Finding Value in Free Web Hosting Services
A free web hosting service is a web hosting service that offers basic web hosting services at no cost, (though they may charge for other services). It is usually advertisement-supported and of limited functionality. Free web hosts will either provide a subdomain (yoursite.example.com) or a directory (www.example.com/~yourname). In contrast, paid web hosts will usually provide a Second-level domain along with the hosting (www.yourname.com). Some free hosts do allow use of separately-purchased domains. Rarely, a free host may also operate as a domain name registrar, but their registry services are usually more expensive than others.
A few free web hosts offer basic package for free and enhanced packages (with more features) for a cost. This allows users to try the service for an initial trial (see how it performs compared to other hosts), and then upgrade when (and if) needed. Free hosting may have the following limitations:
Limitation on the size of each hosted file.
Or more often a very limited file storage amount. For simple or single page sites this may not be an issue. Free hosts are also a great way to hone your site building skills, without incurring any cost, although you will quickly outgrow the service. (In fact some free web hosts are counting on it.)Very small bandwidth per month
compared to paid hosting. This can become a problem for any site, if that site becomes popular. But a simple site for a small group might be able to take advantage of free web hosting despite the limited bandwidth.Prevents hotlinking of files
. This prevents you from saving bandwidth by having another server host the media files you show to your site visitors.Does not allow certain file types
(for example MP3, MPEG, ZIP etc.). These are the file types that normally eat up storage space because the are larger (usually by a factor of 10 or more), files on avaerage.Compulsory placement of the Webhosts' Banner or Popup ads into all web pages
. The only way to remove the ads is to upgrade to a paid hosting account. After going to the trouble of building the site on that server, some webmasters will opt to stay with the same web host for an easier transition.
Some free host may provide these extra features:
- A web based control panel
- Free email accounts for the domain or subdomain hosted (e.g. Netfirms)
- File transfer via FTP
- Scripting languages: PHP, ASP, Perl etc. R
- elational databases such as MySQL
- Scheduled processes, known as cronjobs
- Other features such as guestbooks (e.g. Bravenet)