Google Page Creator is awesome - anyone can build a good looking website in minutes using the built-in templates or they can write pages externally (say in Dreamweaver) and upload them to Creator.
And everything is free - there are no ads on your pages and Google takes care of all the web hosting bills. But as they say, all good things come to an end, and so is Google Page Creator getting replaced by Google Sites.
Compare Google Sites with Google Page Creator
While Google Sites and Google Pages have common feature (like the WYSIWYG AJAX editor), they are still quite different. For instance, you can’t upload HTML pages to Google Sites and are therefore limited to using one of the built-in themes for your site design.
The second issue is that if you make a Google Site public, the associated ’site activity log’ also becomes public - most website publisher will have reservations sharing this data with unknown visitors. Lastly, all external hyperlinks are ‘nofollow’ if that means anything to you.
Free Alternatives to Google Page Creator
Here’s a roundup of some website building services that are free and non-technical.
1. Office Live Small Business - While the name may suggest that the service is only for small business owners, just about anyone can create their website here.
Website Builder inside Office Live Small Business
Office Live is easy and filled with goodies - you have tons of professional web templates and color themes to choose from, there’re ready-made modules for common tasks like web forms, photo galleries, live maps, email newsletters, etc. plus you can also upload office documents to the website.
Everything is free including web hosting and server space. See a sample site.
2. Weebly - This is powerful but very user friendly and easy web page builder where you start with a blank canvas and build the page by dragging elements that include text, videos, pictures, maps and more.
Geeks can write their own HTML and add them to Weebly pages. There’s support for Google ads as well so you can even monetize sites created inside Weebly. Another advantage - site publishers download their full site with pictures and CSS as a zip file. Free users gets 100 MB of free storage space and there’re no bandwidth limitations. See sample site.
3. Snap Pages - This is Flash based website editor that is very beautiful and may be a perfect place if you looking to create a small website for sharing some photos and your calendar. The options are slightly limited for non-premium users as they can’t create new pages. See sample site.
4. Edicy Pages - It’s a new website creation tool that is just perfect for the techie crowd who wants more control over their site layout.
Start by picking a design from the template gallery and then you may completely change the look and feel of your site by editing the blog template similar to WordPress themes or Blogger template. It also supports JavaScript code and like Google Sites, Edicy tracks all changes made to a site. See example site.
5. Synthasite - This is again an easy yet very powerful tool for building websites but unlike competition, Syntasite is completely free. Images uploaded to Synthasite can be diretly edited in Picnik just like you have in Flickr. The tool also lets you embed Google AdSense ads in web pages much like Weebly. See example site.
Some more site builders worth checking out are WebOn, WebSketch, Viviti, Wix and Webs.
Find this article at: http://www.labnol.org/internet/free-website-building-hosting-tools/4511/
web: http://www.labnol.org/ email: amit@labnol.org
Reader Comments
Err.. Am I the first one to comment?
Agreed sites has something less compared to Page Creator. But I have hooked up on sites. And I like it more than page creator because in GPC you cannot have a standard sidebar (atleast when I started using it) and a standard header/footer. Google-sites is more of a wiki (from Jotspot) and I still believe that there must be some grand plans to put in some themeing, content management etc (All google products have improved manifold from the time they were released)
At the moment I am onto Google Sites, and wont migrate to anything else unless I am sure that Sites isnt taking off big time.
Nice finds though !! Keep up the good work :)
Written by Kannan Ekanath on 09.12.08
Another free website building tool is link
Written by mh on 09.12.08
I feel Weebly is the best..even though it load slower than others
Written by Psypo on 09.12.08
Do any of these hosts allow one to upload (FTP) complete HTML Web sites? If not, where is a good free or low-cost place to host a site?
Written by Larry Press on 09.16.08
If we use Office Live Small Business for creating a website, won’t we be technically a small business. Practically speaking, wouldn’t this mean that we will no longer be able to use content licensed as non-commercial?
Written by Ambuj Saxena on 09.20.08
I wonder which one having fastest uploading service. I have not used any of them except google page creator. Uploading speed is one of the biggest factor in keeping the visitors interested in the site.
Written by zasbo on 11.03.08
Amit, I wonder is there a way to change the default page that serves as the front page of the home in google pages?
Written by Manivannan Palanichamy on 11.06.08