Tag Archives: web hosting
Free Web Hosting: is it the Best Option for You?
As a potential website owner, you will have to make the choice between getting free hosting and paying for it. There are many options for cheap web hosting, but you can decide to try free hosting at first before subscribing to any monthly package.
Free hosting is perfect if you are a beginner in website design or if you have no prior knowledge in HTML or CSS. Some hosts do provide a cPanel interface, but for those without code skills, you can try some user friendly panels that you can drag and drop.
You can also opt for free hosting if you find a good domain name for your site. You will not have the opportunity to get your own domain, but if you find an appropriate one already on the host for free, you can take advantage of it. For example, if you want to start a blog site, you can try a domain such as yourname.mystuff.net, if the “mystuff.net” is available from the list of domains.
Another advantage is that you will now have the option of buying your domain name and transferring it to your free host. Domain purchase is a one-time expense, and many free hosts do allow domain owners to allow you to upload your domain name to your free account. This can be ideal because you will not be paying for hosting even with your domain.
However, free hosting is not what you want if your site is a corporate or business website. You want your own domain name for the sake of your customers and business image, but you also need an editable control panel to accommodate fresh themes and layouts. Working with the available themes can be quite limiting for you, so find a host that will allow your own look for your website.
It is very easy to transfer your free site onto a different host once you decide to pay for web hosting UK services. You will not lose any data or settings, but the only thing that changes is the fact that you are now paying for hosting every month. It is best to decide between free hosting or not by thinking of the long term results of your website.
Free Web Hosting: is it the Best Option for You?
As a potential website owner, you will have to make the choice between getting free hosting and paying for it. There are many options for cheap web hosting, but you can decide to try free hosting at first before subscribing to any monthly package.
Free hosting is perfect if you are a beginner in website design or if you have no prior knowledge in HTML or CSS. Some hosts do provide a cPanel interface, but for those without code skills, you can try some user friendly panels that you can drag and drop.
You can also opt for free hosting if you find a good domain name for your site. You will not have the opportunity to get your own domain, but if you find an appropriate one already on the host for free, you can take advantage of it. For example, if you want to start a blog site, you can try a domain such as yourname.mystuff.net, if the “mystuff.net” is available from the list of domains.
Another advantage is that you will now have the option of buying your domain name and transferring it to your free host. Domain purchase is a one-time expense, and many free hosts do allow domain owners to allow you to upload your domain name to your free account. This can be ideal because you will not be paying for hosting even with your domain.
However, free hosting is not what you want if your site is a corporate or business website. You want your own domain name for the sake of your customers and business image, but you also need an editable control panel to accommodate fresh themes and layouts. Working with the available themes can be quite limiting for you, so find a host that will allow your own look for your website.
It is very easy to transfer your free site onto a different host once you decide to pay for web hosting UK services. You will not lose any data or settings, but the only thing that changes is the fact that you are now paying for hosting every month. It is best to decide between free hosting or not by thinking of the long term results of your website.
Should You Take Notice of Web Hosting Comments?
There is a temptation to look at web hosting comments, see a few negative items relating to a particular host and dismiss them but this can be a mistake. When reading web hosting comments it is useful to bear in mind the following:
* The services provided by hosting companies do differ. There is no point in complaining about lack of support for a particular technology if this was never promised in the first place.
* Users will generally complain more readily than they will praise so it would be surprising if there were no negative web hosting comments about a host.
* The bigger the hosting company the more negative comments you would expect to see.
* Many negative web hosting comments would not have been necessary if users had read the Terms of Service (although some hosts could make the key terms clearer on their web sites).
When looking at web hosting comments about the major hosting companies I was struck by how many are about financial, contractual and support issues rather than technical issues. These can be:
Cancellations: Sometimes there is a procedure to follow which is set-out in the TOS. Not following this results in delays.
Domain Names (and cancellations): When a domain name is included in the package it has to be paid for if you cancel, even under a money back guarantee. This is spelt out in the TOS but the website may only say that the money back guarantee relates to hosting costs and the implication of this is lost on some users. Failure to get a full refund generates some of the more angry web hosting comments.
Renewals: Most hosts issue coupons/offer discounts but these apply to new customers only. Renewals are charged at the host’s standard rates, some websites do not make this clear.
Definition of “Unlimited”: Most hosts offer unlimited bandwidth, storage, databases etc. but whilst it clearly cannot be taken literally, definitions of “Unlimited” are vague. The use of unlimited does keep things simple and hosting companies know that most users will only use a small amount of resources. However we are talking about shared hosting so if a site does get busy it cannot be allowed to take resources to the detriment of other users. At this point you have to rely on the hosting company to deal with this reasonably. Of course users in this position will see the host as unreasonable and will probably post negative web hosting comments.
Backups: Hosting companies usually state that backups are the responsibility of the user. Whilst they do generally backup their shared servers periodically they do not accept any liability for lost data (not unreasonable given the low costs of hosting). Clearly anyone can suffer a hardware failure so you could be unlucky with any host.
To make sure you do not end up writing negative web hosting comments I suggest reading the TOS of your host thoroughly and taking your own regular backups.