Hosting is essential to the functionality of a website. Without hosting, website design is futile. Web hosting has a historically high price until two decades ago, but modern solutions have crashed the costs to affordable rates. Yet, there are free hosting plans made available by many firms.

For clients and developers, two vital questions are: what are the advantages of free hosting plans? Are they worth it?

Advantages of Free Web Hosting

The only advantage of free web hosting is that you don’t pay any money. It is completely free and therefore cost-effective. Beyond that, free web hosting offers no advantages. Free web hosting is only a tip of what paid hosting could offer you. On the other hand, there are several disadvantages that come with free web hosting that would make you question your decision to host your website for free.

Is it Worth It?

When you choose free hosting, you are putting your website at the mercy of the free hosting provider. The disadvantages are:

1. Shared servers: Free hosting firms simply use a single server for as many websites as it can take. These servers will usually offer the basic features and will just be enough to keep the websites functional.
2. No control over ads punished on your website: In exchange for hosting your website for free, the host would usually demand to place ads on the website. They’ll place as many ads as they want to and leave little control over the ads to you.
3. Limited features: There are limits to what you can do with a free hosting plan. You might face bandwidth limitations, a limit on the number of web pages that you can build, and certain website design limitations. The data transfer speed might also be limited until you pay for a higher plan.
4. Domain name limitations: Most free hosting servers place a compulsory domain name brand that clients must use. The domain name you choose must end with their preferred domain. That brings certain implications, the most important being that you cannot have a stand-alone domain.
5. SEO limitations: Forget about getting ranked on search engines with a free hosting plan. Search engine algorithms consider many factors before indexing a web page. Due to limited speed, bandwidth, and branded domain names, your free-hosted website may never rank on search engines.

In the end, free web hosting is not worth it. It is best to contract web developers for website design and affordable hosting plans.