What You Don’t Know About Free Hosting
There are many types of web hosting out there and believe it or not, free services are widely available. Although you do not have to physically pay for service, there are a lot of things free web hosting companies don’t tell you. What these hosts are really asking for may be something you are not willing to give up.
Lack of Control
When signing up for a free web hosting account, you are pretty much at the mercy of your provider. For example, most companies will insert banner ads on your pages or worse, pop-up advertisements that create an intrusive experience for your visitors. Why would they do such a thing? Well, because customers like you are not paying for service, the company isn’t generating money directly from web hosting. By taking out third-party advertisements, the web host is able to stay in business and continue to provide a free service. Great for them, yet bad for you. A web page littered with irrelevant advertisements are a surefire way to scare off visitors and potential customers.
Lack of Flexibility and Functionality
Advertisements are a common thing in free hosting but the disadvantages do not stop there. Other essential aspects you will have to sacrifice are flexibility and functionality. Need a solution that offers a decent amount of disk storage and features? You typically will not find it in a free hosting service. If you are lucky, you will be allotted a minimal amount of server space and bandwidth that supports a small amount of traffic each month. In terms of features, they are almost non-existent. This means you get no database access, no advanced programming tools, shopping cart software and other features that have become standard on the professional web hosting market. With issues of stability, security and lack of technical support, it becomes apparent that free hosting isn’t suited for businesses of any size.
Shady Practices
The biggest downside of free hosting is an emerging technique that has caused a lot of controversy on the web. Some hosts are actively trying to cheat their way to profits with the practice of cookie stuffing. These companies abuse affiliate programs by sneaking cookies on the computers of your visitors. The more cookies they stuff, the better chance they have of making a sale. When the affiliate products are sold, the free web host gets all the credit and cash. Cookie stuffing is a growing problem that manipulates popular affiliate programs such as ClickBank and many others. The worst part is that they will use your website as a medium for distributing cookies and cheating the system.
Don’t Limit Yourself
With all the limitations and trickery, free hosting could actually end up being rather costly as far as your image is concerned. This type of service definitely isn’t what it’s cracked up to be. Even if you just want to create a personal site, the restrictions and instability could result in numerous problems. Needless to say, if you are trying to run a business online, there is no way it can survive in this environment.
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