Free vs. Paid Web Hosting on the Internet
The question of FREE vs. Paid things on the Internet is one of the most discussed topics. Some people write against everything FREE online so bad that they create a bad atmosphere in which some other people simply fear to use anything FREE online. My online transaction experience shows that sometimes the paid items can be the scam or at least a robbery.
I don’t think Free things online are all bad. First, I think that it’s the matter of each person to choose which way to go in the particular situation. Second, any opinion is only personal. And third, to state general, black-and-white statements is very daring and not very professional.
I myself don’t think that it is necessary to pay for everything, especially for those who are startup like me. On the other hand, you can’t expect to get everything for FREE. It is necessary to make an analysis based on what you want to achieve, how fast, how much time and effort you want to put into it and how much money you can afford to spend.
On the basis of your analysis, make a detailed plan of what you will need to achieve your goals within the period you want and research the market for the prices and the quality. When done right, you will see that you won’t need big sums of money to get what you want within an acceptable time span.
There are basic principles necessary to follow to start and make things right just from the start and not to handicap your budget unnecessarily. It is always easier to do things right than to try and fix them right later when damage was done.
What you have to buy when you start:
1) The basic is your own domain name. Once you seriously decide to establish your business online, you should get your domain name.
2) Hosting services: this one is the vital point. However, be very careful before you pick up a hosting company and pay them. So many hosting providers use their customers only to grow their own business with no regard to their customers’ businesses. I can say that I don’t have the worst experience with scams but I did with hosting companies.
Basically: the best choice is a company that offers FREE hosting service as well as paid. You can test their services for FREE and see how they treat you as the customer before opting in for the paid version.
There’s a huge difference between a company offering their hosting services because they are a group of IT professionals with advanced equipment (or technically oriented people). And those people having online a little bit of knowledge in IT and thinking that offering hosting services could be a great business to make profits (or profits oriented people).
Technically oriented companies tend to have better, advanced equipment, better and reliable services, and often are more helpful to their customers.
Profits orientated companies usually have equipment fulfilling minimal technical requirements, but have to buy (or outsource) additional specialized services (= have unnecessary overhead, which makes them a little vulnerable). Thus, their overall customer services often are just average, or sometimes below average.
Companies offering FREE hosting without a generate revenue somewhere often are not reliable in long-term because they can run into financial difficulties and begin to charge you crazy fees.
But even with the paid service, don’t pay a year or two of web hosting up front. The reasons against that are many. I state only the vitals here:
a) You paid them in advance for FREE. The money you paid them upfront can make you money if you invest in something else while it generates profit for you.
b) Technology changes very fast, and a year on the Internet is a much longer period than a year in the offline world. Most companies won’t last that long in the online world, which you may lose your money if the provider close shop. You then will have to move your sites to a different provider and pay again.
As a small business, it is easy to spend $1,000+ and make $100. Anyone can do this but it’s much wiser and more difficult to spend a hundred and make $1,000+.
Overall, either web hosting is Free or Paid, make sure you check what other people have reviews about their customer services and server speed as well as reliability. In many cases, the reality is very different from what most companies promote online.