{"id":152037,"date":"2026-05-12T09:31:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T06:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/elementor.com\/blog\/?p=152037"},"modified":"2026-03-31T07:34:33","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:34:33","slug":"make-website","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/elementor.com\/blog\/make-website\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Make a Website for Free: Complete Guide for 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>You want to build a website, but your budget is exactly zero dollars. That&#8217;s a completely normal place to start in 2026. Getting a functional, professional-looking site online without spending a dime is entirely possible if you know exactly which tools to combine.<\/p>\n<p>But free usually comes with hidden traps. Providers lock your data, plaster ads across your homepage, or hold essential features hostage. research involved years navigating these exact constraints. So, I&#8217;ll show you how to bypass the restrictive platforms and build a genuinely useful site using open-source tools and generous free tiers that actually let you control your own project.<\/p>\n<div class=\"key-takeaways\">\n<h2>Key Takeaways<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Market Reality &#8211; WordPress currently powers <strong>43.5% of all websites<\/strong> in 2026, making it your best bet for a free, scalable foundation.<\/li>\n<li>Storage Limits &#8211; Free builders cap your potential quickly. Wix limits you to <strong>500MB of storage<\/strong>, while WordPress.com offers 1GB.<\/li>\n<li>Speed Matters &#8211; Nearly <strong>47% of consumers<\/strong> expect a page to load in 2 seconds or less, a strict requirement even for free hosting.<\/li>\n<li>Security is Mandatory &#8211; About <strong>85% of users<\/strong> will immediately abandon your site if they don&#8217;t see a secure HTTPS connection.<\/li>\n<li>Mobile Dominance &#8211; With mobile devices driving <strong>58.67% of global traffic<\/strong>, responsive design isn&#8217;t optional anymore.<\/li>\n<li>Visual Impact &#8211; Pages using rich images get <strong>94% more views<\/strong>, requiring you to find good free stock photo integrations.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<h2>Prerequisites for Starting Your Free Build<\/h2>\n<p>Look, jumping straight into a site builder without preparation guarantees a messy result. You&#8217;ll stare at a blank screen, guess at colors, and ultimately waste hours. Before you register for any free accounts, you need your core assets ready. This preparation separates amateur weekend projects from sites that look professional.<\/p>\n<p>And yes, you can do all of this for free. You don&#8217;t need expensive design software. (Free tools like Canva or Figma handle this perfectly). You just need to make a few decisions upfront.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s what you need to gather in a dedicated folder right now:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Brand Colors &#8211; Pick exactly two primary hex codes. Don&#8217;t guess. Write down the specific six-character codes (like #1A1A1A) so your site remains consistent.<\/li>\n<li>Typography Choices &#8211; Select one clean font for headings and one readable font for body text. Google Fonts offers hundreds of free options that integrate perfectly into most builders.<\/li>\n<li>A Vector Logo &#8211; Save your logo with a transparent background in PNG or WebP format. A white background block behind your logo will instantly ruin a dark header layout.<\/li>\n<li>Core Copywriting &#8211; Write your homepage headline, an &#8216;About&#8217; paragraph, and your contact details in a simple text document. Copying and pasting later is much faster than writing live in an editor.<\/li>\n<li>High-Quality Imagery &#8211; Download 5-10 relevant photos from free repositories like Unsplash or Pexels. (Just remember to compress them first, but we&#8217;ll cover that later).<\/li>\n<li>A Dedicated Email Address &#8211; Set up a fresh, free Gmail account specifically for this project. You&#8217;ll need it to register for hosting, plugins, and builder accounts without clogging your personal inbox.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Why does this matter so much? Because <strong>75% of users judge a company&#8217;s credibility<\/strong> based entirely on website design. If your free site looks disorganized, visitors won&#8217;t stick around to find out if your content is good.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Pro Tip:<\/strong> Keep all your text assets in a plain text file (.txt). Copying straight from heavy word processors often carries over hidden styling code that breaks your website&#8217;s formatting.<\/p>\n<h2>Choose Your Free Website Platform Wisely<\/h2>\n<p>Choosing your platform dictates everything else you&#8217;ll do. Most beginners flock to heavily advertised &#8220;free website builders&#8221; without reading the fine print. Honestly, those platforms aggressively push you toward paid upgrades the second you need basic functionality.<\/p>\n<p>The global website builder market will reach <strong>$3.5 billion by 2030<\/strong>. They make that money by squeezing free users. You need to understand exactly what you&#8217;re giving up when you choose $0 pricing.<\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s look at the actual limits of the top free contenders in 2026.<\/p>\n<table>\n<thead>\n<tr>\n<th>Platform Feature<\/th>\n<th>Wix (Free Tier)<\/th>\n<th>WordPress.com (Free Tier)<\/th>\n<th>Self-Hosted WordPress (Free Host)<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><strong>Storage Limit<\/strong><\/td>\n<td>500MB<\/td>\n<td>1GB<\/td>\n<td>Varies (Usually 300MB &#8211; 1GB)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><strong>Bandwidth<\/strong><\/td>\n<td>500MB<\/td>\n<td>Unmetered (Fair use)<\/td>\n<td>Varies (Usually 3GB\/mo)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><strong>Custom Domain<\/strong><\/td>\n<td>No (wixsite.com)<\/td>\n<td>No (wordpress.com)<\/td>\n<td>Yes (If you buy one)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><strong>Platform Ads<\/strong><\/td>\n<td>Heavy, sticky top banner<\/td>\n<td>Occasional footer ads<\/td>\n<td>None<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><strong>Plugin Access<\/strong><\/td>\n<td>Locked to App Market<\/td>\n<td>Locked completely<\/td>\n<td><strong>Unlimited open-source access<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>So, what&#8217;s the verdict? If you want actual control, you must choose self-hosted WordPress. Yes, it requires finding a free server, but it&#8217;s the only path that doesn&#8217;t hold your data hostage. The <strong>Elementor<\/strong> editor has over <strong>15 million active installations<\/strong> precisely because it sits on top of this open-source framework, giving you drag-and-drop freedom without platform lock-in.<\/p>\n<h2>Set Up Your Free Hosting and Subdomain<\/h2>\n<p>You need a computer that stays on 24\/7 to hold your website files. That&#8217;s all hosting really is. While premium hosting costs money, several companies offer limited &#8220;sandbox&#8221; environments entirely for free. You won&#8217;t get blazing speeds, but you&#8217;ll get enough power to launch.<\/p>\n<p>Many developers use 000webhost or InfinityFree for these starter projects. 000webhost, for example, gives you <strong>300MB of disk space and 3GB of monthly bandwidth<\/strong>. That&#8217;s plenty for a text-heavy blog or a simple portfolio.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s exactly how you configure a free hosting environment from scratch.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Register for a Free Account &#8211; Go to a provider like InfinityFree. Enter that dedicated email address you created earlier. Verify the confirmation link they send to your inbox.<\/li>\n<li>Create a Hosting Account &#8211; Inside their dashboard, look for a button labeled &#8220;Create Account&#8221; or &#8220;New Site.&#8221; This spins up your actual server space.<\/li>\n<li>Choose Your Subdomain &#8211; Because you aren&#8217;t paying for a .com, you&#8217;ll use a subdomain. You&#8217;ll pick a name like <em>yourproject.epizy.com<\/em>. Pick something short. Don&#8217;t use your full name if it&#8217;s hard to spell.<\/li>\n<li>Generate Passwords &#8211; The system will auto-generate FTP and database passwords. Copy these into a secure document. You might never need them, but if something breaks, they&#8217;re your only way in.<\/li>\n<li>Wait for DNS Propagation &#8211; Sometimes free subdomains take 15 to 30 minutes to register across global networks. If the link doesn&#8217;t work instantly, just take a break and refresh later.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>If you&#8217;re highly technical, <strong>GitHub Pages<\/strong> offers an incredible free alternative for static sites, boasting a <strong>1GB repository limit and 100GB of bandwidth<\/strong>. But honestly, it&#8217;s way too complex if you just want a visual editor.<\/p>\n<h2>Install WordPress and Your Core Plugins<\/h2>\n<p>Now that your server is running, it&#8217;s completely empty. You need to install a Content Management System (CMS). WordPress is the undisputed champion here.<\/p>\n<p>You don&#8217;t need to manually upload core files or configure databases anymore. Almost every free host includes an automatic script installer. Let&#8217;s walk through the exact clicks required to get your dashboard live.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Question: How do I actually get WordPress onto my free server?<\/strong><br \/>\nLog into your hosting control panel (often called cPanel). Scroll down until you see a section called &#8220;Software&#8221; or &#8220;App Installer.&#8221; Click the icon for Softaculous. Find the WordPress logo and hit &#8220;Install.&#8221; The system handles the database creation automatically.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Question: What settings should I change during installation?<\/strong><br \/>\nThis is critical. Remove the letters &#8220;wp&#8221; from the &#8220;In Directory&#8221; field. If you leave it there, your site will live at <em>yoursite.com\/wp<\/em> instead of your main link. Next, change the default &#8220;admin&#8221; username to something unique. Hackers always try &#8220;admin&#8221; first.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Question: How do I get a visual builder for free?<\/strong><br \/>\nOnce WordPress finishes installing, log into your new dashboard (usually yoursite.com\/wp-admin). Navigate to Plugins > Add New. Type <strong>Elementor<\/strong> into the search bar. You&#8217;ll see the <strong>Elementor Website Builder<\/strong> plugin. Click &#8220;Install Now,&#8221; then &#8220;Activate.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>You&#8217;ve just equipped your free site with a visual engine that powers millions of professional builds worldwide. And you still haven&#8217;t spent a single penny.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Pro Tip:<\/strong> Immediately delete the default &#8220;Hello Dolly&#8221; plugin and the sample &#8220;Hello World&#8221; blog post WordPress creates. They just clutter your new environment.<\/p>\n<h2>Design Your Site Using Free Templates<\/h2>\n<p>Staring at a blank white screen is terrifying. Building a layout from scratch requires an understanding of padding, margins, and flexbox containers. You don&#8217;t have time for that. You need to use pre-built templates.<\/p>\n<p>The free version of Elementor includes a massive library of essential widgets, but putting them together beautifully takes practice. Instead of guessing, you&#8217;ll use template kits to establish your baseline.<\/p>\n<p>First, install the <strong>Hello Theme<\/strong>. It&#8217;s a forever-free, bare-bones theme that weighs <strong>under 30KB<\/strong>. It essentially gets out of your way and lets the page builder do the heavy lifting.<\/p>\n<p>Once that&#8217;s active, here&#8217;s how you structure your pages rapidly:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Access the Template Library &#8211; When you create a new page and click &#8220;Edit with Elementor,&#8221; click the gray folder icon in the canvas area. This opens the library.<\/li>\n<li>Filter for Free Options &#8211; Search through the blocks and pages. Anything without a &#8220;Pro&#8221; badge is yours to use. Look for hero sections with strong typography.<\/li>\n<li>Apply Global Styling &#8211; Hit the hamburger menu in the top left of the editor and open &#8220;Site Settings.&#8221; Input those two hex codes and fonts you chose during the prerequisite stage. Now, every template you drop in will automatically adapt to your brand.<\/li>\n<li>Use Core Widgets &#8211; You&#8217;ll rely heavily on the <strong>Heading<\/strong>, <strong>Text Editor<\/strong>, <strong>Image<\/strong>, and <strong>Button<\/strong> widgets. Drag them from the left panel directly onto your page.<\/li>\n<li>Establish Navigation &#8211; Since you aren&#8217;t paying for advanced header builders yet, use the default WordPress Appearance > Menus system to build a simple text-based top navigation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>You&#8217;ll quickly notice some widgets have a padlock icon. Those require <strong>Elementor Pro<\/strong>. Don&#8217;t worry about them yet. You can build a stunning, functional five-page site using only the free tools available right now.<\/p>\n<h2>Accelerate the Process with Native AI<\/h2>\n<p>Building manually takes time, even with templates. But in 2026, artificial intelligence completely changes how we handle free site creation. I&#8217;m not talking about basic text generators that spit out generic paragraphs. I&#8217;m talking about tools that actually build the site for you.<\/p>\n<p>If you want to speed run this process, you need to understand agentic AI. <a href=\"https:\/\/elementor.com\/products\/angie\/\">Angie by Elementor<\/a> is a prime example of this shift. It&#8217;s a native AI for WordPress that uses the Model Context Protocol (MCP). What does that actually mean for you?<\/p>\n<p>It means the AI takes real action. You don&#8217;t just ask it for code snippets. You type, &#8220;Build me a contact page for a plumbing business with a dark theme,&#8221; and it generates production-ready WordPress assets directly into your environment.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s how AI fundamentally alters your workflow:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Wireframing &#8211; Instead of mapping out pages on paper, you can use tools like the AI Site Planner to turn a basic idea into a complete sitemap and wireframe in under 20 minutes.<\/li>\n<li>Asset Generation &#8211; You don&#8217;t have to hunt for placeholder images anymore. AI can generate custom, royalty-free images directly inside your media library.<\/li>\n<li>Instant Layouts &#8211; Agentic AI understands WordPress structure. It can arrange containers, set padding, and apply global colors based entirely on a conversational prompt.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>While some AI features sit behind premium subscriptions, many basic text and layout generation tools offer free credits or trials. Using them strategically cuts your build time from days to mere hours.<\/p>\n<h2>Optimizing for Mobile Devices and Speed<\/h2>\n<p>You&#8217;ve built a gorgeous site on your desktop monitor. Congratulations. But guess what? Most of your visitors will never see that version. In 2026, <strong>58.67% of global website traffic<\/strong> happens on mobile phones. If your site breaks on a small screen, you&#8217;ve failed.<\/p>\n<p>performance is critical. A <strong>1-second delay in page load time<\/strong> results in a 7% reduction in conversions. Free servers are naturally slower than premium ones, so you&#8217;ve to work twice as hard to keep your site lightweight.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Mobile Viewport Problem:<\/strong> Text that looks great on a laptop will often overlap or stretch weirdly on a phone. Huge hero images force users to scroll endlessly before seeing any real content.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Responsive Solution:<\/strong> At the bottom of your Elementor panel, click the &#8220;Responsive Mode&#8221; icon. This opens a top bar letting you switch between Desktop, Tablet, and Mobile views. Adjust the typography size specifically for mobile. (Look for the little phone icon next to the size slider). These changes only apply to small screens, leaving your desktop design perfectly intact.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Image Weight Problem:<\/strong> Uploading a 5MB photo straight from your iPhone will destroy your loading speeds. Do that three times, and your free server will choke, causing massive delays.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Compression Solution:<\/strong> Never upload an image larger than 200KB. Use free web tools like TinyPNG to compress your files before they ever touch WordPress. Alternatively, look into the <strong>Image Optimizer<\/strong> plugin, which automatically converts heavy files into modern, lightweight WebP or AVIF formats. It can achieve up to a 60% file size reduction automatically.<\/p>\n<h2>Launching and Testing Your Project<\/h2>\n<p>Don&#8217;t just post your link to social media the second you finish designing. Free environments are notorious for strange caching bugs and broken links. You must run a pre-flight check.<\/p>\n<p>Remember, <strong>88% of online consumers<\/strong> are less likely to return to a site after a bad user experience. You only get one chance at a first impression.<\/p>\n<p>Run through this mandatory launch checklist:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Test Every Form &#8211; Send a test message through your contact page. Make sure it actually arrives in your inbox. Free hosts often block standard PHP mail functions to prevent spam.<\/li>\n<li>Click Every Link &#8211; Open an incognito browser window. Click your logo, your footer links, and your menu items. Ensure nothing leads to a 404 error page.<\/li>\n<li>Verify SSL Status &#8211; Look at the URL bar. Is there a padlock icon? <strong>85% of consumers<\/strong> will abandon a site if it lacks HTTPS security. Most free hosts offer a free Let&#8217;s Encrypt certificate. Find it in your control panel and activate it.<\/li>\n<li>Check Mobile Load Time &#8211; Run your URL through Google PageSpeed Insights. If your score is below 50, you&#8217;ve too many heavy images or unnecessary plugins active.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;Launching a site isn&#8217;t just about making it public; it&#8217;s about making it discoverable. On free hosting, your technical foundation is fragile. Prioritize lightweight code, ensure your XML sitemap is perfectly structured, and immediately submit your URL to Google Search Console to guarantee bots can actually crawl your fresh pages.&#8221;\n <\/p>\n<p> <cite><strong>Itamar Haim<\/strong>, SEO Team Lead at Elementor. A digital strategist merging SEO, AEO\/GEO, and web development.<\/cite>\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Once you verify these elements, you&#8217;re officially live. You&#8217;ve successfully built and launched a functional piece of digital real estate without opening your wallet.<\/p>\n<h2>When to Upgrade Beyond Free Tools<\/h2>\n<p>Eventually, you&#8217;ll hit a wall. Free hosting providers don&#8217;t give away server space out of pure kindness. They do it hoping your project grows enough that you&#8217;ll pay for an upgrade. And honestly, if your site becomes successful, you&#8217;ll absolutely need to.<\/p>\n<p>How do you know when it&#8217;s time to abandon the free tier? You&#8217;ll feel the friction. You&#8217;ll want to add a store, but you won&#8217;t have the database capacity. You&#8217;ll want a custom .com domain, but the free host won&#8217;t support the DNS routing properly.<\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s evaluate the limitations of your current setup.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Signs You&#8217;ve Outgrown Free Hosting:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Your host suspends your account temporarily because you exceeded the 3GB monthly bandwidth limit during a traffic spike.<\/li>\n<li>You want to run a WooCommerce store, but the required database queries crash your weak shared server.<\/li>\n<li>Clients complain that your site takes six seconds to load during peak hours.<\/li>\n<li>You&#8217;re tired of handing out a <em>.freeprovider.com<\/em> URL on your business cards.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Signs You&#8217;ve Outgrown the Free Editor:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>You need the <strong>Theme Builder<\/strong> to design custom headers and footers that apply globally across 50 different blog posts.<\/li>\n<li>You want to capture leads using an integrated <strong>Form Builder<\/strong> instead of relying on clunky third-party embedding.<\/li>\n<li>You need to pull dynamic content from custom post types to build a complex real estate or portfolio directory.<\/li>\n<li>You want advanced motion effects, sticky elements, and scrolling animations to stand out from generic competitors.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>When you reach this point, moving to a unified ecosystem makes sense. For instance, the <a href=\"https:\/\/elementor.com\/pricing\/\">Elementor One<\/a> subscription consolidates everything. It replaces your free host with Managed Cloud Hosting powered by Google Cloud. It unlocks Editor Pro, integrates AI tools, and adds pro-level caching. Instead of piecing together 15 different free tools that barely communicate, you finally get a professional stack.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Pro Tip:<\/strong> Don&#8217;t upgrade until you actually prove your concept. Build your audience on the free version first. Let your site&#8217;s success pay for its own upgrades.<\/p>\n<div class=\"faq-section\">\n<h2>Frequently Asked Questions<\/h2>\n<div class=\"faq-item\">\n<h3>Why is my new site showing a &#8216;Not Secure&#8217; warning?<\/h3>\n<p>Your free host hasn&#8217;t provisioned an SSL certificate yet. Most providers offer free Let&#8217;s Encrypt certificates, but you&#8217;ve to manually trigger the installation inside your hosting control panel. It usually takes a few hours to propagate.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"faq-item\">\n<h3>Can I use my own custom domain later?<\/h3>\n<p>Yes. You can buy a .com domain from a registrar at any time and point the DNS nameservers to your host. However, some strictly free hosts block custom domains to force you into their paid tiers. Always check their specific policy first.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"faq-item\">\n<h3>Why are some widgets locked with a padlock icon?<\/h3>\n<p>Those specific tools belong to <strong>Elementor Pro<\/strong>. The free version gives you foundational design elements (text, images, layout containers), but advanced features like pricing tables, forms, and dynamic grids require a paid license.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"faq-item\">\n<h3>Will my free site get indexed by Google?<\/h3>\n<p>It can, but it&#8217;s harder. Search engines view free subdomains with high suspicion because spammers heavily abuse them. You must verify your site in Google Search Console and manually submit a sitemap to ensure indexing.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"faq-item\">\n<h3>What happens if I exceed my free storage limit?<\/h3>\n<p>Your website will simply break. You won&#8217;t be able to upload new images, and WordPress updates will fail. The host might even temporarily suspend your account until you delete files or pay for an upgrade.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"faq-item\">\n<h3>Is it possible to migrate my free site to a paid host later?<\/h3>\n<p>Absolutely. Because you&#8217;re using WordPress, your data isn&#8217;t trapped. You can use free migration plugins like All-in-One WP Migration to package your entire site into a single file and explain it on a premium server whenever you&#8217;re ready.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"faq-item\">\n<h3>Do I need to know how to code to use this method?<\/h3>\n<p>No. You won&#8217;t write a single line of HTML or CSS. The visual editor handles the code generation in the background while you drag and drop elements on the frontend screen. It&#8217;s entirely visual.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You want to build a website, but your budget is exactly zero dollars. That&#8217;s a completely normal place to start in 2026. Getting a functional, professional-looking site online without spending a dime is entirely possible if you know exactly which tools to combine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2024234,"featured_media":137240,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[512],"tags":[],"marketing_persona":[],"marketing_intent":[],"class_list":["post-152037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-resources"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>How to Make a Website for Free: Complete Guide for 2026<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"You want to build a website, but your budget is exactly zero dollars. That&#039;s a completely normal place to start in 2026. Getting a functional, professional-looking site online without spending a dime is entirely possible if you know exactly which tools to combine.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/elementor.com\/blog\/make-website\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to Make a Website for Free: Complete Guide for 2026\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"You want to build a website, but your budget is exactly zero dollars. That&#039;s a completely normal place to start in 2026. 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