Free website builders can be useful. Platforms like Wix, Squarespace and Weebly let you publish a site with minimal effort and without a large upfront investment. But the absence of a price tag does not mean the absence of cost.
First, DIY platforms trade ease of assembly for constraints on performance and control. The markup, frameworks, and generic templates that make drag-and-drop effortless also add layers of code that increase page load times. Research shows that if page load time increases from 1 second to 3 seconds, bounce probability (i.e. the likelihood of a visitor leaving) goes up by ~32%. At 5 secs, it's ~90%. The reverse is also true: Faster sites that load in a second convert 3X better than sites that take 5 secs.
Second, search engines like Google index sites based on how well they respond to user intent. Free platforms standardise structure, which often limits semantic hierarchy, metadata granularity, and custom optimisation — all of which matter for discoverability. Sites built on these platforms may be discoverable, but they rarely achieve the same search visibility as those with bespoke structure and purposeful content.
Third, there's a hidden dependency and migration cost. Exporting content out of a proprietary builder is often impossible or requires a complete rebuild. A business that "starts simple" can discover, years later, that switching providers means starting from scratch again — a cost many don’t anticipate.
When a website’s purpose is to influence decisions and generate enquiries, these constraints can be real costs. They show up not as line items, but as friction — lower speed, weaker visibility, and harder upgrades. For some uses, these platforms are sufficient; for others, their limitations constrain outcomes.