Zoho Sites is no longer completely free. The internet is a promise for value. For both the surfer and the creator, the internet promises value. Website builders try to show the creators a way to create without issue. Despite the hundreds of options in the market there is, sadly, an absence of a complete builder that is accessible to the ones without a big paycheck. We are changing that. With Zoho Sites, you can now create, edit and host beautiful websites, for free!
Unsustainable Advertising
Let’s think about why do website builders ask you to pay. Of the numerous website builders in the market, the most prominent distinction among the ‘best’ seems to be their marketing budget. Focusing primarily on visibility, these companies have been spending increasing amounts to catch eyeballs. One even spent millions for its 30 seconds of fame! Despite the excessive spending, these companies are barely reaching break-even. They are getting their visibility, but low-conversion rates were hurting their ability to generate revenue enough to justify expenses. The model had proven to be unsustainable and unstable.
It was demand and supply at its worst, with the cost of advertising for the entire market rising up. However, taking a step back from this apparent chaos, we realized that reducing our advertising costs would enable us to provide you with a larger number of features for free. The realization that our basic builder could be made free, made the idea more enticing to our eyes and we decided to go with it.
An alternative in word-of-mouth
With this update, you have unlimited pages, storage, bandwidth, galleries and much more. All the tools you need to create your personal web-space. In comparison, other site builders, like Squarespace, Wix and Weebly, are pretty good, if you have the necessary fat wallet.
In effect, we are not going to spend millions on advertising, nor are we going to advertise on your website. We are going to leave the marketing to you. Our belief is that our time would be better spent making our offering better, to make it easier for everyone to build the website of their dreams! In fact, we are going to move to a completely crowd driven marketing!
Forever????
can i ad google adsense or revenue hits or chitika advertisements to my website.
Is zoho be used for just business or can one create a personal site as well?
Is there a limit to the number of free sites that can be made per user & do you allow sites with tobacco products, gambling & adult content?
As you see I have four different sites with Zoho. Since you are doing free sites is there now a limit to how many sites a user may put up?
This is great news. I found Zoho Sites increadibly easy to use and powerful enough for my needs. Would Zoho consider adding more web site templates - for example the one-pager web site template would be useful. Also, a template that is catered to a site structure for cloud based services - similar to Zoho Analytics for instance.
Hey Sunil! We are working on adding more templates to our collection. It'll be up soon. We shall definitely try to incorporate your suggestions into it too. Thanks and regards Gautham
The "Promo" say 100% Ad-Free, but my Zoho site still has a Zoho Ad at the bottom? Staying as a FREE customer, will this "Zoho Ad" now go away? That's my only hesitation against using Zoho for other sites I create, or against recommending it to others. Even a really cheap Add-On fee to do nothing more than remove that AD would interest me, like $10/yr for example. Otherwise I would go with other hosting resources that are 100% free, and don't have any self-promoting Ads.
Hey Terry! Just drop us a mail with your website details at support@zohosites.comThe Zoho Ad will not come up, even while you are using our free version. Regards Gautham
I like it. Two questions. 1. Does that mean that when my current plan ends, I will automatically be put on the free plan and just pay for the add-ons I want? Or 2. Does it mean that my current plan will now dissolve and that you now enroll me in the free plan, giving me complimentary access to certain add-ons until the time that my paid plan would have expired?
Hello Dwight! Currently all of Zoho Sites' paid users will be given access to certain add-ons, by default. You can have a look at your current add-ons subscription using this link: https://sites.zoho.com/addons Make sure you are logged in while accessing that link. Regards, Gautham
I recently built a site for a client using Zoho Sites and I think Zoho Sites is a great option in the growing sea of website builders. So it's surprising that Zoho hasn't been able to do a better job marketing Zoho Sites. For example, how come more website builder review sites like CMS Critic do not seem to know or care about Zoho Sites?
Hello Scott, We have been working towards creating a great product for our customers and are glad to hear you love it! Regarding the marketing, our faith is that our customers would vouch for our offering and spread the good word. Thanks for your support! Regards, Gautham
Hey Gautham, whew. Quite the move in the face of the competition. One thing though is now I have to do a serious rethink on plans made for a business. The cost of hosting and website builders was just too much....well until now. thanks, i think. Brad
Glad to help, Brad! Regards, Gautham
This is marvelous. We can now enjoy unlimited access to your wonderful services. Thanks big!
One word to describe Zoho..........POWERFUL!!! I'm glad I'm on the paid plan because I would feel bad getting so many features for free. You rock!!!!
Thanks for the support! Gautham
Good, it's a big news.
Wow, that's great news!
we are happy to hear that this site is free. thank you.