowers your chances of ranking in search engines (around 1%) and prevents you from monetizing the site with your own ads.
However, all these platforms offer paid upgrades that remove many of these limitations. For this reason, free website builders are best suited for maintaining a basic online presence, experimenting with ideas, or testing new business concepts.
Carrd
Card allows you to build “one-page” websites that are simple, free, responsive, and fast. It is very easy to use and comes with lots of built-in templates to choose from and customize. It is best suited for the following types of websites:
- Personal profile, online resume, and link-in-bio websites to capture contact details, social links and other essential information.
- Product landing page to promote your product by providing focused information and highlighting its key benefits.
- Portfolios to capture and showcase your creative work such as photography, graphic designing, painting etc.
- Event page to provide detailed information about an event such as date, location, discounts etc.
- Informational or “Brochure” Websites to provide a simple and uncomplicated web presence for small businesses to display basic information.
An example of a free website built with Carrd is “Goodharvest”. The URL (goodharvest.carrd.co) is simple, the site shows very minimal ads and looks very professional. Check this YouTube video for a good beginner tutorial to get started on building your free Carrd website.
Google Sites
Google sites is a multi-page website builder that allows you to build simple websites without any coding or design skills. Anyone with a Google account can use it. Despite having limited design options, google sites can be used to build full flesh websites and is very good for:
- Internal projects in an organization since different team members can collaborate and share info
- School assignments or projects
- Information websites e.g. for project documentation, knowledge base, resources, event information pages, and internal company sites (intranets)
- Personal websites e.g. for resume, CV or online portfolios.
- Booking websites. This can be done by integrating predesigned Google forms
- E-commerce websites. Google sites can be used to make light weight ecommerce stores by integrating it with different payment options.
Despite these advantages, Google sites are not suitable for blogging, membership sites, or businesses that are focused on heavy branding.
An example of a free website built with Google Sites is “Poochhouse”. The URL structure is sites.google.com/view/poochhouse. Another example is Erber Research Group. These websites do not show any ads. Example of YouTube videos for beginners to build Google Sites are YouTube Video1 and YouTube Video2.
WordPress
There are two types of WordPress, namely WordPress.com and WordPress.org. Only WordPress.com offers a free plan which allows you to build multi-page websites with unlimited pages/posts for free. It is good for:
- Personal blogs
- Hobby websites
- Learning how to use WordPress without financial commitments and/or before upgrading to a paid plan.
However, it limits you to only 1 GB of storage space and shows ads that move as you scroll through. Your site will be a subdomain, and the website URL structure will look like yourname.wordpress.com.
Examples of free websites built with WordPress.com free plan are artschooladmissions and brevity (brevity.wordpress.com). The following beginner video helps you to get started, YouTube WordPress.
Canva
Canva lets you build simple, fast, and visually appealing websites by allowing you to choose from a library of templates. Canva is good for creating:
- Landing pages e.g. for campaign or link-in-bio pages
- One-page business websites or service overviews e.g. for Saloons
- Resume or CV websites
- Event pages e.g. conference, party, wedding, competition etc.
Canva gives you a free subdomain with URL structure yourname.my.canva.site. It also shows a small non-intrusive ad on your website. Example of websites built with Canva include Macbeautyco (macbeautyco.my.canva.site) and Sarih2025. Get started with this YouTube Canva Video for beginners.
Square
Square offers a free website plan suitable for online stores or Ecommerce websites. It allows you to sell an unlimited number of products and receive online payments. You don’t pay any subscription fee, but you pay a processing fee per transaction. It also allows you to sell through social media, syncs with Square POS, so online and in-store inventory, sales, and orders stay unified.
Besides, it offers unlimited bandwidth so that your site can handle customer volume.
However, it comes with a branded subdomain name with URL structure yourname.square.site, shows square branded ads on footer or checkout page, and has limited design options.
To learn how to build your Ecommerce store with square, see “YouTube Square” video
HubSpot
HubSpot’s free website plan is ideal for creating simple business sites, landing pages, portfolios, and small blogs with focus on lead generation and customer interaction.
HubSpot differs from the other free website builders as follows:
- It integrates with HubSpot’s free CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software which allows you to generate and manage leads, contacts, and customer interactions without any third-party integration.
- It has built-in analytics to track site performance
- You have the option to connect your own custom domain even on the free plan. You are not forced to use their branded subdomain.
For more details on what you can or cannot get with HubSpot click here. However, while HubSpot free plan can be used in Ecommerce, it is only a lightweight Ecommerce solution where you can use HubSpot payment links to sell products. If you require full Ecommerce solutions, then you will need to integrate third-party platforms.
HubSpot’s free websites have the following branded URL structure yourname.hubspotpagebuilder.com if you fail to provide your own custom domain name. The following beginner video can help you to get started, YouTube HubSpot.
Wix
Wix is a very easy to use drag and drop builder that allows you to build websites for free by choosing from a variety of templates across different categories. It is very beginner friendly. However, it offers a free subdomain with a very poor URL structure username.wixsite.com/sitename, shows ads that move as you scroll through the websites, and may come with slower loading speed especially on mobile. Nevertheless, Wix free plan is suitable for:
- Hobby sites or personal portfolios
- Proof of concept or prototype sites
Example of websites built with Wix include dtramonti and musicinturmoil. Check the following videos to get you started YouTube Wix1 and YouTube Wix2.