Is a free website draft actually legit?

We offer a free working draft of your website before you pay a cent, so we're obviously biased. But that also means we know exactly where this model is abused, because we designed ours specifically to not do the things that make people suspicious. Here's the honest breakdown.

Why a studio would give work away

It sounds too good, so the first instinct is to look for the trick. The real reason is simpler: it's a filter that works in both directions. If we have to win the project after you've seen real work, we can't coast on a signed contract or hide behind a slide deck. It forces us to be good on the first try. And you get to judge us on the actual thing instead of a portfolio and a promise. A studio confident in its work loses nothing by showing you some.

The versions that are a scam

Not every 'free' offer is honest. Watch for these.

• The draft is a generic template with your logo dropped in, not a real design decision. That's not a free draft, it's a sales screenshot.
• You have to hand over money, or sign a contract, to see the 'free' draft. Then it isn't free.
• The draft is held hostage: you can see it but can't have it unless you buy the full build. A real free draft is yours to keep.
• They need your domain login, hosting credentials, or a deposit 'to get started'. No legitimate draft requires any of that.

How to tell a real one

• It's an actual, deployed link you can open on your phone, not a picture.
• It's built from your business, not a template with swapped colours.
• There's no contract or payment required to see it.
• You keep the draft even if you walk away. That's the real test.
• They're upfront about what happens next and what the full build costs.

What we do, specifically

For the record, so you can hold us to it: you send a brief, and within 6 to 12 hours we send back a real, working, deployed draft of your homepage. No contract, no deposit, no credentials. If you like it, we build the rest. If you don't, you keep the draft and we part as friends. The offer only works because the work is good enough to make it worth our while, which is rather the point.

So: is a free website draft legit? It can be, and it's one of the best filters a small business has for finding a studio that can actually deliver. Just make sure the draft is real, it's yours to keep, and nobody's asking for anything before you've seen it.