A free webshop: reasons why that’s not the smartest choice

27 September 2022
Reading time: 9 min
E-commerce

Most dreams don't come true. A free webshop that looks professional and where your customers like and safely shop is a good example. Why start a lame free webshop if you can launch a cheap, professional webshop with a few smart investments? Moreover, Combell includes a lot of tools and services in its hosting packages. This way, your dream of a free, online web store is getting even closer. 😉

Create your own free webshop? Think before you begin

Why would you want to create a free webshop? Good question! Compare starting a free web shop with building your own house, but with all free materials. Bricks you found, tile floors that are actually leftovers ...

None of it looks high quality. Moreover, the free materials may not be quite what you need. Once built, the real craftsmen have to come and fix everything. It's only a matter of time before the roof of your house starts leaking.

Disadvantages of free webshops

Set your sights on a free webshop? If so, please be aware that there are several disadvantages to starting a free webshop. Such as:

Not secure. Free shops often have fewer security features, such as an HTTPS connection and security patches, making your webshop an easy target for hackers and cyber attacks. You simply cannot allow that if, among other things, you process payment information.

Anything but professional. You will start an unprofessional webshop. Free in many cases means: no own domain name, a lot of advertising and adverts on your webshop ... This negatively affects the reputation and credibility of your business.

Limited support. Providers who let you create your own webshop for free give you poor technical support. Problems are not solved (immediately) and you cannot ask questions. Contrary to Combell, by the way! Count on free support 24/7.

Few features. Free web shops are limited in features. Additional plugins, more templates, responsive design, different payment methods ... The limited options prevent such adjustments. Also the integration with, for example, your accounting software is not self-evident.

Limited scalability. Combell attaches great importance to scalability. Free web stores will also fail in that respect. So, your free web store will not grow along with your business and it will be difficult to meet your customer's needs.

This is why Combell is the best partner for your cheap webshop

Starting a free online store: some points of interest!

The disadvantages are obvious. Those are the facts. But you should not lose sight of some other important points of interest.

For example, is creating a webshop completely free of charge? Sometimes hidden costs pop up. You may have to pay extra for essential features or if you want to upgrade your online store. It is even possible that you will have to give up a certain percentage of your turnover to pay for the free platform.

Combell is renowned for being an ultra-reliable hosting provider. Can you say the same about free providers? For instance, they can shut down at any time and leave you with a lot of problems.

If your free webshop remains online anyway, you have to watch out for loading speed that is too slow or even worse: going offline during visitor peaks and server overload.

Building a free webshop or investing smartly?

As you already noticed: building a completely free webshop is in fact not done. Although we can fully understand that you prefer to spend a small budget on your webshop. In that case, an affordable webshop is exactly what you need. This type of webshop has several advantages.😀

4 major benefits of a low-cost webshop

Reduced start-up costs. Those who start a cheap webshop need less start-up capital. So you can still start a webshop with a small budget. Besides; that startup can be done much faster compared to a physical store. So you can start selling products through your own webshop much quicker.

More profit margin on your products. An inexpensive shop will eventually provide a higher profit margin for your company.

Cheaper, more attractive prices. Knock off the competition and price your products lower. You'll do so thanks to the lower costs of your online store. Customers will love visiting your shop and buying your products.

Your shop just the way you want it. Unlike a free webshop, you can customize a cheap online store as much as you want. With a webshop builder like SiteBuilder, you can manage everything yourself and thus quickly follow trends and meet the needs of your customers.

Of course, every webshop is different. Smaller or larger. It is important that you can offer your customers the desired quality and service you have in mind. Exactly, go big online!

Creating an online webshop: free and affordable services at Combell

Combell offers several tools and services that allow you to launch your webshop as cheaply as possible. OK, that is not quite the same as creating a free webshop, but it is pretty close.

Free domain name with SiteBuilder. Of course, you need your own domain name. You can register a domain name without a hosting package, but then, of course, you will not have any storage space for your webshop. Therefore, it is smarter to buy a full package right away. In fact, the first year, Combell offers you a free domain name as a free gift with your hosting package.

Free website (including hosting!) with your domain name. Creating a free website with a webshop? If you want that free website, you have come to the right place! With each domain name, you currently receive a free version of SiteBuilder. 😉 This allows you to create a simple website on your domain name in just a few clicks. Eventually, you can switch to the SiteBuilder Standard package. This package includes the web shop module.

Free images. An image says more than words. In SiteBuilder, you can use free, professional photos and images to give your webshop the required look.

Free SSL certificates Let's Encrypt. Free SSL is included by default in your hosting package. This means that, with Combell, you can always count on an encrypted HTTPS connection. Afterwards, it is up to you to decide whether you want to invest in extra cybersecurity by choosing a paid SSL certificate.

Free transfer service. Choose Combell's hosting and we will move your online properties to our environment completely free of charge. Our team of specialists will make sure of a flawless transition from your current provider to Combell.

Free 24/7 support. Unseen, but absolutely true: as our customer, you can count on our support day and night. In a free one-on-one session with one of our experts, we'll even help you build your low-cost webshop.

Free trial period. If you're not satisfied, you can ask for a refund within 90 days of purchase. This is called our money-back guarantee. Of course, we will first convince you of the strong Combell quality!

Affordable hosting package. Assess in advance what kind of web store you want. Choose the hosting package that you need right away. If you want a simple web store with a limited number of products that will not attract a large number of visitors, choose the cheapest hosting package.

Launch your own affordable webshop — Launch a low-cost webshop and don't pay extra for essential features.

Creating a webshop: (free) software from Combell

If you go online with your business, you always need a solid foundation. In other words: your own domain name and hosting on which your web store runs.

Did you know that you can choose web hosting that includes a ready-to-use Content Management System (CMS)? Most of those well-known systems are actually free webshop software. PrestaShop, Magento and WordPress are Open Source webshop software.

This means that the source code is freely available to anyone who wants to use or modify them. This allows developers and users all over the world to improve and expand the software. This is how a lot of new plug-ins, themes and other modifications have been created.

Let's go over those three well-known players:

PrestaShop

You can download this free webshop software for free. Of course, there are also "premium" models with additional features for which you have to pay.

From a single dashboard you can manage several webshops. This is webshop software with which you can set up both small and larger webshops. This platform excels in user-friendliness and flexibility, among other things.

PrestaShop also offers many options for managing products, customers and orders. Thanks to all kinds of themes and modules, you can expand and personalize the functionality of your webshop.

Because you can categorize, tag and describe your products, this platform has extensive search engine optimization.

WordPress with WooCommerce webshop plugin.

Both WordPress and the WooCommerce plug-in are free to download. A lot of themes and plugins have been developed specifically for WooCommerce on a WordPress website, making it easy to expand and personalize your webshop.

You should choose WordPress when you are a little more technically gifted, and want to invest enough time to build your affordable online store. You will need some time to get your web design completely right, but once you're up and running, all you have to do is put in the right content.

Magento

Are you launching a large webshop? Then you're better off with a Magento webshop. That popular and robust system is an extremely, severe option for large webshops. Sidenote: for this software, you need quite a bit of technical knowledge.

Magento, like WordPress, is (free) Open Source webshop software. There are different versions of Magento. Like a free, but more limited Community Edition and several paying Enterprise editions. You get a lot of options for managing many products and orders.

Webshop Snoepfee — Build your new webshop with SiteBuilder. This is one of the webshop examples.

SiteBuilder

We have already mentioned it a few times: SiteBuilder, Combell's web shop builder. That is the free web store module in your website. This way, you can create your own website first and upgrade to a web store later. So, you do not have to buy another package.

This user-friendly package gives you everything you need to build your web store right away. And no, you don't need any technical knowledge. You build - surprisingly easy! - build your shop where and when you want. You are the boss. So you don't have to bother anyone when you want to update the pages.

With this cheap shop software you get all the building blocks to launch your shop. Hundreds of templates, manage products, all kinds of payment and shipping options, integrations with payment gateways (Bancontact, PayPal, Stripe ...).

Tip

SiteBuilder has been enhanced with an AI webshop builder. You no longer have to build your webshop yourself; the Artificial Intelligence does it for you! Try it now.

Shabby free web store? Combell allows you to create an excellent affordable webshop!

Even those who want to launch a professional web store on a limited budget need to make well-considered choices. However, it is better to give up the idea of creating a completely free webshop.😉

Here at Combell, we make every effort to provide you with the tools and services you need to start a cheap and affordable web store. And it is worth more than any other free webshop.

With our money-back guarantee, you as an entrepreneur can experiment with different hosting packages and choose the most suitable and cost-saving option.

Launch your affordable web store with Combell and, unlike free web stores, do not make any compromises when it comes to professionalism, quality and reliability.

Create your webshop with our web store builder

Frequently asked questions about free webshops

What is the best free web shop?

You have to invest in quality. This is the only way to build a successful web store. There are different variants of free web shop software. You can use the source code for free. But your shop also needs support and security, among other things. For this, you can turn to a reliable hosting provider such as Combell. This way, you can start your own web store.

Can I create a free web store with my own domain name?

With Combell, you get your domain name for free the first year with your hosting or SiteBuilder package. That is not yet a free web shop, but it is yet another way to save money.

How to make a free webshop?

You can indeed create a free website with a webshop. But ... keep in mind that, with such a free package, your shop will probably not look professional, the provider will place many advertising banners and the service afterwards will not be perfect. This is why at Combell, we rather recommend to create a cheap web shop.