Free Hosting vs. Paid Hosting

Hosting is an integral part of running a successful web business. Whether you're planning to launch a web app, sell products online, or run a blog, you'll need a hosting solution to get things off the ground.

The debate between free and paid hosting has taken center stage in the past few years. As a result, the lines between the two hosting types have become increasingly blurred. You might think they are the same, but in reality, free hosting and paid hosting have entirely different meanings, and their differences are worth considering.

When it comes to free hosting, you’ll often find that you can host unlimited domains and websites, and there are usually no bandwidth or storage space limitations. But there are many drawbacks to free hosting. 

Why do people choose to use paid hosting? Whether starting your own business or launching a new side hustle, you need to figure out which hosting provider is right for your needs. Numerous providers are available today, and each offers different features and options for hosting your business online.

However, you may not know which one will best suit your needs. In this article, we'll compare the free and paid hosting services so you can make the right decision for your needs.

Critical differences in free hosting vs. paid hosting 

Reliable

Free and premium web hosting offers different services, such as reliability and price. Generally, free web hosting services don't provide the same uptime as paid web hosting services. You need a robust server infrastructure to keep your website running at its best. 

A sluggish website or a website that goes down at odd times can hurt you. Your company website requires 99.9% uptime, and most professional premium web hosting platforms promise to provide this level of reliability.

However, it can be a big headache for your clients when your site goes down. When your site is down, you lose customers and potential revenue. That's why it's essential to have a plan to ensure your site never goes down.

Here are some tips on how to make sure your website is always up and running:

1. Choose the right web hosting platform for your needs. Many different types of web hosting exist.
2. Hosting services have distinctive shapes and sizes, each with unique features and benefits. You should upgrade your web hosting if you already have a successful website. A good hosting provider will offer you plenty of space and various ways to manage your site.
3. Use a backup solution for your site. This is a simple one. Backing up your site is the best way to ensure that your site never goes down. You can use various methods for backing up your site, but you'll want to ensure that you have a backup strategy before you start using your website.
4. Use SSL, a security measure that encrypts data in transit between a client's computer and your site.

SEO Rankings

It's easy to improve your search engine ranking and online presence using premium web hosting services. As noted before, many web hosting companies offer free services that may or may not be optimized for search engine ranking.

However, some web hosting services are designed to provide web admins with the tools to optimize their sites for search engines. These premium web hosting services offer tools like search engine submission, keyword research, article writing, and more. Some even provide a complete search engine optimization package that includes these tools.

Storage And Bandwidth

Typically the most prominent stats on a hosting plan are bandwidth and storage. They refer to how much web data you will store and deliver for your visitors. A hosting web package usually includes storage space, web traffic, and bandwidth.

Selecting a free web hosting service may seem appealing at first, but it is essential to look beyond what your site needs right now. As your site grows, your hosting costs could skyrocket as your storage needs and bandwidth use grow. Your site may also experience downtime and slowdowns. It’s a good idea to consider a more cost-effective plan.

Paid web hosting plans typically remove all restrictions on storage and bandwidth, allowing you to use unlimited resources to store and upload content for your site. This means you don't have to worry about paying extra for each gigabyte of storage space or additional gigabytes of bandwidth you use.

Guaranteed uptime

One of the critical requirements for websites is staying up and online, including avoiding website crashes or crashes in a user's browser. You should choose a web host who will ensure their servers run smoothly and keep them up to date with all the latest software and security patches.

They should also take care of any maintenance or updates interrupting your business. When getting a service for free, you shouldn't always be sure these guarantees are included. Hosting isn’t cheap, so you’ll have higher expectations for their service.

Most hosted sites are available around the clock at an uptime of 99.95%, which is included in the hosting service. If something goes wrong, you can always contact the hosting company.

You might find that a free web host is not always reliable, but you shouldn't expect an uptime of 99.95% as this is just about what most companies will guarantee. Web hosting is a service that allows people to access a website online. The service makes your site available to the public, and a web host provides it.

You can use the service to create your website, and it provides you with space on their servers so you can upload your files. Most websites are hosted on a shared server, which means they share a server's resources with other websites. This is often used for personal websites, but many businesses also use it to host their sites.

Vendor lock-in

Before choosing a free hosting option, it’s always important to ask why a company offers that free service to its customers. You may be seeing an increase in traffic because they're using a free hosting provider as a honey trap. You have to offer a free service to attract lots of customers.

Although it is pretty cheap, the free hosting is minimal. People quickly realize they need to upgrade to get their websites' services. The users should know that it’s very easy to migrate their sites to a different host, and many tools are available that simplify this process. If you sign up for our eUKhost hosting package, we’ll migrate your website to our servers for you.

Help & Support

Of course, free hosting services do not help you get quick technical assistance. You may need to deal with numerous technical and customer issues without timely website hosting help instead of concentrating on company growth.

Technical issues are a huge concern for all websites, but MySQL database and PHP / Pearl scripts can be complicated. Free web hosting services are always available but don't provide 24/7 technical support.

You can get 24/7 technical support from a paid web hosting service, making your business operations more efficient. Hence, if you want technical assistance quickly, you should consider using a paid hosting service.

However, some free hosting services do provide 24/7 support. For example, you can get help from your web host's customer service team. Free web hosting services don't provide technical support, and they don't offer customer support.

Free web hosting services don't have any kind of customer support. If you have any problem with your website, you'll have to do it yourself.

Custom Error Pages

It is possible to make custom error pages with free site hosting. A free hosting account allows the webserver to use error pages to inform visitors when they enter an incorrect URL or try to access a page that isn’t available on the site.

Visitors will leave your website because it doesn't match their expectations. A hosting package with premium features is different from standard web hosting. With premium features, you get unrestricted access to your web hosting and website and unlimited storage and bandwidth.

You may create customized error pages for your customers/visitors to see when they enter an incorrect page or URL.

Web Speed

Website speed is a crucial factor in online consumer retention today. If your website is slow, you can lose potential customers.  Free web hosting accounts can be frustrating because they lack resources. 

If you host your website on a free web hosting account that doesn't have enough resources, it will load slowly and take a long time for clients and visitors to access anything on your website. An established commercial web hosting provider offers the fastest loading pages regarding web hosting.

Your web hosting account needs enough resources to load your website quickly. This is important because if your website loads slowly, it will affect your business. A free web hosting account may not have the resources needed for a fast-loading website.  

In addition, you can check out web hosting comparison sites like Hostgator and Dreamhost that compare different web hosts and offer suggestions based on your requirements. 

Domain Name and Branding

There are a few types of web hosting companies. You can choose a free or paid service, which offers different features. If you consider a free web hosting account, you must be careful about your domain name.

If your domain name is yourname.wordpress.com, your site will live at wordpress.com. This would not be good for the reputation of your company. With paid hosting services, you can get a free domain. In a minimal amount, this means you are not even getting a hosting service but also a domain name.

Features and Upgrades

A free web hosting account can be a great foot in the door, but imagine coming home to an empty house. Free trials are a great way to evaluate if the accessible version of the service you consider offers what you need.

You probably won't have a server with server access or a platform to let users configure backups, and SSL certificates, install WordPress or add an email address or FTP account.

Free web hosting providers often charge a fee for adding these features. Free web hosting providers are more likely to limit the amount of data you can upload or the number of domains you can host on your account.

You'll have a lot less storage space than a paid web hosting provider, and you may not be able to use the same platforms paid web hosts to offer. A free web hosting account is usually much less than the cost of a shared web hosting plan.

With a free web hosting account, you will have to be comfortable with the terms of service because you cannot customize anything on the server or use any software or add-ons. Free web hosting accounts usually do not offer email addresses, FTP accounts, or other tools that will allow users to configure their sites.

Free web hosting providers may also limit the amount of data you can upload, the number of domains you can host on your account and the amount of bandwidth you can use.

For WordPress Plugins, You Need Paid Hosting

These plugins are used for many things, from contact forms to shopping carts, image galleries, events calendars, and more. The plugins on this page are things you can add to your site to do different things on your site.

You can add plugins to your site using a paid web hosting service. Some plugins will require you to use a paid web hosting service. You will need to choose a hosting web service that offers this feature. You can use the features of the hosting web service to install plugins.

WordPress plugins are an essential part of running a successful WordPress site. Plugins provide extra functionality to your site if you use WordPress to run your site.

Privacy and Security

With all the other benefits of free hosting, it’s a shame that this site isn't more reliable. Lax security standards can harm customers and visitors by exposing sensitive personal and financial information.

The free host sites don’t just gather contact information; they sell it to marketers. But even those more reputable providers aren’t immune to the shady practices of their peers. Hackers took over the web hosting provider's server, which caused the release of the personal information of thousands of users. The hackers gained access to user email addresses, passwords, and plain-text user names.

In addition to the list of vulnerabilities, this site is entirely atrocious: forms that don't require users to use SSL encryption when sending their passwords, email messages that are vulnerable to spammers, and forms that are easy to find in web server logs, browser histories, and other publicly viewable areas.

Moreover, the site is also a great source of malware, so make sure you don't use it. If you want ultimate privacy and security, choosing a provider with robust security features is essential.  

Making Income Is Easier with Paid Hosting

Plugins provide extra functionality to your website if you use WordPress to run your site. These plugins can be used for many things, from contact forms to shopping carts, image galleries, events calendars, and more.

The plugins on this page are things you can add to your site to do different things on your site. These plugins are paid and usually have a monthly fee associated with them. Many of the plugins below are free. However, some are not. You will need to buy a license to make money with any of these plugins.

Free has Cost

A free web server needs to make money to operate. So, what do you think? How will they do it? How will they earn? The simple solution is marketing. Free web hosting companies might place advertising on your site, so you need to pay for the hosting package, or they won’t do this.

While there is very little control over the ads on your website, what's important is how you respond to those ads. What if someone places an improper ad on your site? Whether or not you risk your reputation by displaying ads, you will build your site’s reputation.

You don’t want to jeopardize it by displaying unnecessary advertisements. In a premium web hosting platform, you have complete control over your website and may choose to show just what you want.

Ads

For business websites or people who want to build a personal brand through their website, ads are a distraction that could also ruin your page views.

People don't want to be distracted by ads, so taking the advertisement out of the design is better. You could only do this through a paid hosting service.

Shared Branding

When most web hosts do business with you, they do so because it’s an easy, fast, and free way to advertise.  In many cases, it means having your name as part of your URL, looking like yourname.com.

Advertorials make it harder for you to communicate a clear and consistent brand to your visitors. Some people get confused when they visit your website. You can make it easier for visitors to remember your website URL by creating a memorable one.

A free website isn't a good choice. 

Some categories of people interested in building websites could probably do with only a few more things added to their toolkits. If you’re just making a website for fun or to share information with friends and family.

If you never intend it to be more than that, then there's a good chance that free website hosting will suit you fine. People who think they have a handle on their skincare problems rarely do. They don't realize there is much more to skincare than just using products or going to a dermatologist.

A free web hosting plan might be good for someone just starting. You might consider a paid web hosting plan if you are building a business or creating a personal brand. You can build a brand without spending a lot of money.

However, you will need to spend money to build a brand. You should consider paying for a premium web hosting platform to make money from your website. If you are looking for a free website hosting platform, you can’t go wrong with the service provided by Bluehost.

Top Paid Hostings 

HostGator

Hostgator is a top-rated web hosting service provider. They’re expensive, but they offer some excellent services you might not find anywhere else. They offer unlimited bandwidth, a free domain registration service, free e-mail accounts, and even a free website builder.

Bluehost

Bluehost is a viral web host. They are one of the only hosts that offer a 30-day money-back guarantee, which is a rare thing to see. They also offer unlimited hosting, free email accounts, and free site builders. All these are great features for anyone looking for a good deal.

Siteground

Siteground is a bit more expensive than most other hosting companies, but they are incredibly reliable. Their customer service is excellent, and they offer some fantastic deals on their services.

Read about top Hosting services here.

FAQs

Conclusion 

Paid Hosting means you pay money for the service, whereas Free Hosting means using someone else’s benefit. This often means that the service provider can use your site for advertising purposes.

Some people using this hosting may not want to share their sites, while others may not mind sharing their sites. So, depending on your chosen route, you may lose control over your website.

People only spend money on hosting because they want to host their websites at a high quality, professional, and reliable web host, and not on shared hosting. Shared hosting has many disadvantages you should know before buying a plan, such as slow website loading speed and lack of control.

While some companies offer you the chance to use shared hosting, it’s often for just a few months. You should choose a web host that will provide you with a long-term hosting service.