Hosting providers offering free hosting still exist and there are many people using their services.
So, if free hosting exists, why should you pay tens or hundreds of dollars a month just to host a website?
Actually, there’s a reason why most people still choose to pay for hosting even though there are free website hosting services available.
So, let’s look at why free hosting can be a waste of time and why you still might want to pay for hosting your website.
Is Free Hosting Real?
The short answer is yes, free hosting is indeed real and you can host a website at no cost.
There are hosting providers that let you host your website free of charge and indefinitely.
Does it sound too good to be true? Well, that’s because it is.
The long answer to whether free hosting is real reveals the truth behind free hosting, which is that it has poor performance, no security, and it comes with many limitations.
Performance
Free hosting is powered by the bare minimum hardware. It has a slow CPU, very little storage and RAM, and a slow internet connection. On top of that, these resources are shared between hundreds of hosted websites, which makes free hosting almost useless.
Security
Free and shared hosting is the least secure option for hosting a website. You cannot install any security software when using free hosting. Therefore, your website will be exposed to all kinds of security threats, malware, DDoS attacks, and more.
Limitations
Free hosting limits what you can do with your website. This is mainly due to the fact that free hosting has limited hardware resources and each user can only do so much.
You will be unable to upload large files, expand your website with more web pages, host a large number of visitors, or install software of any kind.
How do Hosting Providers Offer Free Hosting?
Nothing in the world is truly free. So, how is free hosting real? Is there a catch?
Indeed, free hosting has to be paid for by someone. In this case, it’s advertisements that fuel free hosting.
When you use free hosting to host your website, it will be covered in ads coming from the hosting providers. And this comes with several drawbacks.
First of all, the name of the hosting provider will be attached to your domain name. Whenever you share your website URL, you will be advertising the hosting provider.
Second, your website itself will have to include advertisements. And, what’s worse, these ads are controlled by the hosting provider, giving you no control over what kind of ads are displayed on your website. And, of course, you won’t be earning any revenue from these ads and your benefit is just the free hosting.
So in reality, free hosting is a waste of time and effort, unless you don’t mind the advertisements.
What is Free Hosting Good For?
For those people who do not mind having random ads displayed on their website, free hosting can actually be useful. Here are some use cases when free hosting can be useful:
Testing Websites
Free hosting can be useful for testing out websites. Developers can use free hosting to stage websites they are building. As a developer, you can see how websites will look and perform on the internet. When you have the final website complete, you can purchase web hosting and make your website live.
Publishing Projects
Another thing free hosting is good for is publishing personal projects. Whether you want to pursue web development as a hobby or you are learning the skill at school, you can use free hosting to host your projects. You can have your projects live on the internet to easily demonstrate them to other people.
Learning
Free hosting is a great tool to learn the basics of web hosting and play around with different features. It can also be used in the education sector to teach students how to develop and host a website.
However, free hosting is not suitable at all for commercial use. If you are planning to host a website for your business, keep on reading.
Why You Should Pay For Web Hosting
To get the full experience of hosting a website, you need solid resources behind it to back it up.
When you pay for hosting, you get much better performance and more hardware resources allocated to your website, unlocking the limitations of free hosting.
More importantly, with paid hosting, you get full control of what’s displayed on your website and your domain name. And just like that, your website is no longer a walking ad.
Finally, you can secure your website on a paid server and install any security software you’d like to protect yourself from malware and malicious attacks.
How Much is Worth Paying for Hosting?
There are different types of web hosting that come at different prices.
- Shared hosting is the cheapest hosting solution you can get, starting at just a few dollars per month. You can get shared hosting for as little as $1-2/mo, and the price can go up to $5-6/mo if you need better hardware.
- Virtual private server hosting is more expensive but offers better performance than shared servers. It can set you back $20-80/month.
- Dedicated server hosting starts at $100 per month, but it has the best performance, security, and features out of any hosting solution.
To answer the question - how much is worth paying for hosting really depends on your website.
For startups and small businesses looking to host a website about their services, publish an informative blog, or offer a simple web application, shared or virtual private servers are ideal. It’s worth paying anything upwards of $15/mo for hosting such websites.
For medium-sized and large businesses or enterprises, shared and VPS hosting won’t provide a satisfactory hosting experience. Instead, dedicated hosting is necessary to host large websites like e-commerce websites, banking software, video streaming services, or similar. Then, it’s worth paying $100+ per month for web hosting.
Final Thoughts
That about sums it up why free hosting is a waste of time. If you need to host a website and don’t want to deal with headaches, it’s definitely worth paying for
But if you just want to host a portfolio, a school project, or to test a website - you can do that using free hosting.