Choosing Between Free and Paid Web Hosting

March 4th, 2010 · No Comments

Free or Paid Web Hosting When given the choice “free or paid”, most of us are going to choose free. After all, why would we pay for something that we can get free? In the case of web hosting, you often get what you paid for. This is not to say that free things are not good, but for the best web hosting service, you’re going to have to pay.

We’re all in it to make money, including the web hosting companies. If we didn’t make any money, we wouldn’t be able to stay in business. The same is true with web hosting companies. They may offer you free service for a certain period (trial period) but they’re going to charge what they’re losing to another customer or you’ll make up the difference when your trial period is over. Many types of web hosting companies offer free web-hosting services.

These companies are in business doing other things and are not dedicated web host companies. In other words, they’re doing this in addition to their main source of business. This is why they can provide free web hosting – because they’re making their money elsewhere. However, because they’re making their money elsewhere, they are not going to provide you with the high quality web hosting you may need.

Limited Resources is one of the major disadvantages of free web hosting. Another problem is limited space. If you only need a few pages worth of space, you’ll be fine, but a site that’s active will quickly run out of room. Bandwidth is another major issue with free web hosting. Free hosting companies will often set very strict limits on the amount of bandwidth their customers can use. Unfortunately, this amount is seldom enough.

You may also be expected to share equipment with other users, which can slow you down immensely and affect your performance. Customer support is extremely important for web hosting and free web hosting companies will often not provide you with the type of customer support you need.

It may appear as though I’m really doing everything possible to discourage you from using free web hosting. This is not necessarily the case. However, by knowing the pros and cons of free web hosting, you’ll be better armed to make the choice that will be most beneficial to you.