Ever wonder why cheap web hosting is so popular these days? Well for starters, it provides individuals and small businesses with a means for creating a presence online. It makes sense – but why go cheap when you can pay for something that is more reliable? Besides, “cheap” doesn’t have the most appealing ring to it. Moreover, if saving money is the issue, why not cut your costs entirely by signing up with a free web host? If you are still struggling with the concept of cheap web hosting, this article will explain why it makes a viable option between free and costly alternatives.
Free Equals Limited
Most free web hosting providers leave you very limited and are not recommended for business purposes. For example, most of them will litter your web pages with banner and pop-up advertisements in exchange for their free service. This can be a huge distraction to the people who come visit your website. Many of them also limit you in terms of ownership. Sure, they may provide you with a domain, but it is generally attached to their website, leaving you with a name that is both hard to remember and unprofessional. Last but not least, free web hosts typically provide you with minimal bandwidth and disk storage. Once you start to generate traffic and popularity for your site, you will eventually exceed the allotted resources and have no choice but to upgrade to a premium package.
More Freedom at a Great Price
The limitations of free web hosting is what leads most individuals and businesses to more flexible yet affordable solutions. Cheap hosting delivers the features and flexibility you need at a price that is easily within reach. With so many providers offering service, several companies price their plans considerably low to keep pace in the highly competitive web hosting industry. Play your cards right and you can find a host offering service for under $10 a month. It isn’t hard to get yourself a package with a generous supply of disk space, bandwidth and features. Today’s cheap web hosting services are geared for individuals and businesses, providing email accounts, e-commerce applications and everything needed to open an online storefront. These plans are widely available so why pay extra for something that could end up setting you back?
Don’t Forget the Essentials
Cheap web hosting offers many benefits but it can also be a disaster if you overlook some of the critical aspects. Even though you are paying less for service, your hosting account should still come with acceptable customer service and technical support. Getting answers from the experts is important as your customers will surely be needing an explanation from you if something should go wrong. Additionally, you should never go for any cheap web hosting plan that advertises an uptime guarantee less than 99.9%. Excessive downtime is something you can’t deal with as it is the best way to cripple your web presence. When knowing what to look for, you can go in on a strict budget and come out with a great web hosting package.
2 Comments
The biggest thing I have learned about hosting is that there is no such animal as “unlimited”. It’s nothing more than an urban legend. It’s kinda like bigfoot. I can’t really prove it doesn’t exist but I have yet to see it. Ok, maybe they have unlimited bandwidth but what about unlimited file download or an excessive CPU usage policy! Ignore the sales page and read the “TOS”. Terms of Service. Believe it – “The devil is in the details”.
Keep in mind you do get what you pay for.