Features of free hosting you would want to take advantage of.
Choosing a free web hosting service is a crucial decision. Finding a trustworthy web host can be difficult, especially with so many service providers and options available nowadays. When you add in the feature sheets and promises, the endeavor becomes even more daunting.
But it doesn’t have to be. Let’s take a look at some of the most common features a good free web hosting provider should offer:
DISK SPACE AND BANDWIDTH
The quantity of storage space provided to you by the free web hosting company is referred to as disk space. This area will be used to store your website files, such as text, photos, audio, and other types of files.
On the other hand, the amount of traffic that can access and exit your website is referred to as bandwidth. When a visitor types your website’s name into their browser, this is referred to as access. When a visitor receives something from your website, whether it’s viewing a photo, listening to an audio clip, or downloading a file, they’re said to “leave.”
All these concepts shape the quality of your hosting service performance. For example, if your website has a lot of graphics (ie. photographs) then you will require higher storage and greater bandwidth to provide a good customer experience to your visitors.
WEBSITE CREATOR AND FTP
This feature is key as the service will define the level of experience required to get started. So, if this is your first website and you have little or no expertise with scripting, seek a free web hosting service that offers a free website creation application that allows you to build your website simply by selecting a template and adding your own text and photos.
FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. It is the protocol for transferring your website files from your computer to your free hosting server or vice versa. This allows you to upload your finished website files (including images and other multimedia files) from your computer to your service provider’s server. It also allows you to download your files from your hosting server back to your computer. A good free hosting provider should offer 24/7 unrestricted FTP access.
File Transfer Protocol (FTP), is the protocol that allows you to transport your website files from your computer to your free web hosting server, and vice versa. This allows you to upload your completed website files from your PC to your service provider’s server (including photographs and other multimedia assets). It also allows you to retrieve files from your website hosting server and save them to your computer. A decent free hosting service should be available to offer this feature 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Of course, your free site hosting plan should include email services, allowing you to create @yourdomain.com email addresses. The email provider should include POP3 and SMTP access, so you can set up and access your @yourdomain.com emails using your mobile devices, in addition to a webmail interface (so you can login and manage your emails using your web browser).
SUPPORT AND UPTIME
Remember, choosing is free plan is not always the best strategy as you’ll be plagued with lots of restrictions. But, if this is your choice, always go with a free web hosting business that offers free, trustworthy phone and email assistance. Don’t be emotional, in free plans if you get stuck during installation or require a tutorial or advice, the hosting provider is not tight to make customer service available for your plan.
While no server can guarantee 100 percent uptime (think out-of-control issues like a major power outage), they should provide “just-in-case” precautions to keep website and email outages to a minimum. All free hosting services offer this feature, these safeguards could include server and network monitoring 24 hours a day, redundant hardware and network setups, and local backup power. It is a good strategy to assess your hosting provider to see if their free website hosting service plan has these listed someplace on their website, even if you don’t totally understand the mechanics. If they don’t know, ask them about it.
So, knowing this critical limitation, if you’re new to hosting and don’t have a lot of time to devote to learning and getting everything set up, you should consider going for a premium hosting service instead.
PRICING
If you’re looking for a free web hosting provider, then you should expect to pay absolutely nothing for all the basic features listed above. But, one thing is sure “you shouldn't have to compromise pricing with banner ads”. Any free hosting provider that forces ads on your website is a no-no.
Advertising is almost unavoidable in free plans. You are obliged to accept free spamming ads out of your control. So, make sure to choose the plan with a less invasive advertisement. But remember, depending on what your strategy is, you will need to come to the important decision of either putting your audience or economy first.
Conclusions
It cannot be denied that free websites hosting plans, therefore, offer an opportunity for small businesses and individuals to experience firsthand the benefits that come with an online presence. Also, free hosting is a great solution to start and immerse in the use of certain platform technologies. The decision of either choosing a paid or free plan is entirely yours. It will reside on your business or project needs to define what is the most cost-effective solution for your endeavor.
