FREE Hosting?

[HeatherWhite]

Is there really such a thing? and how reliable are these Free services? and how sue we are that we are not doing more harm to our sites?

I need some insights guys. Thanks.

 

[alexe]

Well, some are reliable, most are. As for damage, free hosts are shared hosts. So if a site is getting DDOS'D. Your site will go down aswell. etc

 

[BeZazz]

IMO you are better paying for hosting. Considering it costs less then a cup of coffee a month the outlay is not that great.

The benefits IMO is you receive a more reliable service with higher quality support if something does go wrong. Also free hosts are less likely to help you with script issues caused by third party scripts.

 

[carob]

Well I have tried two that work, but one crashed once for at least a week.. the other seems good but says initially your site may not be 100% available. It seemed ok but I'd rather pay for the guarantee, but I can see this kind of hosting is an easy way to get more IPs to link from.

Also some of these run older software or block scripts - check first to avoid wasting time.

 

[ldcdc]

the other seems good but says initially your site may not be 100% available. It seemed ok but I'd rather pay for the guarantee, but I can see this kind of hosting is an easy way to get more IPs to link from.

Rest assured, you're not going to see 100% uptime with paid hosting either. In fact, in my experience, uptime levels can vary a lot from one host to the next, even when you're paying a similar amount for the hosting.

Also, not everything that's free sucks. Some free email providers are quite good. It all depends on the provider, their financing and their goals.

 

[pausch]

I don't trust free hosting, how come they provide you standard service without getting paid. Think about it!

 

[SiberForum]

To my mind, free hosting is only suitable for non-profitable sites or personal blogs or something like this. IF you expect for the stability there won't be a problem to spend a few dollars for hosting monthly.

 

[ldcdc]

I don't trust free hosting, how come they provide you standard service without getting paid. Think about it!

Lots of reasons why a company would offer something for free. Just think about Microsoft and the Internet Explorer scandal.

Why are Facebook accounts free, or twitter? Do you think they don't cost money to provide, develop and host?

 

[iowadawg]

Lots of reasons why a company would offer something for free. Just think about Microsoft and the Internet Explorer scandal.

Why are Facebook accounts free, or twitter? Do you think they don't cost money to provide, develop and host?

Big difference guy!
Hosting that is free?
At any time that company may go under and you lose your site right quick.
Facebook or twitter go under? You really lose nothing because you have nothing invested like you would in free hosting.

There is a world of difference when it comes to free.

 

[ldcdc]

Facebook or twitter go under? You really lose nothing because you have nothing invested like you would in free hosting.

Tell that to companies who have spent thousands of hours and dollars to get a following on either service. There can be thousands of dollars worth of articles in one's Facebook account. I hear some people make a fortune by having millions of followers on Twitter.

 

[WebIntellects - Rob]

Thread has been developed into something more wide than just an ask.

@OP: Free hosting of comparably good quality is also possible, but I cannot I say it is good for serious projects, which require constant uptime. free hosts do not usually guarantee anything, they are just a platform for your site, often with ads popping up.

 

[HeatherWhite]

Thanks for the insights guys. I agree that we can use free if the site is non-profit. But is it does, it will surely affect the reputation of the site.

 

[ok2host.com]

i think It totally depends on your requirements. If you are just testing things out I would suggest getting started with a free hosting and more your way from there.paid hosting is reliable as compared to free hosting.
But if you plan on running any dynamic scripts make sure you ask your free hoster if they will support it or not.

 

[WebIntellects - Rob]

But is it does, it will surely affect the reputation of the site.

Indeed. However some free hosts are not that bad. For details, I think, you should refer to more specialized forums, like e.g. freewebspace

 

[paullopez]

Indeed. However some free hosts are not that bad. For details, I think, you should refer to more specialized forums, like e.g. freewebspace

Absolutely right!! and few of them are better than some paid hosting companies. But personally, I think free hosting services are good option for those students who are learning web development and web designing. With the help of free hosting services they can test their web applications directly on the server side ..

 

[lothos]

you get what you pay for.

Free hosts are usually (but not always) crap.

 

[RazorNF]

Companies give things free in hopes of turning you into a paid-customer.

Including some of the reasons already mentioned in this thread, free hosting accounts may have other limitations, or could be ad-supported.

Some might not provide sql databases, email accounts, etc.

For the relatively low cost of shared hosting these days, I'd recommend just finding a paid solution. Otherwise you could end up wasting more $ in your time/effort down the road when you need to switch hosts, etc.

 

[cipcip]

As for free hosting, I use 000webhost.com ... I don't have any troubles with them so far, but a friend of mine had a site with a database and they told him that the data in that database was too old so they closed his account, weird.

 

[bluearrow]

There are stable free hosting services like 000webhost, Frihost etc. I do host sites in these places too since I get different IP addresses from these providers. For new static sites free hosting is ideal. But I don't recommend free hosting services for CMS like blogs or forums.