Should You Choose a Free Web Hosting Company or Buy Web Hosting Services?
Once your website is ready for release to the Internet, you'll need to evaluate your goals and determine whether free Web hosting services can help you meet them – if the answer is no, you may choose to buy Web hosting services. For example, if you are interested in blog hosting that includes mainly text, free Web hosting services could likely fulfill your needs for space and storage. Likewise, a restaurant website comprised of only a few HTML files may also be served well by free business Web hosting.
But if you're a business owner whose success is riding on your website's traffic, you should consider the benefits you'll enjoy when you buy Web hosting services. Luckily, the cost required to buy Web hosting services has decreased while the benefits such as reliability, security, and storage size have only grown in recent years – which is good news for the vast majority of website owners who can benefit from working with a paid Web hosting company.
Reliability
While a small amount of scheduled downtime will always be necessary for maintenance purposes, a paid Web hosting company is your best defense for keeping your site secure against unexpected downtime such as hardware and software failures, administrator error and attacks from hackers. Downtime can be costly in several ways. Regardless if you're an ecommerce business or have a simple informational website, you may lose sales. If you are using pay per click ads to bring visitors to your site, your ad dollars could be wasted. Interruptions of service are frustrating for you and your site's visitors alike. When you are choosing a Web hosting company, look for business Web hosting packages that include an uptime guarantee.
Space and bandwidth
In general, the more non-text content you have on your site, the more storage space you will need. Will your website include large files like video clips and/or MP3 downloads, or photos and maps? If so, you'll likely require an amount of server storage space typically only provided through a paid Web hosting company. Such files also dramatically increase your need for bandwidth – the amount of data transfer that will take place when visitors access the server that brings your website to their browser. The more visitors are required to "interact" with your site – whether they are shopping at your online store, downloading directions to your restaurant, or posting comments on a blog -- the greater the benefit of using a paid Web hosting service to support your bandwidth needs.
Support
If problems do arise with your website – such as sluggish response time or scripts that won't execute -- it's important to have quick resolution. When you work with a paid Web hosting company, you can feel confident knowing that a technical expert is standing by 24/7 to assist you via phone, email or live chat. Be sure to check that the support is included with the hosting package - some paid companies charge an extra fee for 24/7 support.
Domain Flexibility
Most free business Web hosting services will only provide you with a domain name that they own. With a paid Web hosting company, you can own a personalized domain name -- for example,jane@janesbagels.com– which is easier to remember and increases your online credibility. Owning your domain name is also important in the event that you decide to switch to a different Web hosting company – you can transfer the domain name to another Web hosting company without losing your traffic.
Advertising Revenue
How do online advertising and business Web hosting go hand-in-hand? A free Web hosting company often makes money by selling advertising space on the websites it hosts. But if you buy Web hosting services, you can control the advertising space on your site – which means that you (and not the Web hosting company) will profit from the Pay Per Click traffic that comes to your site.
Web hosting needs are as individual as the websites they support. While it may be tempting to save money by working with a free Web hosting company, keep in mind that with so many benefits at a relatively low cost, paid Web hosting is money well-spent for those who are serious about building an online presence.
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