When Free Isn't Necessarily Good Ц Get the Facts before Choosing a Free Web Host

Articles on Hosting | Topics: hosting, web, host

by Yahir Kaufman

Free web hosting can sound like one heck of a good deal. You get to host your website, and you get to do it for free. What could be better than that? Well, if you read the fine print, you'll realize that free doesn't equate to good. This is especially true if you are attempting to run a business Ц in that case free can be bad Ц very bad. That is why you always need to get the facts before you choose a web host.

The vast majority of free web hosts place advertisements on your site. The reason for this is so that they can pay for the bandwidth and storage space you're taking up. The advertising can take place in a vast variety of ways. Some of the advertising will be done by banners Ц you know those annoying things all around the page that sometimes make an even more annoying sound when your cursor passes over them. Other times, they'll use advertising frames, which can cause several problems when you submit your website to the various search engines. Lastly, the most annoying type of advertising is the dreaded pop-up. Every time a page on your site loads, another window will pop-up hawking some product that you Ц and the visitors to your website Ц likely have no interest in. This barrage of advertising can make an otherwise good website look somewhat unprofessional.

The next thing you need to think about when you're looking at a free web host is the amount of space that they're giving you. If you have a website that's going to be heavy on multimedia such as videos and music you're going to need a much bigger site. The bigger the site you're going to need the less likely you're going to be able to provide a free web-host who will give you that service.

A lot of free web hosting providers will only allow you to create a page with their online builder. The online builder generally gives you a list of templates to choose from, and after you choose your template you enter text into any given area on the page. This is useful for beginners, but if you become more experienced this online builder will work against you. When looking at free web hosting make sure that they offer FTP access, which will allow you to edit your page however you would like.

аQuote of the Day

The web of domination has become the web of Reason itself, and this society is fatally entangled in it.

—Herbert Marcuse (1898–1979)

Some web hosts only allow you to upload certain files, and sometimes they limit the size as well. For example, you may only be able to upload JPG files that are less than 300KB. While that's fine if you're a simple text-based site, if you were an independent band hoping to distribute some of your music, you'd find yourself in a world of trouble right away.

For a long time both reliability and speed Ц two of the most important things in a website Ц have been questionable at best when it comes to free web hosting. If your site is down a lot, it will lose a lot of visitors. You know those websites that look so promising, but when you click on them they take forever to load and you inevitably just go to the next website anyway? You do not want your website to be like that Ц speed, or lack thereof, kills. To figure out how reliable and quick the host is, just try surfing your website during both peak hours and non-peak hours.

Lastly, look at the bandwidth allotment that the free web host has given you. Most free web hosts impose a limit on the amount of traffic you can use per day or month Ц and usually the limit is pretty low. If your website has a lot of multimedia, then free web hosting likely isn't the way to go. The web host may just shut you down after you've used too much, or they may even send you a bill. Wouldn't that be frightening Ц a bill coming from your "free" web host?

All in all if you're looking for a web host for a personal page, than a free web host is ok. However, if you're looking for a web host for a business website Ц you have to pay for it, or risk looking unprofessional. The choice is yours.

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Please note: All personal opinions expressed in the "When Free Isn't Necessarily Good Ц Get the Facts before Choosing a Free Web Host" article belong to the contributing author and are not necessarily shared by WebDesignConferencing.com.

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