First, rest assured that free web hosting is very real, and you can host a website without paying any money. However, that doesn't mean that you will receive the same features and services offered to paying web hosting companies. Unfortunately, by saving money with free hosting, you sacrifice control, reliability, and quality.
The majority of web hosting companies who provide users with free hosting stipulate that customers must allow them to place text or banner ads for their company or a third-party on their websites. This means clients get free hosting, but they also lose control over the appearance of their website. Some users don't mind allowing advertising on their site in exchange for free hosting, especially customers with hobby sites or blogs. However, if you're running a business website, you should steer clear of free hosting that requires you to place banner or text ads on your site. These ads will cheapen your website and the company it represents, causing your potential customers to view your business in a negative light.
Another negative aspect of free web hosting is the incredibly small amount of diskspace and bandwidth they usually afford non-paying customers. In general, if you exceed your monthly allotment of bandwidth and diskspace, the hosting company will suspend your site for the rest of the month. If you're running a personal web site, then you may not care if your site goes down for a couple of days or weeks. However, if you're running a website for your business, then this can be a serious problem. Think about the times you've tried to visit a website to look at a restaurant's menu or check out the cost of a haircut at a new salon, only to find that the site is down and the information isn't available. Pretty frustrating, right? If you're going to have a website for your business, make sure it's reliable or don't bother having one at all.
Because free hosting rarely comes with an up time guarantee, your site may be inaccessible quite frequently, and there's very little you can do about it. Generally, free web hosting plans do not come with technical support, so the provider won't help you if you're having problems with site. Even if a web host claims to offer support to non-paying clients, many people have reported that when they submitted a ticket about their problem, they were told their matter would be dealt with when the staff was finished dealing with tickets from paying customers. Quite often, the staff never got to their issues (web hosts have lots of paying customers with lots of problems), but the clients had no recourse because they were not paying for the service.
So, is free web hosting worth losing control of your website and sacrificing features, dependability, and support? If you're running a website for your business, then the answer is absolutely not. Most web hosting companies have excellent hosting packages with up time guarantees and 24/7 technical support for only a few pounds a month. However, if you want a site for your blog or hobby, you have to save a few quid, and you don't care about third-party ads, tech support, or unexpected downtime, then free web hosting might just be the right choice for you.
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