How to create a website for free

I believe you know basic steps about creating a website. If you don't read this post titled Steps to build a website.
There is a serious misconception among beginners who want to create website that to make website one needs to learn HTML, CSS, JavaScript or advanced web programming languages like PHP, Python, Ruby, C#, Visual basic etc.
There were days when knowing these technologies was must. But now to make a basic (or sometimes advanced) website you do not need to know programming or scripting.
If you know about correct tools you can create some beautiful looking and fully functional websites without learning any of the above mentioned technologies.
There are many services out there where you can create your website and host them. Some of them and free and some are paid.

Before starting a website you should know the purpose of your website. Few people just want to share their daily activities or keep an online journal, for them creating a blog is enough. If you are want to build a website for your business a blog will not suffice and you will need a full blown website with webpages ranging from business introduction to online store where your customers can order your products (This is only required if you want to sell your products or services online).
Creating a blog is very simple and you can create your blog online in few minutes and that too for free. There are many online services where you can create your blog in next few minutes. Lets evaluate most popular options.
1. Blogger.com :

Blogger.com makes blogging so easy that you don’t have to see any code ever(although you can). You can create blog at blogger.com in few minutes and you are good to go without spending a single dime. This service is owned by Google. You blog is hosted at Google server so no need to find a quality hosting service.

2. Wordpress:

Wordpress in most popular platform used by most of the advanced bloggers. Wordpress comes in 2 flavors. You can go to wordpress.com and create blog just like blogger.com and start blogging. You blog is hosted at wordpress.com and you don’t have to worry about buying hosting. Second option that most advanced blogger opt for is to download copy of blogging software from wordpress.org and install it on their purchased hosting space. This second option gives you more control as you have full access to the blog platform’s code and you can alter it according to your needs.

3. Tumblr.com:

This is a new service compared to blogger or wordpress. It is recently acquired by yahoo. This is a interesting blogging service in respect that it is not only a blog hosting service it’s a community of people who blog and read each other’s blogs.

4. Weebly.com:

Weebly is not only a blogging platform, you can also create full fledged websites with various fancy bells and whistles. It has a basic free plan with some constraints and paid plans if you want more features. You can choose your plan according to your needs. For beginners free plan suffice.

There are numerous other services but I suggest you create your blog at one of these reputed and time tested service.
If you want to create a website with more function than that of a blog you can use one of below mentioned services.
1. Weebly.com :

I myself use this service to create websites whenever required as this service makes it so easy to build beautiful and professional looking websites. You simply have to choose templates click on buttons according to your needs and you are done. You can also add your custom domain(example: websiteown.com) for free for which competing services like wix.com charges.

2. Wix.com :

Wix.com is like weebly where you have plenty of design options and easy to use interface to build websites with all the functionalities you will ever need. Wix offers a free plan with lots of constrains and various paid plans. You can choose plan according to your need. One thing that always make me stay away from this service is that you have to pay for adding your own domain name. On free plan your site stay on subdomain like yoursite.wix.com. 

3. Google Sites:

Google Sites offers a free alternative where you can create your business or personal website for free. It also offers push button website builder but it has less functions as compared to Weebly or Wix. There is no paid plans here and everything is free. 

There are many more free and paid alternative to those  I have mentioned above. I am not mentioning them here because because of two reasons. First, above mentioned services are time tested and reliable and secondly, I have used them and found them as better fit for beginners who don’t want to spend money at start.
I will keep on adding more services if I find them suitable for beginners. If you know about some service please let me know in comments below.