Free Host Review

Not to many years ago free hosting was thought of as the poor mans way of putting a web site up on the Internet. For many the search for a quality web host was an ongoing weekly trek through hundreds of fly by night “hosts” who aspired to make themselves rich by providing hosting to the masses at no apparent cost. However, the problem came about for many of these would be free web hosting providers as they were unable to turn a profit and quickly folded under the financial pressures that come with dedicated servers.

Many other free web hosts folded due to legal matters after allowing their customers to host web sites that contained illegal material of one type or another. The free web hosts were a popular haunt of the scam artists who would put up sites that looked almost identical to popular sites such as PayPal with only one intention: Stealing your Information.

These days though things are beginning to change. Large hosting providers have begun to look at free hosting services as a way to drive additional future revenue. GoDaddy for example provides all their domain name purchasers with a free hosting account with other add on products when they purchase a domain name.

Most of this change has been brought about by the shift in the web hosting business itself from a view of hosting as a premium product to one viewed as a commodity. This shift was precipitated by the large packages that began showing up a few years ago at insanely low prices. As the price of hosting packages slowly dropped and storage and bandwidth increased the profit margins began to shrink to all time lows.

It was for this reason that many hosts who at one time simply provided their customers with quality web hosting only began to offer secondary products such as domain names, marketing tools and many other services that benefited the customer, but became the main profit drivers for many companies.

The benefit for those that enjoy or need free web hosting is the quality of service that is now being provided. No longer do you have to worry if your host will be around when you wake up tomorrow. Of course you still need to be wary of many free hosts, but with large providers such as GoDaddy and Doteasy providing quality free hosting the quality has gotten better. For many this means they can now learn how to properly setup a web site without the additional costs of hosting.

Free hosting has taken a step to a new level and it is about time.

Before selecting a web host it is paramount that you understand the various types of hosting options you have.  Every website has different needs and meeting your site’s needs will help produce a satisfying end result.  Hosting services available to you will likely fall into one of the following categories:

Free Web Hosting

Free web hosting is definitely the cheapest option available, however as we all know there’s no such thing as a free lunch and this holds true with so called “free” hosting services as well.  Free web hosts will often be advertisement supported and have very limited features, storage space, and bandwidth.  Generally this is not a good option for any website which supports a business or needs to offer users a stable and efficient environment.  Free hosting services are best for small web sites which are not intended to do much more than share a bit of info with a small group of friends.

Shared Web Hosting

With shared web hosting a single computer referred to as a box or a server will generally hold a large number of websites.  The number will depend on the company, the cost, and the hardware that makes up the machine.  Shared hosting is often a reliable hosting option for most websites including both small business and personal use.  The overall quality, speed, and cost will fluctuate significantly from host to host so it is important to do your homework before selecting a shared hosting center.  Often websites which abuse or use more resources including CPU time or bandwidth will be shut down.  If your website requires heavy resource allotment you will likely need to look into another hosting option. 

Reseller Web Hosting

This is a less common form of hosting but it allows clients to become web hosts themselves.  Common examples of this would be web design firms who host their clients’ websites.  In truth, the only difference between reseller web hosting and shared hosting is generally the size of the hosting company.  The larger hosting companies such as Bluehost and HostMonster are just much larger versions of reseller web hosting.

Virtual Dedicated Server

Virtual dedicated servers are very similar to shared hosting except in how the allotment of resources is handled.  Whereas with shared hosting all clients share the same CPU and bandwidth resources with virtual dedicated servers each client is guaranteed a set amount of CPU power and bandwidth.  Virtual dedicated servers also offer their clients what is often referred to as “root” access to their virtual machine.  This offers them more hands on control with how the machine runs including the ability to tinker with the operating system.

Dedicated Hosting Service

With dedicated hosting services the user has full control over the server and is the only client who uses the server.  There are normally two types of dedicated hosting options which are managed and unmanaged.  With managed hosting the client will have various support-personal or plans in place to assist them with managing the server and ensuring that things such as its security policies are up to date.  Unmanaged will leave all the responsibility in the hands of the client which can be less expensive in some cases.  In both cases having a dedicated server offers you much more control over what options are available on your server from mail programs to FTP services and so on.  Naturally dedicated servers are much more expensive and therefore many webmasters opt for the cheaper shared or virtual private server options.  With both types of dedicated hosting the servers are owned by the hosting company.

Colocation Web Hosting Service

Colocation is similar to dedicating hosting services, but in this case the user fully owns the server and the hosting center simply provides a physical space, power, and a connection to the internet for the client.  In many cases there is little or no further support for the client beyond ensuring that there is power and the negotiated bandwidth available to the server.  With this option in most cases the owner of the server will have an administrator who must visit to the facility or have another form of remote access to the machine.

Clustered Hosting

In some cases it is not enough to have one server handling the needs of a website.  For these cases clustered hosting becomes a viable solution.  With clustered hosting multiple servers host the same information allowing a much larger base of users to access the information at one time.

Grid Hosting

Grid hosting is a form of distributed hosting where a server cluster acts like a grid and is composed of multiple nodes.

Home Server

In some cases webmasters elect to manage their own web servers at home or at their place of business.  This can be done on both a consumer-grade broadband connection or in some cases on something more capable.  Home servers are much like colocation except for the loss of the expensive facilities which generally have backup power sources, industrial grade cooling systems, and various other benefits.  Some ISPs do not allow their users to host their own websites so it is best to investigate this before attempting to setup your own web server.

Which Hosting Option Should I Choose?

If you’re reading this article you probably should be choosing shared hosting, or either virtual or fully dedicated hosting.  For most small to medium sized websites these are perfectly adequate and viable options.  If your web hosting needs are larger than this you will likely have an IT specialist who is part of your team who would be better equipped to assess your web hosting needs. 

Hopefully by now you have a better idea about what type of hosting you need.  Now it’s time for the real fun, choosing the best webhost!

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Internet site hosting service firms on the web allow the user to make their site accessible thru the web. There are huge numbers of firms that offer web space on their server for their clients and also offer Web connectivity typically in an information center.

There may be numerous sorts of site hosting corporations. This kind of internet site hosting service is excellent for people who are new to to web and plan to get acquainted with internet site creation and functionality of web servers. On the other hand, to get your internet site uploaded on a web space that is offered by a paid web site host provider, you want to pay the company regular costs. The charge amount may change from corporation to corporation. The paid site hosting companies are most suitable for pro site owners. Folk who require giant web space to upload their sites and who expect a specific quantity of site visitors which is limited on free hosting accounts as small as possible.

The cash the paid website hosting service corporations get is thru the charge that is paid to the company by the internet site owners. In the event of free website hosting firms, the main source of earnings are the adverts and banners that may be placed on their clients internet pages. The main advantage of employing a free internet site hosting service is they are freed from cost and thus make an ideal choice for folks who are new into the business and are just wanting to start out. They are ideal for folks who just need to display a minimum content on the Net in tiny amount of web space.

The other advantage of using the free site hosting service is that the majority of these companies provide integrated, straightforward tools to upload the pages on to the hosting account. When using the free internet site hosting service, you are made to place the adverts and banners by the site host provider on your internet pages.

Also the cash that’s got by the adverts goes to the internet site company.

In the event of paid internet site hosting service, adverts and banners placed on your site are according to your will and the income of the banners and adverts placed on your site goes in your pocket. Also in some case of free site hosting, the domain name of your internet site starts with the site hosting company name followed by your internet site name. The web space offered by free web site hosting service is limited while in the event of paid site hosting service you should buy the web space according to your requirements.

There is paid web hosting and there is free web hosting. Most people tend to steer clear of free web hosting as they tend to believe that “there is no free lunch”. Free web hosting must have its catches?

Well, that really depends on your purposes and your position.

Why purpose?

If your web hosting is for your website which is for commercial purposes, such as an ecommerce web-store, you need absolute reliability and uptime. Every second of downtime is lost revenue. While some free web hosting providers guarantee uptime, you cannot hold it against them if their services do not meet expectations and cause your business to lose hundreds of dollars of revenue. Why? Because most free web hosts will have a clause in their terms that state that they do not guarantee uptime at all because they are a free service. Now, most free hosts will not even guarantee any uptime and those free web hosting services are provided on a best effort basis. You cannot risk hosting your crucial business website on such a free hosting plan.

However, for most individuals who are experimenting with building websites, free web hosting is the ideal choice as there is no monetary commitment and no lost for both parties. Everyone deserves a chance to learn and what better way to learn than to do it? Free web hosting plans from free hosts are the ideal platform for aspiring webmasters to start their web-building careers. Of course these free hosts may require something in return: visiting sponsors, displaying ads on hosted pages, reading emails, and lately, participating in online communities of the free web-host. This last option may not be a bad thing as online communities allow the users to interact and learn from each other.

There is also a last category of users who just want free web hosting for a personal site which they do not find the need to be up all the time and do not see the need to pay for it and do not see the need to do anything for it. There are some free web hosts out there who offer free hosting for nothing – just a simple sign up. Therefore, a clear purpose for using free web hosting is important. If the purpose is critical and there is no tolerance for problems, then free webhosting is not suitable. Other than that, free web hosting is not a bad thing.

Why position?

Web hosting plans are relatively affordable these days (some plans as low as $1 a month) that almost any working person can afford it for their websites. Therefore, paying for web hosting should not be a problem for those who have an income, or some savings to spend on developing their websites further. Also, any working adult should be able to afford using a Paypal account that most web hosts will accept as a form of payment. On the other hand, students and young people do not have much to spend, much less a Paypal or Credit Card with which to pay for hosting. For this group of people, free web hosting plans are the obvious alternatives if they wish to set up websites without paying anything for them.

To conclude, free web hosting may not be a bad thing for selected groups of people who have a specific purpose. For students and people looking to learn about developing websites, free web hosting is a good thing.

Written by: Dax Christopher.