SOME COMPARATIVE THINKING ON WEB SITE HOSTING OPTIONS

Free Web Site Hosting

This used to be a great way to test a web site or product . However, things have changed a little since then. We are not saying don't start your web site on a free web site hosting server, but today the reasons for Not using free web site hosting servers are much greater than they were back in 1996.

Advantages

No Cost ( you don't have to pay the web hosting provider )

Web Hosting Server, Software and Network is fully managed and supported for you.

Disadvantages

Search Engines are beginning to view sites hosted on free web site servers as inferior and in some cases won't include them in their index.

Domain Name Restrictions - Many free web hosting services force you to have your domain name begin with their domain name ( e.g. www.freeserver.com/yourdomain/ ). This gives your customers the impression you are a "one man operation" who stands a high chance of not being around for long.

Bandwidth Restrictions, as your site visitor numbers start increasing the speed at which your web site pages are served may slow.

You share web hosting processing power with hundreds of other web sites. If just one of these web sites becomes popular, your visitors will suffer.

Web Site Network Uptime - because the web hosting service is free, most free web site hosting providers feel no obligation to go to the extra trouble and expense required to ensure near 100% web site uptime. i.e. Your web site may be inaccessible regularly.

Limited Software - Because the web hosting server is both Free and Shared the range of software you get access to will be limited and you almost certainly won't get a database system.

Limited Disk Space - Not usually a problem, but worth checking that you are getting enough.

Poor Response Time for Support - Again because the web hosting service is free, many free web hosting providers feel no obligation to fix a broken website network or disk within an hour, but most will resolve the problem with a few days.

Limited Technical Support Available - Most free web hosting services do not provide a dedicated technical support center for their free web site users, however this usually isn't a problem since the range of software available to you is limited.

In the past when the cost of other web hosting levels of service were higher and not all of the above disadvantages applied, there may have been a case for using a free web hosting service. But quite frankly, for only a few dollars a month you can do much better.

Most Cheap Web Hosting Plans

If you are just setting up your first web site to test an idea, product or service then this is probably the correct web site hosting level for you.

Advantages

Web Site Hosting Server, Software and Network is fully managed and supported for you.

Domain Name - You will be able to have a Proper Domain Name.
e.g. www.yourdomain.com

Search Engines, because you can now have a real domain name you will not suffer from being viewed by the Search Engines as a 'Second Class Citizen'.

Response Time for Support - Because all users on the network are paying something for the web hosting service, the web hosting provider has an obligation to fix problems quickly.

Web Site Network Uptime - again because all users are paying something to use the network, it should be better maintained and the web hosting company should be able to afford to build in redundancy. Both of these should mean that the % web site uptime will be close to 100%.

Technical Support Available to you - Even with low cost web hosting services, there are usually dedicated Technical Support Staff available. You may not get immediate responses but certainly you should receive answers within 24 hours.

Disadvantages

Bandwidth Restrictions, even though you are paying for the web hosting service you are still on shared web server and your web site will still be under a bandwidth restrictions. However for a start-up web site with visitor numbers less than 500 per day you should not experience any problems.

You share web hosting processing power with other web sites. Again on a shared server you are splitting the processing power with many other web sites, however this number is lower and the web servers are generally more up to date than the free web hosting servers. ( Typically you will be sharing with around 50 other web sites )

Limited Software - With a low cost web hosting service you will get a greater range of software and facilities however it will still be limited and you still may not get a database system.

Limited Disk Space - Not usually a problem, but worth checking that you are getting enough.

There are many low-cost web site hosting services out there, but not all are equal. You get what you pay for and although you could go for one paying as little as $7.95 per month you may quickly outgrow such a service. Do you really want to be changing web hosting providers just when your business takes off ?

It is for this reason that we recommend choosing a web hosting service which offers you that little bit more and can provide you with the flexibility and features to operate for at least the first year of growth.

Before you go anywhere else we recommend you check out the web site hosting features offered by Mostly Web Hosting ( the features offered by us are extensive, and a lot of the disadvantages listed above do not apply ).