What to expect with free hosting offers? When should you opt for free hosting and when is it a good time to move on to paid hosting?
I have tried and tested multiple free web hosting sites. To be honest, to pay for web hosting a site which is under construction or development, I didn’t have enough funds or budget. So what should I do in such a situation. Google search came to my rescue with list of free hosting service providers I was looking for. I am glad that such providers exist – like www.pubwebhost.com – Free Web Hosting with php5 & mysql5 which provide developers and coders a space that can be used for testing and development before opting for paid hosting plans.
So what is free web hosting?
A free web hosting service is a web hosting service that is free to the user, but it also comes with annoying pop up advertisement or banner ads. Thus they are providing free web space and running cost is recovered using advertisements and also give limited functionality or control to end user.
What do you get from free web hosting providers?
A. URL
Free web hosts either provide a subdomain (yoursite.example.com or you may review my shopping cart sandbox based on oscommerce at http://shop.pubwebhost.com) or a directory (www.example.com/~yourname).
B. Technology
Almost all free web hosting providers give you php4 or php5 with mysql4 or mysql5 database. You get a control panel for your own area, which is a small space created under your user name on the hard disk of the server, and this disk is shared by multiple users. This is virtual hosting – where one server may host unlimited sites / users. Not all software based on php4 / php5 may run on free web hosting providers because some free hosts would not allow you to use safe mode / other php directives and only limited options are available.
In contrast, paid web hosts will provide a second-level domain along with the hosting (www.yourname.com).
C. Using your own domain name
Some free hosts allow you to use separately-purchased domains. At times free web hosting providers may also operate as a domain name registrar. A word of caution though, these services come at higher cost and you may also realize that domain name is registered in their (free web hosting providers) name instead of yours, and a transfer from them to you may attract some cost (which at one place is $29 – way above the normal purchase price of $6.95 for a .com at Pubdomains.com – Domain Registration & Web Hosting Services.)
Free hosts may also allow you to host your domain, bought from any other registrar as long as you have control to modify DNS and change NameServer Record. I have hosted a Stink web site on www.pubwebhost.com
D. Features & Limitations
Some free web hosts offer basic package for free and enhanced packages (with more features) for a cost. This allows users to try the service for an initial trial (see how it performs compared to other hosts), and then upgrade if and when required.
Free hosting may have the following limitations:
Limitation on the size of each hosted file
Limited bandwidth per month (compared to paid hosting)
Disabling on hotlinking of files
File type restrictions (for example MP3, MPEG, ZIP etc.)
Compulsory placement of the Webhosts’ Banner or Popup ads into all web pages
No uptime guarantee or support
No allowance of custom URLS, such as “http://www.domain.com”. It has to be “http://www.provider.com/domain” or “http://domain.provider.com/”. (Varies from host to host)
Some free host may provide extra features:
A web based control panel
Free email accounts for the domain or subdomain hosted
File transfer via FTP
Scripting languages: PHP, ASP, Perl etc.
Relational databases such as MySQL
Scheduled processes, known as cronjobs
Forums and community resources not typical of paid hosts
Reward systems which provide extra free products and services
May require regular posts on forum to keep alive the account
Monitor minimum monthly hits to site / Account and may de-activate the account if minimum threshold is not met.
So big question – Why would someone do it?
I know this is one question that bugs, what do companies gain by providing users free web hosting services?
It doesn’t cost a lot to give this services and money invested may be recovered by
a. Ad Revenue (Monetizing)
b. Marketing other services, where you get a dedicated known users.
c. Popularizing forums (conditional account only after you post 100 times on forum and have a minimum of 10 posts / week) and then making more money via ads on forums or selling the forum to someone else.
d. Selling the entire business with so many users.
Activation
Instant Activation
Generally free hosts have instant activation. Fill up the signup form, and you get your username / password and ftp account details instantly or via email with activation code.
Manual Activation
At times webhosts may take time to activate account, especially if they want administrators to verify account application and validate each request to avoid spam / phishing sites etc.
Should I opt for paid hosting?
Isn’t it expensive?
Why should I go for paid web hosting when I get everything in free hosting?
The answer to these questions may vary depending upon what you have got so far (from free webhosts), and what you may get in future.
Accountability – Free hosts don’t bill you – so technically they are NOT accountable for any losses, disruption of service. If you own a business I am sure you would know the disadvantage of keeping your showroom closed on peak business hour. Would you prefer that to happen to your web site? If not, then you should opt for paid hosting. The web hosts is accountable and dependable because you pay him a certain amount for ensuring that your business runs as usual 24×7, 365 days a year!
Costs – With competition heating up web hosting arena as well, prices have come down drastically so it is no longer very expensive to spend under $10 per month to get very reliable and decent web hosting service. Cost should not be a factor, treat this as any other business expense and you would notice this is nothing compared to your expenditure on electricity for your office!
Technical Support – doesn’t come with free web hosting, whereas paid hosting allows you to interact with trained and technically skilled engineers 24×7 to help you with any situation or problem. Not just technical support, you also get a 99.9% uptime guarantee (eg Pubdomains.com) So your web site would greet every user no matter when and from where do they come from, and isn’t that exciting to know that you are able to cater to needs of everyone for less than $10 investment per month 24×7, 365 days a year!!
Speed/Bandwidth – Another area of prime importance that is often overlooked. A free web hosting provider shares common resources with all users, so a 2mbps link with limited upload / download would offer limited speed to all the web sites hosted on its server, in contrast paid hosting providers have excellent band width which translates to good speed when you browse a web site. Imagine your business or personal blog taking 5 mins to show up your home page with a free web hosting service compared to 2 secs from a paid web hosting provider. I don’t need to emphasize the fact that your business or personal site would not get too many repeat visitors if they have to wait for 2 minutes for reading a few lines about you or your business. Each second more costs you a few customers or loyal visitors.
Reliability – so your free web host is in the market for 5 years providing excellent services, getting listed in top search result on Google and Yahoo and is simply the best thing to have been on the internet. Really? Think what would happen if one fine day, the provider is no longer able to continue this line of business, the server has crashed and s/he is no longer interested to maintain or invest in hardware and your site has suddenly ceased to exist. Oh — you didn’t take the back up either, so you had paid $1500 to get the site made and after 3 months of successful operation on the best free host, now you have a simple 404 – Page Cannot be Displayed Error or worse – Site not found error showing up. You drop an email to support or rush to forum to complaint only to find email not being responded to or forum url too showing up – not found error. Where do you go from here? I suggest pay $4-$10 for paid hosting to avoid any such mishap especially if your web site is a critical tool for your business.
Please feel free to comment or submit your views on free / paid hosting presented here, I have used both, free web hosting and paid hosting and the views expressed here are from my experience with various providers. I would like to know more from you about your experience in this domain!!
So long,
VB
Pubdomains.com – Domain Registration * Web Hosting * SSL Certificates
