web-hosts

Free webhosts vs. paid webhosts

For anybody that is looking to start up their own website, if you don’t have previous experience or knowledge in this area then you might wonder why people go to the trouble of paying for a webhost when the likes of WordPress and Wix offer a completely free website service.

It is a common mistake to make, because if you don’t do your due diligence, then you won’t find out the restrictions of a free web host until you have spent hours producing great content for your website, and pointed all of your email marketing and other marketing tactics to your new website address.

Here are a few problems you could encounter when opting for a free web host:

No customer support – If you’re having problems with your website, then like most free webhosts, you won’t have the luxury of being able to contact their customer support for help and advice. Instead, you will need to resolve any problems yourself, or even worse, pay for someone with website development skills to fix the issue for you.

Limited storage and bandwidth – Presumably, you are looking to create regular content for your website and you may find that you will soon run out of space to store your content. Most free hosting options are quite restrictive with the levels of free storage they provide, so be wary of this. Bandwidth is also fairly limited, so if your website usage increases, you might start to see that the website starts to go very slowly as your site tried to cope with the large amounts of traffic. 

Domain name usage – If you have a domain name set up for your company, then you will have to pay to use it on the ‘free’ hosting services. The free option only allows you to use a domain name that belongs to the provider (and advertises their services). This doesn’t look as professional and makes it harder for people to remember your website address when they are looking for your website.

Advertising – When you opt for a free web host, you are pretty much giving all control of your website to the provider. This means that they can use your website to display as many adverts as they choose to, and can do anything they want with your website. If you want more control over the use of your website, then you should pay for one of their package deals.

Of course, you can avoid these problems by opting for a paid webhost. From a small monthly fee, you can have more control over your website, more storage, and the security of knowing that you can get help from customer support, should you require it.

If you are setting up a website for a business, then paid webhosting would always be the recommended option, as it will wreak professionalism with less annoyances that could potentially drive your visitors away. Make sure to always do your research and read all the small print before you select a webhost.

Hello there!
Hello there!

My name is Gary, a 31 year old Tech Loving marketer passionate about home tech and coffee.

I'm a Programmer for hire working with small to medium businesses.

I network in Warrington, Liverpool and Manchester in the North West, England.

This website is my online notebook dedicated to tech, marketing and finance.

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