Hey everyone! Let’s dive into a hot debate in the world of web hosting: Free vs. Paid Hosting. On one side, free hosting can seem like a dream come true, zero costs, easy setup, and no financial commitments! But let’s be real: are you really getting what you pay for? Limited storage, pesky ads, and questionable reliability can turn your dream site into a nightmare. On the flip side, paid hosting often provides robust security, faster loading times, and dedicated customer support. Imagine having your own piece of the internet without worrying about downtime or unexpected ads. So, what’s your experience? Have you tried both? Share your thoughts.
Free hosting can be appealing for those on tight budgets or working on small projects, the benefits of paid hosting generally outweigh the costs for users looking to create a professional and reliable online presence. Assess your specific needs, goals, and budget before making a decision.
If you're serious about developing an online business a dedicated server is the way to go. If your business grows, you won't have to switch from a free/cheaper package to a new one down the road, since you'll have enough resources to scale up. Sometimes, switching to a different package can be a nightmare. All these free/shared hosting deals are crap, since the server is shared by multiple users. The CPU count is always limited (most of the time it's between 4-8) and most likely the server load will be high, which means slower site load and downtimes. You won't have that problem on a dedicated server. At least, not for a while.
Back when free sites didn't have ads they were tempting but the good hosts quickly went paid and the bad ones disappeared overnight taking your site with them. It's great to still have free offerings as an onboarding special like the free react and next.js hosts do so that hobbyists can share info at a limited cost. Hosting, however, is a relatively inexpensive cost for a business and if they can't afford hosting are they really a viable business proposition?
True, I think free hosting can be used for testing and debugging, but if we're being reasonable, it's not suitable for business use. I both agree and disagree with you. I believe that very few businesses reach a level of traffic in their early years that shared or cloud hosting can no longer accommodate. Imagine spending thousands of dollars on a dedicated server for several years, based on the assumption that one day you will grow so much that regular hosting will no longer suffice. Wouldn't that money be better invested in other areas, such as marketing, to expedite your growth? With cloud hosting now offering resources comparable to those of a dedicated server, it no longer makes sense to start with a dedicated server. I agree. I believe that everyone active in this field has sought out free hosting services at some point. However, given the low prices of hosting providers today, I don't think it's worth the time to search for a free hosting service anymore.
And most don't actually want to. A business can experience massive growth and still have a relatively limited online presence. Just what is your local plumber meant to be doing online? or your favourite owner-operated clothes store? Our family business will have more activity on it's management website than we ever expect on our public website. Understanding your business and planning realistically is important.
Absolutely, Many businesses thrive with just a solid local presence and don’t need to chase massive online traffic. It’s all about knowing your audience and focusing on what truly matters for your unique situation.
I guess I was mostly speaking from my own experience. A few years ago now, a lady posted an ad for some hot product I never heard of. It was some new product and Google indexed her ad within a day and boom! her ad alone got 40+K visits a day! I was worried because I thought it might temporarily shut down my site. Had I been on a shared hosting it would have. It went on for a week then the traffic to her ad slowed down. I have other similar examples I don't want to talk about. The point is, if your server is not able to handle high traffic peak times - one social media post, being indexed by SEs, going viral some other way, ddos attacks may shut it down just like that.
I get where you're coming from. That's why I agree with you. The specific circumstances. If you plan to launch various campaigns, etc., then you need to make the necessary predictions. As a provider, we are happier financially if our users use a dedicated server instead of regular hosting plans. But I think for most businesses, starting with a flexible cloud hosting option can provide the scalability needed to handle those unpredictable moments without breaking the bank upfront.
It is not only about a one-time viral post or link. It can happen as your website continuously grows into a more visited place. This can be even more unpleasant because you don't necessarily notice that your server is constantly overloaded, and longer reaction time may affect your Google rankings.
BINGO! Rankings are affected by loading speeds. A few years back Google made it clear that if your mobile site didn't load fast - there'd be negative indexing/ranking consequences down the road.
Forgot to mention bots/crawlers. Currently, I'm blocking about a hundred bots/crawlers via .htaccess. And the list keeps growing. If I let them crawl my site, I will literally get 50-100+ hits on my site every second - just from them! It's insidious. Needless to say what type of strain they bring on the server if left unchecked.
I'll keep it simple. Paid anything is always better. It just depends on if it's better enough FOR THE PRICE. If you're serious about getting started and don't have a tight budget, go paid.
Making the right choice for the right situations is definitely very effective. It's understandable that small personal projects of little importance may not justify the expense. But the businesses should not risk their career.
No doubt, paid hosting is much better in terms of speed, uptime and the features included into hosting packages. I've switched hosting providers a dozen times, there's nothing wrong with that, so long as you find a host that you like thats whats important, not what anyone else thinks.
Choosing a hosting service? Take a paid one, but look at the reviews so as not to get caught by scammers. I used paid and free options and they are very different, it is worth paying 5-10 euros for hosting at least because you will be sure that: Your data is safe, the server will be serviced when contacting the technical department, the server will work without interruptions and its speed will not sag and many more advantages. In general, it's better to pay and don't worry.