We all love a bargin and 'Free Web Hosting' can seem like a great deal at first glance. Why pay somtimes over $20/mo when you can get your website up and running for free! However, the reality is that free hosting often falls short of expectations in several troubling ways.
Lack of Reliability
Free hosting services tend to be less reliable. Downtime is more common, which can mean your website may not always be accessible to visitors. This unreliability can be frustrating for both you, your audience and SEO, particularly if you’re trying to build a reputable online presence.
Poor Performance
With free hosting, the performance is almost always guaranteed to be trash. This is often through a combination of outdated hardware, occasionally it being hosted behind a residential internet connection, as an upsell technique and almost always the servers being horrifically oversubscribed with no monitoring.
Ads and Branding
Many free hosting services come with strings attached in an attempt to monetize your site and make a profit. You might find your website cluttered with ads that you didn’t approve, or your domain might be tied to the hosting provider's branding. This can diminish the professionalism and credibility of your site. In some cases it could even cause security concerns if they are injecting dangerouse scripts into your site.
Limited Support
Support is typically minimal or non existent with free hosting. When something goes wrong or if you have a question, you might find yourself without the help you need, leaving you to troubleshoot issues on your own or get third-party support.
Highly Probability of Abuse
Free 'anything' signifcantly increased the likelihood of people using the service. This is support by research from Digital Risk Provider PhishLabs who found 20% of phishing sites were hosted on 'free hosting', similarly it found free domain registration services were abused twice as likely as paid services. Reasons for this include these platforms not going through a payment verification process to flag high risk customers, ability to create accounts anonymously and it being suited to the disposable nature of these sites by not being required to outlay money. By charging even a token amount for hosting the risk signifcantly decreases.
Security Concerns
Keeping a commerical web hosting server secure is a full time job and does not come cheap. Many free hosts may have inadequate security measures such as not having correctly setup firewalls, minimal security procedures in place, runnning out-dated and in some cases pirated software such as 'nulled cPanel licences' . Another major consideration with many providers is the lack of an included SSL certificate putting your site and visitors at risk.
Hidden Costs
While free hosting may seem cost-free, it can come with some nasty hidden costs! Whether it’s needing to pay for essential features like a SSL certificates, having to purchase an inflated domain names or being pressured to upgrade to a paid plan once your site gets traffic, these costs can add up. The scariest example of bill shock is a Netlify user getting a $104k bill in excess date usage fees after a DDoS attack!
Lack of Incentive for Continuity
Free hosting services are often run as hobbies and not as a professional business, meaning there’s little incentive to maintain the service long-term and offer good service or hold any accountability. This can lead to the hosting service going offline without notice, leaving your website offline with little recourse or way to get your data back.
How Is Paid Hosting Different?
While there are certainly some very bad paid hosts, the vast majority are held to a much higher standard by their legal regulators and investors than 'Free Hosting'. Most paid providers will have full-time (at-least during business hours) professional staff to maintain the servers and answer support questions. Paid hosts will also have more stringent policies and procedures which govern how they operate such as a Service Level Agreement, Terms & Conditions and Acceptable Usage Policy to guarantee a level of service.
Conclusion
In the end, while free hosting might work for temporary or very small projects, it usually isn't a viable long-term solution. The compromises in reliability, resources, and security, coupled with the risk of the service disappearing altogether, often outweigh the benefits. Investing even a couple of dollars a month into quality paid hosting plans from the start can save you time, money, and headaches in the long run.