Free hosting: a threat to your site

No matter what anybody says, that's what reality looks like: expensive things are better than cheap ones. Of course, we are talking now about the most basic and simple things, like various goods and services. This also applies to free hosting, a service that may seem profitable only at first glance. "It's free" is a powerful argument. But actually, when hosting a website or other project on such a hosting, you are 99% likely to encounter a lot of problems. That's what we'll talk about in this article.

Shameful data transfer rate

You must have heard about Zeno's aporias - paradoxical arguments about motion, geometry, and mechanics. One of the most famous aporias tells about the fleet-footed Achilles, who cannot catch up with the unhurried turtle in any way. This is a paradox, but it is entirely true for free VPS hosting services (https://www.hostzealot.com/vps), which promise customers "high" speed without any restrictions.

In fact, even the cheapest and the slowest VPS will be faster, because on free hosting, a lot of sites are always hosted. They are trying hard to steal the show, the hosting is overloaded, the loading speed of sites sometimes drops to ridiculous values. This is bad for the SEO performance of the site, it has a negative impact on the customer experience. Just ask yourself, if you are ready to put up with it while the site you need loads within 20-30 seconds. The question is rhetorical, nobody will like it. And you will never want to return to such a resource.

No matter how you look at it, free hosting with its shameful data transfer speed only harms business, and such savings do not justify themselves in any way.

Terrible and unprofessional website address

As a rule, by placing your website on free hosting, you will receive a "branded" domain, based on the name of the provider. Like this: bobthebusinessman.megahoster228.com. Here megahoster228 is the name of the hoster, and bobthebusinessman is your personal name. For a serious business, such naming looks ridiculous, and it's no good. And if you are planning to prosper in your niche, don't even think about renting free hosting.

Illusory free trial period

This does not apply to all hosting providers, but some trade in this way: they rent a normal VPS allegedly free of charge. Let's say for 2 weeks. You use it, everything is fine, and at the end of this period, you are offered to pay an n-th amount, which may be slightly higher than if you immediately rented a paid VPS somewhere else.

You should pay special attention to cases when during registration you are forced to link a bank card, and at the end of the test period, money will be debited from it automatically. This approach is not practiced everywhere, but it happens.

Hidden costs

Hosting providers that provide capacity for free also need to earn money somehow. They don't charge you directly, but people can't live on thin air alone, and they need to earn money in some way. As a result, the rental cost is shifted to other services and additional services like:

• image hosting;
• FTP access;
• site migration;
• creating backups;
• site setup and maintenance;
• organization of corporate mail, etc.

The services may be different, but they will all be provided at an unreasonably high price. This way you will pay for the rent anyway, but at the same time you will also get a server "with compromises".

You won't be able to migrate

There are often cases when such enterprising hosting providers simply do not provide customers with adequate tools to transfer the site from their "free" hosting to something paid and adequate. As a result, the content will have to be transferred manually, which will take a lot of time and effort, and you will also have to pay a web developer for this.

The hosting provider here will not help you – they already provide their capacity for free. That’s your problem that you haven’t noticed the absence of migration tools.

You can lose access to your project at any time

Some companies clearly state in the terms of use of the service that your site can be closed at any time without explanation. And the terms of use are often ignored, so you will learn about it only afterward. Sad But True.

Annoying ads

Again, everyone wants to eat, and everyone needs to earn money. If free hosting offers more or less adequate conditions to customers, then they need to take resources from somewhere for maintenance and rental of capacities. As a rule, the only adequate way out for them is to sell advertising.

Advertising will be placed on your site, and this can potentially also harm your project. In addition, with such cooperation, the client, in turn, loses the opportunity to sell advertising on their site, this privilege goes to the hosting provider.

Questionable confidentiality

Nowadays it is generally ridiculous to hear about any kind of privacy on the Internet, but private companies, as a rule, try to respect the privacy of their customers, since the latter pay money. In the case of free hosting, the customers do not pay, yet the providers need to earn somehow – that's why some of them go to various tricks.

Data such as email addresses, phone numbers, website information, etc. can be traded.

Inability to use WordPress

WordPress is a popular CMS that provides a lot of cool tools for working with the site. But it consumes a lot of resources. Sometimes it is too much, and that is why many free hosting providers prohibit the use of this content management system at their facilities.

Traffic restrictions

Traffic costs money, so free VPS often have limits, and you still have to pay extra for exceeding them. And sometimes so much that it's easier to rent a normal paid VPS from trusted guys. Like us, HostZealot.

Your project can become part of a link farm

Free hosting providers often have a short life cycle – they appear and disappear like mushrooms. And all because of the manic craving to earn money in various unethical ways. For example, the organizing of link farms, also known as link dumps. Your site will become part of a group of sites that exchange a huge number of referral links with each other and this way "pump up".

Your site will not exchange links with Wikipedia, of course. Usually, these are all kinds of online casinos, astrology sites, dubious porn sites, and other scammers who are not welcome on the civilized upper Internet.

Weak protection against hacking

On free hosting, as a rule, no serious protection is provided for clients. Thus they end up being responsible for protection on their own.  But even with the proper configuration of all levels of protection, you may still be hacked, since other hacked sites hosted on the same capacities may become the cause of the "invasion".

No adequate support service

If it exists at least in some form – this is already good. But in most cases, it is simply absent as such, because a specialist needs to be paid for answering customer questions.

No additional tools

Statistics, analytics, backup capabilities, e-mail on the domain – all this, as a rule, is not there. A paid hoster will always provide you with everything you need for comfortable use of their facilities because they are interested in organizing a competitive business.

Conclusion

Limitations, limitations, and once again limitations – that's what you will face when renting a VPS from a free hosting provider. A minimum of support, the most ascetic tools, and a huge number of associated risks, most of which we have considered above.

If you plan to develop a normal project, invest your effort and money in it, then a free hoster does not fit at all. It is best to contact HostZealot and we will provide you with options that are guaranteed to be a solid platform for creating and developing projects of any complexity.