For your website to come online, you need to host it. There are many big companies offering website hosting services. Competition has led to the emergence of companies offering free web hosting. If you are looking for a good web hosting provider, the thought of having your website hosted for free should sound good to you. But, you should consider the real facts well before deciding whether  free web hosting is the best option for your website.

In order to make this decision, you must consider the points below.

The kind of website you are setting up.

If you are a new to website building and just looking for the perfect opportunity to display a small website you’ve built, then free web hosting is a good thing for you. Here you are not  building the website to make any sales; you are just looking for a web presence. But if you are setting up a big website that requires space and larger bandwidth, then free web hosting is not a choice you can make. Free web hosting services comes with very limited storage space and bandwidth. You may have to reduce the size of your website in order to fit into the space provided.

The purpose of your website

The reason you are setting up a website should help you determine whether you want to go for free web hosting or paid hosting. If it is a  website with no business considerations, then free web hosting is not bad. Companies that offer free web hosting have various ways of paying themselves. One of such means is through the ads they place on hosted sites. You should not be much bothered by such ads.

However, those setting up serious business websites cannot afford to have their websites splashed with all kinds of irritating ads,  some of which might come from competitors. Sometimes some of such ads and pop-ups may become a nuisance to your customers who will not take you serious and walk away. You cannot complain about that because, the hosting company is doing you a favor by hosting your site for free. The least you can offer them in return is gratitude. That is why a business entity should steer away from free hosting.

How much traffic are expecting

The number of traffic you are expecting to your website should be another consideration while deciding on the type of hosting to go for. Free hosting services comes with limited bandwidth as said earlier. The bandwidth is like the road to your website. If that road is narrow, and there are a lot of people trying to enter, there will be a jam. It will take really a long time for people to access your website. Nobody wants to spend a long time these days just waiting for a website to open.

Your budget

You might consider free hosting if you are running a tight budget, especially at the  starting of a business so that you can upgrade later to a paid service. But if you can afford, it will be better to start off with a paid website right from the beginning.

The bottom line is that if you are not expecting much from your website, then free web hosting is worth considering. But if you mean business with your website, then free website hosting is not worth the try.