# Best Free Website for small business? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 9, 2006, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-free-website-for-small-business/383481 "2006-12-09T16:48:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bibliovore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Bibliovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bibliovore)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2006, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-free-website-for-small-business/383481/1 "2006-12-09T16:48:00Z")
My mom is starting up her own flower arranging business and would like to have some presence online so that she can show off sample images rather than having to always email them as attachments to people. As a total noob, where can I get a free website for her? It has to be easy to set up and allow plenty of space for lots of images. Any ideas? ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2006, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-free-website-for-small-business/383481/2 "2006-12-10T00:04:47Z")
For a complete noob, not wanting to buy a domain and with little or no experience of web design, and without the budget to change any of that… I would recommend [freewebs.com](http://freewebs.com) - you get a subdomain, so the site would be (for example) [www.momsflowers.freewebs.com](http://www.momsflowers.freewebs.com). - It’s a simple enough domain name to be memorable. It’s also easy to set up, they have a number of useful things like guestbooks and page counters that you can set up really easily. Upload of files is all through a web interface (which is actually a bit of a pain if you have lots to do all at once, but once you get the meat of the site up there, it’s not too bad). As far as deigning the pages, I will recommend a very simple web design package called namu6 - it’s almost impossible to produce a bad-looking site with this (free) tool. [http://namu6.com/](http://namu6.com/) ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2006, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-free-website-for-small-business/383481/3 "2006-12-10T00:31:01Z")
[QUOTE=Book Monster] would like to have some presence online so that she can show off sample images rather than having to always email them as attachments [/QUOTE] Check with whomever provides her with internet access for her email. There may already be some free web page space set aside for her as part of her email account. [(That’s how I ended up with a free website.)](http://my.tbaytel.net/culpeper/index2.html) ---
**Author:** ![scottkris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/94ad74/32.png) [@scottkris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scottkris)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2006, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-free-website-for-small-business/383481/4 "2006-12-10T00:42:34Z")
[QUOTE=Mangetout] For a complete noob, not wanting to buy a domain and with little or no experience of web design, and without the budget to change any of that… \ As far as deigning the pages, I will recommend a very simple web design package called namu6 - it’s almost impossible to produce a bad-looking site with this (free) tool. > **[Checking your browser...](http://namu6.com/)** [/QUOTE] Although I am not going to d/l this program and waste space on my HDD, it looks OK for a “noob.” However, you may want to at a later time learn HTML and use something like notepad to create websites…one of my pet peevees is useless bloated programs that accomplish something already built-in to the OS. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2006, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-free-website-for-small-business/383481/5 "2006-12-10T00:49:07Z")
Sorry, but I just don’t think it’s a very useful or realistic suggestion that someone like **Book Monster** ’s florist mother take up development of websites in raw HTML in notepad. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2006, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-free-website-for-small-business/383481/6 "2006-12-10T00:50:12Z")
(in other words, welcome to one of _my_ pet peeves) ---
**Author:** ![scottkris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/94ad74/32.png) [@scottkris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scottkris)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2006, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-free-website-for-small-business/383481/7 "2006-12-10T01:04:48Z")
[QUOTE=Mangetout] (in other words, welcome to one of _my_ pet peeves) [/QUOTE] That’s OK, and I understand. However, I did say that at a later time one **should** learn HTML, if only so one doesn’t have to use “redundant” software. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2006, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-free-website-for-small-business/383481/8 "2006-12-10T01:16:38Z")
Do you really think HTML is requisite for an amateur dabbler? ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2006, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-free-website-for-small-business/383481/9 "2006-12-10T01:28:24Z")
check out microsoft’s office live. the base package is free and it scales up with monthly fee plans. has website homepage, email, shared workspaces, credit card billing, etc I think it is [www.officelive.com](http://www.officelive.com) or do a search. ---
**Author:** ![scottkris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/94ad74/32.png) [@scottkris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scottkris)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2006, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-free-website-for-small-business/383481/10 "2006-12-10T01:35:33Z")
[QUOTE=Mangetout] Do you really think HTML is requisite for an amateur dabbler? [/QUOTE] No. That is why I said “later”… I assumed one that was going in for the long haul would want to learn how to write the language…I said the program you recommended was fine for a newbie, and I said that in my first post, and you know I did. On a tangent, I hate it when someone uses a crappy program to write their HTML, I try to d/l it for offline reading, and later learn I can’t read it due to crappy coding. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2006, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-free-website-for-small-business/383481/11 "2006-12-10T01:42:57Z")
[QUOTE=scottkris] No. That is why I said “later”… I assumed one that was going in for the long haul would want to learn how to write the language…I said the program you recommended was fine for a newbie, and I said that in my first post, and you know I did. [/quote] Sorry, I didn’t mean to offend, and I really don’t wish to labour the point, but the way it read to me was a little stronger; the bolded use of the term ‘should’, for example. Anyway… > [@](#): > > On a tangent, I hate it when someone uses a crappy program to write their HTML, I try to d/l it for offline reading, and later learn I can’t read it due to crappy coding. To continue the tangent - in my experience, namu6 does in fact produce quite tidy and readable HTML - more so in fact than a good deal of human-produced code I’ve had the pleasure of reading. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2006, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-free-website-for-small-business/383481/12 "2006-12-10T01:45:27Z")
I’d just like to correct something I said in post #2 - [freewebs.com](http://freewebs.com) gives you a directory, not a subdomain, so the site would in fact be [www.freewebs.com/momsflowers](http://www.freewebs.com/momsflowers) ---
**Author:** ![scottkris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/94ad74/32.png) [@scottkris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scottkris)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2006, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-free-website-for-small-business/383481/13 "2006-12-10T02:07:20Z")
[QUOTE=Mangetout] Sorry, I didn’t mean to offend, and I really don’t wish to labour the point, but the way it read to me was a little stronger; the bolded use of the term ‘should’, for example. Anyway… [/QUOTE] Quite alright; I did not bold it because I believed it was right, but because it was something I tried to point out. [QUOTE=Mangetout] To continue the tangent - in my experience, namu6 does in fact produce quite tidy and readable HTML - more so in fact than a good deal of human-produced code I’ve had the pleasure of reading. [/QUOTE] As I said, I did not d/l the program (as I already know and prefer to code via notepad), but hoo-f’ing-ray if it helps those “idiots” to stop using bad code. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2006, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-free-website-for-small-business/383481/14 "2006-12-10T02:08:59Z")
Which _idiots_? ---
**Author:** ![scottkris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/94ad74/32.png) [@scottkris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scottkris)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2006, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-free-website-for-small-business/383481/15 "2006-12-10T02:21:55Z")
[QUOTE=Mangetout] Which _idiots_? [/QUOTE] I really cannot say. I try to d/l several dozen sites a day to read offline, and I would say at least 10% of them are unreadable. Usually if they are, I just ignore them in the future. (I have a WIFI connection, so my internet access is often spotty so if I d/l web pages it is often better than reading them “live”) ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2006, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-free-website-for-small-business/383481/16 "2006-12-10T04:08:44Z")
The best forum for informed opinions is IMHO. Moved. **samclem** ---
**Author:** ![Batsinma\_Belfry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ea5d25/32.png) [@Batsinma\_Belfry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Batsinma_Belfry)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2006, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-free-website-for-small-business/383481/17 "2006-12-10T04:29:10Z")
[QUOTE=Mangetout] For a complete noob, not wanting to buy a domain and with little or no experience of web design, and without the budget to change any of that… I would recommend [freewebs.com](http://freewebs.com) - you get a subdomain, so the site would be (for example) [www.momsflowers.freewebs.com](http://www.momsflowers.freewebs.com). - It’s a simple enough domain name to be memorable. It’s also easy to set up, they have a number of useful things like guestbooks and page counters that you can set up really easily. Upload of files is all through a web interface (which is actually a bit of a pain if you have lots to do all at once, but once you get the meat of the site up there, it’s not too bad). As far as deigning the pages, I will recommend a very simple web design package called namu6 - it’s almost impossible to produce a bad-looking site with this (free) tool. > **[Checking your browser...](http://namu6.com/)** [/QUOTE] After building a site using Freewebs, then running it through one of those free SSO sites, to see if it would be accepted by the search engines, I discovered that the html was missing the charset number as well as a few other important tags. Unfortunately, the same is true for most free sites. The best free site IMO is [Bravenet.com.](http://www.bravenet.com/) They have lots of features, easy upgrades and a member’s community for help.