We’ve all seen the TV commercials offering a “Free Custom Website Design”. So as website designers and developers for almost 20 years we were eager to dig deeper into these offers and get to the real facts.

It turns out that “Free” usually involves a monthly fee and sometimes an annual obligation. In addition, upgrades for a fee are often needed to get to anything beyond the most simple of websites. So the old adage that “nothing is free” seems to apply, and once again advertisements use bait and switch techniques to lure in uninformed customers.

As for the second half of the offer for a “Free Custom Website Design” these website templates are far from a truly customized and branded website design and functionality. (more…)