How to be web hosting reseller, and Lot's of more about web hosting.

Sunday, November 19, 2006

Free Web Hosting

Free Web Hosting
by Amit Kothiyal


Free Web Hosting

There are different types of web hosting providers available in the marketplace. One option is free web hosting providers. Free web hosting has the obvious advantage of being easy on the wallet but there are other drawbacks that mitigate it's attractiveness as a web hosting option. Web hosting providers that offer free services are usually supporting themselves through advertising on the site. Because of this, these web hosting providers will usually have to place some ads on your site. This may not be desirable for your company or purposes and may therefore make paid web hosting providers a better option for your needs.

Additionally, there is the question of the domain name. Paid web hosting providers will give you a more traditional looking domain name such as www.webhostingproviders.com, whereas the free web hosting providers will often have your name with their name, creating a less professional sounding name for your site. Some free web hosting providers will allow you to purchase a simpler, more focused domain name separately. Usually, web hosting providers only offer their most basic packages for free and then offer slight upgrades at an additional cost, making them little different from paid web hosting providers. According to Wikipedia.com, free web hosting providers may have the following limitations: limitation on the size of each hosted file, very small bandwidth per month, no hotlinking, no allowing certain files, mandatory ad placement or banner placement and no guaranteed uptime. Most paid web hosting providers offer guaranteed uptime which is key for the successful and consistent operation of a website. Most paid web hosting providers offer a guarantee of 99.9% uptime, which means that your site is guaranteed functional all but about 8 hours a year.

Some free web hosting providers offer instant activation. This means that the moment you sign up you will be able to start building and using your site. Instant activation also has its drawbacks however. Web hosting providers who offer instant activation also often provide minimal storage space and bandwidth. These limitations can slow down the speed of your site and make it difficult to add details and store information such as graphics and links.

The information above should be taken into account when choosing a web hosting provider. Although free web hosting providers offer an attractive pricing option, they also cannot and do not offer the same kinds of benefits as their paid counterparts.

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