Everyone loves something that is free, but is free website hosting worth using? If you are considering free website hosting, you need to understand what the potential implications are. You also need to think if this is the right solution for your website.
It Is Free
The primary reason why you are going to look at this hosting is the fact that you do not have to pay for it. While not having to pay for hosting is ideal when you start, you have to consider what the limitations are. The primary limitation is the fact that you do not have a full authority domain. When you register with a free website host, they will add their company name to the end of your URL. This means that your website will be yourdomain (example www.opportunites-digitales.com/hebergement-gratuit/). While this might not seem like a significant issue, it can create credibility issues. After all, a visitor is more likely to trust a website that is not free hosted because it shows that the owner believes in their website.
Closing At Any Time
A serious risk that you face with free website hosting is that it could be closed at any time. These services can shut down the free hosting aspect of their business at any time and will generally have this covered in their terms and conditions. If this happens, you will either have to pay for hosting or move your website to a new free host. The problem with moving to a new free host is the fact that your URL is going to change. As the free host places their name in the URL, when you move, your domain name will change, and this will affect your traffic. All of your links to your content will be dead, and you are essentially starting over again.
You Can’t Sell Your Website
If you are thinking of building up your website and then selling it, free website hosting is not the right option for you. The free hosting website or blog that you have will not be your property. The content does belong to you, but the overall site does not which means that you cannot sell or transfer it to another person. If you read the terms and conditions of the most popular free website hosts, you will see that you are prohibited from sharing, selling or transferring your website to another person. While you could secretly sell the website to someone if the host finds out it will be shut down.
No Control Of The Resources
When you buy a hosting package, you can choose what you want concerning resources. This is not something that you can do with a free website service. While this might not seem like a major issue, you have to consider what happens when you get a lot of traffic. There are a lot of stories about what happens to free websites that get a lot of traffic. The most common issue will be that your website crashes because the server you are placed in becomes overloaded.