Web hosting reviews

Choosing Free Web Hosting over a paid option should, in theory, be based solely upon on the type of web presence that you are contemplating, rather than cost. The alternative can ultimately end up restricting your growth down the track.

By understanding the advantages and disadvantages of Free Web Hosting you can understand exactly what you are getting. The following is a common sense review of the pros and cons of Free Web Hosting.

Advantages

1. A free and no cost option that gives you a web presence.

2. Good for non business purposes ” such as students, who might want to upload small text documents, non profit organisations and/or families ” all who dont need large disk space and bandwidth.

3. Works well where it is expected that there will be only small amounts of traffic on your site.

Disadvantages

1. Free web host provider will demand their name is part of the domain. For example, http://WebHostName.com/YourSiteName instead of http://YourSiteName

2. Limited bandwidth is offered. OK to start but limiting to future growth.

3. Linking to files not offered. For driving traffic to your website this is an especially important SEO component.

4. Storage space is limited

5. No guaranteed uptime. You can create a lack of confidence amongst your customers, if your site is unreliable for even short periods.

6. Distracting and annoying web page/ad banners that are often unrelated to the site, can often be added to the site.

7. Customer service support is either limited or not guaranteed.

8. Special features are limited” i.e. PHP, MySQL, FTP accounts and POP email.

9. Spamming can be a problem

10. Limited graphics ” as they restrict the amount of advertising space available to the Free web provider. This can restrict your brand presence on your site.

Any discussion on whether to go Free or paid web hosting is further complicated by the fact that for as much as $5 a month, a web hosting company will promised 24/7 customer support, along with a stream of other special features, such as

1. Unlimited Disk space

2. Unlimited bandwidth

3. Purchase of unlimited domains

4. Either UNIX or Windows operating system, optional

5. 24/7 telephone customer service and support.

6. Shared or dedicated hosting environment, depending on your needs.

Any decision to go with either a Free or paid hosting provider should be made with your current and future needs in consideration. Further it is good to remember that so often the short term gains are not worth possible long term problems.

Tags: affordable web hosting
Filed under: affordable web hosting