Everyone’s eyes glisten as soon as they hear the word “free”. You were probably raised knowing that everything costs money and the “free stuff” is the “best stuff”. But when it comes to website hosting, should you keep the money square in your wallet (your bank, rather) and use free website hosting, or should you cough up some cash and pay for paid hosting?
Whats bad about free web hosting
Less Uptime
Let’s face it – if you aren’t paying someone for their services, they are most likely going to give you far less than 100%. Why wouldn’t they? They have no reason to do anything for you, unless you are willing to throw some green their way. Free website hosting is much the same. Since you aren’t paying the hosting company, they short you out in some fields. Uptime, for example, is one of those fields. If you aren’t sure what uptime is, it basically means how often your site is online. If your site is never online, no one will want to visit your website because it becomes a waste of time – their time. Paid hosting companies, however, are much more willing to keep your site online because if they don’t they will lose customers and money.
Less Professional
If you are trying to get people to take you seriously, having free website hosting doesn’t help. You may not mean to, but by not having paid website hosting, you give off an “I don’t care about my business” kind of vibe. If you are confused about that, let’s break it down. By having free website hosting, you are obviously not paying any money – making it seem as if you don’t care.
Along with the negative vibes you give off, you are also entitling your readers to possible ads (depending on if the hosting company wants advertisements on your website or not) and possibly even a bad design. With free website hosting, they need to make money in order to keep your site online, so they will put ads on your website if they feel they need to. You also cannot make all the customizations to your website’s design as you can on paid hosting. Yeah, you can always upload files to your website containing CSS and HTML codes, but if there is a file limit, you are done. So now you have a website that is ruining your possible community because of ads and a bad design.
Less options
When comparing a free and paid hosting account, you will see many differences – the most noticeable being all of the options paid hosting offers. I don’t know many people that don’t like more options because more options equal more customization. No one wants to see the same website over and over, so by getting more options, you allow yourself countless possibilities. Even if they don’t allow you to change the appearance of your website, some options can help you drive in more traffic, change your server settings, or even create email addresses! With free hosting, however, you don’t get all of these cool or amazing options – making your life a little bit harder.
What do you think?
What do you think about the debate between free and paid website hosting? Which of the two do you use and why?
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[...] 12yr olds don’t have. Hell I don’t even have it sometimes.Joe writes articles on why free web hosting isn’t good, the importance of social networking, and many other topics. I suggest keeping an eye on this young [...]
You hit the nail on the head there Joe.
The good thing about web hosting is that its a very affordable investment that will have the potential to give massive returns if the creator spends the time to make it a success.
Its really good to see that you have made that decision.
Keep up the good work.
Robyn from Sam’s Web Guide´s last blog ..Will SEO Be Necessary in the Next 5 Years?
Free web hosting is a good way to kill your business. Why skimp out on your readers, making you seem less reliable and professional?
Good point with the investment idea. It is a GREAT investment. With paid web hosting, you allow yourself to have ALL rights to your website, making you eligible for massive income. Depending on the free website hosting company’s terms and conditions, you may be restricted to how you can earn money. Even if they allow you to keep all profits, you will minimize those profits.
I have chosen the decision of paid hosting because I teach people to become successful. If I used free web hosting, how would that make me look?
You would look like a joke if you used free hosting and readers would wonder, “How can this guy talk about success and yet he can’t spend a few bucks on his own site.”
Robyn from Sam’s Web Guide´s last blog ..Top 30 Massive Earning Blogs – Its Time To Take Action
Great post. I hate the word free hosting and I have had bad experiences with it. Free hosting is bad for your health
Kharim´s last blog ..Tips for new webmasters
Haha, I agree there. I hate when people assume free web hosting is the way to go. Thanks for the comment!