Your first question is probably: “How can a free web hosting cost me or my business?” The short answer would be looking like a fly by night business, an illegitimate one, or using a service of an illicit hosting provider, causing you and your clients serious security issues like hacking and data loss among others.
While there are good free web hosting providers out there, online entrepreneurs will tell you that just purchasing a hosting is the best way to go – and it’s not even that expensive to begin with.
In any case, we’ll give you a couple of quick reasons why these so-called free web hosting can actually cost your business more.
You can have a super slow website. Many free website hosting providers just throw hundreds, even thousands of websites in the same server, which works to make all these websites load at frustratingly low speeds. As you know, slow websites provide bad user experience and are even worse for SEO.
You’ll be given an unprofessional web address. Seriously speaking, what would you think if PayPal’s address is PayPal.freewebstarter.com? Doesn’t sound or secure, right? Visitors to your website as well as potential customers would surely think twice about purchasing from you or even taking your website seriously since you don’t even use a proper or legitimate website name.
Plus, if you decide to purchase the custom domain from these providers, you must pay a premium for a domain which typically costs less.
The trial website isn’t actually free. Some free website providers only offer limited trials, after which you’ll be asked to pay. In many cases, the price will be higher than the normal industry rates. Plus, if you added a credit card when signing up, you can be charged without warning.
You might be charged without consent. These free website companies will need to earn money to continue their operation. If it isn’t ads, it will be hidden charges for services like email accounts, image hosting, website transfer, FTP access, and others. Note that charges can be shockingly high.
Your date can be locked down. Or worse, exposed to security issues. Most users who use free website and then choose to move its paid version will find that it’s not possible to move their website data. Some service providers don’t provide tools to migrate sites easily, which ends up in users paying freelancers to export their site content manually, making them pay needlessly.
Irrelevant website advertisements. These free website providers are typically supported by advertisements, which will hang on your website via banners, links, and other images. These ads are usually intrusive, distracting, and even look ugly. If you don’t like it, think about your visitors.
Your site can be shut down at any time. And for any reason – hey, it’s free, right? Terms and conditions for these services often say that they can remove your website as they please. Plus, they’ll usually not give your data or charge you expensively for it.
The thought of getting a free website is tempting, but as an entrepreneur branching out or testing the water of online market, you need to know that most “free” hosting is not a good idea given the reasons above. However, there are affordable hosting plans that provide free web hosting features like stock images, email protection, unlimited data, 24/7 site monitoring and support, file backups, and even one click premium apps to supercharge your website. Check it out through Crazy Domains via the link above.
