Free web hosting, although sounds like an absolute deal of a lifetime, is not a good practice for legitimate businesses or their websites. For alot of small businesses and startups, owning a website is a crucial aspect for their success. Unfortunately, owning and maintaining a website can be quite expensive. Even if you decide to build a website yourself and cut down on the hiring a professional web designer, you still need to pay for web hosting and a domain name.
Although web hosting is not expensive, it is a continuous service that you must pay for. Most web hosting companies charge around $5 to $10 per month for their most basic packages. Unless you choose one of those web hosts that offer completely “free” web hosting, which sounds too good to be true doesn’t it? That’s because it is. And here is why.
Malware
Many of these so called “free web hosting” companies inject malware into your site or even steal your personal data. Some even use the slogan “free web hosting” as a way to cover themselves against identity theft. Because of the “free” business model, that means they don’t have the financial resources to protect you from determined hackers. Your site has the ability to get defaced or even deleted due to poor security and anti-malware protection.
Limited Content
When you get something free, there is always gonna be some kind of a catch or drastic limitation. You may only get something like a mere 50MB of space for just a few photos and text files, you may get something like 128mb of RAM or they may even limit your bandwidth that would make access to your website incredibly slow!
Non Existent Customer Services
Don’t expect much in the customer service department from these “free web hosting” companies because of it’s nature of being “free” you’re basically on your own if anything happens.
Spam Advertising and Ownership Issues
A lot of the “free web hosting” companies have to make money one way or another, many of them will inject your site with paid ads to make a bit of quick cash. The downside to this is, it makes your website look like spam and can really affect your rankings on search engines.
Some of the free web hosts have been notorious for deleting their member’s website and data for no reason at all. This can be absolutely infuriating if you spent day and night building your website. Picture this, you’ve spent an entire week building and customizing your website to be absolutely perfect. Then you wake up the next morning and poof, gone. All gone.
In Conclusion
If you are a serious business owner, you shouldn’t use a free web hosting service. Paid hosting is the ONLY way to go. But what if “I’m on a budget?” you may ask? If you are on a really tight budget, then you might want to check out a cheap shared web hosting account. There are hundreds of web hosting providers (Including ourselves) that offer shared web hosting. It is a safe haven for small businesses that are in dire need of web hosting.