Low Cost Web Hosting Services                       Free Web Hosting Services
Just Host                                                X10 Hosting     
iPage                                              Free Web Host
Webhostingpad                                 Frihost             
POW Web Hosting                             T35 Hosting  
www.GoDaddy.com                           Host Ultra
Hostgator                                        Google Sites
          
The advantage of a totally free web hosting service is that it cost you nothing to create and host your website on the internet.  However, there are some limitations and disadvantages as compared to a paid hosting service. They may include less user friendly website building capabilities, limited support, and reduced reliability.  They make money through upgrades when people reach the resource limits for their free website.  Many of these services don’t stay in business for a long time.  Still a free service may be adequate and the most cost effective for your website, if you compare and select the best for your application.            

Identify & Compare Free & Low Cost Web Hosting Services

There are several websites that list and compare free web hosting services.  They include Free Web Hosting; Free Web Hosting Services; Free Hosting Directory; 100 Best Free Web Space;  and Free Web Hosting Search.  Low cost web hosting services are compared on additional websites including one called Web Hosting Comparison.  Reviews of web hosting services are available at Web Hosting Sites Reviews and Web Hosting Reviews which give you PROs & CONs, as well as, some background on various hosting services.

Things to Consider in doing Comparisons

There are several important things to consider before choosing a free web hosting service.   Fortunately, the sites listed above have already compared most of these factors for you.  The relative importance of these factors in selecting the best free hosting service depends upon the type of website that you plan to create and future growth potential.

1. Type of Domain Name

A free hosting service may include free domain name(s) or it may require you to have your own domain name.  To get a domain name registered costs an annual fee.  If the free hosting service provides free domain names, they may actually be sub-domain names and not a top level domain name.  A sub-domain URL is longer since it includes part of the top level URL.  This may not be of concern unless you think it would make your site appear to be less serious. 

2. Disk Space

Free hosting services make money through upgrades.  Limiting the amount of disk space is one way of getting to sell you an upgrade.  If the limit on the free hosting service is less than 1 G (i.e. Gigabyte), you will need to carefully consider the size of your planned site and potential growth. Obviously, the more disk space the service provides the better, since it will reduce your chances for needing an upgrade.

3. Bandwidth

Bandwidth has to do with the amount of data that can be transferred during a unit of time. If the limit imposed on bandwidth is less than 1 G per month, you definitely need to consider how much you will need to support your estimated traffic, uploading of files, use of email, etc.   The limit varies a lot among free hosting services; some have a limit of less than1 G while others allow 100 G or more.   If your site is a business, you don’t want the bandwidth limit to prevent visitors from getting access to your website.

4. Databases

Databases are needed to support the running of some programs and website tools, e.g. Wikipedia.  MySQL is a multi-user database management system often used for web applications.  A few free hosting services provide free MySQL database support with limits on the number of databases and their size.  If MySQL support is provided, it will allow you to run some applications that you would not be able to use without an upgrade.

5. Number of Domains

The number of domains or sub-domains that you can have for free is important, if you have plans to create additional sites.  Keeping them all with the same hosting service makes managing them easier and prevents you from having to learn additional software and procedures.  Keep in mind that free hosting of domains and free registering of domain names are two different things.  If you are allowed multiple top level domains, you will most likely have to pay an annual fee to keep them registered to you.  If you are provided sub-domain names, they most likely will be free.

6. Scripting Languages Supported

Scripts are automated ways of getting information to and from computers relating to HTML(HyperText Markup Language - the predominant markup language for Web pages) code, forms, etc.  They include FrontPage Extensions, PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor – used to process data passed from HTML forms), Java (a programming language allowing for interactive communications) and SSI(Server Side Includes - allows a user's request to be fulfilled by running a script directly on the web server).  PHP and Java scripts are common in website HTML code. Some affiliate ads contain Java script.

7. Forced Ads

In exchange for free hosting; some hosting services require their ads be posted on your site.  Often it is in the form of a header or a footer banner.  However, there are some that do not require any of their ads be posted on your free site.

Depending on the nature of your site, a web hosting service ad may detract from the site theme and, therefore, be undesirable.

8. Your Ads Allowed

Being allowed to post ads on your site is important, if you are creating a business website.  Some free hosting services don’t allow business sites or posting of ads.  You need this capability if you are planning to make money with your site by participating with affiliate programs and AdSense.

9. Forced Postings

Another way hosting services can receive benefits from providing free hosting is to require you to promote their service by posting ads on forums.  This requirement may not be so easily detected until you read the agreement statement or user reviews.  If you honestly think their service is great and have the time, this may be acceptable but I’m not sure how you can know that they have great service until you have used it for a while.

10. cPanel & Related Features

Some of the free hosting services provide a control panel (e.g. cPanel) where you have access to many capabilities and features.  It could include a getting started wizard, a website building software package, a file manager, an auto-installer, ability to setup email accounts, ability to make backup files, traffic analyzing tools, etc.  Even though the capabilities included may be less than with a paid service, those that are provided can be very useful.

11. Dedicated vs Shared IP

A shared IP address (a unique identifying number assigned to a device) means your website shares the location address with other websites.  Access to your site is not direct which, depending on the number of websites sharing the address, could have a slight impact on how fast your site loads.  Some people think that a shared IP address can result in a lower ranking by Google.  A dedicated IP address mean your website location is not shared by other websites.   Getting a dedicated IP address usually cost additional even for paid hosting services.  You are not likely to find a free hosting service that provides a dedicated IP address for free.

12. Tutorials

Tutorials are helpful when doing something for the first time.  Sometimes video tutorials are provided and available from the control panel.  They show you how to use the website building software, setup an email account. etc.   They can make a procedure much easier to understand.

13. Backup Capabilities

It is always a good idea to backup your work in case the server containing your website crashes.  A backup capability sometimes comes with the ePanel.

14. Uptime

A reliable hosting service is important, especially if your site is a business and you want high page rank.  Often, the free hosting service will state their uptime as a percentage, usually better than 95%.  Also, user reviews will talk to uptime.

15. Support

Many of the free hosting services provide some free support to their users; the more the better.  There will most likely be times when you will need a little assistance to accomplish some task.

Creating your free Website

An easy way to create a website is to modify a template provided by the hosting service.  If the service includes use of a website building software package, you should be able to create the website with minimal knowledge and experience.  Much of it can be done by cut & past or drag & drop procedures resulting in the HTML code being automatically generated.  For more details on creating a Website from a template, go to Create a Website by Modifying a Template.

If you think this information would be of value to your website visitors, you may link to this page by copying the following hyperlink and pasting it onto your website:
Compare Free Hosting Services – includes important factors to consider in selecting a host, a list of free & low cost hosts, and websites that rank hosting services based on these factors and customer reviews.