Why Free Web Hosting is Not the Best Option?

You need to have web hosting in place if you want people to be able to visit your website, regardless of whether the website will be personal or dedicated to your company. There are a lot of people who are just getting started who discover that certain companies provide free hosting, and they are tempted to take that way in order to save some money. 

Free hosting services are rarely a good choice, despite the fact that there are situations in which they might be. This post will explain why free web hosting is not the greatest option and will show you how to discover high-quality hosting solutions that won’t break your budget while yet meeting your needs. 

Receiving something for nothing is almost always a nice experience, but hosting a website on a free server is typically not a good idea. Even while the idea of getting a free web hosting service might sound appealing at the moment, it will almost certainly come back to bite you in the future. 

1. Slow Speeds

In general, the download and upload speeds offered by free web hosts are much lower than those offered by paid web hosts. This is significant because Google announced in 2010 that speed would be used as a ranking signal. This means that websites that load quickly have a greater chance of ranking higher in Google’s search results. When you use a web host that is free of charge, you should anticipate slower load times and, as a result, lower search rankings. 

In addition, according to KISSmetrics, users will leave a website if it takes longer than three seconds to load. This figure accounts for forty percent of all users. Users may be dissuaded from actually visiting your website if it is hosted on a free platform, which will not only have a negative impact on the rankings of your site. 

2. Security Vulnerabilities

From 2015 to 2016, the total number of websites that had been compromised increased by 32%, as stated by a study that was cited by Search Engine Land. As the webmaster of a website, it is your duty to protect the website from cyberattacks and other forms of intrusion. Using a robust password and ensuring that your files are always up to date are essential, but using a reliable web host can also be of assistance in this regard. 

Free web hosting services typically provide very little to no protection against various forms of online assault. In point of fact, they frequently include security flaws that cybercriminals can exploit to gain access to websites that are hosted. The good news is that there are a large number of well-established web hosting providers who provide hosting services that are both safe and secure. However, in order to take advantage of this significant perk, you will need to pay. 

3. Insufficient Room for Storage

Free web hosting services naturally come with a restricted amount of storage space. There are some free hosts, for example, that only provide one gigabyte of storage space. To put that figure into perspective, a high-definition video that is two minutes long can take up more than one gigabyte of storage space. Even if you have no intention of uploading videos, the photos, text, and files that you use can easily consume more than 1 GB, at which point you will be required to pay for additional storage. 

4. An Increase in Free Time

When it comes to website hosting, the old adage “you get what you pay for” is definitely applicable. Free web hosts, on the other hand, do not offer an uptime guarantee of any kind, while reputable paid web hosts almost always do. Their servers are frequently taken offline for maintenance, which may be caused by a failure in the underlying hardware or simple neglect. In addition, getting in touch with the customer support team for assistance will be challenging for you, as was mentioned earlier. 

5. Exclusive Bonus Contents

Free web hosts come with a number of drawbacks, one of which is a restricted amount of storage space. You’ll also discover that their services come with few available features. Reputable web hosts typically come equipped with a back-end control panel such as cPanel or platform as a service that comes packed with a variety of features. Premium web hosting services typically include a variety of common features, such as one-click installation of popular scripts, email setup, database management, traffic analyzer, and subdomain setup. Free web hosting services do not typically provide access to these features, however. You will be provided with a hosting service that is so basic that it is difficult and inconvenient to use. 

6. There are no scheduled backups.

Almost every reputable web host provides automatic backups for their customers. They will create a backup of your essential HTML files as well as any databases that are associated with your website, providing a higher level of protection against the possibility of a catastrophe. You can rest easy knowing that a backup copy of your website was created by the web host in the event that something unfortunate occurs to your website, such as an editor inadvertently deleting an important file, or it being compromised in a cyberattack. Free web hosting services, on the other hand, do not provide automatic backups. There is still the option to create backups manually, but you should not expect them to do it for you automatically. You will need to keep this in mind as a potential source of concern.