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So what’s wrong with free web hosting?

Thread title: So what’s wrong with free web hosting?
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03-03-2007, 03:11 AM
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InfTekHosting is offline InfTekHosting
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  Old  So what’s wrong with free web hosting?

To the amateur website owner, free hosting probably sounds like a fantastic idea. You get to have your website and enjoy it too, right?

Wrong. Hosting providers offer free hosting plans to meet their needs, not yours. As a result, you will end up being dissatisfied with your plan, and what you thought would save you money might even end up costing you more.

Advertising: You know what they say – you don’t get anything for free. If you read the small print of the agreement for your free hosting plan, you’ll see what I mean. Many hosting providers pay for their free hosting plans with advertising revenue. As a result, your hosting plan isn’t really free – you’re trading advertising space on your site for your hosting provider’s services.

The down side: Who wants to wade through advertisements just to read your website? And you better believe your hosting provider isn’t going to make the ads attractive or discreet – after all, those ads are paying your way, and your provider wants to make sure they do their job!

Limited server space and bandwidth: Most free plans offer very limited server space and bandwidth. Those who are setting up a website for the first time don’t notice, though, because they either don’t understand what these things are, or how quickly even a moderately successful website can eat into your quota.

The down side: At first you might not notice how little storage space your website has, or how little traffic it can handle. Unfortunately, just as your website is taking off, you will notice – and that is the absolute last time you want to risk your website becoming unavailable because of exceeded quotas.

A stepping stone to outrageously expensive services: Oftentimes, hosting companies use free hosting plans to draw customers. “But, wait!” you say. “They’re not paying customers!” Unfortunately, the system is rigged so that they will become paying customers. The two pitfalls already mentioned – ugly advertising and confining quotas – ensure that most free hosting customers will upgrade to paid hosting plans, and usually sooner rather than later.

The down side: The problem with this setup is that companies that provide free hosting services usually also charge an arm and a leg for their upgraded hosting plans. They do this simply because they can: by offering free hosting plans, they are backing their customers into a corner. It’s a major hassle to change hosting companies once you have established your website, so you are more likely to simply upgrade your free plan to a more expensive one, despite the excessive rates.

The moral of the story: A free hosting plan may sound like a good deal to begin with, but you will quickly find that you pay for it over and over again with hassles over advertising, storage space, and traffic quotas. Even worse, most people who start out with a free hosting plan find that they end up spending more than if they had simply picked out a good, fairly-priced hosting plan from the very beginning.


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03-03-2007, 03:31 AM
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Also, people dont take free host sites seriously, they pass them off as 12 year olds trying to learn html

03-03-2007, 03:59 AM
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Very good point Vill.

03-03-2007, 01:53 PM
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  Old

Very nice article. But I doubt paid hosting would be good for those 10-15 year olds who are new to the web scene.

03-03-2007, 05:32 PM
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Originally Posted by DavidS View Post
Very nice article. But I doubt paid hosting would be good for those 10-15 year olds who are new to the web scene.
Agreed, but I think that was Village Idiot's point.

03-03-2007, 06:00 PM
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Like me I'm using free hosting, but it was just a freelance giveaway, rather than a permanent offer. Can't get a job for 17 weeks, so can't afford it otherwise.

03-04-2007, 03:09 AM
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  Old

Yeh exactly, and not many 14- olds have PAYPAL to pay for paid hosting if that's the only payment method.

03-04-2007, 03:26 AM
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you can use your parents credit card.

03-04-2007, 03:39 AM
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Originally Posted by Gatt View Post
Yeh exactly, and not many 14- olds have PAYPAL to pay for paid hosting if that's the only payment method.
I think you are missing the point Gatt......most hosting companies don't want the business that simply cannot pay.

Serious hosting companies invest quite a bit of money in their stable servers and bandwidth, not to mention salaries for support personnel. With all the overhead that it takes to run a legitimate hosting company, the business cannot afford to pay for 12 - 14 year olds playtime hosting accounts.

When I was 12, 13, and 14 I loved going to the movies, but there were no theaters that let me in free. I loved candy, but I cannot remember store owners that gave it out for free.

I did not have a credit card, paypal account, or cash, so……….I did without.
;(

RaZoR’s situation sounds like a different story all together. If there is some legitimate reason that he and others like him cannot get a job, then more power to a free host that can provide this free service.

Not trying to be an a**, but I have to say, if it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is.

If you are willing to take the chance on a free host and it’s failure to provide fast, stable connections, good uptime, and quality support ….. It’s out there.

That’s all.

03-04-2007, 01:39 PM
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Immersion is offline Immersion
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  Old

see this is when friends with servers come in :P

Ive had my fair share of free hosting and you make it sound like its going to ruin your life. Most free hosting ive had is really good. No adverts or anything. People who cannot afford hosting are not likely to have huge bandwidth eating sites with 1000's of users.

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