When it comes to hosting your company’s website, you have many different options to choose from. Although some of them can cost a significant amount of money, others are cheap or even free. With businesses always on the lookout for new ways to save money, it’s no wonder that some companies are tempted by the idea of free web hosting. However, even though free services may be available, it isn’t necessarily the best option.
Drawbacks of Free Website Hosting
Like anything else, you often get what you pay for, and free web hosts won’t provide the same level of service you can expect from a paid hosting provider. Here are some of the main disadvantages of a free service:
With the ever-present threat of hackers and other criminals trying to access sensitive information, free web hosts rarely provide the kind of security your website needs to prevent attacks.
A free hosting service isn’t as reliable as other hosting options, which means that your website may experience significant amounts of downtime or other malfunctions.
Free web hosts may not offer as much bandwidth, which means traffic spikes may cause your site to function poorly or become inaccessible to users.
In exchange for their services, free web hosts often post large advertisements on every page of your website. This can make the site appear cluttered and unprofessional, which drives visitors away.
If you choose a free web host, you may not have as many options with regard to applications, software or the overall design of your site as with a paid host.
Whereas many paid web hosts provide 24/7 customer service, free web hosts usually don’t. If you have a question or concern about your hosting service, your hosting provider may be slow to respond, or it may not respond to you at all.
Alternatives to Free Hosting
If these drawbacks are enough for you to consider choosing another hosting strategy, many other options are available:
- Dedicated Hosting:
- Shared Hosting:
- VPS Hosting:
As the most expensive hosting option, dedicated hosting allows your website to have its own secure server all to itself.
A less expensive option, shared hosting provides a server your website will share with several businesses.
Basically a hybrid between shared and dedicated hosting, a virtual private server (VPS) allows you to share a server with other websites, but the server is divided into secure subsections with a ixed amount of resources allocated to each site.
Although all these options require some investment, they also provide significant benefits over free web hosting. In addition, these hosting options can be affordable for businesses of all sizes. Even if your business has a limited budget, you can still find an affordable web hosting package. With a variety of packages available, you should be able to find one that meets your website’s specific needs. Furthermore, as your website grows, you can upgrade to bigger hosting requirements as needed.