Why You Should Avoid Free Web Hosting
We understand that the word “free” sounds very attractive to many people. However, when it comes to “free web hosting”, it may not be necessarily “free” in reality. It comes with many limitations and hurts your website performance. Webmasters should always stay alert when they pick their web hosting plans.
Bad Performance
Free web hosting providers have limited human and financial resources on data center maintenance. They do not provide uptime guarantee like paid web hosting services do. That means you are more likely to experience unexpected downtime from time to time when you use free web hosting service. It leaves a bad impression on your visitors and deter them from visiting your website regularly. Even worse, free web hosting providers can stop providing their services anytime without any compensation or support to you. You will be forced to transfer your data and redirect all your backlinks to your new website on your own. In contrast, paid web hosting providers offer uptime guarantee and regular maintenance to avoid unexpected downtime, keeping your website up and running 24/7.
No Customization, No Support
Free web hosting services usually provide templates on web page design, which do not allow you to make big changes and limit your choices on your web page design. Limited capacity for plugins also makes your website customization difficult. Moreover, free web hosting providers only offer unresponsive communication channels. If you encounter problems with your website, you will not be able to contact professional support staff directly and solve the problems quickly. In case the free web host is unable to help you or impossible to be reached out, not only it delays your project timeline, you may also have to pay someone to solve the problems. Most of the paid web hosting services offer 24/7 technical support. They also provide several communication channels such as live chat, support ticketing, email and telephone. You can reach out to them easily and enjoy shorter response time and better services.
Limited Space and Bandwidth
The allocation of free web space and bandwidth is much more limited than the paid one. Free web hosting providers set bounds to web space and bandwidth. If your website has lots of large files like video clips and/or MP3 downloads, or photos and maps, you are likely to reach the maximum free space you are offered. The web host may then charge you additional disk space at an unreasonable price. Same for bandwidth, the number of your visitors will be limited unless you pay for extra when you hit the maximum bandwidth you are offered. For paid web hosting services, you can get much more web space and unmetered traffic, which gives you more flexibility and resources to develop your website. The paid plans are also scalable so that you can expand your website without worrying about constraints in resources.
Compulsory Advertising
Free web hosting providers earn money from advertising. In exchange for their free services, you are required to place advertisements offered by the web host. As a webmaster, you do not have a choice on where to place the ads, and what ads are going to be displayed on your website. Those advertisements may be annoying and irreverent to your visitors. It will hurt your user experience and traffic eventually. If you aim at getting a good amount of traffic, you’d better avoid free web hosting.
Low Security
Free web hosting services offer low security to your website. They do not offer SSL certificates, website backup and other features that are used to protect your website from virus, spam, identity theft, etc. All security issues such as data loss, hack attacking, identity theft fraud is at your own risk. The free web host has no responsibility for any loss.
Dataplugs offer affordable web hosting services for individuals and businesses of all sizes. Starting from just HK$38 per month, our web hosting plans come with 99.9% uptime guarantee, 24/7 technical support, unmetered traffic, user-friendly cPanel and free migration. Feel free to contact us by email at sales@dataplugs.com if you want to learn more about our web hosting services.
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