What is Free Web Hosting?
Many times small businesses wishing to gain exposure online have a limited budget. They seek out services that offer free hosting services to ease their expenses. This is usually true for companies wanting to try an online business for the first time. This type of web hosting is offered by various companies to help small business get started. The whole idea behind free web host services is simple: the web host allows for free service for a small business in order to put a website online. In order to do this the host company puts ads on the client’s website so that they can get some return for the space given. This type of free service is supported entirely by the web host’s advertisements and comes with some limitations.
The free website hosts are making money with the application of such services as client’s can be easily lured by such a zero-price offer. These web hosts display popup, put banners, or advertisements on WebPages of the client’s website thus earning enough from free web hosting. There are several web hosting companies that provide free services to their clients against the condition that clients would click on banners that are their in their control panel or simply display banners in file manager with the expectations that client’s will click on them.
The free web hosts have dominated the personal web site and small business web site arena for a long time but are being replaced at a quick rate by low cost, or cheap web hosts. The cheap, or low cost hosts give all of the above advantages while not placing any ads on the client’s site. They also offer dedicated domain names which is a big draw for many, and the prices are very reasonable-usually paid monthly. They offer many more services and set up features for blogs, forums, and more along with more storage and data space and bandwidth for sharing. Many free hosting companies also offer cheap services with no ads.
How reliable are free web hosts?
Since the free hosts make money from the banner advertisements or resources related to it, they have more possibility of staying in the business. But it often happens that someone or some other company complains against their web hosting server declaring it as spam, hacker, etc, Complaints also crawl up if any free web hosting company utilizes an automated instant activation to offer other features like that of PHP or CGI. This is because free server consumes lot of downtime or the performance reduces considerably. This however, happens with the new web hosts but those who are professional generally don’t go for such offers.
The benefits of free web hosting
1. The free web hosting environments are great for students practicing web design, and their own hosting along with development. It allows them to store their projects, test them, and create them for free with no stress. They can expand their knowledge bank, and even share the information between each other. It is a valuable testing tool so they can see if their concepts are applicable and functional. It is a wonderful environment for creativity. Some web hosts cater specifically to that crowd such as boinc.ch who allows free accounts on their server for developers and students. People interested in creating a personal homepage can make great use of the features from these sites as well as it gives them the ability and freedom to share their personal life for free.
2. Another valuable use for free web hosting services is to volunteer organizations, and those companies that are not-for-profit. These institutions need to share their messages with the world but often have a very limited budget. The internet is the best way to reach masses of people quickly and free web hosting allows these organizations to do that, and also get donations and other important business on a large scale from many people at once. The same services that are beneficial to students, and personal web site builders are perfect for the volunteer and service organizations as it allows them to get online quickly at no cost. Larger web hosts may provide free service to these organizations for emotional reasons, but the most likely way to obtain free space is with a free host.
3. There are a large number of groups or communities who are eager to share their ideas and feeling on various big and small issues. Free websites can be helpful for such groups who don’t have enough money to invest on a shared or dedicated server. They can utilize the free service by posting useful information and also providing mutual links to their respective websites. This increases their search engine visibility and improves their rankings. Therefore both from SEO and financial perspective they are enjoying the benefit of free web hosting services.
4. Family websites can make great use of the free web hosting services too. They allow families to share information between each other and also with the world. Pictures, and other vital data can be shared in an almost diary form online where others can read and enjoy the experiences. Be sure to check for a web hosts authenticity before embarking on any program that shares your information online.
The cons of free web hosts
Though webs hosting services are best from monetary aspect, there are several disadvantages which compel the users to think twice before going for such a service.
1. Free hosts provide subdomain and not a second-level domain contrary to the paid services.
2. Bandwidth to share pictures and data is very low on a free service provider. You will get much more with a paid service.
3. Free space is also very low meaning you have very limited disk space on the server for holding your files and data.
4. Your site will have many banners, pop ups, pop unders, and other distractions to visitors placed on it. This can look very unprofessional for an organization and diminish the value of the website. It also creates a negative impression to the visitor when they see all the ads and the subdomain name.
5. There is usually no guarantee of uptime.
6. Free websites often restrict certain file types such as those for music, movies, and others like zip files etc.
7. There is little to no support. Your ability to operate the site is a low priority to them. If it is offered it is usually short-term just to get you up online so they can make money.
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