Free hosting

More and more companies are offering free web hosting deals these days.  While the price is right, after all what can be better than free, there are some factors that you should consider before you can know whether free hosting will be sufficient for your purposes.  Find out which sites have the best web hosting offers, and check out what the drawbacks are that you will have to contend with.

Your Guide

Why Do Sites Offer Free Web Hosting?

Free web hosting is a way for companies to spread their brand names and to make money through advertising.  If some of the websites that use their free hosting offers attract a large number of visitors, they will have the chance of earning a solid income through ad sales.  Furthermore, the website owners will spread the word about the host’s offerings, making them a huge source of free advertising for their products.

What Are the Disadvantages of Using Free Web Hosting?

Free web hosting is becoming more useful these days, with larger sites and more bandwidth being offered at no charge.  However, there may be some disadvantages, including:

• Advertising.  Your site may be covered with banner advertising and pop-ups, the primary source of income for your web hosts.
• Poor Technical Support.  Most free web hosts cannot afford to offer great technical support.  If you encounter a problem with your website, you may need to wait quite some time for repairs.
• Limited Tools and Services.  If you want to do any fancy scripting, offer secure pages, or have other advanced features for your website, you can forget free web hosting offers.  Even basic FTP services for uploading files may be limited or unavailable.
• Subdomain Names.  Many free web hosting companies don’t let you use your own domain name.  Your website’s address will look something like “www.yourname.yourwebhost.com” instead of www.yourname.com.

Which Sites Work Best with Free Web Hosting?

Personal websites, hobby sites, and fan pages are perfect candidates for free web hosting.  If you are not planning to capitalize from your website, then there is no reason not to use a free web hosting offer.  Sites run on free web hosts also make great places to experiment and improve your programming skills, without having to pay for the privilege. 

Which Sites Should Not Consider Free Web Hosts?

• Commercial and business sites should not consider using free web hosting offers.  They look far too unprofessional and untrustworthy to use for a serious company. 

• Any site that collects credit card numbers or other personal information should stay away from free web hosting offers, because they usually will not include a secure shell.
• If you are planning to store a lot of large files, or to allow uploading and downloading from your site, you will probably be better off paying for your web hosting.
• If you are concerned about reliability and a consistent uptime, free web hosts should be avoided.

Remember:  There are many very good companies who offer free web hosting that will meet your requirements and do provide the support and functionality that you may require. Simply do your homework and check out what is available.

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