Freeware

Freewebs: A Great Web Designer - For the ’90s

Developers: The Mokhtarzada Brothers
Version: N/A
Price: Free, Depending on Level of Service
Operating Systems: Linux, Mac OS X, Windows
Check out Freewebs Here.

Brings Back Bad Memories of Geocities and Homestead

Online web designers seem to be the hot new Web 2.0 applications. Maybe it’s because people are growing tired of social networking sites like Myspace and Facebook - and they want their own full fledged websites. Or perhaps it’s just a fad, a craze, or some Silicon Valley millionaire’s idea to increase his profits. Whatever it is, one of the biggest online web designers is Freewebs. But just because it’s the biggest - does it mean it’s the best? You’ll find out soon.

Freewebs offers it’s users free, easy to use website building tools to build practically any site they can think of. However, those tools are not nearly as easy as some of the competition offers. While they can piece together a pretty good site, they take some getting used to and may be difficult for people to jump right in for the first time. However, after getting used to them, they become second nature and work pretty well. I would never recommend using them on anything slower than DSL internet connection speeds though, as many of the site building tools have significant loading times.

Along the lines of building sites on Freewebs, let’s talk about the templates. There are quite a few, although most are simply derivatives of other templates with header picture changes or slightly modified colors. That’s fine, so long as I can modify my theme’s CSS. So off to modify the CSS I go - only to be horrified to find that only one theme allows CSS modification! If you want a free website that looks original, Freewebs is not the place to go. There is a major lack of variety unless you put in a lot of work. And apparently you have to “downgrade” your account if you want to edit any HTML too.

The large amount of options available through Freewebs’ site builder is what really keeps the site strong. I haven’t come across too many free services that automatically add a blog, a forum, various forms, and image slideshows at the click of a button. And I’ve certainly never seen a free web design site that has multiple file upload capabilities. These are some pretty cool features - but they’re not enough to make me rate Freewebs highly.

In essence, Freewebs reminds me of the old days. The days when Geocities and Homestead (remember those) were the biggest free website brands. Other online web building tools like Weebly [review] have grown out of the ’90s - but Freewebs seems trapped there. They’ve got decent tools, but there is not enough customization ability behind them to make them of use to anyone with even a slight knowledge of HTML, CSS or the other web coding languages.

Compatibility is also a problem with Freewebs. While it works on every browser I tried, there were functional issues, especially with the paragraph editor, in Webkit based browsers and Opera [review].

I can’t end this review without discussing Freewebs’ ridiculously obscene prices for “premium services”. Taking a look at “Best Value” Enhanced Package, for $8.33 per month, you get a whopping 750 MB of storage, 25 GB bandwidth, a domain name, and five email addresses. Give me a break. There are plenty of web hosts that give out 300 GB storage, 3000 GB bandwidth, 2500 email addresses, and a free domain name - for a buck and a half less. Who cares if you get free web building tools from Freewebs with the deal? There are better free programs, like Nvu/KompoZer [review], out there.

To answer the question I posed at the start of this review, no, Freewebs is certainly not the best online web design platform. It’s not even close to it. Do yourself a favor and forget about Freewebs if you have the hankering to build your own website using web based tools.

Check out Freewebs Here.

- Eric Norton

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