GeekBusiness - Hosting Information

In reality there are no totally free web hosts. Free web hosting companies have expenses to cover, and the make the money to cover their expenses usually by:

• Advertising
  The predominent number of free web hosting companies generate revenues via advertising. Typically they will require you to include their banner ad on your website or launch one or more pop-up advertisements each time users visit the site. This may or may not be acceptable to you. You should consider whether your visitors will look upon this as a reflection of your site (they will likely know that you are using a free host based on the type of ads they see).
• Upselling
  For the astounding price of $0, you can expect that your level of service will be reflective of the price. You can expect your free host though to offer additional services for marginal cost. After you compare the cost of the add-on services you need with the cost of paid hosting, you may likely find that free actually costs more that paid hosting. Do you homework, and compare the true cost of each alternative.

The types services that you get from a free web host will likely similar across most providers. The level of service however will vary greatly. Services you can expect are:

• Shared web hosting
• Full domain name
  If you have a domain name you want to use, make sure the free host you choose will let you use it. Many actually give you a directory off of their hosting environment or make you use a subdomain on their host name. This might be be fine for a personal site, but not likely for a business site.
• Limited diskspace
  Do not expect a huge allotment of diskspace. This may not be an issue for many webmasters, but it should be another consideration before choosing your host.
• Limited bandwidth
  Again, do not expect a huge allotment. For the vast majority of sites though, bandwidth never becomes an issue. If your site is highly visited though, do not overlook the bandwidth restrictions or any policy for shutting down sites that go over their limit.
• Support
  Do not expect tremendous levels of support. If you get great support enjoy it, just do not go into a free hosting account expecting full 24/7 instantaneous support -- you will likely be disappointed.
• Domain Registration
  Most hosts offer domain name sales and transfers now. Do make sure that you are the true owner when registering a domain through your host.

Do not expect to find the following services with a free hosting account:

• Dedicated hosting
• Databases - you might find this but do not expect it
• Scripting Languages - maybe PHP support, but more likely not