My Hosting Tech Place

Tips for Finding the Best Free Website Hosting Company

It's possible to build a professional looking website using a free website hosting provider. However, before you start to code and upload your website to the first website hosting company you find, take a little time to know if the service is best for you and your website. Here are a few factors that you need to put into consideration when looking for and comparing free website hosting plans. One place to compare webhosting pricing, plans, and features is this website.

Look at the Available Disk Space

With just a bit of research, you should be able to find a free website hosting company that offers enough web space for your website. A good rule of thumb is to get as much disk space as possible. The amount of disk space provided by a free web hosting company varies widely and there are limits on individual file sizes. Some companies provide 100 MB web space, while others provide 5,000 MB. Depending on your website's space requirements and layout, 100 MB to 5,000 MB of disk space may be enough. If not, you may need to re-evaluate your budget and look for a web host that charge.

Determine What Kind of Ads are Displayed

Some free website hosting companies pay for their services by placing ads on each of the free websites they offer. However, there are a whole host of free hosting websites, such as Blogger and Weebly that don't force you to display their advertisements. In fact, they encourage you to monetize your website with your own advertisements.

Find out Which Operating System They Use

Most free website hosting plans are Unix based. Although you may be able to find free hosting service using the Windows operating system, a lot of times the free Windows service is an initial offer and the hosting company will charge you down the line. Free website hosts that use the Unix operating system can offer their services free of charge, as the Unix OS is completely free. On the other hand, Windows is not free and the website hosting provider has to pay for the Windows software to operate their servers. They pass the fraction of that charge onto their customers.

Check the Number of Email Accounts Allowed

Some free websites offer domain related email addresses while others do not. With so many free email services available today, this may or may not be a big deal. If you are looking to have an email address that better reflects the domain name of your website, then look for a free web hosting company that offers domain related to email accounts.

Don't Forget to Read the Fine Print

A lot of free web hosting providers don't allow pornographic or illegal activity. One of them is Blogger, a free weblog publishing tool from Google. Make sure to carefully read the terms and conditions so that you don't unintentionally violate the terms of service. Nothing is worse than putting your effort and time into a website only to find out that it was removed from the company's server for violating one of the terms of service.

Check the Company's Level of Customer Support

A free web hosting company provides some level of customer support, for example, email support, live chat, knowledge bases and online forums. However, sites hosted on free web servers usually offer less support and have fewer resources compared to those on paid servers. Paid hosting plans are more likely to provide you comprehensive technical support, such as 24/7 access to phone and technical staff support.

While free web hosts may be ideal for personal blogs with only a few pages, businesses should choose a paid web hosting plan to avoid advertisements and get additional resources of a well-supported server, such as full domain names, more disk space, faster downloads and programming flexibility. If you just want to build a personal home page, consider free blogging websites such as WordPress.com and Blogger.com. Both provide templates that allow you to get up and running within a few minutes, and they won't place advertisements on your website. Or, if you want to create a resume online, opt for free sites like Prezi.com and LinkedIn.com. However, the URL of your website will be a sub-domain.

Learn more about HostGator here >>

Learn more about hosting coupon codes here >>

Learn more about cheap web hosting here >>

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License