Free Web Hosting: What is it, and why is it beneficial?

If you are looking for a way to create your own website without spending any money, you may have heard of free web hosting. But what exactly is free web hosting, and why might it be a good choice for you? In this article, we'll explain what free web hosting is, how it works, as well as some of the benefits and drawbacks of using it.

What is Free Web Hosting?

Free web hosting is a type of webhosting (Generally shared hosting) that allows one to host a website on a server without paying any sort of fees or registration costs to the provider. The biggest pro of free hosting is simply because it allows you to create and publish a website online without having to worry about anything coming out of your wallet. Most free provider will provides a subdomain (such as yourname.freehosting.com), with some allowing you to use your own domain name (such as yourname.com) if you already own one. While free hosting does have some downfalls that we will explore later on, it is a great place for beginner bloggers and small businesses to begin their career, and save some money in the process!

How Does Free Web Hosting Work?

As previously stated, free webhosting generally is provided in the form of shared hosting, where you get a small amount of space on a server that is shared with potentially hundreds of other users. When you sign up for a free web hosting service, you get access to a control panel where you can manage your website settings, upload your files, and install various applications, such as WordPress, Joomla, or OpenCart. Because of the license fees that companies like cPanel charge, most free hosting providers offer a custom panel that is unique to their service.

One popular free hosting provider is TinkerHost.net. They provide all the features that we listed above, as well as others that we have not. If you are interested in free hosting and want to check it out, TinkerHost is a good place to start.

Why Is Free Web Hosting Beneficial?

Free web hosting has a few noticeable benefits, with its primary one simply being its lack of a price tag. If you are just starting out as an online seller or creator, or if you only need a simple website for you business, free hosting can be a great option that allows you to spend your limited cash on more important things.

Addictingly, free hosting is also a great place to learn new skills, such web development, especially with languages like HTML, CSS, JS, and even PHP. Since we all know that it can take months to learn a new skills (And we always seem to take week-long breaks when random stuff appears in out lives), using a free hosting provider will allow you to practice your skills at your own pace. And since you will be the only one using visiting your website, you will be less to reach any limitations of the platform.

What Are Some of the Drawbacks of Free Web Hosting?

Not all things free are perfect, and free hosting is no exception. While free hosting is pretty great in many ways, there are some things that are missing from its offerings. For starters, free hosting can be unreliable at times as many free hosting companies use free servers to test features for premium users, and to train new staff members. Because of the lack of a price tag, many free providers don't provide all the features you could expect from a paid service, simply because they don't have the money to support them. Things like official cPanel, and automatic backups are often missing from free providers. However, system administrators do their best to keep free sites up and running, just like they would if you are a paid customer (After all, you are more willing to pay some money if the free plan is not falling apart every chance it gets).

Unfortunately, the biggest downfall is that free hosting providers place as many accounts onto one server as they possibly can, allowing them to save money (Since they don't make any from you). Because of this, free web hosting services often have strict limitations on the amount of disk space, bandwidth, and ram that you can use. Many free hosting providers also don't provide access to advanced tools such as advanced scripting languages (Like RubyOnRails) or custom email accounts.

Conclusion

Free web hosting is great for beginners to web hosting, as it allows for one to learn learning web development, and save some money while starting up a business. However, its lack of a price tag also comes with some drawbacks, the most noticeable being its occasional unreliability, limited feature set, and stricter limits then a paid plan. Basically, free web hosting is best suited for beginners or new business owners who just want to create a simple website or blog and don't need super advanced features. If you want to create a professional website or blog and you already have a bunch of viewers, or you need higher limits for your site to run smoothly, you should consider investing in a paid web hosting plan that offers more reliability and flexibility. As always, do let us know if you have any questions!