Website Hosting – Free vs Paid

Simply put, to have a website on the internet (viewable by the public) you need to have website hosting. There are dozens and dozens of hosting companies I could list out here for you but that would not help you. Instead I’d like to take the opportunity to briefly discuss why free or “cheap” hosting is anti-success.

Yes, I just said “anti-success”. There comes a point in your entrepreneur life when you realize that cutting costs in areas is a poor decision – web hosting is one of them. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying you need to spend $300 a month for dedicated hosting but if you’re not willing to invest a SMALL cost per month to keep your website public and online, it’s not worth your time and effort.

People will tell you “You should use so-and-so for your website hosting because they are cheap and good”. Sorry, but this is NOT a reason to use “so-and-so”. If you have a budget for website hosting that’s understandable so long as you keep in mind spending $6 per month is reasonable (for shared servers).

I’m not here to tell you what to do or who’s best. You can do your own research and find a website hosting company you’re comfortable with, along with a cost.

Here are the facts:

1:  Stay away from free hosting.

• You get very little
• It’s not going to allow you to expand without costs
• There’s no “real” guarantee
• Chances are you’ll get very little support from the company
• Feature wise, you’ll be lucky to get half of the standard features
• They have no obligation to you – you’ve paid them nothing, why would they?

2:  Always go with Paid Hosting

• Average costs can start as little as $3 per month to $20 per month for shared hosting
• Dozens if not hundreds of companies to choose from
• Usually 24/7/365 support – that’s what you want anyway
• Can be scalable – if you grow, they’ll grow with you
• Lots of great server features for your websites
• Some offer unlimited domains/websites on one account
• They have a commitment to you – you’re a PAYING customer

The point of the matter is if you cut corners by going cheap/free, expect to get what you pay for…

I’ll be posting more about this subject soon. Set yourself up for growth because if you don’t in the beginning you’ll probably run into issues later on.