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Web hosting articles
Free web hosting or
paid – which should
I choose?
When
looking
for a
web
hosting
solution
the
first
choice
the user
often
has to
make is
whether
to
choose
one of
the
varieties
of free
hosting
available,
or to
pay a
web
hosting
company.
There
are
several
factors
that may
weigh
your
decision
one way
or
another
– let’s
look at
some of
them.
The
biggest
advantage
of free
web
hosting
is that
it’s,
well,
free.
There,
choice
made,
now
what?
Not so
fast –
not only
is that
the
biggest
advantage,
it is
also
just
about
the only
advantage,
and you
may find
that the
disadvantages
of free
web
hosting
will
make it
a bad
choice.
What are
these
disadvantages?
Firstly,
let’s
look at
the
domain
name,
the name
by which
your web
site is
found.
By
choosing
a free
web
host,
your
name may
be, for
example
“www.geocities.com/yourname”.
This
would be
fine for
some
users,
for
instance
if all
that was
needed
was a
page for
a small
club,
but for
most
companies
seeking
to
establish
a Web
presence
the
ability
to be
able to
use a
domain
name in
the
style of
“yourname.com”
is
essential.
Free web
hosting
will
also
limit
the
amount
of hard
disk
space
you will
be able
to use.
Again,
not
necessarily
a
problem
for a
small
site,
but for
the user
that
needs
more
space,
maybe
for a
large
number
of
pages,
or pages
with
high
graphics
content,
the
amount
of space
available
may not
be
sufficient.
Also
restricted
will be
the
amount
of
bandwidth,
or
transfer,
that
your
visitors
will be
able to
use.
It’s no
use
trying
to run a
business
on the
Web if
all your
customers
see
towards
the end
of the
month is
a page
saying
that
“This
site has
exceeded
its
bandwidth
allowance,
please
try
again
next
month”.
That is
not
something
that
would
inspire
your
customers
to have
faith in
your
products.
You may
find
that
some of
the more
sophisticated
services,
such as
Perl,
CGI or
PHP that
are
being
used
more and
more
nowadays
on the
Internet
are not
available
if you
choose
to use a
free
service.
You may
also
find
that
shopping
carts
are not
available,
or that
the
service
is not
set up
to allow
the
secure
use of
credit
card
transactions
to make
purchases.
Finally,
advertising
revenue.
A free
web
hosting
service
is paid
for by
the
advertisements
and
pop-ups
which
appear
on the
pages
hosted
by them.
Not only
will you
have no
control
over
which
advertisements
appear
on your
site,
but also
you will
receive
no
revenue
from
them.
So,
think
carefully
before
you opt
for a
free
service.
For an
individual
or small
group,
the cost
factor
may
outweigh
the
disadvantages
above. A
company
will
probably
find
that the
choice
of free
hosting
will put
limits
on their
growth
that are
unacceptable. |