Web Hosting Reviews & Ratings

June 22, 2011

Free Web Hosting: An Alternative to Paid Hosting Services?

We all have heard the old adage, “You get what you pay for,” but can a free web hosting service really stack up against paid services?  With the costs of web hosting services, free services may actually be a good alternative to the entry level web master, but there are a few things about these free services that you will definitely want to know before deciding to be thrifty on the most important part of maintaining a web page: the host.

Free Service Benefits

Free web hosting services are popping up across the Internet like wildfire, so there are many different options from which to choose.  With the larger search engines, such as Google and Yahoo, beginning to get into the business of hosting websites for free, finding free services could not be easier these days with incredible benefits.

Obviously, the most basic benefit of free services is just that, they are free.  Offering you the ability to share files and create blogs make free hosting services the perfect and very affordable solution for those with limited web design experience, or for those who simply need a basic site.

In addition to being a search engine giant, Google is also offering free web hosting services. The popular provider offers it’s free hosting users 10 GB of storage space from which to launch their web presence.  The generous hosting space, along with the numerous templates make building a website a breeze for those just beginning to learn the ropes of web design.

Disadvantages of Free Services

There may actually be some truth to that old cliché after all, but only for those that are building a website in need of a little more bling.  Free Webhosting is limited by the fact that users are not able to use a unique domain name, with the webhost’s name almost always attached introducing the URL.

Additionally, bandwidth and storage space are also limited.  The 10 GB of space is all users can expect from Google unless opting to pay for upgraded hosting packages.  There are also typically no back-ups offered from free hosting servers.  For users, this means that when their server goes down or at least a temporary time, users can expect their respective sites to go down as well.

Advertisements are another huge disadvantage to the free hosting option.  The purpose of these ads placed on free sites is to generate revenue for the host, which in turn pays for the server costs.  Free users, of course, have no control over what ads appear on their site. While some of these disadvantages may still be tolerable, however, many free users opt to paid upgrade services for the simple reason of the annoying pop-up ads.

Conclusion

While “free” has always had a negative connation when choosing almost any product or service, we are still inanely drawn to whatever that isn’t going to cost a dime.  Even though there are limitations on free hosts, the cost-saving advantages make the service a great benefit regardless of the inconveniences, especially for novice web designers or those in need of a basic site to test a product or service in a specific niche.

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