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.
Clients of these services are easily lured by the no-cost features. Many of the hosts of free web space offer wonderful software and management capabilities for a free site. They then display pop up, pop under, or banner ads on the client’s website. Some also place these ads inside the client’s work space such as on their control panel with the provision they must click on them, or at least in the hopes they will. They may display these ads in other areas of the work space as well like on the file manager, etc.
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.
Are free web hosts reliable?
While they make money off of the advertisements on the client’s sites which gives them incentive to stay in business, many free web hosts have stability issues. It occasionally turns out that someone or another company will declare their web host service complaining of spam, or hacking. That can occur if the host company automatically installs utilities like CGI, or PHP. These things reduce the performance of the server drastically. Professional web hosts are rarely affected by such things. However, it would be a good idea to beware of the startup web host as they are more apt to be subjected to downtime and crashes on account of these things.
Pros 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 very valuable use for free hosting services is for voluntary services or organizations and not-for-profit institutions who need to display their message without high costs. This way these organizations can reach millions across the globe without spending money from their tight budget. These volunteer organizations usually have no money but a great need for communications and the free website gives them the ultimate platform for expression and the benefits of acceting donations from all around the world with no hosting costs incurred. By using the free web host services these organizations can create websites that range from a single page to as many as ten pages and broadcast their activities and methods to the public.
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. Free hosting services are ideal for family websites as they can use it personally for sharing photographs, important family events and other unforgettable moments. Though this kind of use is limited, there are websites devoted to such information. As these are personal information, it is always advisable that one goes for an authentic free web hosts only.
Cons of free web hosting
Even though the above organizations and individuals can save a great deal of money on free web hosting there are some things to consider before opting for those services.
1. Regardless of what they claim free hosts offer subdomain services not second-level domain.
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. Disk space is very limited making file size and picture size uploads restricted to certain amounts on the website.
4. The greatest disadvantage most people find with free websites are the banners and other ad like pop ups and pop unders that are placed all over their websites. It takes away perceived value when visitors click on their site and gives off a negative feeling on the usefulness of the company. Some of the ads can be compulsory in nature.
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 generally no, or very little technical support for customers of the free web hosts since it is not their priority. At most they may offer a month or two of support.