I could not quite believe what BoldGrid  is offering – a free Cloud-based WordPress site with few strings attached. So why not try it:
And voila here is what you get, a robust WordPress website where you can try BoldGrid’s software.

What You Get

A fast cloud installation which is as smooth and easy as the WordPress Install. Then immediate help on getting started:
These videos are helpful tutorials for both the newby and the WordPress veteran. As a veteran I was anxious to see whether BoldGrid had embellished or cropped from the usual WordPress commands. And to my surprise most of the usual suspects were available for designing and customizing your website. Even better the response time remained reasonable throughout the website layout and design process [faster for admin operations, a bit slower for edit operations].

Users get a complete set of Theme and PageBuilder features:

1. Themes are Instances in BoldGrid lango, there is no Appearance command
2. BoldGrid Instances provide complete website templates with  predesigned -Home, About,  Contact etc pages
3. BoldGrid Page and Post Builder is the primary option for new pages and posts replacing the WordPress Visual Editor\
4. BoldGrid Page Builder also provides templates for complete pages or sections of pages
5. BoldGrid Page Builder has added sections or components available for purchase right within an edit session
6. Like Gutenberg, BoldGrid PageBuilder is a Backend editor but does not deliver Frontend WYSIWYG  editing
7. But Boldgrid Page Builder does provide active CSS Styling of pages and posts as seen below:

However for savvy WordPress developers there are workarounds available. Use Customize | Themes to load in your favorite WordPress theme and then use the Customize command to configure it exactly the way you want. Fortunately for both Posts and Pages all the edit sidebars metaboxes are available for making your non-BoldGrid theme settings along with the Customize command.

Here are the end results. First is a page developed with BoldGrid Page and Post Builder:
If you click on the above screenshot you will get to see the live page and some of the sophisticated styling including fullwidth images and parallax effects.

The second example pages was created on the same website using the Astra Theme and Elementor Plugin:
Again full width image and full page styling – visit the page by clicking on the sceenshot.

Summary

By offering a free WordPress Cloud website with a few strings attached [no free domain name, no choice of permalinks, no WP Visual Editor unless you install a good free PageBuilder like Beaver Builder Lite or Elementor, etc], users can get 3 thing at free or low cost:

1. Experience with Cloud-based WordPress with its backup, security, and performance advantages;
2. Free trial on the BoldGrid Theme and Page and Post Builder system;
3. an opportunity to tryout other  excellent WordPress plugins like SiteOrigin CSS Editor or Smart Grid 3, etc.

This is similar to the bargain on WordPress.com but with a much wider range of themes and plugins available. This is such an attractive deal, my concern is how long will BoldGrid afford to keep the deal on offer?