What is Free Web Hosting?

Free webhosting exists solely to allow small business and those who desire personal websites to get online with no cost so they can provide their service, or personal point of view to the world. This has become such a great issue over the last few years that companies are now providing this service to clients in order to allow them access to the web like never before. The idea behind free web hosting is simple. You get the space and tools you need to build a website for free. In exchange the web host company gets to place advertisements on your website to make use of your traffic to gain their fees back. These web hosts are completely financed by their advertisements and also have some limitations you should be aware of.

The free website hosts are making money with the application of such services as client’s can be easily lured by such a zero-price offer. These web hosts display popup, put banners, or advertisements on WebPages of the client’s website thus earning enough from free web hosting. There are several web hosting companies that provide free services to their clients against the condition that clients would click on banners that are their in their control panel or simply display banners in file manager with the expectations that client’s will click on them.

With the advent of several cheap hosting services the requirements for free web hosting is diminishing at a faster rate. People are now able to access shared and dedicated web hosting services at a much lesser rate that is also hosting their sites faster. However, the emergence of blog has boosted the growth of free hosting services. Since blogs are easy to set up and manage, people often feel that they can opt for such an easy going service rather that hiring and spending on companies for website hosting. With Free web hosting services companies are trying to impart the benefits of individual websites that has several other advantages over blogs.

Free web host reliability

Since the prime objective of a web host is to make money, and a free host makes money off the ads on your website it is in their best interest to keep you up and running. There are some occasions that will cause a problem with service. Some clients report the free company for spam, or hacking and also complain about the free hosting company utilizing automatic installation of features like PHP or CGI that can cause slowdowns. All of the extra add-ons can create instability and down time. Those problems do not usually happen to large established companies, but more often with small start up web hosts.

Pros of free web hosting

1. The free web hosting environments are great for students practicing web design, and their own hosting along with development. It allows them to store their projects, test them, and create them for free with no stress. They can expand their knowledge bank, and even share the information between each other. It is a valuable testing tool so they can see if their concepts are applicable and functional. It is a wonderful environment for creativity. Some web hosts cater specifically to that crowd such as boinc.ch who allows free accounts on their server for developers and students. People interested in creating a personal homepage can make great use of the features from these sites as well as it gives them the ability and freedom to share their personal life for free.

2. Another very valuable use for free hosting services is for voluntary services or organizations and not-for-profit institutions who need to display their message without high costs. This way these organizations can reach millions across the globe without spending money from their tight budget. These volunteer organizations usually have no money but a great need for communications and the free website gives them the ultimate platform for expression and the benefits of acceting donations from all around the world with no hosting costs incurred. By using the free web host services these organizations can create websites that range from a single page to as many as ten pages and broadcast their activities and methods to the public.

3. There are a large number of groups or communities who are eager to share their ideas and feeling on various big and small issues. Free websites can be helpful for such groups who don’t have enough money to invest on a shared or dedicated server. They can utilize the free service by posting useful information and also providing mutual links to their respective websites. This increases their search engine visibility and improves their rankings. Therefore both from SEO and financial perspective they are enjoying the benefit of free web hosting services.

4. Free web hosts are a great idea for family websites too. Members of a family can share the special moments with the world in the form of pictures and diaries. Free web hosts have limitations on how much space is allowed to host such things but most can be done in a small amount.

The downside to free web hosts

The cost of operating a free website are nil, but there are other costs to consider. Consider all of the advantages and disadvantages carefully before deciding on this type of service.

1. The free host does not provide domain, or even second-level domain names. You will be allocated a subdomain which can be less impressive to viewers.

2. Bandwidth on free services is extremely low and subject to downtimes unlike the paid services.

3. Disk space is very limited making file size and picture size uploads restricted to certain amounts on the website.

4. To earn money against such a free services web host would stuff banner and popup advertises as much as possible in the client’s website. This not only diminishes the actual space in the website for the owner but it also creates a negative impression about the website. The web host banners are also placed in the client’s site compulsorily.

5. There is usually no guarantee of uptime.

6. Free websites often restrict certain file types such as those for music, movies, and others like zip files etc.

7. There is generally no, or very little technical support for customers of the free web hosts since it is not their priority. At most they may offer a month or two of support.