Thoughts on Free Web Hosts

What are your thoughts on Free Web Hosts? In a society that these days all want something for nothing, do you think everyone wants it free because it's just there, or just because they genuinely cannot afford it?

Do you think it's killing the paid web hosting business, if so...Why? or Why not?

Post your thoughts here!

 

I used to use a site called Freewebs.com, its called webs.com now - I learned how to do html, and then I got my first domain, and advanced. Free hosts are good if you're trying to learn, right? It's not hurting the paid web hosting business because its already big enough.

That's like saying Coke is killing pepsi.

 

I don't think it's killing the paid hosting business, because a lot of the free hosts have problems or are severely limited. I started out on HelioHost, then when I got too many error 500's I moved moved to x10 hosting, whom was an excellent host at the time, it just had some hiccups.

 

I don't think free hosts are killing paid hosts because everyone who uses free hosts always complain that they receive errors daily or that their website/forum has been taken down by the host at random times without any maintenance notice.

 

I don't think freehosts are killing paid ones, I actually think its helping them out... as people soon realize how crappy freehosts are and eventually switch over. Im sure everyone in this thread started on free web hosting and soon eventually made their way to paid hosting, which I did along time ago.

I am sure they would go with paid hosting if they could afford it and not stay with free hosting just because its free. I didnt switch to paid hosting till I could afford it.

 

You would'nt beleive how many requests I get about free hosting at PH, and it's mostly from people who just want something for nothing, and it's extremely annoying

 

Yea people like that are annoying, just avoid them and let them know how stupid they sound because you pay for it.

 

What cracked me up about one person though, is that he was quick enough to bash the look of the site, therefore I wasn't expecting them to order, but they were rather quick to want a free service off us

 

Haha those are the type of people I feel like giving a painful death (Just Kidding).. I have come across many selfish people like that. They have no self respect.. or respect for others.

Back on topic. Whats your thoughts on free webhosts?

 

:rofl: That would've cracked me up as well. Going on a rampant about how crappy your site looks and then wanting free hosting in return? Now if that isn't the stupidest reason I ever heard for wanting free hosting then I don't know what is!

I've nothing against free web hosting. Heck, that's how I even started out! But really, at the end of the day, if you want better security, and more control over your own site, forum, blog, or whatever, you are really better off paying for hosting. I've been on paid hosting for almost a year and I don't regret it for a second. free hosting is good if you want to learn how something's done, but it's probably not something you want to use in the long run, especially in terms of security and limitations as to how much or how little you can have on your site.

 

I needed freehosting because I legitimately couldn't afford to buy a host and domain. I didn't have a job at the time and I desperately needed a place to RP that wasn't going to limit me to a PG-13 story line...

It was great for the first few months but as my members started becoming more active, I needed more features, and smfnew just didn't provide. =/

I think they're great for people to get the feel of admining, and for full board RPs, but definitely not what I needed.

They're also REALLY anal about ANYTHING adult in nature, and that was frustrating when I was trying to set up my hidden board for more mature writing. I made sure that each and every story or RP that went up had legitimate literary value or was an offshoot of an existing RP. They always added something to the story, even if written depictions of sex were involved.

I really, really hate censorship. People have sex. I never understood why some hosts make such a fuss over it and discriminate against people who want to have a site that appeals to users of all ages and interests <_< Because porn is one thing, that's a bandwidth hog, but you find sexual scenes even in YA books these days... and a lot of times such situations are essential for character growth and plot development.

 

There will always be rooms for everyone online. Free hosting is good but it has a lot of limitations, of course. I too got one site hosted free but in return the service is posting an ad in my site which is a win-win situation. Free killing the paid hosting service? With all of its limitations, I don't think so.

 

Yea I have to agree, free hosting is actually helping people move over to paid hosting when they get tired of all the limitations and problems you come across when using a free host.

 

Recently, I had a very positive experience with a free site hosting company. And, that was a real surprise for me, cause I've never liked free hosting companies and didn't expect much from this one. I don't want to mention them by name here unless asked. But, it was a good experience.

I'm not contradicting anyone else on the whole idea that MOST free hosting companies are terrible and provide the worst kind of experience for the webmaster. When i first got online, I used ALL the free hosting companies and none of them were any good. Most run those hideous banners or ads on the site and create endless chains of pop ups. I wouldn't go for anything like that again.

But, when I found out this free hosting company provided free FTP space/uploader as well as ad-free web space and free web tools like built in blog, I jumped at the chance to try them out.

After a couple weeks, I was so happy with their flawless service that I upgraded to the paid version. Not cause the free version of hosting was so bad, but cause it was so good. Guess i didn't really have to upgrade. I could have stayed a free member forever. I was just worried that if I built a site/blog or forum on the free space, I would have trouble moving it to the paid hosting (on different servers) once the traffic built up exceeding the allowable level.

Anyway, so far I'm happy with both free and paid versions of the hosting company. I still use the free version of the hosting company to try out templates for some of my sites that are running on the premium version, sort of a BETA site (like in Jurassic Park 2) where I can try out new ideas without really messing anything up or doing long term damage.

Hopefully, there won't be any major issues that arise as I go along. We'll see.

 

Well your experience with freehosts can vary depending on what you host, if you host a blog there shouldn't be any big problems, but if you host a forum it can start to be a problem as forums use more resources, and you will start to have problems once you forum starts to get decent traffic and getting to know you I am assuming you hosted a blog or some other script that uses few resources?

 

With free hosts, I think you pretty much get what you paid for.

If you are finding yourself just starting out with a forum idea, you can get a domain name for $10 a year. And you can get a great free forum software in MyBB (or good ones in phpBB and SMF ) and decent hosting for about $5 a month.

Some will say that $5 a month is too much. I say hogwash. It's about $1.25 a week. That's too much? Really? I think if you're serious about wanting to start up your own forum you owe it to yourself and your community go get a decent host. That's maybe skipping a value meal at Chick-fil-A once a month. Probably wouldn't hurt some of us to skip a meal anyhow.

And please...DO NOT PUT YOUR FORUM ON A SUBDOMAIN. To most users that just screams "I'm not serious about this community".

 

Some of them are ok, then you get the ones who unexepectly leave.

 

I think there are a lot of naive people who use free hosts. Sooner or latter something goes wrong and you see them complaining about the host on various forums. You can get quality hosting for $5.95 a month, that's the price of a combo at McDonald's. If you can not afford that then maybe you need to rethink your priorities.

 

The only trouble with that is that it is easy to walk into McDonalds and buy something over the counter, however...it is harder to buy something on-line because you need a credit or debit card attached to an account such as PayPal before you can go about using it so it makes it harder to buy quality hosting, therefore most just jump straight to the free hosting where billing is not needed, etc.

 

I tried several different free hosts back when I first got into webmastering, but eventually I just had to give in and get my own paid hosting. There were constant issues with the free hosts I used: restrictions, downtime, and horrible support. I'm sure there are some good free options around, but in my experience the best ones never stick around for very long and then you're back to square one. It's worth the peace of mind to pay the few dollars a month for a paid package.