If you are serious about running a successful online business, you need to stay away from free web hosting services. Such services may do you more harm than good. Here is why.
No uptime guarantee.
As the services are free, there is no uptime guarantee. Service providers tend to go offline for maintenance without warning. If you are relying on your website for revenues, this can hurt you severely. When your site is offline, you are not making any sales. Who is going to compensate you?
Lack of features.
Free hosting providers also have little incentive to upgrade their hardware and software. As a result, you often find that there are a lack of features. For example, with a paid hosting solution, you may have full access to a user friendly control panel. With a free hosting account, all you get are basic features for you to post your web pages.
Lack of support.
Support is very important for a web hosting company. If you encounter any issues with your website, there must be someone you can speak to. Usually, you can do so by submitting a support ticket and expect a reply within 24 hours. The better companies offer live chat, so you get to talk with someone immediately. Free hosting companies find it hard to provide such support services since they don’t charge for their services. When something goes wrong, you can still send them an email. But your email is likely to go unanswered.
Unstable shared server environment.
As the hosting services are free, the servers tend to be abused by hundreds of free users. These users sign up for a free account, and start uploading hundreds of sites. Some of these sites may be hogging resources unfairly. Therefore, it’s not uncommon to see free hosting servers go offline intermittently. There is just too much load on the servers.
Shut down without warning.
This is perhaps your worst nightmare. Soon, the hosting operators discover that they are not benefiting by offering free hosting. So they either start charging for the hosting, or they shut down the servers completely. Usually, they will alert the users that they are shutting down and members can quickly move their files. However, if you missed the email, that’s as good as having your website shut down without warning!
For the above reasons, try to avoid free web hosting if you are serious about your business. Even a paid shared hosting account is better than a free one. A shared hosting account cost below $10 a month. That’s affordable, even for students!
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