My experience with Free Web Hosting Companies 

By Aisha Nee 

Cheap web hosting packages

As a beginner web developer I decided not to waste my precious cash on commercial expensive web hosting companies and opt for a free service provider. After some trial and error with various free web hosting packages I had finally settled on one that seemed to meet my needs. Then my true journey to discover what free web hosting is like begun. Before I describe my experience with my former free web hosting company, I should like to make some remarks about choosing a free web hosting provider.

If you are a complete newbie, and are looking to buy web hosting, you need to watch out for these companies' control panels and their ease of use. Does it look like your usual Windows environment? Is it clear which folder you have to choose to upload your files? Can you edit your uploaded files online? Browse through these companies control panels and see if you are comfortable with them. The ease of use is one primary criterion that will determine the bounds of your relationship with your free web hosting service. C'mon, we are not talking about money here, and thereby not expecting the highest quality of service.

Multiple domain web hosting

Bandwidth and the number of domains you can host on a free account are other common things that you ought to look out for. Multiple domain web hosting is of course, the best option. However, if you are hosting a home website to share your photos with the rest of the world, and in this case, perhaps, you should opt for an Apple "mobile me" option should you be a proud Mac owner - then you probably not even need to bother with those things. If you are looking for something more substantial than your baby photos, then unlimited bandwidth web hosting, disk space, and the number of domains become quite important. In particular unlimited bandwidth web hosting and multiple domain web hosting.

Unlimited bandwidth web hosting

In simple terms, bandwidth is the amount of traffic allowed to pass through your website within a given period of time. So if you are expecting a lot of visitors to your site, or even hoping to upload new versions of your pages ever so often, you should be wary of this thing. Most free web hosting companies offer a limited bandwidth and that could slow your site down.

Cheap web hosting companies: PROS AND CONS 

Now you have settled with a free web host, whose control panel you like and whose bandwidth and disk space limitations you accept, what next?  In my experience, my first steps with my free web host company were marvelous. I found my control panel easy to navigate. I soon learnt how to put files into my web site root folder and to control the process. I learnt how to change the content of that page quickly within the web hosting service environment; bad practice but I still did it, and the world seemed a perfect place.

However, as the complexity of my site grew, and I was adding new, and more sophisticated pages, I began to experience disillusionment with free web hosting companies. As soon as my site became bigger and better, the speed of its loading decreased significantly. At some points, I experienced the cheap web hosting service inability to deal with my pages. Quite often, the web hosting service was down and its cost me in my pay-per-click conversions. Free web hosting companies and cheap web hosting services seemed to become to little for my needs, or perhaps my needs grew out of my free service. Pretty soon I realized that unless I buy web hosting service and move onto a proper paid web hosting company, my site had no future. And I have done just that. But I will always remember my first free web hosting company for teaching me many useful lessons of web hosting services, design, and web programming. I wish you good luck with your own search. 

Aisha Nee is a graphic designer, aspiring web programmer and a reviews writer based in the UK. She has just completed designing an index of world's best web hosting companies and an index of USA's best online dating agencies.