A free website? What's the catch? An honest answer

If someone offers to build your website for nothing, the sensible reaction is to look for the catch. I'd do the same. So here it is, laid out plainly: what a free website from me actually costs, how it compares with paying an agency upfront, and what to check in any deal like this, mine included.

How a free website actually works

The build costs £0. Nothing upfront. I design a concept for your business and you see it within 7 days, with no commitment. If you don't like it, you walk away and pay nothing.

If you do like it, the site goes live and you pay £39 a month for hosting and care. There's a 12-month minimum, then it runs month to month with 30 days' notice. If you'd rather pay once a year, it's £378, which works out at £31.50 a month and saves you £90.

So the catch, if you want to call it that, is the 12 months. You're committing to a year of monthly care. That's how I cover the time it takes to build the site properly. Instead of charging you a big sum on day one, I spread it out and earn it back over the year, and after that I only keep earning if you stay because it's working.

What the £39 a month covers

It isn't just "hosting". Here's what's in it:

• A site designed for your business, not a template with your logo dropped in
• Works properly on phones, which is where most people will find you
• Your Google Business Profile set up and tidied
• Hosting, the security certificate (the padlock in the browser) and backups
• Up to 30 minutes of changes each month
• An enquiry form that sends messages straight to your inbox
• Local search basics, so Google knows where you are and what you do
• A 20-minute review call every quarter

Some things aren't in the monthly price: online booking, a small online shop, extra pages and wording, and photography. If you want any of those, I quote in writing first, so there are no surprises on an invoice.

The agency route, fairly compared

A typical agency charges £1,500 or more to build a small business site, then £20 to £50 a month for hosting and support. That's a perfectly reasonable way to do it, and plenty of good agencies work like that.

The upside of paying upfront is that once it's paid, it's paid. If the monthly fee afterwards is at the lower end, your running costs over several years can work out lower. If you have the cash, know exactly what you want and have someone who will look after the site properly, it can be a good deal.

The downside is that you carry the risk. You hand over £1,500 before you've seen how the site performs, and the agency has been paid whether or not the phone rings. Some agencies stay interested after launch. Some move on to the next build, and you find that small changes take weeks or come with a fresh bill.

With my setup, the incentives point the other way. I earn on the monthly care, not a one-off invoice, so I only do well if your site keeps working for you. If it doesn't, you leave after the first year and I've lost out. That keeps me honest.

What to check in any website deal

Whether you go with me, an agency or someone else offering a free or monthly website, ask these questions before you agree to anything:

1. Whose name is the domain in? Your domain (yourbusiness.co.uk) should be registered in your name, not the web designer's. If it's in theirs, you don't really control your own address online.
2. What's the notice period? Is there a minimum term, and what happens after it? Get it in writing.
3. What happens after year one? Does the price change? Do you own the design, or does it disappear if you stop paying?
4. What counts as a change? Is there a monthly allowance? Does swapping a photo cost the same as adding a page?
5. Who answers when something breaks? A person with a name and a phone number, or a ticket system?
6. What isn't included? Booking, shop, extra pages, photography. Ask for the list of extras up front.

For the record, here are my answers. The domain stays in your name. There's a 12-month minimum, then month to month with 30 days' notice. Once the first 12 months are paid, the design is yours. You get up to 30 minutes of changes every month. You deal with me. Extras are quoted in writing before any work starts. The full details are on the pricing page.

Who this suits, and who it doesn't

A free build with a monthly fee suits most small businesses I meet around Kelso and the Scottish Borders: a joiner in Jedburgh, a café in Melrose, a holiday cottage near Duns. People who need a proper site that brings in enquiries, don't want to find £1,500 in one go, and would rather have someone keep an eye on it than learn to do it themselves.

It doesn't suit everyone. If you want to build and manage the site yourself with Wix or Squarespace, that's a fair choice and can be good value if you have the time; check their current plans. If you need a big custom system with dozens of pages and complicated features, an agency with a team is probably a better fit. And if all you'll ever need is a phone number and your opening hours, a well-kept Google Business Profile might do most of the job for now. I've written about why businesses don't show up on Google if that's your worry.

Why I do it this way

I live in Kelso and run businesses here. I've built seven businesses and sold two, and in every one of them the website either brought in customers or sat there doing nothing. The ones that worked were the ones somebody kept looking after.

Plenty of small business owners I talk to have been burnt once already: a site that cost a lot, looked fine for a year, then went out of date because nobody was paid to keep it right. Charging monthly means I'm paid to keep it right. That's the whole idea, and it's why the quarterly review call is in there: twenty minutes every three months to look at what's working, what's changed in your business and what the site should say now.

There's no catch hidden in the small print. The year's commitment is the trade: you don't pay a lump sum, and in return you give the site a fair run.

See it before you decide

If you'd like to see what your site could look like before you commit to anything, ask for a free concept. You'll see it within 7 days, and if it's not for you, you pay nothing and we part as friends. You can request yours here.