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CodeCrunch Webmaster Forums / Hosting and Server Maintenance / Virtual Hosting Help / Free or Paid Hosting
Posted:  26 May 2006 04:27

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What do you think is better in hosting your site, the free one or the paid hosting?

Can anybody list the advantages and the disadvantages of both?
Posted:  26 May 2006 12:18

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It depends on the plan, but usually free hosting gives out the core features - 50 to hundreds of MB of space, built-in file manager, search engine submission, and a bunch of ads   (the latter being the major disadvantage).

The paid plan gives out the core features, and usually comes with FTP access, POP3 and SMTP access, a personal domain name and email, less content restriction, search engine submission and completely no ads.



Sometimes, however, I've encountered some free hosting features that offer FTP access, but there are very few of them.
Posted:  28 May 2006 13:03

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So basically, both hosting options can provide the basic needs for making your own website. I guess for starters like me, I could try the free hosting yet and then I could have a paid hosting when I'm already used to making a site have a good reputation.
Posted:  29 May 2006 07:10

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Yeah, but if at all possible, avoid free hosting programs with a lot of ads

Tripod and Angelfire is henious for heavy graphical ads. Geocities is making its slow transition to text ads currently.


Watch out for the upcoming Google Hosting program. If it goes through, you'll have a free website with mere text ads
Posted:  29 May 2006 14:40

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Why go for paid one when you can get them for free?

First of all CONTROL >> Free hosting mostly lack of control, sometimes database are not supported, lack of many features required for a website hosting.

Banner ads make your site look unprofessional. If you are developing websites for a company or business, it is wise to invest extra bucks in hosting rather than free hosting like geocities. Just like a chinese old proverb saying "Better not to have  a website rather than having an UGLY one" lol it really can hurt your branding and company credibility.

My personal advise is if you are still learning and new to web design / hosting, it is okay to start with free hosting. When you are ready and you want more control you can go for paid shared hosting after that reseller hosting and ultimately dedicated server hosting
Posted:  25 Jun 2006 11:19

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Thanks a lot for the advices guys. I really appreciate it!

So what can you suggest about a good web hosting? What are the things that I should look for me to have a good hosting site?
Posted:  29 Jun 2006 19:24

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It depends on what you need encoder, most web hosting offer the same package, it's  all in the details, like what is supported php, asp.. etc.