Free Web hosts - Points to check!
Wednesday, April 25th, 2007A free web host is always an option available for you,particularly if you are publishing your first website, or if it is just a hobby site, or if it is a site which is published for experimentations. Sometimes, though you may prefer free web hosting particularly to see whether your site has any earning potential or not. In case, you find your site doing well, you may switch over to paid hosting services.
With the gradually reducing hosting charges, more and more web publishers are actually preferring paid host to the free one even for their experimental sites, yet, if you like to go with a free web hosting service provider, some points you should check before taking a final decision.
1. Space/ Bandwidth Issue:
Some free web hosts provide so small space and bandwidth that it is impossible to publish a test site even with such a low space or bandwidth limit.
Though it is difficult to predict your space/bandwidth requirement, but, hosts offering 5MB space or 10 MB B/w per month is too little for any practical use. On the other hand, claims like unlimited space/ B/w are often detected as fraudulent and should not be give much importance.
2. Scripting/ Programming Support:
Be sure to check whether your web host support scripting or programming, lots of popular web hosts,do not support anything but plain HTML web pages - which is not a good thing, considering the availability of loads of free CMS based on PHP and MySQl; so scripting support is much desired even for a testing site.
3. Database support:
Quite a few free web hosts support mySQL database, and some of them support different other databases as well. In case you need some database support, be sure to check for it- before taking a final decision regarding your host. You should be informed that most of the modern CMS use mySQL as the backend database for storing content of your website. So, if you decide to use a CMS, your host must provide you database support. Some hosts implement restriction on the size of database you are allowed to use. Be very particular to figure those minute details.
4. Domain or Sub-Domain hosting:
While all the free hosts allow you to use a free sub-directory or a free sub-domain to publish your website, there are few,who allow you to use your own registered domain name. In case, you have a registered domain name, you should try to find out those free webhosts.
5. Mail Support:
PHP Mail function is disabled in most Free hosting service providers to protect spamming. Someone enables that after receiving your request but most of them will allow you to use it once you have upgraded to paid member only. In case you are starting a new forum, which involves user registration based on E-mail , you should better look for another host.
6. .htaccess restrictions:
Some free hosts do not allow you to edit .htaccess file - which is a must for most of the CMS scripts nowadays. So, if some hosts do impose restriction in this regard, that is definitely going to add a negative mark in their hat.
7. Error Handling:
This is the most annoying restriction some free hosts implement. In case, your visitors mis-spell the url of your web page - some hosts redirect your visitors to a page, which is a blatant propaganda of themselves. Your visitors do not understand at all that they have made some mistake ( As they do not see any 404 error page ) and instead of that they consider the page to be their correct destination - which results in a loss of visitor on your part.
Some Free hosts even play trick with www and non-www version of your web page, they allow either the www version or the non-www version of your website, i.e., they allow either of the www.your-sub-domain.com or your-sub-domain.com directly; Now most of the visitors do not understand the difference between the two,and in case they mis-type , they are redirected to a page of your hosting company.
It is a very painful problem that is alone enough to discourage you from continuing with a free host.
8. Server uptime and mySQL Database Load:
Free web hosts suffer from uptime problem, and, you should not complain about that ( unless it crosses every limit) as these are the part and parcel of any free hosting service.
9. Support:
Free hosting service often lacks prompt support, though there are few exception to this general rule of thumb.
10. Display Ads:
Free web hosts, in exchange of providing hosting service, often display different advertisements - mostly Adsense though, in your web site- you can term this as Ad-supported web hosting. It is better to accept such terms as it is an indication that your host knows his business and atleast has the intention to sustain his service.
There are free hosts that do not display Ads on your site at all, rather, ask you to post articles in their forums. In that case, depending upon your level of skills in writing - you may try such free hosting service, though it is very much debatable whether such services should at all be termed as free hosting service or not.
And finally there are sites which offer you absolutely Ad-free, posting-free web hosting services, sometimes for a limited period, while sometime for a longer period. But those are the most difficult service to sustain as nothing comes for FREE in this real world. You may find your website ,with all the contents, vanishing one fine morning- or your hosting company may decide to stop the free hosting service at any time.
11. FTP/ SSH/ cPanel Support
These are very much essential support and you must look for these supports before selecting any free web host. You can not upload files to your web site without FTP support.
In fine, as I have told already, free web host is still an option for experimental/ hobby sites. A careful selection of free web host may yield satisfactory experience in the long run.
