Free hosting looks like the most attractive option if you don’t know much about the intricacies of web hosting. However, being budget-friendly is the only positive they bring to the table. Unfortunately, you get the short end of the stick regarding a number of features of web hosting when it is free of cost. Let’s take a look at all of its disadvantages.
- Ads
If you don’t pay for your web hosting yourself, the web hosting service has to generate income from somewhere. This is where advertisements come into play. Your web hosting provider will insert ads of their choice on your website which you will have no say in.
The money from these ads will end up in your web hosting provider’s pockets, while you do not see a penny of it. It might overwhelm your visitors by distracting them from your content and making your website look shabby.
- Domain name branding
You do not have your unique individual domain name with free web hosting. You will have to add their provided domain while choosing your sub-domain. The best example is the free blogging that WordPress offers.
While you get to choose the name of your website, you have to add ‘.wordpress.com’ to it. If you want to add your own domain name, choosing paid web hosting services is the only option available.
- Unreliability
Maximum uptime is crucial to the success of your website and business. Uptime basically means the amount of time your website is available online and can be accessed by your visitors and customers to browse or invest in. While 100% of uptime might be difficult to achieve, 99.95% uptime is crucial to ranking and building a good reputation.
You cannot get an uptime guarantee with free web hosting, the way you do with paid web hosting. If your website is built with the aim of generating revenue, experiencing downtime can lead to losing a lot of money. As time goes by, it could make a huge hole in your earnings.
- Minimum security
Not only does free web hosting not offer the best of security, but it also restricts you from installing your own to ramp up your security to ensure the safety of your entire database. It thus leaves your website open to falling victim to malicious attacks that could cause irreparable damage.
In addition to this, you might not get any backup options which means that if you ever lose your data, it is lost forever. There is no way to restore it again.
Paid Hosting
While paid hosting comes with the downside of needing to fit it into your budget, there are several advantages that can more than makeup for it. Let’s take a look.
- Reliability
The majority of web hosting offers the maximum uptime possible up to 99.99% depending on the plan and web hosting service you choose. So you will only have to deal with less than an hour of downtime annually. If due for any reason that time increases, you will be compensated accordingly.
Paid hosting offers incredible reliability which can help boost the customer experience as well as your revenue.
- Efficient customer service
Paid web hosting can afford to hire a team of experts that have a lot of experience and knowledge about the entire field to help you with any problems that you might encounter.
Since the majority of web hosting companies offer 24/7 customer service you can gain access to assistance at any point of the day or night. So whenever problems creep up, you can find a resolution quickly.
- Your choice of branding
Once you pay for web hosting, you will not have to put up with advertisements that can disrupt your flow. You can also choose your own unique domain name that can stand for your own brand and not anything else. You also have the freedom of selecting the logo you want as well.
- Security
There are hackers poised to gain entry into your system and wreak havoc. Numerous threats exist online that can cause irreparable damage that is on the prowl for any potential vulnerabilities in your website they can exploit. Hence, if you want to provide your website with advanced security, you need to select the cPanel web hosting service that provides it.
Free web hosting just does not have the money to offer you the security that paid web hosting does, which makes the latter the better option.
- Conclusion
While free web hosting is definitely an interesting prospect, especially for startups and businesses with a small budget, its disadvantages could be a pitfall in the long run. Paid web hosting can put a certain strain on your budget, but you can build your business with the help of the best features and resources available.
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