Why free web hosting is a bad idea

Why free web hosting is a bad idea? Read the article to find it out.

The thought of creating your own website for free is alluring on its own. Internet is crammed full of free web hosting offers. You are surely curious why most of the people spend money on paid hosting when there are so many free options. In this article we will explain this and show you the reasons against using free website creation services.

Why free web hosting is a bad idea

Newbies often have limited budget and want to create a website with the lowest costs. They start looking for methods to create a website for free and find providers that offer such services – who wouldn’t agree to both free hosting and domain? But after some time many people discover that free services these companies offer have many limitations; some of them don’t even appear to be free at all. Free websites have their own serious flaws, which we would like to underline. So before creating a free website think through carefully whether it is worth saving money.

1. Very slow website

Most providers store hundreds of websites on a shared server. That is the reason why they work so slowly. This is bad both for user experience and SEO.

2. Not respectable domain name

Usually free websites are using sub-domains that don’t look so cool. You don’t want your company’s website address look like host others, do you? Many will think that your business is not going so well, since you can’t buy a proper domain for your website. Long name just holds visitors off. Sometimes providers offer you a normal domain name at additional charge, but it’s usually higher than the price of an ordinary domain.

3. Limited trial and hidden payments

It often turns out that free services are limited in time. After a while they offer you to pay to continue using services, and the cost of such services may be way higher than the ones that normal web hosting companies offer. This is a paradox – by trying to save money, you may spend even more.

Often companies that provide free website services charge for extra services such as image hosting, FTP, website migration and e-mail. Cost of such services is also higher.

4. Provider may block your data

Moving your website to another hosting may not always be so easy. Far too often such companies don’t provide this feature. So you need to do it manually or hire someone who will do it. This also results in cost increase.

5. Overwhelming ads

The majority of providers that offer free websites feed on advertisements, so there will be lots of adverts on your website. Sometimes they look really awful. Do you really want your visitors to think of leaving your website right from the start? If the answer is no, then think twice before creating a free website.

6. Your website may be closed at any time

Terms of service of many free web hosting services claim that a website may be closed at any time without explanation. Such providers may also close their business and take servers where your website was hosted. You won’t even be able to take your data and migrate it to another hosting. And it will be 100% legal, because it’s often mentioned in the rules.

7. You may lose your website’s address

You can’t create the same address for your website, if your provider suddenly decides to close his business. Moreover, you won’t be able to make forwarding (redirect) to your new website. Redirect allows keeping SEO scores if an address has changed. But this is supported only when you use paid services.

8. You information may be sold

Web hosting companies that provide free services may sell your personal information – including e-mail and URL-address – to other companies. Generally it is also mentioned in the terms of use, but not so many of us read them. So we advise you to do that.

9. No proper tools for building website

As opposed to good hosting companies, website companies that allow you to create a free website usually feature limited number of tools. The created website won’t look so professional.

10. You can’t install WordPress

Many “free” providers don’t support WordPress installation, since this platform needs more resources. Even if such possibility is provided, your website will probably work very badly because of poor equipment. There may be lots of bugs and errors, which will mar the impression from visiting your website.

11. Malicious software and hacking attacks sensitivity

It is associated with insecurity or a wish to earn money on distributing malware. In any case when you use free website you may taint your reputation and SEO scores.

Besides, weak protection of the websites located on free web hosting makes them more vulnerable to attacks. If your website is hacked, it will be much harder to restore it due to data access restriction.

12. Free hosting is a hotbed of links

Very often such companies disappear because they don’t use fair practices when working online. They may create link farms. This means that they use many pages created by users to sell them to different websites related to gambling, fraud, etc. I believe hardly anybody would like to store his professional website on such hosting.

13. Limited storage volume

Free website companies often provide limited memory capacity for storing data. After that they offer you to pay more to expand this volume.

14. Limited number of pages

Many free services allow creating a certain number of pages. You will need to use a paid plan to create new pages.

15. Low trust level

If visitors will know that you use free hosting services, they won’t trust your website so much. So you may lose quite a big crowd.

16. Limited amount of design conceptions

When you create a website on separate hosting, you may choose one out of thousands of different WordPress themes. Free websites enable choosing one of a few templates with poor design. You can’t create your own design or use design taken from elsewhere.

17. No technical support

You need to setup your website alone using non-detailed manuals. And don’t count on any customer support.

18. No possibility to place ads and earn money

Although provider put ads on your website, you can’t do the same. You are not allowed to use affiliate programs and place AdSense. So, you basically can’t get money from ads.

19. No regular backups

If you decided to use free website, bargain for no regular website backups. This is very bad when your website is hacked. If this happens, you won’t be able to restore your date from the last copy.

20. It is difficult to delete a website

Companies that provide free website services usually gain from your content. They do their best, so that you can’t delete your website. This is possible, but it’ll take some work.

21. No normal statistics and analytical data

When you use good hosting services, you may supervise traffic statistics. You may even install Google Analytics block. If you use free website, you may only use their built-in counters, which are not always good.

22. Advertising e-mails

Companies that provide free hosting services need to cover their expenses by earning money some other way. Very often they may send a deluge of emails with special offers. There were cases when provider has been selling emails of its clients to other marketing companies.

23. No mobile devices support

You can’t add new content from a smartphone. Most of the companies providing free services have admin panel adapted only to PC. So you may find it hard to update a website with a mobile device.

24. Non-responsive design

All too often website design from such providers is outdated and is not adapted to mobile devices. This is very essential, since mobile devices users are a major part of all the traffic. You may lose big user audience because of that.

25. You can’t create a professional email

Such providers simply don’t allow you to create a branded email. Even if you use very quality email service like Gmail, your address won’t look as professional as it could have looked if you had used paid hosting services.

26. No email forwarding and contact forms

Each quality website should have proper contact form. Free website providers don’t allow you to create your own contact form. You also can’t forward emails obtained from the standard forms.

27. Limited upload capabilities

If you use paid hosting, you may upload many files using FTP client or a special WordPress admin panel uploader. Free web hosting companies allow you to upload each file separately via web interface.

28. Wasted time

If you wish to create a serious project online, you should avoid doing it on a free website. Such sites are not secure and have severe restrictions for the future growth. Even if you are beginner and want to create a website just to try and check your skills, we still suggest you not to use free website. They are awful, and you will just waste your time and lose all the motivation.

We hope you will take cue from our advices and choose a good hosting company. Remember that it’s always better to invest in advance than pay more after.

You may also be interested in our article about cloud hosting.