The advent of the internet has brought good tidings to the business world. Not only are businesses able to tap into the rich world of online customers but they are also able to maximize their return on investments. For this reason, every hyper-connectivity is a must for any business to thrive. And to do this, businesses need to have their impact felt on the online platforms. Nevertheless, businesses needn’t have complicated web presence but at least, the basic business profile should be readily available on the internet. For a small business whose budget does not provide for web hosting, they can still have access to best free website hosting on the internet.
Free website hosting is usually offered in two main bouquets. The first one is where the host offers the basic package for free but as your business grows, you upgrade to a paid plan. The second one is whereby the host provides free hosting but reserves the right to display ads on your site in order to make money.
When you are looking for free web hosting, it’s recommended that you first evaluate what exactly is meant by ‘free’ and ensure that it is in tandem with the needs of your business. When choosing the best free website hosting, the following tips will be invaluable in your quest:
Reliability and speed of access
Businesses need to be very reliable. Their websites must be easily accessible by customers. Otherwise, a website that is down most of the times will most likely lose customers to the competitors. Therefore, you must subscribe to a free hosting plan that allows fast access to your site at all times. To know whether it meets the above criteria, you must at least get response or feedback at peak hours.
FTP access
Transferring web pages and other important files from your PC to the web host computer is done through the FTP method. This is done in order for such documents to be viewed by people all over the world
FTP is the most common method used by people to transfer their web pages and other files from their computer to their web host’s computer so that it can be viewed by anyone in the world. Free hosting will only provide for the option of expanding any of your web pages via online site builders. This site builder has the disadvantage of not allowing you to expand your site later.
Therefore, you must go to a provider that gives you the ability to upload and expand your content anytime and this is where FTP comes in handy.
Advertising
Like stated above, host will either provide you with the option of the basic hosting bouquet with the option of upgrading to premium versions or provide you with free hosting but reserve the right to advertise on your site with the aim of making money. This is usually with the aim of compensating for the free web hosting services provided to you. This is usually in the form of pop-ups whenever any of your web pages load; others impose banners on your pages whereas others place advertising frames on your site. All the above methods attract their own advantages and disadvantages but the important thing is to find the method that you are most comfortable with.
File type and size limitations
Free website hosting has its own advantages and disadvantages. For example, a good number of hosts limit the size of files as well as the types of files you can upload. The size can be limited to 200KB while the file types can be limited to JPG and HTML. If this doesn’t suit you, you can look for a more appropriate plan from other free website hosting providers.
Amount of web space
Every business has its own needs and therefore space is an important factor in considering a free web hosting plan. If you have a future plan of expanding your website, you need prepare for it in advance. Depending on the size of the files on your website, you will require to have a web space that can accommodate them. Therefore, you will need to choose a free web hosting plan in tandem with your needs. On average, many sites do not exceed 5 MB web space
Bandwidth allotment
Websites are designed for the purpose of interacting with the already existing customers as well as fishing for new ones and getting them to transact with you. Websites that are SEO-optimized and have confidence from its users can attract huge and quality traffic. However, tending to all of them is a function that is a preserve of the premium web hosting service. For those on free hosting platforms, the amount of traffic that they can cater to on a daily and monthly basis is limited by the host. This implies that pages and graphic images can only be loaded a specific number of times beyond which your site is disabled. Therefore, you must go to a free website hosting provider who can conveniently cater for the amount of traffic you envisage attracting overtime. Generally, 1-3GB traffic on a monthly basis may be good for beginner sites.
PHP and/or Perl
A website can work efficiently regardless of the presence or absence of Perl or PHP access provided that you have access to free script hosting which is responsible for providing forms, mailing list, Polls, search engines and counters. Nevertheless, it’s imperative that you have PHP or Perl when you want to do the website yourself with advertising banners kept at the minimum.
What is important here is to know where your scripts run at their optimum so that you can be able to access mailing services more efficiently?
The bottom line
The above criteria will be invaluable in getting you the best free website hosting if followed to the letter. Therefore, you must be very keen to identify the above features to come up with a free website hosting plan in tandem with your needs. Additionally, ensure that the plan involves the option to expand your site because sooner or later, you will need to expand it.