I can understand with the beginners/newbies who don’t have money for paid web-hosting services and ignore the several CONs involved in hosting their blogs and websites on a free webhost package, but the truth be said. You better move your website data before it’s too late.
In my opinion, free web hosts should only be used for websites that are non-commercial in nature, especially when you are learning and experimenting on building websites..
Here are some little facts you should consider while opting for a free hosting plan:
- Can user(you) use your own custom domain name or rather use their subdomain extension?
- What form of domain name is offered by the host?
- What is the size of space and bandwidth allowed by the host.
- Does the free hosting company force ads on users sites? If Yes, what’s the location of advertisements on user’s site?
- What are the Features offered by the free hosting site?
- What resources do your webhost have available?
- Are you offered a free email hosting service?
Positive answers to these above questions means you are probably dealing with the best of their kind out there.
Below are Few Reasons You Should Not Go For Free Web Hosts:
1. Annoying Ads All Over Your Website
Believe me, nothing is totally free out there and you must surely pay in one way or the other. Ads on users site is often the price you pay for hosting freely on their servers. Do not get worried if you begin seeing popup ads, popunder ads, affiliate links, banner links etc appear on your website or blog while using a free hosting service because this is one way to make you pay for their free server space.
One thing that can put you off is the fact that some of the ads might place your competitors to your clients and this can really be a huge threat to the existence of your online business. Avoiding free hosting is one way to avoiding this.
2. No Custom Domain
There are situations where free hosting companies out there won’t let you purchase and use a custom domain name with their free server space. Wanna know why? They wish to promote their business by forcing you yo use a lengthy domain like www.yoursite.freehostingcompany.com.
If you care to know, such domain names makes your business look unprofessional and really not serious.
- Must Read: How To Use A Custom Domain Name On Blogger
3. Uptime Guarantee Fraud
Most Free Web-hosts might promise an up-time for your server space which they in reality don’t keep to. The most annoying aspect to this is, you can not hold this attitude against them, moreover, you are not even paying for the service they are offering, so they can treat you like a piece of rag and get away with it.
4. Limited to No Customer Support
Did I hear you say you wanted to get help from your free webhosts customer support center? That’s probably the biggest joke of the century. Free hosting is actually synonymous to no customer support for you. Though your hosting company might have a customer support center setup, they actually would barely respond to your needs. Even in situations where a forum is made available for help, you tend to wait a longer period before getting answers to whatever you ask.
5. Overcrowded Servers
Overcrowded servers equal frequent downtimes, period. Due to the fact that it’s a free hosting, lots of people would register accounts in order to enjoy the hunting freebie, and as a result overcrowd the servers of the hosting company. This would definitely break the operation of several websites hosted on their servers. And getting your business offline could be disastrous at most times, especially if you own an eCommerce site.
- Must Read: 10 Things Every Small Business Website Needs
Now Your Turn
If you wish to run a successful website and online company, avoiding the free web hosting companies is one step in the right direction.
Why not let me know what you think? I’ll be glad to hear your opinions and contributions using the comment box.
7 Comments
I see to this , it once happened to me but my advice for new bie is that they can just do a demo on free hosting………….
yea@lekksite
Post cheap and reliable paid host 4mula
@Lekksite, Its good you learnt your lessons.
@Jonyboy, I will work on that.
Thanks for dropping by.
nice post here bro. I once used a free host but that was to test somethings… But not all free hosts suck. But it’s good to be at the safer side.Have a nice week.
Yea bro wilson. Nt all really sucks but being on a safe side is cool.. You can enjoy what you paid for. Thanks for droppping by and have a nice week too
Most free web hosting always come with a price.
so you make them some money, which to me is not really free
the worst part you build their brand without you knowing,
so if you are just starting it might not be a bad thin to do
all the same, don’t compromise your business with some
crappy solution, get the best for your business and move on
Yup bro. You are really on Point.. Thanks for dropping by.