Free Web Hosting, Myth?
by jackson
(Ohio)
As one of the most basic forms of hosting that you can find, free hosting companies pay for their services via advertisements placed, yup you guessed it, on your site. You will probably have to agree to ads all over your site, sometimes at the top of pages, sometimes at the bottom.
In addition, the services that you actually receive from a free web hosting service are, as you would expect, very limited.
Before choosing a free web hosting service, review your site's overall plan/strategy to make sure it makes sense. If you are just getting started with building websites, you are testing the waters and you don't have a lot of traffic, then a free website hosting service may be ok. However, if you are building a business and you are planning on growing it quickly then this may not be the best solution for you.
Things To Keep In Mind
First, with a free web hosting service, you will receive a sub domain, not a domain. Why is this significant? Well for one, if you site becomes a huge success and you want to move it, you don't really own your domain. It is belongs to your web host. Most free web hosts provide you with subdomains. For example, suppose that you wanted a domain with the keywords "myname" in it. The domain that you would end up with at a free web hosting service would be "myname.webhost.com".
Second, don't be too surprised if your free hosting service doesn't support some form of database management, many do not. Your database is used for data (online) retrieval routines.
In addition to the lack of database management support, you will also find that many free web hosting services do not support mySQL. MySQL allows for the programming of queries within a website.
Finally, note that multiple email accounts are usually not supported. Most free web hosting services only provide one web based internet account.
Conclusion:
If you are not looking for tons of bells and whistles, you are just beginning and or experimenting with building sites, then a free web hosting service may not be a bad option. However, if you are building a business, a free web hosting services is probably not a good idea. With a business, you will need a service that offers more than just the basics.
Remember, sometimes you only get what you pay for.
Now get out there and start your site today!
