Setup.ru — Free Website Builder, Create a Website for Free

Review: setup.ru - website builder - 10 reasons not to create a website on the SETUP.RU builder in 2018: User review of Setup
Pros:
- Free registration - no need to pay for the domain in the first year
Cons:
- Outdated templates - Terrible tech support - Service glitches - Upselling of services - Poor attitude towards users

10 reasons not to create a website on the SETUP.RU builder: Reviews of Setup

To create a website on Setup.ru, you just need to choose a domain, enter your passport details, and fill out 5 pages with information about your organization or your project. After that, if moderation approves, your domain will be registered (the first year is free) and you will be allowed to use their website builder. You will also need to choose a plan; the minimum plan costs 199 rubles per month, but you have to pay for at least a year (2,388 rubles). If you stay on the free plan, your editing capabilities will be severely limited, and many places on the site will have intrusive Setup.ru ads that will distract your users.

So, what can you encounter as a user of Setup.ru, and why should you avoid creating a website on this builder, especially in 2018? Let's look at the most important reasons:

1) Outdated website templates, which search engines say "Your site is not adequately optimized for mobile devices."

2) There are periodic problems with the service (the site takes a long time to publish, sometimes the site is unavailable, "Yandex has stopped showing ads in Yandex.Direct due to the unavailability of your site"). Problems are resolved, but this has been encountered multiple times.

3) Awkward website editing, fonts and images misalign, buttons work inconsistently, many shortcomings.

4) Terrible and careless tech support, especially Ilya Zh.

5) Expensive domain renewal at 999 rubles, which normally costs 150-300 rubles elsewhere.

6) Upselling SSL certificates for 1500 rubles, despite the fact that SETUP still operates without an SSL certificate. Moreover, SSL certificates can be obtained for FREE elsewhere!!! FREE, I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!!! For example, a free certificate from Comodo or Lets Encrypt, which many hosting providers in Russia and other countries offer for free!

7) Upselling website promotion, which buys links from low-quality sites.

8) Bots in the VKontakte group that post false comments and mislead users. With the help of such bots, admins try to convince users of what they need and create the illusion that the problems are not that important or that there are more satisfied users than dissatisfied ones.

9) You cannot unsubscribe from their mailings; they will regularly spam you about buying promotions, certificates, and other nonsense.

10) Difficulties in leaving Setup (you will have to buy your domain from them, redo the entire site, and re-upload all pages to another template).

In 2018, Setup will likely continue to squeeze its users, first through further upselling of SSL certificates and offering to spend money on promoting their links (which SEO specialists consider expensive and ineffective), and then probably raising prices again.

What are the alternatives to SETUP.RU? You can quickly and easily create a website on WordPress or other services or builders. According to many, Setup has long stopped respecting its users, and its staff has become too hypocritical! They openly state, "Accept us as we are," but this is only after you have registered your domain with them and provided your information.

For example, they now show all users in the builder mode a bold footer urging them to buy an SSL certificate. And this is after people have already paid them for hosting and renewed their domain.

How to remove the annoying SSL certificate ad from Setup.ru? Just use any ad blocker, like Ublock Origin or Adblock, and insert the following lines into the filters:
! 01.01.2018,00:00:00 http://000000.setup.ru/
000000.setup.ru###sslAlert
where instead of "000000" you need to insert your site's ID on Setup, and the date and time will be set automatically.

This review is a personal opinion of several former Setup users with over a year of experience working with Setup, Seopult, and Sape. They will never recommend these services to anyone again. Even if some of the reasons mentioned above change for the better, it will not change the overall impression of these services and interactions with their representatives. Goodbye, Setup.ru! Your greed has made you forget to value your users, those who have supported you all these years!!!

Date of experience: янв 05, 2018

Good day. Based on my experience, my impression of this platform is extremely negative. On September 5, 2017, I registered on the platform and paid for the PRO plan to create a website for 2388 rubles. After working with this platform, I realized that the functionality is insufficient. Firstly, there is no option to set up email with my hosting provider; they only offer mail or Yandex. Secondly, this plan does not include responsive website design for the specified price. After attempting to communicate with technical support about these issues, I received a response stating that this functionality is not available, after which I decided to cancel the service. The technical support specialists refused to refund my money, justifying it by saying that the reasons were insufficient. Dear administrators of this platform, I urge you to think about the effectiveness of your work and not to engage in deceit. Your competitors offer more functional websites for the same price and refund money when canceling a service. On my part, I will take all measures to spread information about your dishonesty. It seems you are not aware of consumer rights laws, which is very disappointing.

Date of experience: сен 07, 2017

This is a complete scam. To try all the features, you have to buy a paid subscription. They said if you don't like it, they'll refund your money. I struggled for a week – it's impossible to make a decent website. They don't return the money, claiming the service was provided. I wrote to tech support multiple times: their responses are always the same: this is not provided. You can't redo the header, align the images, or give admin access. Conclusion: Setup.ru is garbage. Don't repeat my mistakes. You'll just give them your money (and once you do, that's it – you're not important to them, they'll respond to your emails in two weeks, if not longer.)

Date of experience: фев 16, 2016