How to start a website for free, and when your practice outgrows it

Free websites work. People who sell websites tend not to say so, so I will: you can start a website for free this afternoon, and for some practices that is the right first move.

What free cannot give you is an address with your own name on it, and that is the line between a test and a practice. So here is how to start a website for free in five steps, then the terms that come with free, and the signs that tell a lawyer, paralegal, dentist, accountant or vet it is time to move.

How to start a website for free in five steps

The free builders all run roughly the same route. The names on the buttons change. The order does not.

1. Pick a builder

Wix and WordPress.com both publish a free tier on their own pricing pages. Wix's plans page answers its own FAQ in six words: "Creating your own website is free." The WordPress.com pricing page lists a Free plan with "No expiration date." Open both editors and pick the one you can stand to use for an hour. You will be in it a lot.

2. Accept the builder's address

A free site lives at the builder's address, with your name tucked inside it. Wix's FAQ describes the "free Wix URL (username.wixsite.com/sitename)." WordPress.com says "the free plan uses a WordPress.com subdomain (yoursite.wordpress.com) and does not include a custom domain." Choose a site name that matches your practice name, spelled the way clients spell it.

3. Choose a template

Take the plainest template that looks like your kind of work. A family lawyer and a veterinary clinic want different photographs and the same things underneath: a clear headline, a phone number near the top, and nothing that moves on its own. Skip the template with the video background. Your next client is reading on a phone in a parking lot with one bar of signal.

4. Add the pages a client needs

Most small practice sites run on four kinds of page:

• a home page that says what you do and where, in the first line
• one page per service, written in the words clients use
• an about page with a real photograph of you
• a contact page with your phone, email, address and hours

Write the service pages first, because they do the selling. A paralegal who handles traffic tickets and small claims needs two pages, one for each. One page called "Services" with a bulleted list is the website equivalent of a business card with no phone number.

5. Publish, then wait for Google

Hit publish. Google's SEO starter guide says "You usually don't need to do anything except publish your site on the web," because its crawlers go looking for new pages on their own. Give it a few weeks, then search your own practice name and see where you land.

Who a free website suits

Free is a fine start, and I mean that. It suits:

• a lawyer or accountant testing a new practice area before paying for pages about it
• a new practice that needs something to point at while the real site is built
• a side project, a community group or a clinic's one-day adoption event
• anyone who wants to learn how websites work by breaking one that costs nothing

That last one is underrated. A weekend fighting a free editor teaches you what a page title is, and you will ask any developer you hire better questions afterward.

If you came here asking how to make a website for free for a business, the five steps above are the same. The difference is what the business needs that site to do a year from now.

The terms that come with free

Free plans are paid for. The builder takes its payment in other currencies, and each one shows up on your pages.

Your clients see the builder's name

The WordPress.com pricing page says it plainly: "Free sites display WordPress.com ads to visitors." On Wix, the same FAQ that says creating a site is free goes on: "With a Premium plan you can connect your own domain, remove Wix branding from your site, and more." Read that sentence backwards and you have the free plan. The branding stays and your own domain does not connect.

Neither company hides this, and for a test site it is a fair deal. For a dentist, though, an ad nobody in the office chose sitting beside the new-patient page is someone else's sales pitch running in your waiting room.

Moving out takes planning

Wix's help page on exporting your site says "In order for your site to work properly, it needs to be hosted and operated on Wix's servers." It adds that you can connect a domain bought from another provider. WordPress.com publishes a guide to export your website's content "to transfer it to another WordPress site or platform." Before you pour two years of pages into any builder, read its export page. It takes five minutes and spares you a surprise on moving day.

A lease, not a deed

I spent 33 years as a paralegal in Ontario courtrooms, from 1990 to 2024, and the distinction I would put to any client is an old one. A lease lets you stay until the landlord's terms change. A deed lets you change the locks. On a free plan the builder holds the code, the server and the address, and you hold the right to decorate. That is fine as long as you know which document you signed. Whether you own the site you have right now is a separate question, and do you actually own your website answers it.

Can you create a website for free with your own domain name?

Not on Wix's or WordPress.com's free plans, as of 5 October 2026. Wix's export help page says "To connect a domain to your Wix site, you must upgrade your site with a plan." WordPress.com's free plan "does not include a custom domain."

Google Sites is the exception. Its help page on custom domains says "You can use a custom domain for a site published on Google Sites." Even there, you buy the domain separately, from a registrar or through a Google Workspace plan, and Google may ask you to verify that you own it through Google Search Console before it connects.

So the honest answer is that the site can be free and the name cannot. A domain is registered to a person or a company, the registrant. That registrant should be you, by name, whoever builds the site.

Signs your practice has outgrown free

Each of these means the free site did its job and the job has grown:

• You are about to print the address on a business card, a sign or letterhead.
• Clients search your name and find a directory listing before they find you.
• The site has been live for months and Google still does not show it.
• You have started buying upgrades one at a time, and the monthly total has crept past what you meant to spend.
• A form on the site now collects names, phone numbers and the reason someone needs you.

The third sign has its own diagnosis. Why your website isn't showing up on Google walks through which stage broke. If Google shows the site but nobody picks it, the next job is search work you can do yourself, and DIY SEO for small business sets out what that costs in hours before you start.

What moving to your own site looks like

When a practice moves to us, we build the site in Django and host it on Hetzner servers. Hosting is $15 a month on our services page. Our pricing page says "You become the registrant on your own domain," and at handover you get the code and the server keys. We run more than 40 live sites that way. What goes into building your website lays out a built-for-you site page by page.

And if your free site is still doing what you need, keep it. I held to that as a paralegal: for one fail-to-surrender-insurance-card ticket, I published my cross-examination plan on my blog so the driver could win it without hiring me. Send your site to the free website audit and I will tell you in plain English whether it is still doing the job, and what to change first if it is not.

Common questions

How do I create a website for free?

Sign up with a free website builder, accept its free web address, pick a template, add your pages and publish. Wix's plans page says "Creating your own website is free," and the WordPress.com pricing page lists a Free plan with "No expiration date." Start with a home page, one page per service, an about page and a contact page. The site will live at the builder's address, such as yoursite.wordpress.com.

Can I create a website for free with my own domain name?

Usually not on a free plan. Wix's help page says "To connect a domain to your Wix site, you must upgrade your site with a plan," and WordPress.com says its free plan "does not include a custom domain." Google Sites lets you connect a custom domain, according to its help page, but you still buy the domain itself from a registrar or through a Google Workspace plan. The site can be free. The name is a separate purchase, and it should be registered to you.

How do I make a website for free for a business?

Use the same steps as any free site, and write it for the client who is about to call. Put what you do and where you do it in the first line, give each service its own page, show a real photo of yourself and make your phone number easy to tap. Expect the builder's name in your web address and, on some plans, its ads or branding on your pages, as Wix's plans page and the WordPress.com pricing page both state.

Is a free website good enough for a professional practice?

For a start, yes. A free site works for testing a new practice area, holding a place while a real site is built, or learning how websites work. It stops being enough when you print the address on cards or letterhead, when clients search your name and cannot find you, or when a form collects their details. At that point a lawyer, dentist, accountant or vet needs the site at their own domain, registered in their own name.

Can I move my free website somewhere else later?

Sometimes, with planning. Wix's help page on exporting says a Wix site "needs to be hosted and operated on Wix's servers" to work properly, though on a paid plan you can connect a domain bought from another provider. WordPress.com publishes a guide to export your website's content to another WordPress site or platform. Read your builder's export page before you build a large site on it.