Pro and Con of Free Hosting

It’s a very tempting idea to get a free website. The word “FREE” rings in the ears of many as a great deal, and depending on your needs it just may be. However, as with anything, free really comes at a price. In this pro and con comparison, you will find what makes free websites good, and what makes them bad.

Let’s start with the pros:
-they’re free (obviously)
-provide a testing environment
-help you understand websites
-can potentially make money

When I say “testing environment” what I mean is that you can implement your HTML, CSS, PHP and so on without worrying about destroying your website. Since the website is free, there is nothing financially at stake. All you are doing is testing your knowledge and seeing what certain coding does.

This also functions as a way for you to see a website template before you post it on your real site (if you are using paid hosting at the same time).

The next point is for newcomers in the hosting and website world. It’s a poor decision to spend money, get software and not know what to do with it. If you are unfamiliar with cPanel (the most used website management tool) it would be a good idea to use a free host with the cPanel tool to see how everything works before wasting cash.

Making money with a free website is possible. I will explain some of the difficulties later in the con section, but to focus on the benefits of a free website, if you build the website correctly with affiliate ads or other revenue machines, with the proper amount of marketing your free website can start to make you cash.

Now, the cons:
-you get a subdomain
-may have ads on the page
-low bandwidth and memory
-unreliable service

A subdomain is SEO hell. Instead of your own URL, you get your domain forcefully married to the host’s domain. Instead of “www.thiswebsiteismine.com” you get “www.thiswebsiteismine.freehosting.com.” An extra word may not seem like much to you, but it is much harder to get these websites seen on search engines than a regular domain would be.

Another downer is some free hosts place ads on your website. While these ads give the host revenue and keeps them (and your website) alive, the ads tend to look unattractive and sometimes may not even fit your website.

The low bandwidth and memory problem should be obvious. If you aren’t paying anything, you can’t expect to receive gigabytes of memory in return. However, as long as you sparingly use pictures and rely on text and content, then you shouldn’t have any problems in this regard.

Lastly, unreliable service. Just like with the ads, this can only be said about some hosts. Some have very reliable servers, but since they are not getting the same financial compensation paid hosts are, there is less urgency in fixing servers and less of a need to provide you with quality service.

If you are a beginner and need some practice, and you want to know what it feels like to own a website, go with free hosting. If you plan on running a small information website without getting compensation, free hosting is still viable. But if you are planning to make a giant website with pictures, movies, music and ad revenue, go with paid hosting.

No one wants to pay for anything, but it will help you in the long run.