Many small businesses, home offices, and startup companies find themselves with a limited budget. While it may be possible to use some free options, choosing free web hosting services will typically result in adding to the costs of doing business in both the short and long term.
To understand why free web hosting services are a mistake for any type of online business, consider the following issues, concerns, and potential problems.
Advertising
Free web hosting is free to those placing their websites on the service, but ultimately these companies are in the market to make a profit. That means that they have other ways of generating income. For most free hosting companies, this is through selling advertising space to other companies.
With your agreement to use the free service, you will also have to agree to have third party advertisements on your website. Some free services may allow you to opt out of some categories of advertising, but you cannot opt out of everything. Advertising on websites can turn off your customer base, particularly if the ads are prominent, plus it tips your savvy customers off to the fact you are using a free service.
Speed of Page Loading
Typically, for any free web hosting services, there is no indication of typical speeds or page load rates when using the site. At peak times of use, you may find that some of your pages don’t load or that specific multimedia applications on the site do not work.
This is certainly going to impact your customers and will drop conversion rates. This, in turn, will move your website down the SEO rankings, which is the opposite direction you want it to move.
Limited Features
Virtually all free hosting companies, including WordPress, offer limited features for their free sites. To have access to all features, you will need to upgrade to the paid version of the service, which is often not competitively priced as compared to independent hosting services.