A comparison of Do-It-Yourself website providers
There are 4 main points differentiating FirstWebsite from the others – 5 if you count the price.
- FirstWebsite provides a single page per website while the others offer multiple pages. We believe that if you want multiple pages or you want an E-commerce website you will probably use WordPress anyway.
- The FirstWebsite server is physically located in Australia while the others are located in USA. All things being equal, this means the FirstWebsite should be quicker to respond. Using a Content Delivery Network should mean a website hosted on the other side of the planet will load at the same rate anywhere in the world, but this is not always the case. See this post comparing page loads for FirstWebsite & the others.
- We offer the option of mail redirection for up to 3 email addresses
- Moving your website away from a DIY provider is generally difficult. However, FirstWebsite offers a free upgrade path to WordPress. See this comparison between FirstWebsite and a WordPress website
Comparison of DIY website provider features
| Options | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| provider | FirstWebsite | Wix | Square Space | Weebly |
| bandwidth | unlimited | 2Gb | unlimited | unlimited |
| Storage | 1Gb | 3Gb | unlimited | unlimited |
| Subdomain | yes | yes | yes | yes |
| Addon Domain | yes | yes | yes | yes |
| Free Domain (first year only) | no | yes | yes | yes |
| Website pages | 1 | multiple | 20 | multiple |
| SSL used | always | sometimes | sometimes | sometimes |
| Free trial period | 10 days on a subdomain | Yes, on a subdomain but with ads | 14 days on a subdomain | Yes, on a subdomain but with ads |
| Server Location | Australia | USA | USA | USA |
| Statistics | coming | yes | yes | yes |
| Google Analytics | coming | yes | yes | yes |
| E-commerce option | no | yes * (extra cost) | yes * (extra cost) | yes * (extra cost) |
| Easy to leave eg migrate to WordPress |
yes | no | no | no |
| yearly cost | $A80 | $US102 | $A192 | $A120 |
| Mail processed via Google’s G Suite * Google currently charges $60 pa per mailbox |
yes * | yes * | yes * | yes * |
| Mail redirection | yes $10pa |
no | no | no |