Free Web Hosting
Can you really get FREE web hosting?
Yes, there are hundreds of free hosting web sites, as far as not having
to pay any money to have your website hosted. Generally they either cost
you in time, web hosting restrictions, or modifying your free web pages by
adding popups, banners, or other adverts. When looking for free web
hosting (especially on search engines), you should beware that there are
also a large number of commercial web hosts that claim to offer free
hosting services, but those often have a catch, such as paying an
excessive amount for a domain name or other service, and therefore aren't
really free. The free free hosting guide below will give you some tips for
finding the right free webhosting comapny for you.
How do the free web hosts make money?
The free website hosts often make money in other ways, such as putting
banners, popups, or popunders ads on your free webpages. Some free web
hosting companies do not put ads on your site, but require you as the
webmaster to click on banners in their control panel or signup process, or
just display banners in the file manager in hopes you will click them.
Some lure visitors with free hosting in hopes you will upgrade and pay for
advanced features. A few send you occasional emails with ads, or may even
sell your email address. A new method that is becoming popular is
requiring a certain number of "quality" forum posting, usually as a means
of getting free content for them and thereby being able to display more
ads to their website visitors.
Are free web hosts reliable?
Generally no, although there are a few exceptions. If the free host is
making money from banner ads or other revenue sources directly from the
free hosting service, then they likely will stay in business, provided
someone doesn't abuse their web hosting server with spam, hacking, etc.,
as often happens to new free web hosting companies with liberal signup
policies. If the freehost accepts just anyone, especially with an
automated instant activation and it offers features such as PHP or CGI,
then some users invariably try to find ways to abuse it, which can cause
the free server to have a lot of downtime or the free web server to be
slow. It is best if you choose a very selective free hoster which only
accepts quality sites (assuming you have one).
Uses for free webspace
Free web hosting is not recommended for businesses unless you can get
domain hosting from an ad-free host that is very selective. Other reasons
for using free hosting websites would be to learn the basics of website
hosting, have a personal website with pictures of your family or whatever,
a doorway page to another web site of yours, or to try scripts you have
developed on different web hosting environments.
How to find the right free web hosting site
The best place to search for free webhosting is on a free webspace
directory website (i.e. a web site which specializes in listing only free
web hosting providers). There are some which add new free hosts pretty
much every week (and if it is updated often, has usually had to delete
about as many). There are also many which almost never update their web
site, and a huge percent of their links and info are outdated.
Unfortunately that includes most of the directories that were the best
several years ago.
Hints for finding the best free web hosting service
Generally it is best not to choose a free hosting package with more
features than you need, and also check to see if the company somehow
receives revenue from the free hosting itself to keep it in business. As
already mentioned, it is best to try to get accepted to a more selective
free host if possible. Look at other sites hosted there to see what kind
of ads are on your site, and the server speed (keep in mind newer hosts
will be faster at first). Read the Terms of Service (TOS) and host
features to make sure it has enough bandwidth for your site, large
webspace and file size limit, and any scripting options you might need.
Read free webspace reviews and ratings by other users on free hosting
directories. If you don't have your own domain name, you might want to use
a free URL forwarding service so you can change your site's host if
needed.
Recommended free web hosts
It would be awfully hard to recommend any free web space host and
someone not like it, as different people need different web hosting
features and have different priorities, and the webhosting quality may
change over time. Also some people want free domain hosting (you own the
domain), and others might not be able to buy a domain name. Here are some
of the most recommended free web hosts, and their main features.
50Webs gives you a URL such as http://you.50webs.com/
(or you can use your own domain name), and offers 60 MB webspace, POP3
email, and unlimited bandwidth. You can upload via a file manger or FTP
import. There are no ads or popups placed on your hosted web pages. You
can setup multiple addon domains and subdomains under the same web hosting
account.
Yahoo
Geocities is controversial. Many
people hate the ads they put on your site or its other limitations, but it
is one of the oldest and most reliable free web hosts. Your URL looks like
http://www.geocities.com/you . They give you 15 MB webspace, file manager
and editor, web-based Email, and statistics. The bandwidth limit is 3
GB/month, and the file size limit is 5 MB. You can upload several file
types such as RealAudio, RealVideo, Flash, MP3, and Java, but other
scripting is not supported.
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