Contrary to popular thinking, “free” doesn’t exactly mean “good”. More often than not, it actually means quite the opposite. Why? – Well, because it’s free. Because you don’t have to pay anything for it.
How much something costs is usually a reflection of its quality.
Since the dawn of time, people have been blinded by false benefits. They have been, and still are, sucker for such terms as “free”, “promotional”, “special offer”, “one time only”, “buy one, get one free” that come with all sorts of services and products.
We all have those friends who, in this day and age, still go for the cheapest deals, thinking that they’ve actually saved a couple of bucks.
You and me both know that they couldn’t be more wrong.
I know that every single one of us, no matter for what he or she is shopping for, is always looking for a bargain. We are all looking for that great deal that will give us more than we actually paid for.
The problem is, in this process, more of than not, blinded by cheap sales tricks, people end up making poor choices for themselves and their business. They end up actually getting the worst possible deal out there, while thinking that they’ve done good.
I’ve been in this business for quite some time now, and I have seen a lot of people make the mistake of choosing free hosting deals for their websites over paid ones.
There are several reasons why you should avoid free hosting services.
In order to help you better understand all of them, I have constructed this list of 8 reasons on why you should never choose a free hosting solution for your website:
1. Free Web Hosting Provider Are Not Reliable
A provider of any free service can close up shop anytime he or she wants to, and you can’t do anything about it.
Let’s, for the purpose of the story, say that you have a blog on some sort of a free hosting platform.
Everything is going great, you’re putting in the hours, you’re constantly writing great content, updating your blog, building great relationships with all sorts of people around the web and one day, you’re host, just out of the blue, send you an email in which he’s informing you that he’s closing up shop.
What you’re gonna do now? What you’re move? Do you have enough time and resources to transfer your data and redirect all your backlinks to your new website? It all depends to the second party. If he doesn’t want to wait for you to get your stuff together, you cannot do anything about it.
2. Is This Free Web Hosting Actually Free?
Sure, you can setup your website on their servers for free, and you don’t have to pay anything for maintenance, but, thanks to that, you don’t have any control on which advertisements will appear on your page.
Free web hosting providers will place their ads anywhere they want to, without waiting for your permission. This want only compromise your website and leave you with ads you initially don’t want to see on your page, it will also take all your advertising space, and you won’t have anything left to rent to people who are interested in promoting their business on your website.
In this scenario, your “free” host is actually costing you money. Like a lot of money.
3. Surprise! You Don’t Really Own Your Own Site!
Personally, to me, this is the biggest deal breaker. If you carefully read the Terms and Conditions of most of these services, you’ll find out that legally you don’t really own your site. Blogger doesn’t let you take ownership of your own space, and if your try to sell and get caught – Google will ban you for life from using their services.
4. No Customization, No Support
Free web hosting services usually limit your options when it comes to your web page design. Most of them run on templates which are not really open to more serious changes. Sure, you can choose different templates from their library and tweak ‘em a bit, but only a bit.
Free web hosting services offer limited capacity for plugins, so you count on that you’ll have to make compromises on which tools you’ll add to your websites.
Next to this, free hosting services offer no support. You’re left on your own. If something goes wrong, and you start to experience difficulties with your website, you have to figure them out by yourself. These sort of hosting do not offer services that can cause problems, such a MySQL, databases, Php, email and all sorts of different scripts.
5. Limited Storage and Bandwidth
Most of these providers have a paid package as well, so it’s quite naturally to assume that those who pay for their services will get the biggest piece of the cake. So there you are, a free user, left on the bottom of the food chain, waiting ages for your files to upload.
Same things goes for storage space as well. Not only that it will be limited, but, if you carefully read the Terms and Conditions, you’ll find out that your host can delete your content if he wishes to, for God knows what reasons. Maybe he wants to clear some space. You’ll never know, cause he won’t tell you.
These sort of services are useful for getting started with your website and practicing how to write and promote your content. These sort of services are probably the worst choice possible for those who are looking to make something out there website, and earn some cash while providing useful content or services via internet.
Don’t live to see your website go under, or your efforts go to waste due to poor hosting choices. Invest a bit in your business, and I promise you, you won’t regret it!
Thank you for taking the time from your busy day to read this blog post. I truly appreciate it.
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Have a great day!
Goran @ AltusHost B.V.
The author is highly qualified and writes blog posts weekly.
