Starting a website requires a domain name and hosting space. Budding entrepreneurs, small businesses, and new startups are looking to save money, and the proposition of free web hosting seems to be an attractive option for them as it considerably reduces the costs related with paid web hosting. However, what they don’t understand is the costs this option can add up in the process because of the limitations these free services come with. So, choosing free web hosting may not be the right option in the long run. In fact, given the reasonable costs of web hosting and domain registrations when signing up with professional web hosting services in Bangalore, opting for free web hosting is not worth it. Let us take a look at the limitations you may face with free web hosting that will ultimately add up to your costs in the long run.
Limited space
You may start up with a very small website at first. However, with time, when you start posting regularly and update images, videos, and content, you will definitely need more space. Free web hosting comes with limitation of space for images, files, and page size. The amount of space they come up with may seem quite large for you at first, but soon you will realize that you need quite some more. This is when you will think of upgrading your service for a fee when you require more space. So when you have to pay later, why not start off with the better option of a professional paid web hosting service from the very start that comes with no such space limitations or additional fee for additional storage?
Limited design features and functionality
To stand out from the crowd, it is important that you provide unique and prominent design and functionalities on your website. This is limited too in case of free web hosting services. Just like space, free web hosting limits the number of designs, plugins, and widgets that you can use. Also, they may prohibit third party services, and may come up with compatibility issues. All of this is eliminated with paid web hosting that provides flexibility to expand and customize your website as per your requirements.
Security threats
Imagine getting a spam attack on your website that locks you out of your account? Free web hosting providers cannot provide with the needed security; and you definitely don’t want to show off your website to poor security that cannot help you survive a spam or malware attack!
Low ranking on SERPs
With free web hosting, you can have issues that can harm your search engine performance. These could include slow website speed, database errors, caching issues, and website going down too often; thus leading to poor ranking of your website on search engines. All these issues can be avoided with paid web hosting services that provide high assistance for SEO.
Transferring complexity
It is quite common for entrepreneurs to start off with a free web hosting first, thinking that they would shift later when they feel they are satisfied with running their website. But, one thing that isn’t realized in the beginning is that exporting stuff to a paid web hosting deals with lots of hassles. You will need to make sure that your redirects work for moved and removed pages, your permalinks remain consistent, you don’t lose subscribers with the RSS feed, and much more. Obviously, all of this is not impossible, but it seems better to save on all that time, effort, and costs by opting for a paid web hosting service at the very start.
Limited money earning opportunities
You are obviously running a business to earn money; and you are always looking for ways to earn more income. However, free web hosting can limit you on that part too when compared to paid web hosting. Certain free services limit you to post ads on your site, while others refrain you from using any third party advertising, or even prohibit you from running sponsored or paid content.
