FreemasonsWeb was a hosting platform for Masonic Websites. Freemasons web closed down in 2022, closing all of the websites that were hosted on it at the same time. Despite it having some success for a few years in recruiting Lodges to its self generated platform, it was a fundamentally flawed business model, which inevitably lead to its closure. We are sincerely sorry for those Lodges that saw their internet presence disappear overnight. If you are one of the Lodges who’s site was closed, we can help, contact MasonicWebsite today.
The biggest problem with the Freemasonsweb model – it didn’t work
Yes, they created you a (hideous, old fashioned) website from one of just 5 pre-made templates.
And if you sent someone the link they could view it on a computer (maybe not on a phone though)
However
No-one could find the websites via Google search!!!
Why? – Because the websites had ridiculous urls forced on them as they were a subdomain on the overall platform
You had the choice of one of the following domains:
- UK Lodges:
- subdomain.masonic-lodge.org.uk
- subdomain.masons-lodge.org.uk
- subdomain.masonic-website.org.uk
- subdomain.masoniclodge.org.uk
- Lodges outside the UK:
- subdomain.masons-lodge.org
- subdomain.masonic-website.org
- subdomain.masonic-lodge.ca
All of these are absolutely terrible from a Google search point of view. If it is on a sub-domain Google doesn’t view it as a separate site (which it isn’t) so won’t rank you highly. Combined with the weak overall rankings for Freemasonsweb as well and you had a recipe for very small organic views of your website. Sure, members of the Lodge may have looked at it (assuming they could type the URL correctly), but the main reason we work with Lodges to create them a website is – they want to attract new members. And if you aren’t ranking well in Google, then you aren’t going to achieve that.
Examples of Freemasons web urls we saw included:
- www.helensburgh-503.masonic-lodge.org.uk
- www.helensburgh-522.ra-chapter.org
- www.st-george-helensburgh-503.masons-lodge.org – This one in particular!!!! HAHAHAHAHAH!!!
- www.st-george-522.ra-chapter.org.uk
Reasons for the failure of Freemasonsweb
Monthly subscriptions – Exorbitant cost
At MasonicWebsite we are fundamentally opposed to monthly subscriptions. No-one needs another monthly subscription. Freemasons web was built on a monthly subscription model. There was a set up price of £100, and then a monthly subscription. Not only are monthly subs annoying, they can fail when credit cards are changed etc. The monthly subs to Freemasons web were £20. This was £240 a year, meaning one of our MasonicWebsites would pay for itself within under 2 years in comparison. If you had a Freemasonsweb site for 10 years it would have cost you £100 set up, plus 120 months x £20 = £2,500. In comparison, a MasonicWebsite site would cost you £500 over the same period in total. 1/5th of the price. Plus it would actually work.

Freemasonsweb email addresses were unbelievably complicated
The standard Freemasons web email template was for example secretary.lodge-example-1234@masonic-lodge.org.uk – This might be our favourite email address ever! The chance of someone making an error while typing this is ridiculously high. At MasonicWebsite we can set you up email addresses that will be in the format secretary@lodgename.org – Which one looks more professional?
Freemasonsweb websites weren’t mobile ready
So 60% plus of people searching the internet wouldn’t be able to properly use a Freemasons web website. In fact Google severely punishes (quite rightly) any website that isn’t optimised for mobile with reduced rankings. Naturally everything we build is responsive, so it fits and works perfectly for whatever screen your audience is viewing your Lodge website.
Single point of failure
If Freemasons web closed down, your site went with it. And it did. And they did.
We have built in redundancy, because we use proper proper web hosts like 123reg and WordPress.com.
And WordPress.com and 123reg are not going to themselves close down. 123reg’s turnover for 2023 was £57.59M (source)
This is why we do not host any site we build. We build it for our clients on a proper webhost, and hand the site to the client. It is their site. We remain on hand for updates.
Plus don’t get us started on their excessive use of Javascript
Just no.
Summary of why Freemasonsweb closed
Freemasonsweb couldn’t afford to keep running, so they closed. And left their clients in the lurch. If Masonicwebsite closed down (we’ve been highly successful since 2011 so this isn’t going to happen), but if we did, all of the sites we build are hosted on either WordPress.com and 123reg, and not by us. Nothing would change for our clients, (except for the fact that we wouldn’t be doing the free updates for them which we offer as part of our service). Freemasons web was a flawed business model, with out of date inflexible practices that burnt every client. At Masonic Website we are built in exactly the opposite manner so this could never happen with any site we create.