Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Free Web Hosting: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

By William MacMahon


Small businesses that wish to feature their services in internet often seek free and low priced web hosting services. This statement is generally true for companies who want to feature new websites. Free web hosting services offered by several hosting companies match the requirements of such businesses. The concept of free web hosting is based on a simple idea: a web host would provide free server space for hosting a small or medium business website. In return of this service the hosting companies would display advertisements on the client's site and consequently earn from it. The free web hosting service is completely supported by advertisements but has its own 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.

With the advent of several cheap hosting services the requirements for free web hosting is diminishing at a faster rate. People are now able to access shared and dedicated web hosting services at a much lesser rate that is also hosting their sites faster. However, the emergence of blog has boosted the growth of free hosting services. Since blogs are easy to set up and manage, people often feel that they can opt for such an easy going service rather that hiring and spending on companies for website hosting. With Free web hosting services companies are trying to impart the benefits of individual websites that has several other advantages over blogs.

Free web host reliability

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. Free hosting websites are beneficial for students of web designing, hosting and development. They can use the free hosting services to store information about web designing, development and website maintenance in their knowledge bank. Basically a free web hosting service can be used for learning purposes. It can also be used as a testing procedure. Using these techniques, students can practically clarify their concept of websites without investing anything. For example boinc.ch offers free accounts in their server especially for those interested in UNIX environment. This free hosting service is targeted to students coupled with developers. People interested in personal homepage can also make the maximum utilization of such a free service.

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. The free services are of great benefit to community groups and others that have no income but want to share their talents with the global world. It also allows those with social and economical platforms to engage and communicate with the public without expanding on their expenses. These groups and individuals can make great use of the free web hosts by placing websites on the internet and providing links between each group, or other interested parties. They enjoy great benefits both in the SEO and cost perspective with free web hosting.

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

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. Free hosts provide subdomain and not a second-level domain contrary to the paid services.

2. Bandwidth on free services is extremely low and subject to downtimes unlike the paid services.

3. Since the free space provided is generally low, any file size cannot be uploaded freely in the website.

4. To earn money against such a free services web host would stuff banner and popup advertises as much as possible in the client's website. This not only diminishes the actual space in the website for the owner but it also creates a negative impression about the website. The web host banners are also placed in the client's site compulsorily.

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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