Real cost over three years
| Facebook page only | Free builder | Professional site | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Upfront cost | 0 DH | 0 DH | 2,499 DH |
| Annual cost | 0 DH | 1,200 to 3,000 DH once ads are removed | 600 to 900 DH (domain + hosting) |
| 3-year total | 0 DH | 3,600 to 9,000 DH | ≈ 4,500 DH |
| You own | Nothing | The content, not the code | Everything |
The "free" builder stops being free at the exact moment the site becomes presentable: removing the ads, connecting a real domain and unlocking SEO options are precisely the paid features.
What you lose with free
The domain name
An address like mycompany.wixsite.com or a plain Facebook page builds no brand. The day you want to migrate, you start from scratch: no accumulated authority follows you.
Control over SEO
Tags, speed, structure, structured data, redirects: on a closed platform some of these levers are out of reach. You can be good, rarely better than properly equipped competitors.
Customer data
On a Facebook page your audience belongs to Facebook. One algorithm change or account suspension and your channel vanishes overnight. A website and an email list are the only two assets nobody can take from you.
When free is the right call
Let us be honest: there are cases where paying makes no sense. If you are testing an idea before launching, if your business lives purely on Instagram with no Google demand for your trade, or if you need a launch page for two months, a free tool is enough. A well-kept Facebook page beats an abandoned professional site.
Signs it is time to go professional
- Customers tell you they could not find you on Google.
- You are already paying for options on a free platform.
- You send your prices by message, one by one, several times a week.
- A less competent competitor outranks you.
- You want to sell online or take bookings.
- You need an email address on your own domain.
The middle road
Keep Facebook and Instagram for discovery, and a light professional site for conversion and Google search. It is the most effective setup for a Moroccan SME, and also the cheapest: the site does not need to be huge, it needs to be found and to answer.
