This seems too good to be true.

Microsoft is offering you a free web site with Microsoft Office Live Basics. It is totally free service from Microsoft, which offers you…

 

  • A free domain name, registered in your name by an Australian affiliate.
  • Free web hosting, which includes 500 MB of Web site storage space, 10 GB monthly data transfer rate, 25 company-branded e-mail accounts, regulr backups and much more.
  • Easy-to-use Web site design tools, which will let you create your website in minutes
  • Web site reports to enable you measure the performance of you website
  • Search advertising tool with $50 credit (with terms and conditions)

Sounds too interesting. Yes it is.

So, what is the catch ?

Absolutely nothing. At least I could not find one. Only thing is that they also offer two types of premium accounts, which you might choose, if you want to access more features, or if your websites starts to get popular and grows big.

They require a credit card during the sign up process, which is not charged, until you choose to upgrade to their upgrade plans.

To give it a test ride, I also signed with them, and found the offer really interesting. The registration process is really simple, no deep knowledge of web designing or HTML coding is requried, and you can host images on the website.

There are a few things, which I wished, Microsoft would have added.

  • Number of available page templates.
  • Allow customization of the templates. In fact you cannot modify HTML or customize styles (CSS).
  • Seems like the uploaded images are converted by some conversion tool, because the quality of uploaded image is not that good as the original one, specially GIF and PNG images.
  • And if, in case, you want to switch the host, moving domain name can take a few days.

But still, for a really small website need, it is an option worth try.

BTW, did you started using the free useful tools from Google. If not, then