Last Updated on July 22, 2019 by Timothy Ephraim
When I got into blogging, I had no idea about anything. I started with Blogger and it was a pretty good decision. Later, I learned more about blogging and understood that it is better to switch to a hosted blog rather than continue using blogger. Apparently next option to use is, WordPress running on a shared web host. I choose a free web hosting provider to publish my blog because I can save some bucks on web hosting charges and it was the worse decision I made. Why? I will explain to you in this post.
Getting to Know about free web hosting
So, I am sure you know that a decent shared web hosting costs something between $3-$15 or even more. When other companies charge pretty much for their shared web hosting services, how can some companies provide web hosting for free?
Well, mainly there are two ways a free web host make money. First one is to provide some limited resources in their free plans such as 100MB disk space and 1GB bandwidth and asking users to upgrade to a paid plan when they reach their usage allowance. The second method is, adding advertisements on client websites and their control panel In order to cover the operational cost. These are two methods mainly used by free web hosts.
My experience with free web hosting
As I said, I built my first blog using blogger and I was getting pretty much users a day consistently. Later, I switched to a free web hosting provider and used WordPress to publish my website. I imported all my posts from Blogger to my new WordPress site. And everything was going on well with some 503 errors occasionally. Few months passed and suddenly, one day I got an email from my web host saying my website is suspended and there provided no reason why the website is suspended. I was shocked and asked my web host if they can reactivate my website, they said they can not. I asked them to provide a backup of my website but they said they do not keep backups and thus they can not provide a backup copy.
I worked pretty hard on my website and I lost all of it within no time. This was an awkward situation and I had no other choice rather than starting over with my website. This was my devastating experience with a free web hosting provider
Why Free web hosting is bad.
This is my experience and I am sure there are many with similar or worse experience. Free web hosting could be disastrous at any time due to various reasons. I will list some reasons why a free web hosting is not a good idea to make your blog or website
It comes without any assurance
It comes with no assurance at all. You are always on your own. They will not keep your website back up and they may suspend your website or blog without any reason at any time.
While a paid web hosting from a reputed and committed web hosting often comes with an assurance like 99.95% uptime or some offers 99.99% or 100% uptime.
They also back up your data frequently so that if something goes wrong, they can quickly restore your data. This will never happen with a free web hosting provider.
Comes with limited or no support
Support is something they lack and if you run into any trouble, expect zero help from your web host. Some web host offers support through the forum but again, you will get help only if you are lucky enough.
Poor performance
Their servers might perform badly. They host as many websites as possible on a single server and it might cause performance issues. Also, your website may go offline at any time without any notice and you will have no one to reach out to help you.
Fewer resources
They allocate less resource for the free user. Lower memory, less number of the entry process and less amount of disk space and bandwidth would be allocated per user.
If you have an influx of traffic, the server might throw an internal server error. Imagine you worked hard and traffic is generating and your server is returning a 503 error, Horrible, isn’t it?
Less security
Free services mean no security. There are more chances that your website may get hacked or spammed. Since free web hosting comes with no security, it is easy for hackers to hack into your website and inject malicious code in it.
Such IP addresses owned by free web hosts are also a favourite choice of spammers. Expect more spam comments on your website or blog when you decided to go with free hosting.
And free hosting is the favourite spot of spammers as I mentioned earlier, imagine your website is hosted with spammy websites? This will increase the chances of a hack.
Poor SEO
SEO is very important for a webmaster or a blogger. If you use a free web host, your SEO might be struggling. This is due to an abused IP address.
A shared web hosting means your IP address and resources are shared between other users. If your neighbour is a spammy user, there are chances that the IP address would be considered as abusive and it will affect your website too. Google may penalize your website, and it requires lots of work to recover from a Google penalty.
This means the potential loss of users and revenue. You don’t want it to happen to you, Do you?
Wrapping Up
To conclude, I would suggest you get a paid shared hosting. Due to competition, shared hosting is dirt cheap nowadays and anyone can afford one. If you choose a free web host, you will jeopardize everything and expect no growth.
Choosing a free web host just to save some few bucks is a big no. Web hosting is something you should pay attention to while you make your website, blog. Web hosting is very important for a blog and Consider our recommended web host Bluehost. You can avail 60% off if you follow this link. Another recommended host is Hostgator which is the sister company of Bluehost. They are offering 60% off if you use the coupon code ‘INFOLYTE60‘. You can check out Fastcomet and Siteground they are also excellent hosting providers
If you can not afford any of these web hosts listed above, you can consider Hostens. Read our Hostens Review to know more.
I know few of us are budget conscious, Here I tried some web hosts for some times who offer pretty decent amount and offers superior web hosting. If you are on a tight budget, consider buying from one of these.
If you are looking for some proven web hosts who rock, Here are some of our lists.
Read | Our list of best-shared web hosts
Read | Our list of top 10 WordPress hosting providers
Read | Why you need a WordPress hosting
Excellent article. Free hosting can be disastrous. I lost a website just because I used free web hosting
I’ve had a horrible experience with a free webhost years ago. Free hosting was famous back then. You explained it in detail why free hosting is not good.