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I use Google Sites for my class website (and now Google Classroom), but, there are other sites that allow teachers to create free web sites for their classes. ClassJump.com provides free web site hosting for teachers. It's easy to use and provides some great features including class announcements, document folder, calendar, an area for students to submit assignments, a photo album and a message board.
Here is an example of a class web site built with ClassJump:
Zoho is a service that provides online business, productivity, and collaboration apps, many of them for free. While Zoho is very focused on businesses and enterprise, it does have a huge number of apps for personal and educational use. Every app has a free personal version. It is a direct competitor to Google's apps.
Today, Zoho is launching Zoho Sites, a free, easy to use web site builder. It is easy to use with a drag-and-drop interface and no need to learn HTML. The sites are automatically optimized for mobile and have support for Google Analytics, Google AdWords, Google Maps, YouTube, Google+, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and Picasa.
The themes are really nice and a great place to start your site. You can also include forms, videos, maps, images and more into your site.
The free version includes: 2 sites, mobile website, blogs, 2 forms/site, dynamic content, 1 custom theme/site, and a maximum file upload size of 5MB per file. In comparison, Google Sites has no limit to the number of sites or blogs (through Blogger), unlimited forms and themes, mobile sites, and a file upload maximum of 20 MB. Google Sites also has a classroom website template that makes it very easy to create a classroom website.
Zoho Sites is a nice alternative to other web site builders.
You can upgrade to Zoho Sites Pro for $39/year for more features.
The New Hive is a new site that allows you to quickly create a website by drag and dropping your content - pictures, music, videos, and more. It is currently in private Beta, but looks to be a great resource for education, allowing students and teachers to easily and quickly create websites as part of projects. It's also ad-free.
You start with a blank page and then embed your content, adding shapes, text, graphics, and more. You can request an invite on the site.
Hopefully it will go public soon so that students can use it for class projects.
Weebly for Education is a great resource for educators. It allows you to easily create, for free, a class website. You can create a class website and blog to share resources, communicate with students and parents, and even accept homework assignments online. You can also use it for student e-portfolios and student projects.
The website editor is drag and drop, making it very easy to use. You can password protect student websites, add pictures, videos, and more to your site, post class updates and assignments, class news, and host a blog letting students hold discussions and help each other. You can use one of over 70 designs or even customize your own, letting you have the design you want.
It's free and there are no ads. It's a great, free, easy way to create a classroom website.
Wix is a website builder that allows users to easily create a free website using drag and drop methods instead of needing to learn how to code or learn new skills.
The Wix websites are great ways to quickly create a website to use as a presentation, project or class site. There are free templates available for different types of sites based on industry/business and type of site. Templates can be modified and edited as needed. It has lots of features and the sites are mobile friendly for iOS and Android.
The free accounts have ads and some limitations, but are still very useful and you can create some stunning websites.
I see this as a great tool for creating quick sites for presentations or projects. I'd still stick with other services, like Google Sites, for full class web sites.
It's a quick and easy alternative to other web site builders.
