Nothing comes for free in these days and even if it comes people will view with eyes of suspicion. We will have a look at different types of free web hosting services and how to select the best of the free web-hosting providers.
The first thing is how to find free web hosting providers that are available. One can find them by browsing the net and conducting a thorough search on Google. There are many service providers that offer free web hosting services and even claim that they are the best in the industry. Even though one cannot expect everything and all advanced features from the providers as they are providing the services for free of cost, one has to make sure that free web hosting providers offer the following features in the web hosting.
Important features to look for
One should make sure the providers offer the most essential features like more than 1 GB bandwidth, more than 100MB disk space, allows hosting of your own domain, allows even free sub domain eg-yourname.freewebhostprovier.com with out permitting advertisements on your site.
All these features gives your website a new look and enhances the appearance of the website attracting new traffic.
What is being offered by some good free web hosting providers?
Most of the reputed free web-hosting providers offer attractive packages. Many packages include enabling you to add own advertisements, excellent reliability but this is had to determine, community forum helping you to discuss about your websites, options for email accounts, databases like MySQL along with PHP and CGI, Direct Admin Control Panel or cPanel Control Panel and Automatic Software Installer enabling you to install blog on your website with in minutes.
All these packages helps you in having excellent and improved control on the maintenance of your website rather than depend on the providers even for small things.
The ultimate question: Are web hosting providers any good?
One should not have high expectations from free web hosting providers but there are many advantages from these providers. It is only the question of selecting the most reliable service providers that offer 24/7 online customer service helping you to come out of the problems you encounter when hosting your website.
There are many web-hosting providers offering all the standard features of hosting along with excellent resource allocation. One should go though the terms and conditions to understand what types of websites are allowed for free web hosting by the providers. Its only spending some time to read the reviews and ensuring that the hosting speed is good enough to host your website in a stable manner.
If you happen to know any free web hosting providers or, even better, the owner of free web hosting provider yourself, please comment on this article with what you have on offer.
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31 comment(s)
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Personally I’ve never been a big fan of free hosting, its just too much out of your control.
Till then,
Jean
Personally I would probably never use a free web host again. There is always some kind of catch, usually in the form of advertisements that are automatically displayed on your site. If you want reliable web hosting, you have to pay for it. The other problem with free hosting is that you are guaranteed to be on the same server as many spammers and questionable sites. I’d rather not associate myself with those kinds of sites in any way.
I don’t like to use free webhosting.
I have never used free hosting and I cannot ever imagine using them. As the PP mentioned it, free always has strings attached and hosting is too cheap otherwise to not have control. Well worth the money to pay for hosting, IMHO.
I know a lot of free web hostings come and go. They don’t seem to last more than a year or two. I wouldn’t want my site to be down for a few days just because a free web hosting shuts down and goes out of business.
hahahaha, very funny, although i kinda agree with the last one, there just arent enough hours in the day!
great job i appretiate this……
WELLDONE
Yea I tried a free host or two, the monthly cost of a more reliable site is justifiable, when you consider a serious site can easily eat 10 or more hours a month of your time, paying yourself lust 2 dollars an houe exceeds the hosting cost by a bunch.
I understand free sites go away if you fail to update at least every few months.
Free web host are not all that bad, with the exceptions of ones who need you to display their ads on your site. The major problem with free hosts is the support, especially with mission critical sites. Xtreemhost are a good example of a free host. Their support takes a good day or two to respond though, which is why I would never really put any business related sites on a free host.
The fact is that there is no free lunch. The same applies to hosting. Every company has to pay for servers, computers, internet access and people. Where do they get money if they offer the service for free? Well, there are many ways to make money. The question is in what relation is this free service to other services. Is this a real service with some (limited) support or just a fancy thing to attract customers?
i had a bad experience with free web host
Those are good points to find a reliable free web host. I personally don’t use them because I’ve ran into having slow server response times and non existant customer service in the past. So I know stay away from them. Who knows some day I might give it another go with a free site. Only thing though is the traffic bandwidth limitations, not liking that at all.
It seems as though hosting is getting cheaper all the time – but I agree with the other commenters, if you are serious, there are still important advantages to paid hosting that a free host cannot provide. You’re right, if it’s free there has to be a catch somewhere…
There are still some use for using free hosting, but if you are serious about your busing you had better get a domain and signed up with a hosting company. On the other side, free hosting can be a great way to start your first site.
I think it depends on your circumstances. Free can be great if you are starting out on a limited budget and need to make money before you spend any. Its also good for testing ideas to see if they are profitable. But in the long run its best to have your own hosting so that you are in control.
On thing that you should also mention is Uptime and Server reliability. If you website is going to be down half the time it might be a good idea to find a cheap online web host that offers site uptime 95-99% of the time.
Free hosting providers sucks, nothing that is good is free.
I have used free website hosting which lasted a couple of years then just disappeared, if you risk it make sure you backup your whole site just in case !
I have been using Awardspace for almost a year now, and have had no problems whatsoever with their services.
I’ve done the free web hosting thing with much regret, you get what you pay for!!
I have never used a free web host and not sure if I ever want to try one.
There are just too many variables and the hassle if any problem arises may not be worth it.
Paid hosting today is quite affordable. A little research over the net and anyone could find the right provider for their needs.
there’s a lot of disadvantages when you are using free hosting. generally, they offer no customer support, they are also not known for their reliability and up-time. but sometimes it can be useful for other webmasters which they can use it as a non-profit sites or just to store files for a while.
The most common problem with free hosting is ads. Free hosting providers are not taking money from you but they need money to maintain their hosting service. So they will give ads on your web site and they will make money from your site.
I do have to thank free web hosters for my first few web projects to take shape when I was in my tweenies; isn’t internet all about sharing? As you grow up into a serious web owner you’d want to find hosting services that provide various support that fits your requirements; so I will not shoot free hosting down so hastily. They do have their advantages; and through their limitations we can then see the difference between a free web hosting service provider and a dedicated one.
Well, MySQL along with PHP and CGI, Direct Admin Control Panel or cPanel Control Panel and Automatic Software Installer can make you intall your log in minutes. But since this is free, our expections from these shouldn’t be too high.Thanks.
I think free web hosting is appealing to certain users of small websites but anyone with a business or important website may be better of going for a personal server plan. The most important thing is 24/7 customer support. There is nothing more frustrating than your site going down out of hours and not being able to contact your hosting company.
Free hosting can be a pain but I have used 000webhosting in the past and they have proved to be the best out there, but you get what you pay for in this life.
From personal experience I would never use free web hosting ever again. For any website that is monetized it will loose you a lot more money through down time and slow performance than you will spend on a decent host. If your going to succeed online your website needs to be useable.
There are some hosting companies that offer a limited service free (presumably on the assumption that you will soon upgrade to a paid service) which can be fine for a personal site. However, I consider the level of support to be a prime criteria for hosting as I want help when I need it (not the next working day).
I am using a free hosting for my blog and it is giving a good service as well but at the end of the day there are some problems in free hosting and if you are thinking getting serious then paid hosting is a must.
For free website I would suggest Squidoo. Google Sites. Webs.com
Any feedback from you?