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Free Web Hosting pros and cons
There are many options today in the web hosting world, and many web hosting companies are now offering free web hosting or free website hosting. Many of us ask ourselves if these plans are right for us and this article will answer your questions. Free hosting plans are abundant. Just type free web hosting into Google and you will be overloaded with choices. Deciding which free web hosting company to go with is a different question. This article just helps you decide if a free web hosting plan is right for you.
Free web hosting plans are ideal for personal websites, and simple web pages with no database interaction. They are not however, meant for websites that need database interaction, large storage or transfer requirements or business websites. The next section will detail the most common features and drawbacks of free hosting plans. But if you are running anything other than a personal homepage I would recommend paying the small fee of a cheap or budget hosting plan at least. Today cheap and budget hosting plans can be found for as little as $3/month, and usually provide quite a bit more for your small investment. Most cheap hosting and budget hosting plans are not intended for business applications however. Although, they can be very nice hosting alternatives for the web hosting needs between the personal homepage and small business hosting.
What are the typical features of free web hosting companies? Free web hosting plans almost always contain the following features. They have a small storage requirement, no database, SQL, or MySQL databases, no 24x7 support, and a footer that contains the web hosting company's information. The most intrusive feature is the footer. Most free web hosting companies require you to place a footer at the bottom of each page in your web site. Some are as simple as the web hosting companies name. Others are larger and contain banner ads. This is fine for a personal web page, but your business website will not be professional with a hosting company's footer at the bottom of each of your web pages.