Free or paid web hosting?

varfolomey · 04-25-2008, 02:23 PM

Just finished your first website? So it's the time to look for some hosting and make a choise. Your first qustion probably will be whether to choose free or paid hosting service. Let's have a look at some advantages and disadvantages of these solutions.

Free web hosting:
(+) It's for free. You don't need to pay for domain name.
(-) Your URL will be something like username.freehost.com or freehost.com/username. As I noticed above, the advantage is that you don't need to pay for domain. But note that if you move your website to another provider in the future you can loose some or all your traffic (there are some solutions how to solve this problem but it is not the point of this article).
(-) Your provider will probably include ads to your pages - usually 1 or 2 banners, sometimes popup windows. If you plan to use banner exchange on your site read carefully their Terms and conditions. Some free hosts doesn't allow it.
(-) Free hosts usually allow lower bandwidth then paid hosts and a lot of them don't offer futures like PHP and MySQL.
(-) A lot of free hosts change their Terms and conditions during some time. If your free host offers hosting wihtout ads now, don't be surprised when banner or popup appears on your site in the future.
(-) Sometimes happens that free hosts cancel their free service and longer offer paid hosting only. In this case you have only 2 choises - pay them or loose your website.

Paid web hosting:
(+) You can host your own domain. If you decide to change the web hosting provider in the future, you easily transfer the domain to the new provider and don't loose your traffic.
(+) Most paid hosts offer 24/7 support via email or live chat and some of them provide toll-free phone support.
(+) You can expect better uptime then on free host. Some paid hosts offer uptime guarantee.
(+) Paid hosts usually offer enough disk space and bandwidth. Futures like PHP and MySQL are standard. Even if you are not programmer you can download plenty of free PHP scripts from internet.
(-) Paid hosting cost money )

Before you make the decision if choose free or paid host you should answer this question: How big ambitions do I have with my website? If you are starting small personal page for your friends consist of a few *.html files then free host will be sufficient. In case you plan to run serious business website, need PHP, database and don't want ads on the site I recommend to look for quality paid host.

komet · 04-30-2008, 12:44 PM

I think that even cheap web hosting is better than a free deal, say you could get a package for $3.50 from Globaltap.com and get a guaranteed amount of support, or you can find even 1-dollar packages and feel much better than on a free plan with ads put all over your site.

Q_d · 05-05-2008, 12:51 PM

I would agree with komet. I personaly do not want to lose everything I have created. I prefer cheap to free web hosting. And now there are a lot of web hosting companies which offer good and not expensive web hosting. Companies like marblehost.com or say hostgator.com or bluehost.com allow you to have quality service for very low prices.

cohen · 05-06-2008, 08:41 AM

if you go to http://www.dot.tk you can enter your url - like mine = http://www.cohens-site.tk

mogulia · 05-08-2008, 08:54 AM

That's good a hosting market has all sorts of hosting deals to offer: free, cheap and costly, this is all the result of competition.
The provider I'm using at the moment ahosting.biz has deals ranging from $2.00 up to $32.00 mo, I guess it leaves a lot of freedom for choice.
And one more quick remark is that people seem to understand now that cheap hosting isn't always bad, it's just the way things are in the car industry, there are expensive cars, but you can get a cheap one and be quite happy with it. So the companies like Marblehost.com are associated with quality hosting.

cohen · 05-08-2008, 10:41 AM

when i get the $$$ i will get own URL... but for now i will stick with the .tk one

.....

grizly · 05-12-2008, 12:16 PM

I think cheap companies are better to have than free. At least you may get some kind of support.

webdazzled · 05-14-2008, 01:16 PM

Agree about free vs cheap hosting, when you pay you have some grounds to expect something in return. I'm also using ahosting.biz shared plan, my tickets in the help desk within 30 min usually, think it's good.

hosted_web · 05-14-2008, 04:10 PM

Hosting is so cheap these days i wouldn't understand why anyone would want a free account with lots of advertising plastered on the site.

Paid hosting (like mine) is much better

conductor · 05-20-2008, 02:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by webdazzled

Agree about free vs cheap hosting, when you pay you have some grounds to expect something in return. I'm also using ahosting.biz shared plan, my tickets in the help desk within 30 min usually, think it's good.

30 minutes? Are you talking about high emergency tickets? What's the min and max response time from ahosting.biz?

04-25-2008, 02:23 PM	#1
varfolomey Banned Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 52	Free or paid web hosting? Just finished your first website? So it's the time to look for some hosting and make a choise. Your first qustion probably will be whether to choose free or paid hosting service. Let's have a look at some advantages and disadvantages of these solutions. Free web hosting: (+) It's for free. You don't need to pay for domain name. (-) Your URL will be something like username.freehost.com or freehost.com/username. As I noticed above, the advantage is that you don't need to pay for domain. But note that if you move your website to another provider in the future you can loose some or all your traffic (there are some solutions how to solve this problem but it is not the point of this article). (-) Your provider will probably include ads to your pages - usually 1 or 2 banners, sometimes popup windows. If you plan to use banner exchange on your site read carefully their Terms and conditions. Some free hosts doesn't allow it. (-) Free hosts usually allow lower bandwidth then paid hosts and a lot of them don't offer futures like PHP and MySQL. (-) A lot of free hosts change their Terms and conditions during some time. If your free host offers hosting wihtout ads now, don't be surprised when banner or popup appears on your site in the future. (-) Sometimes happens that free hosts cancel their free service and longer offer paid hosting only. In this case you have only 2 choises - pay them or loose your website. Paid web hosting: (+) You can host your own domain. If you decide to change the web hosting provider in the future, you easily transfer the domain to the new provider and don't loose your traffic. (+) Most paid hosts offer 24/7 support via email or live chat and some of them provide toll-free phone support. (+) You can expect better uptime then on free host. Some paid hosts offer uptime guarantee. (+) Paid hosts usually offer enough disk space and bandwidth. Futures like PHP and MySQL are standard. Even if you are not programmer you can download plenty of free PHP scripts from internet. (-) Paid hosting cost money ) Before you make the decision if choose free or paid host you should answer this question: How big ambitions do I have with my website? If you are starting small personal page for your friends consist of a few *.html files then free host will be sufficient. In case you plan to run serious business website, need PHP, database and don't want ads on the site I recommend to look for quality paid host.

05-06-2008, 08:41 AM	#4
cohen Bronze Member Join Date: May 2008 Location: Melbourne, Australia Posts: 77	if you go to http://www.dot.tk you can enter your url - like mine = http://www.cohens-site.tk __________________ View My website My Computer Specs My Computer Pics E-mail + MSN Mac vs PC (Has swearing) How to design a free website

05-08-2008, 10:41 AM	#6
cohen Bronze Member Join Date: May 2008 Location: Melbourne, Australia Posts: 77	when i get the $$$ i will get own URL... but for now i will stick with the .tk one ..... __________________ View My website My Computer Specs My Computer Pics E-mail + MSN Mac vs PC (Has swearing) How to design a free website

05-14-2008, 04:10 PM	#9
hosted_web New Member Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 6	I agree Hosting is so cheap these days i wouldn't understand why anyone would want a free account with lots of advertising plastered on the site. Paid hosting (like mine) is much better __________________ Tony James www.hostedweb.co.uk domain hosting and web design since 1999

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04-30-2008, 12:44 PM	#2
komet Banned Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 19	I think that even cheap web hosting is better than a free deal, say you could get a package for $3.50 from Globaltap.com and get a guaranteed amount of support, or you can find even 1-dollar packages and feel much better than on a free plan with ads put all over your site.

05-05-2008, 12:51 PM	#3
Q_d Banned Join Date: Mar 2008 Posts: 37	I would agree with komet. I personaly do not want to lose everything I have created. I prefer cheap to free web hosting. And now there are a lot of web hosting companies which offer good and not expensive web hosting. Companies like marblehost.com or say hostgator.com or bluehost.com allow you to have quality service for very low prices.

05-08-2008, 08:54 AM	#5
mogulia Banned Join Date: Feb 2008 Posts: 25	That's good a hosting market has all sorts of hosting deals to offer: free, cheap and costly, this is all the result of competition. The provider I'm using at the moment ahosting.biz has deals ranging from $2.00 up to $32.00 mo, I guess it leaves a lot of freedom for choice. And one more quick remark is that people seem to understand now that cheap hosting isn't always bad, it's just the way things are in the car industry, there are expensive cars, but you can get a cheap one and be quite happy with it. So the companies like Marblehost.com are associated with quality hosting.

05-12-2008, 12:16 PM	#7
grizly Banned Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 35	I think cheap companies are better to have than free. At least you may get some kind of support.

05-14-2008, 01:16 PM	#8
webdazzled Banned Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 25	Agree about free vs cheap hosting, when you pay you have some grounds to expect something in return. I'm also using ahosting.biz shared plan, my tickets in the help desk within 30 min usually, think it's good.