Key Differences between Paid Hosting and Free Web Hosting

Website Hosting

When making a choice between hosting services, more often than not it ultimately boils down to paid hosting and free web hosting. Business owners also have a tough choice to make when deciding between Windows hosting and Linux hosting. Here’s a checklist that should help you make the right choice as far as web host provider is considered.

Free–hand to Advertisers: In most cases when hosting services are free, the providing company at hand generates revenue through advertisements. Your business website, in such a scenario becomes an advertisement portal. Your web host has the free will to put up pop-ups, banners and other adverts, without you having any control over the same. On the other hand, when you pay for a web host, you are directly giving money to the provider, allowing for complete control over your site from your end.

Customer Support: Free web hosting companies generally offer minimal customer support. Getting a query answered, even if it is a crisis, may hence involve a long wait time. Obviously paid hosts in that respect are a notch up. They ensure quality customer support, at your beck and call at all hours of the day. What’s more a paid web host will provide you with tutorials and help desks as a backbone, making it all the more valuable.

Security: Naturally, a free web host doesn’t have security for users among the list of its priorities. It can be said hence, that with a free host, the likelihood of your website being hacked is larger. With investments in safeguarding business owners’ privacy and data, paid hosts, on the other hand give your website higher protection.

Bandwidth limit: A capping on the amount of bandwidth you are offered is a norm amongst free web host providers. In the event your website witnesses incoming traffic that is much above the limit offered by your host, it can lead to more downtime. With greater bandwidth at hand, paid web hosts, in contrast, are a better option. You also have the option of choosing for allowances on data transfers with possible upgrades in the future. High bandwidth can always be chosen at a later point in time. Most free web hosts don’t come with this option.

Features and functions: When you pay for the services of a host, you can rest assured in terms of the features and functionalities on offer. You get exactly what you pay for and sometimes more in terms of plug-ins, tools and webmaster implementations. With a free web host, all this is a challenge and you are offered just about the basic tools. Another aspect that most freebies have missing is site builders and shopping carts, which can pretty much make or mar your website.

So whether you decide to go for Windows web hosting or Linux web hosting, the cost of your host provider is important too. Ultimately, when you pay for something, you are automatically ensuring quality service. While a free web host could be great for personal websites or when you are working in a tight budget, it may not be the best option around for business owners. If you are a professional who yearns to generate income for their website, paying to get the crux of your website to be among the best will only help.

Look out for hidden costs being charged by web hosts in web hosting plans

Web Hosting Providers

There are a number of companies offering website hosting at affordable prices. More often than not words like ‘cheap’, ‘free’, ‘affordable’, ‘value-for-money’ etc attract all of us. But it is important to look for hidden costs when you choose a web host provider.

Don’t give in to temptation

As direct and straight as it can get, it is very important that when you choose a web host, you don’t let temptation or luring offers get the better of you. While at first an affordable or free web hosting plan may feel like the best option you could have come around, it’s important that you check it thoroughly. Even if your business online doesn't generate a large sum as profit, you must choose wisely. Many web hosting services look cheap on the face of it, but overcharge you in the most unlikely ways in the long run.

A number of hosting services in India claim to offer everything you need to have your website up and running in one value-for-money bundle. This however, may not always be true. What may look like an enticing offer could simply be bait. And you don’t want to regret your actions and suffer losses, for the most obvious things.

There’s a reason why they are cheap

Website hosting in India is no longer an exclusive service. You have a number of options to choose from. You may want to check beforehand the cons of the web host instead of taking the plunge for your website directly. Most web hosts that come with a low price tag have many pitfalls. The commonest among them being poor services and that’s the last thing you want for your business website at least. Many a times, web hosts offer their services for free when they are not fully equipped with the necessary resources. Behind all those frills and fancies, a nightmare could be awaiting you.

In other cases, some web hosting companies play smart and offer basic functionalities for a limited period in the beginning for free or in an affordable bundle. However, once you are deep into the design of your website, you may be required to make inevitable upgrades that could burn a hole in your pocket. Server performance and age of hardware is another aspect you may want to check in cheap web hosting plans.

Downtime and performance

While even the best in the business may face troubled times online, excessive downtime of your web host server is a cause for concern. If your web host is not fully equipped in terms of hardware to deal with overcapacity, your website could be in a mess. More often than you’d like them to, visitors will be seen jumping to your competitor’s website for services and products that could be your forte. Without the appropriate infrastructure to support your website, a host could do more damage to your business than anything else.

While a number of hosting services in India offer shared allocation of resources and servers, you must be wary of the cheap ones. In most cases, sharing your server for free could see you spending large amounts of money on maintenance. It could also affect the performance of your website drastically. What’s more, free services usually see many anonymous users making the most of their features. Imagine sharing your server with a hacker! That could definitely be dangerous.

It isn't obviously necessary though that all web hosts offered at affordable prices or for free come with poor quality services and support. But, it’s best to stay cautious. A little money spent could go a long way in determining the future of your website and consequently your business.