Free Web Hosting – is This the Right Choice, Baby?

In web hosting world as soon as one talks about free web hosting the question which strike one’s mind is why to pay for anything when it can be availed free of cost?

In case of free web hosting even the availability is not a problem as they are available in plenty.

If one is not a stranger to web host and is using free web hosting, from him anyone can ask for his/her experience about the free web hosting. Is he/she satisfied with his/her current provider? Is it everything he/she was intending? Answer is in most cases not.

IS free web hosting really worth?

The one who has opted free web hosting, his/her website will automatically turn into an advertising machine that works for the free web host. Not only that banners, pop up windows, frames are also added. By these advertisements the vitality professionalism will get lost.

The user is not allowed to generate revenue by making advertisements on his web site as providers prevent it. Generating revenue by means of advertisements is not a main motive for a user but still it would be a great loss if it were not possible. Thus against this point paid web hosting has an answer.

The facility of having sufficient space will lack in the case of free web hosting. The free web-hosting provider provides mere 5 to 15 MB of disk space, which is not at all sufficient for a user. Another negative point is the user is not in a position to even think for expansion as the provider restricts it. If one wants to expand above the limit provided by the provider then only the paid web hosting is the choice. So choosing free web hosting means nothing because the user needs to pay in all the cases ultimately. Not only that, while in the switching over process the user will even loose the traffic to his/her website.

There is not a single online store that can go without secure server to enable secure online credit card processing. Secure web servers are generally lacking in case of free web hosting. For a free web host it’s very difficult to attract customers as most of the customers feel insecure and remain concerned about their personal information. Thus making survival of free web host providers problematic. Moreover there is not a single online store hosted by free web host, which is running successfully.

In case of free web hosting the uptime of one’s web site is unpredictable just like the weather forecast where one should always hope for good, but at the same time should get prepared for the worst. Unfortunately the downtime through free web hosts is quite uncommon. Free web hosts generate their revenues from advertising and so are not concerned with the web site of a subscriber who doesn’t pay them anyway.

The list of problems is not yet over; free web hosts generally have a limited budget and cant afford to hire large customer support teams. Thus support is also not available in case of free web hosting and user is alone at the time of problems merely staring at the FAQ page.

In case of free web hosting, one’s domain name is just measured in feet and reflects nothing or let say very little of one’s business. The overall result of above is low traffic scores, as the visitors even won’t be able to remember one’s URL. In this era of computerization where companies try to create their own image, one’s web site will loose its importance due to reflection of subdomain of his/her free host. Now the questions which arises are can really one can rely merely on search engines, linked sites and people book marking his/her? Will one’s customers trust a business hosted by a free web host? What credibility will one’s web site inspire? The answers of all above are unfortunately against free web hosting.

The list of factors against free web hosting is not yet over. One more disadvantage is that free web hosts do not always offer FTP access to one’s web site file, or they just offer one email with address like john.peu@freeserver.com. Which bears unprofessional look on the customers?

As against to free web hosting, paid web hosting requires money, but the prices are quite lower in comparison to the benefits one derives from paid web hosting.

Thus the lesson of the article is that if one is searching for a solution to host his/her business or even a professional personal web site, free web hosting is not at all a right choice.