If you've just begun thinking about publishing a web site or finding a web host you may have heard about free web hosting opportunities. Finding the best free web hosting plans can be difficult and many of the plans are not really free at all. They can be quite cumbersome and may actually end up costing more in the long run, especially if used for business purposes. A more popular and usually better alternative to free web hosting options are plans offered by low cost web hosting services. These plans are fairly inexpensive, but usually provide better service and increased reliability.

What is free web hosting?

Free web hosting is offered by numerous web site hosting companies. Many Internet Service Providers offer their customer's a limited amount of free web space as part of their ISP plan. This is usually good for individuals looking to host a family or personal website, but a majority of businesses find the service does not fit their needs and quickly move up to a budget web hosting provider.

What are the features associated with free web hosting packages?

The best feature of all free web site hosting packages is that they are free. The users have no monthly fee to pay in association with the best free web hosting plans. The free web hosting provider uses banner and pop up ads placed on your website to off set their costs incurred by giving you the free web space. The free web space is usually very limited as is the allowance of bandwidth. The free web site hosting plans usually offer users free web site creation tools and basic hosting features.

What are the advantages of free web site hosting plans?

The most obvious advantage of a free web site hosting service is the cost. There are usually no fees involved when using a free web site hosting service. It also allows users to practice web site design and maintenance before moving on to a fee based service. Free web hosting providers are also a great opportunity for families or hobbyists to publish their own web sites. The web space provided is usually sufficient for these types of web sites.

Are there any disadvantages with free web site hosting?

Remember that old saying, "You get what you pay for"? This is usually the case when dealing with free web site service providers. The space offered by free web site hosting companies is extremely limited; as a result your web site will be limited in size and content. Additionally, your free web site hosting plan probably includes a very small amount of bandwidth. This will affect your site's visitors who will experience long load times and unreliable service, a major problem if you are trying to run a successful business.

Another issue you may experience when using a free web site hosting provider is with your URL or web address. Web addresses that are given to free hosted web sites are usually fairly long and an extension of the web hosting companies URL, www.myisp.com/pages/acbcorp, instead of www.abccorp.com. Again, this is not much of a problem for the casual user, but can be a huge factor for a budding business. Likewise, that domain name belongs to the free web hosting company, so if you decide to upgrade to a paid service later, you will need to get a new URL and start over.

Is low cost hosting a better alternative?

For many people the answer is yes. Nearly all businesses can benefit by choosing a low cost web site hosting provider. Low cost hosting providers offer packages with a much wider range of features, provide better customer support and increased storage and bandwidth. Low cost web hosting sites provide ad free hosting at an affordable cost. Below is a sample low cost package description from iPower.com. For just $3.95 per month you will receive the following features:

• 3 GB of storage space (enough space for hundreds of pictures)
• Your own domain name for only $6.50/ year
• 50 GB of bandwidth or transfer each month (compared to 3GB with the free web hosting provider)
• 1 FTP account
• 1 MySQL database
• CGI and PHP support
• Password protected directories
• 1 email account for your own domain name
• Photo galleries, message boards and online journals (blogs)
• Marketing guides
• Site logs
• 24/7 monitoring and support
• Power back ups

Finding an affordable web hosting plan can be difficult. With so many providers all claiming they are the best, how do you know which one to choose? Using an independent web site reviewer like Hosting Review, www.hosting-review.com, can help you compare web hosting plans to find the best one for you. More often than not, low cost web hosting services are a much better alternative to even the best free web hosting plans.

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