Webhosting Articles

You have probably seen plenty of advertisements online and in other media outlets touting free web hosting. If you are considering creating your own website, then the advertisements have most likely peaked your attention. However, as with anything else, with free web hosting, you get what you pay for.

There are instances when free hosting can be a perfectly fine, in fact ideal option, for your web site needs. In order to determine if free web hosting is right for you, consider these details.

You will not have your own domain name. Since you will be working with a companys free hosting option, you will not be getting a domain name per say. Instead, you will have a sub domain that includes your username then the company domain.

Although this can be acceptable if you are running a private site, it will not be ideal if you are setting up a web site for your company.

Your bandwidth and web space will be limited. For most people, a bandwidth and space limit will not be a problem; however, if your site will include pictures, videos, or other multimedia content, you could run into issues. The more content rich you need the site to be, the more bandwidth will be required.

Since the web site is free, you will see that third party advertisements will appear. The bottom line is that the host has to earn income in some way. If you are not paying for web space, then the host has to make up for it by including ads.

As mentioned before, this would not be an issue for a personal website, but could be detrimental for a business.

Web building tools and web site personalization could be limited. You may not have access to many web-building tools, and you may have to depend on premade, cookie cutter, templates for your site.

Not all free web hosts allow for you to create and upload your own site with external software.

The bottom line is a free web host is perfectly fine for a personal web site. You may wish to run a site with your own movie or television reviews, or a site with your poetry or artwork. Any web site like these would be ideal for use with a free web host.

However, when it comes to a business site, professionalism is key. Web sites with external advertising, slow load speeds, and impersonal sub domain names will not necessarily exhibit the best professional image.