Free or Premium Hosting?

[jyy]

The free stuff often has resource limits and/or inferior customer support.  Also, it might have third-party advertisements.  However, though, for a smaller site and/or one that simply wants unlimited resources (the advertisement filled one would provide that), free could be a good choice - and of course, the biggest perk is well, it's free!

[Nathan]

There are so many out there that only cost a few dollars a month though and you get away from advertisements and stuff that make your site look untrusted or unofficial.  

Keep in mind "unlimited resources" doesn't really mean that, while you may have unlimited disk space and bandwith it's still throttled so not truly unlimited.

[WisTex]

You typically get what you pay for. If you have a small website with almost no traffic or a very efficient website (i.e. does not use a lot of server resources), then a free web host might work for you. But you can get much better hosting at less than $10 a month with tech support and more resources.

For a hobby website, a free web host would probably be okay, but if you are running a business or intend on making money from your website, I would avoid free hosting. 

[Ash]

When I first started getting into websites, blogs and forums, I actually started off with free web hosting because I just didn't have a way to pay for web hosting and I just couldn't afford premium hosting either as a kid. But I have since moved over to premium hosting since I can now pay for it myself. It's just so much better than free hosting because you don't have to worry about a lot of things. My first free host was 000webhosting which I'm sure a lot of people have heard of, they actually deleted my account randomly one day without warning. I hadn't even broken any of their rules stated in the terms of service. Free hosting can be risky and most of the time the resources that you get just aren't enough.

I could not imagine ever having to go back to free hosting, to be honest.

[Paul Hunt]

In order to find out if free or paid hosting is right for your website, you will need to think the requirements of your website including;

Are you hosting a static or dynamic website? If you just want to just host some HTML files, then most free web hosts should be fine but as a lot of free web hosts limit the amount of CPU and RAM you are allowed to use, this could be a massive issue for larger WordPress blogs.

How much downtime are you willing to suffer? Paid web hosts have an incentive to keep your website online but as with a free web host, as you are not paying them, the host has no reason to get up in the middle of the night to fix server issues.

Are you willing to have bad neighbours? Free web hosts attract spam as the spammers love not having to pay for every time they are kicked off a service. Those bad neighbours could lead to Google giving you a lower rank in the search results.

[EfficientNinja]

I think any paid hosting service is better than any free hosting service. They are not reliable and your site could get deleted anytime. If you also run Adsense through them, they get a large portion of it because that's your way of paying their "free" service.

You'll have more control of your content and revenue on a paid server.

[Martinsx]

If one is a beginner, starting up with a free hosting seems pretty better and from how events goes, then one can decide to move to paid hosting and get a better service. Also depending on what one is looking for when setting up his site and the kind of niche it's centered on have a huge impact in deciding whether Free or Paid Hosting would be appropriate for the site owner. But if I'm making a choice between the two hosting services, I would strongly go for paid hosting. 

[wallet]

I am a beginner so in my case, I would choose the free hosting. Maybe later when my website would make a profit I would change on the paid hosting. I know that a paid hosting is better and offer more features but at the moment I cannot afford to pay for it.

[molinamorgan]

With few investment you get away from advertisements and also with paid you can more facility than free

[Alymae]

Free domains have limitations and restrictions. You cannot do what you want to do if you avail this type of domain. It would also be hard to transfer to a premium domain if you started at free. It's better to go Premium.

[Martinsx]

2 hours ago, Alymae said:

Free domains have limitations and restrictions. You cannot do what you want to do if you avail this type of domain. It would also be hard to transfer to a premium domain if you started at free. It's better to go Premium.

Exactly! When you want to get the best out of your online business, it's very important to stay away from free hosting because it will definitely limit and hinder the success of your work. 

If you can afford dedicated hosting services, it would be the best but it's the purpose of your online business that would determine the best hosting service for you to choose from. 

[JPK0007]

Well i think it is better to opt for the paid hosting than the free hosting service. Even if you are a newcomer to the field, there are various options available which offer paid hosting at a very ecomnomical price. It is always better to make a good impression and put your best foot forward and make a good impression on your viewers right from the start. 

[focusedwriter10]

Premium hosting is much better compared to free hosting. With premium hosting, you can control so many things, which are limited on free hosting. Also, free hosting can decide to delete your account any day, and all your work will be lost. Furthermore, there are so many affordable paid hosting. 

[brainstudioz]

Always go for paid hosting and domains because the free domains are not accepted easily by the google ad sense. Free hosting have some limitations and we don't believe on them because we don't know that when they will remove our site or they will show their ads on our site etc.

[Alymae]

On 12/6/2018 at 12:56 AM, Martinsx said:

Exactly! When you want to get the best out of your online business, it's very important to stay away from free hosting because it will definitely limit and hinder the success of your work. 

If you can afford dedicated hosting services, it would be the best but it's the purpose of your online business that would determine the best hosting service for you to choose from. 

Yes. I have a friend who started with a free hosting. After a year she wanted to change the hosting, she is having problems. Her main reason for transferring is because of the limitations. She feels like she doesn't own the website. 

[Jelineex]

I agree with some fellow here that it's better to go for premium web hosting since it has better services. Plus, you don't have to worry on limitation and restrictions. Thou, it requires a little of financial stability but service given is at top benefits. It will have a good impression and return its investment in time. It is always best to make a good quality content and designs to hold interest of the readers/audience.

[Martinsx]

On 12/7/2018 at 12:04 PM, Alymae said:

Yes. I have a friend who started with a free hosting. After a year she wanted to change the hosting, she is having problems. Her main reason for transferring is because of the limitations. She feels like she doesn't own the website. 

Some hosting companies makes it very easy to migrate from free hosting or shared hosting to dedicated hosting services. This makes it easier for the users not to find it very difficult moving from one hosting service to another without losing their data. 

[Alymae]

On 12/9/2018 at 5:21 AM, Martinsx said:

Some hosting companies makes it very easy to migrate from free hosting or shared hosting to dedicated hosting services. This makes it easier for the users not to find it very difficult moving from one hosting service to another without losing their data. 

What hosting service is this? Can you recommend a good one? I always hear problems regarding the transferring as difficult. 

[Bravosi]

A free one is good if you're doing it for a first time, but obviously a premium one will be better and will provide your website a higher "status".

[Martinsx]

10 hours ago, Bravosi said:

A free one is good if you're doing it for a first time, but obviously a premium one will be better and will provide your website a higher "status".

Exactly! When you are still new on being a webmaster, it's very understandable that you make use of free hosting. Pumping much money into the website isn't a good idea when you haven't understood the nature of the work. 

[Bravosi]

On 12/11/2018 at 10:31 PM, Martinsx said:

Exactly! When you are still new on being a webmaster, it's very understandable that you make use of free hosting. Pumping much money into the website isn't a good idea when you haven't understood the nature of the work. 

I just imagine the frustration of a person once he gets premium, but then when something happens he doesn't know what to do and how to proceed. He'll feel sad double due to the money lost.

[Martinsx]

10 hours ago, Bravosi said:

I just imagine the frustration of a person once he gets premium, but then when something happens he doesn't know what to do and how to proceed. He'll feel sad double due to the money lost.

Before getting into anything, it's best to have all the information about how it works and how to get the best out of it because if you don't and head in blind, you will definitely have all to lose. 

[foxprojects]

It's always best to avoid free hosts, especially if you're running a business (even a tiny one) or otherwise want to monetize your site. Free hosts may claim to provide "unlimited" services, but often place various limits on what you can do with your website. They also tend to be unreliable and lacking in customer support. In most cases, the only way to get in touch with them is by email and it may take a day or two before you get any kind of reply.

There are plenty of hosting services that charge less than $5 a month and bill you on a month by month basis. Therefore, it's better to use a paid host, as they're quite affordable and provide very good quality services when compared to free hosts.

[Alania]

On 12/20/2018 at 5:36 PM, foxprojects said:

It's always best to avoid free hosts, especially if you're running a business (even a tiny one) or otherwise want to monetize your site. Free hosts may claim to provide "unlimited" services, but often place various limits on what you can do with your website. They also tend to be unreliable and lacking in customer support. In most cases, the only way to get in touch with them is by email and it may take a day or two before you get any kind of reply.

There are plenty of hosting services that charge less than $5 a month and bill you on a month by month basis. Therefore, it's better to use a paid host, as they're quite affordable and provide very good quality services when compared to free hosts.

You're right, $5 is pretty cheap and common. Even a person with a small income can afford to get it, starting from the school age haha. But anyhow, before I got into paid hosting I tried just for the heck of it free hosting, just to understand how everything works (when uploading my website).

[Sohani30]

I want to buy new hosting if anyone has a good suggestion on it please helps me?