Loading...
8 Drawbacks to Free Web Hosting
Being that I own a web hosting company, I frequently surf through online forums replying to people’s hosting questions. Of all the questions I answer, I see one that appears over and over again, what are the drawbacks of free web hosting?
So, for those of you who are interested, here they are . . .
- Free hosting accounts typically are packed onto 1 server with lots of other free hosting accounts. This clog of websites severely slows down the server with each one fighting for CPU time. Results: your site may work slow and go offline from time to time.
- Low bandwidth and limited disk space. You usually get 1-3GB of bandwidth with free hosting accounts. This translates to a site designed for very little traffic coming to it. If there is a lot of traffic coming to it (or another on your sever) your site may go down. Also, disk space is usually measured in megabytes (50-100mb). That’s basically enough space for a few pics and some text.
- Free hosting accounts are limited with the tools you are provided with and can use. Many don’t even allow FTP capabilities (which I could not live without). You usually won’t have the ability to run PHP scripts or have a database which translates to no blog, no forum, no “contact me” form, etc. on your site.
- Ads. You usually have to display banner ads on your site. Nothing is better than creating a nice website for yourself and flashing annoying banner ads to your visitors!
- You usually have to wait extended periods of time for any customer service help. Paid customers get first help.
- Usually you are not able to obtain your own domain name (e.g. no www.my-site.com). You are forced to use either a subdomain of your host or a directory (e.g. www.geocities.com/my-site).
- You may have a hard time getting search engines to index your site well.
- Many don’t give you an email account. So no “john_doe@my-site.com”
Do you know other drawbacks to free web hosting? Share them with us.
Leave a Comment