(+) It's for free. You don't need to pay for domain name.
(-) Your URL will be something like username.freehost.com or freehost.com/username. As I noticed above, the advantage is that you don't need to pay for domain. But note that if you move your website to another provider in the future you can loose some or all your traffic (there are some solutions how to solve this problem but it is not the point of this article).
(-) Your provider will probably include ads to your pages - usually 1 or 2 banners, sometimes popup windows. If you plan to use banner exchange on your site read carefully their Terms and conditions. Some free hosts doesn't allow it.
(-) Free hosts usually allow lower bandwidth then paid hosts and a lot of them don't offer futures like PHP and MySQL.
(-) A lot of free hosts change their Terms and conditions during some time. If your free host offers hosting wihtout ads now, don't be surprised when banner or popup appears on your site in the future.
(-) Sometimes happens that free hosts cancel their free service and longer offer paid hosting only. In this case you have only 2 choises - pay them or loose your website.
Paid web hosting:
(+) You can host your own domain. If you decide to change the web hosting provider in the future, you easily transfer the domain to the new provider and don't loose your traffic.
(+) Most paid hosts offer 24/7 support via email or live chat and some of them provide toll-free phone support.
(+) You can expect better uptime then on free host. Some paid hosts offer uptime guarantee.
(+) Paid hosts usually offer enough disk space and bandwidth. Futures like PHP and MySQL are standard. Even if you are not programmer you can download plenty of free PHP scripts from internet.
(-) Paid hosting cost money :o)
Before you make the decision if choose free or paid host you should answer this question: How big ambitions do I have with my website? If you are starting small personal page for your friends consist of a few *.html files then free host will be sufficient. In case you plan to run serious business website, need PHP, database and don't want ads on the site I recommend to look for quality paid host.
Absolutely Free Web Hosting
Web hosting has become tremendously popular and more and more people are taking the help of this medium to reach out to others far and wide. There is perhaps any other interactive medium that helps one person contact another in a matter of seconds. Businesses flourish, empires are built through websites. It is not possible that you will not find information on any topic.
With such significant influences web hosting has also become a lucrative business with companies offering discounts, more facilities and added advantages. For web hosting also there are many who offer you their services without charging you anything. It definitely is an advantage to use something without having to pay for it, but is it really feasible to go for such web hosting services?
Who uses free web hosting services?
There are many of you who are not very experimental and not ready to take any risks. You may have started a new venture but you are not sure about the outcome or you may try to do something different and are skeptical of positive feedback. In such cases you can use the free web hosting services. Free web hosting is a way that helps you to test the before going full-fledged.
Limitations
Now that we have dealt with those who are not really serious about gaining anything, we shall proceed to those whose life depends on the online businesses they conduct. For your types, you need a web host who can meet all your business requirements and give you more benefits. Then free web hosting is not for you. For you free web hosting is a liability.
Advertisements
Remember that if you opt for free web hosting you will be forced to advertise for other sites and products that have no connection with your site. These kinds of advertising gimmicks could prove detrimental for your own site and hamper your business. Moreover why should you advertise for someone else and cripple your own business. So think about this aspect before you join the free world.
Bandwidth crunch
The free web host is going to provide you with limited bandwidth which may work fine in the beginning, but once your business takes off you will be handicapped as using excessive bandwidth means shelling out money or else your site will no longer be accessible to your customers. You definitely do not want negative promotion of your site where the customer is greeted with an ugly message like this site is no longer active due to limited bandwidth, please try after a month. Your customers are never going to visit your site again.
Search engine
Also free web hosts do not provide you with independent domain names. Instead you will be using a sub-domain or a redirected URL. When you use this redirected URL the visitors will be redirected to another site via your site and your chances of attracting traffic becomes nullified. As a result of redirecting traffic to other sites the search engines will not index your site since it shows as one without any data.
Both Petr Sejba & Rodrigo Rehn are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Petr Sejba has sinced written about articles on various topics from About Web Hosting, Computers and The Internet and Interview Questions. Petr Sejba runs Web Hosting Toplist (http://www.webhostingtoplist.com ), server with customer reviews of well-known web hosting companies, web hosting coupons (. Petr Sejba's top article generates over 9900 views. Bookmark Petr Sejba to your Favourites.
Rodrigo Rehn has sinced written about articles on various topics from Online Dating, About Web Hosting and Marriage. Rodrigo Rehn is a Relationships Expert, Linux Systems Administrator, Web Programmer, PHP Developer and CEO of Host brazilian web internet solutions.. Rodrigo Rehn's top article generates over 90500 views. Bookmark Rodrigo Rehn to your Favourites.
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