Web hosting is major business market, and with the fierce competition in the industry; the pricing of paid hosting plans have dropped tremendously in the past two years or so.
Free hosting service was never reliable and it still isn’t. Free hosting businesses have no legal obligation to provide you with hosting forever, so they have the option of shutting down at anytime, with no notice. If the hosting business is not making money, they will definitely shut down, as that is the only viable option. For those of you who use free hosting; imagine the files and data you could lose if such a situation was to arise.
Just visit a free hosting website and you will some of the reasons why many people don’t choose it as an option. Free hosting never comes with support or customer service. If you have an issue with uploading a file or configuring a script, the hosting company will not be there to help you. Unlike paid hosting, with free hosting there are no staffs standing by to resolve server issues. If the server were to crash, it will be dealt with; when the server administrator has the time.
If you are a web developer or web designer, you could use a free hosting account to test websites or to test scripts. For those who wish to learn the basics of web hosting, you can open a hosting account with a free host and get an understanding of how hosting works. Apart from the learning experience, free hosting is not a great choice when it comes to website hosting. You will not have the option to host your own domain name, so using a sub-domain is the only option. Since this is free hosting, you will be working on a limited amount of hosting space and data transfer. In many cases, if you run out of bandwidth, your account will be suspended. In order to remove the suspension, you will be required to pay a fee that is nearly as much as the price of hosting.
If you operate a small business or even a home business, you should never think about using free hosting. When customers visit your website to purchase services or products, they look for quality and professionalism. Using a sub-domain from a free host will tell the potential customers that your business may not be legitimate. A major turn-off for many people is the fact that free hosting sites put unnecessary ads on the websites users create. Not only do the ads disorient the theme and template of the site but it makes the whole website look unprofessional.