Can Free Web Hosting Work for Your Site?

What is the difference between shared (paid) web hosting and free web hosting? This is an important question for those who are interested in setting up web sites. Whether just for blogging or promoting a cause, or trying to make money with a business, the type of hosting you choose can make a big difference in your site and the reaction of your visitors. Just setting up shop on a free social site like Facebook isn’t always a great idea.

Anything you put on a free social network site really isn’t yours. You are subject to rules and regulations regarding what you can post. There is nothing wrong with having standards, and this usually isn’t a problem for most people, anyway. The biggest reason to have your own site is ownership. If you spend a lot of time building content on a free social site, it can all be wiped out if that site changes the rules or decides there is something about your site they don’t like. It happens.

With the price of paid hosting down to reasonable levels, it makes sense now to consider it. You can register a domain for under $10 a year, and set up paid hosting for about the same amount per month. These paid packages have plenty of disk space and bandwidth allowance for most average webmasters, usually with room for multiple sites if you’re inclined to create them.

Free web hosting, nonetheless, is still popular despite the low cost of superior paid hosting options. For anyone putting up a website as a hobby, or just as a pastime that isn’t a big deal, free hosting might be okay. You would never want to put up a commercial site of any type – free hosting just isn’t right for any business or commercial application.

The positive side of free web hosting is the “free”. However, there are drawbacks.

Free hosts typically run advertisements on your site, and you have no control over this. While your page will still be there, the advertising all around can make it look bad. It just isn’t attractive.

It isn’t unusual for pop ups to be a problem on free sites. Pop up blockers don’t get them all, and they can be a nuisance to your site visitors.

You will have pretty serious limits on how much bandwidth you can use, so don’t plan on putting up a lot of videos or other heavy multimedia content.

A website hosted with a free provider will not be your own domain name. You will pick a name, which will be attached to the host’s name, for example: yoursitename.freehost.com or something similar. You won’t be able have your own unique domain.

Bear in mind that companies can offer free hosting based on getting revenue in return from advertising. Unfortunately, many people set up free web hosting services on the fly hoping to rake in some decent money from ads and promotions to you and your visitors. If this doesn’t go well, they are likely to shut down without warning and leave you stranded.

My advice is to avoid all free web hosting services, unless you simply don’t have the money or don’t want to commit to a few dollars a month for a regular host. The bottom line is, never put anything up on a free host that you really don’t want to lose. It is definitely a risk.

Getting your own website up and running is exciting. When trying to decide on a web host, you have many different choices. Learn the truth about whether free web hosting is a worthwhile option for you to consider. This and other unique content ” articles are available with free reprint rights.