Free vs Paid Websites: What NZ Businesses Should Know

31 January 2026 by Connor London

Free website. Two words that sound perfect when you're starting a business and watching every dollar. But "free" in the website world comes with a lot of strings attached. Let's look at what you get -- and what you give up.

What "Free" Means

When website builders like Wix, Weebly, or WordPress.com offer a free plan, here's what you're getting:

• Their branding on your site. A banner or footer that says "Made with Wix" or similar. On a business website, that screams "I didn't want to pay for a proper site."
• Their domain name. Your website address will be something like yourname.wixsite.com/mybusiness. Not yourname.co.nz. Try putting that on a business card.
• Limited storage and bandwidth. Usually 500MB of storage and limited monthly visitors. That's fine for a personal blog. Not great for a business.
• No custom email. You can't have enquiries@yourbusiness.co.nz on a free plan. You're stuck with your personal Gmail.
• Ads. Some free plans show ads on your website -- ads you don't control and don't get paid for.

What You Give Up With Free

Professionalism

A website with "wixsite.com" in the URL and a "Made with Wix" banner at the bottom doesn't look professional. Your competitors with proper websites will look more established, even if they've been in business half as long as you.

When a customer is comparing two plumbers -- one with smithplumbing.co.nz and one with smith-plumbing.wixsite.com/home -- who do you think they trust more?

SEO and Google visibility

Free websites are harder to rank on Google. The sites are slower (more code, more scripts), you have less control over SEO settings, and Google tends to favour sites on custom domains. Their mobile-first indexing documentation explains how site performance affects rankings over subdomain sites.

If showing up on Google matters to your business (and it should -- see our SEO basics guide), a free site is fighting with one hand behind its back.

Ownership and control

With a free site, you're building on someone else's platform. They can change the rules, change the pricing, or even shut down the service. You can't export your site and take it somewhere else. If you want to move, you're starting from scratch.

Speed

Free plans are typically hosted on shared infrastructure with the lowest priority. Your site will be slower than paid plans, and definitely slower than a custom-built site. Speed affects both user experience and Google rankings.

When Free Might Be OK

Being honest -- there are some situations where a free site is fine:

• You're testing a business idea and just need something temporary to see if there's interest
• It's a personal project -- a hobby blog, a family event page, something that isn't trying to make money
• You literally have zero budget and something is better than nothing while you save up for a proper site

But even in that last case, "free" is a stepping stone, not a destination. The sooner you move to a proper site, the sooner you start looking professional and showing up on Google.

What Paid Gets You

A paid website -- whether it's a paid plan on a builder or a custom-built site -- gives you:

• Your own domain. yourbusiness.co.nz. Professional, memorable, trustworthy.
• No third-party branding. Your site looks like yours, not an ad for someone else's platform.
• Better speed. Paid plans and custom sites load faster, which means better user experience and better Google rankings.
• Full SEO control. Custom title tags, meta descriptions, schema markup -- all the stuff that gets you found on Google.
• Custom email. enquiries@yourbusiness.co.nz instead of your personal Gmail.
• No ads. Your site promotes your business, not someone else's.

But Doesn't Paid Cost a Fortune?

Not necessarily. There's a huge range.

Paid plans on DIY builders run about $17-$45/month. That's $204-$540 per year. Over three years, $612-$1,620. And you're still on a template with limited SEO control.

A custom website from Groundwork Digital starts at $749 -- one-off, no monthly fees. After the first year, it's already cheaper than most paid builder plans. And you get a faster site, better SEO, and full ownership.

For a full pricing comparison, check out our post on how much websites cost in NZ.

The Real Cost of "Free"

Here's the thing nobody talks about: a free website has a real cost. It's just not measured in dollars.

• Lost credibility. How many potential customers saw your free site and went to a competitor instead? You'll never know, but it's more than zero.
• Lost Google traffic. Every month your free site isn't ranking is a month of missed enquiries from people searching for your trade in your area.
• Your time. Building a site yourself -- even on a "easy" platform -- takes hours. Your time has value. If you earn $50/hour and spend 30 hours building a site, that's $1,500 worth of your time.

A tradie who charges $80/hour could spend 10 hours building a free Wix site -- that's $800 worth of time for a site that looks worse and ranks worse than a $749 custom build.

The Bottom Line

Free websites exist for a reason. They're great for personal projects and testing ideas. But for a real NZ business that wants to look professional and get found on Google, they're the wrong tool for the job.

A paid website -- especially a custom-built one -- is an investment that pays for itself through better visibility, more credibility, and more enquiries. It's one of the cheapest, highest-return investments a small business can make.

If you're currently on a free site and thinking about upgrading, have a look at our pricing page for the options.