The Other Side of a Free Web Hosting Plan

Mostly, new people get attracted towards the concept of free web hosting plan. However, they don’t know about the actual issues involved in a free web hosting plan, until they use it. One must understand that a paid web host provider has got better services to offer, compared to free hosts. Free web hosting facility might be suitable for personal homepages and other types of websites which do not depend on online advertising or sales revenues. A paid hosting service is ideal for those in business and who are interested in online selling or just want to have a professional web presence with regard to their business.

You might be hunting for an appropriate host for your website and then suddenly you feel like asking yourself, “why should I pay for a web hosting plan, when I can get easily acquire a free website for myself?” Well, it all depends on the type of website that you are dealing with. With a free hosting plan, you might end up being frustrated due to various reasons. Some of the points are explained as follows:

1) Down time is common in free hosting plans:
It is common to experience downtime issues with free web hosts. Since you do not pay for the service, free hosting providers feel less obligated to offer good service. The free web hosting providers don’t really value a free subscriber, since they feel that this group is not really beneficial to them. Hence, free web hosting providers are not bothered if their users are dissatisfied with the service.

2) Free flow of advertisement:
In a free hosting service, you will definitely be disturbed by constant, unwanted ads on all your web pages. You may even see a pop up banner as soon as you click a link etc. You can hardly do anything about this situation because many free hosts rely solely on these advertisements in order to make money. So, you must be aware of the fact that these advertisements will reduce your professional image just because you have opted for a free web hosting plan.

3) Bad customer support:
Most of the free web hosting providers cannot effort to provide customer support facility to their users. In such a case, it is always better to rely on the FAQ page (frequently asked question). The FAQ can come to your rescue when in case, live or email support is denied by the free web hosting provider.

4) Restricted hard disk space:
Think twice before you opt for a free web host. If your website is large enough, you might then experience free web host being quite limited. Mostly, free hosts can provide hard disk space of about 5 to 10MB. You will experience difficulties when your website is growing and you are thinking of expanding your website beyond your allotted disk space.

5) Lengthy domain names:
In a free hosting plan, customers are not allowed to use their own names, as in the case of paid hosts. Those users who are opting for free hosting services are required to choose a sub domain off the host’s name. Thus, you land up having a lengthy domain name for your website. Visitors will find it difficult to remember your lengthy domain name. Hence, you are then likely to loose potential customers. If customers want to access your website, they will have to bookmark your site instead of depending on their own memory.