How to Find The Best Free Web Hosting For You Website
Hello, today I am going to be teaching you guys how to find the best free web host and paid web hosting. Keep in mind free Web hosts may be ideal for personal websites with only a few pages, but for a businesses go for a paid Web host for many reason that you will learn in this guide. By paying for a host you will not have ads, a well supported server, more disk space, custom domains, and additional resources. If you just want to create a personal home page then you should consider a free blogging sites like Wordpress.com or Blogger.com because of the simplicty of them.
First, Figure out the type of website you want to create. Some things you can make would be blogs, personal homepages, portfolios, or resume sites. If you want to make bussiness site I would recommend going with a paid one.
Second, you need to find out the amount of disk space you need. A good way to go is to get as much disk space as you possibly can. The amount of disk space provided by free Web hosts varies widely and can go from 20MB to 1GB and there are limitations on individual file sizes usually.
Here is an example of what a free host would offer.
Third, you need to decide if you are willing to allow advertisements on your site. Most free Web hosts have plans that place banner ads on your site in exchange for the service, while others do not place ads, but severely limit your design flexibility and access to server resources. You have to consider what will best benefit you if the site wants you to have ads, but in return you get more disk space it is worth it.
Fourth, you need to decided what kind of programming flexibility you want from your host. Most of the free Web hosts will only static HTML pages, but some allow Web programming in exchange for ad placement on your site or resource limits. Some kinds of programming tools you might want are PHP combined with MySQL, to allow better content management and the ability for users to contact you through a Web form or log in to an account.
Fifth, you are going to have to make the choice of getting a full domain name or if you are willing to use a sub-domain name. Most free Web hosts force you to use a sub-domain with the host's name in it.
If you use a .webs it would look like
“www.[Your selected name].webs.com” compared to if you had your own domian “www.[Your selected name].com.”
Sixth, you need to figure out the level of customer support you need for your website. Free Web hosts provide some level of customer support, for example, online forums, knowledge bases, and email support. If you decide to use a paid plans instead you are more likely to give you comprehensive technical support, like 24/7 access to technical staff and phone support.
Seventh, you will now need to choose the best plan to meet what you are looking for. I recommend going to a review site like FreeWebSpace.org or Free-Webhosts.com for lists of hosts with plans that match the features you decided on in Steps 1 through 6.
You are going to want to look through the customer reviews for each host, if available. Look for ways the host excelled in, or failed to provide, the features you require. Keep in mind that there are accidents that happen to come customers, so look for how often these mistakes and benefits happen for customers.
Eighth, now you are going to want to get in contact with the host to start using their service just contact the company by phone or email. Make sure you tell them your requirements to make sure it is the best plan for you. If you actually talk with a person from the company instead of just signing up for services on its website it will helps you get a feel for how responsive the company will be to your needs.
Here are some free web hosts that you can consider and their benefits and their cons.
Host-ed
X10Hosting
AwardSpace
ByetHost
50webs
110mb
A notable free host you might want to check out would be http://jayhost.tk use the promo code hackforums. For more details go to here http://www.hackforums.net/showthread.php?tid=4117291
Here is how to pick the best paid host for you.
First, just like figuring out the free web host you will need to want to do. If you plan to make a business out of it then you should go with a paid host.
Second, you are going to want to find out if they have a easy site builder. Most should have something pretty simple, but always make sure. Also keep in mind your site will often work only on that hosting company's servers. If this is the case your site cannot be moved to another host without rebuilding from scratch.
Third, if you have no experience in building a website you are going to want to consider a few things. Do they have cPanel, ispCP or ISPConfig with a system that will let you set up your own blog or forum with a few clicks. Things like cPanel, ispCP or ISPConfig, and others, is just a system that lets users access the files and website without knowing how to use ftp -file transfer protocol. Many find this availability useful, but you must be aware it will do for small sites, not medium or big corporate ones, because of the difficulty to update.
Fourth, if you don't know anything about building websites you are going to have to see if they offer resources to help you create a site.
Fifth, does the host provide a email though the domain name? You are going to want one because it can provide unlimited autoresponders, pop mailboxes, email aliases etc. Using those resources will help you stay in touch with the visitors to your site.
Sixth, find out what uploading method they use because some can take longer. FTP provides more flexibility when managing your website. You are new to websites make sure it can provide a good online manager.
Seventh, most websites will have logs and you are going to want to pay attention these for your success of your site. All good hosts will provide you with the ability to access your website logs via download.
Eighth, you are going to want to have enough room for your site to grow. Make sure not to over buy though as that would be a waste of money. If you're planning on a simple site using 5GB will be plenty. A lot of sites don't end up using over 50 mb.
Nineth, you are going to want to test the speed of a host's network to your location by clicking start > run > type in "command" enter, and then type "ping hostdomainname.com" Any number over 100 is bad unless it is hosted in another country.
Tenth, look for a site with a lot of customer support. Look for things like 24/7 support and telephone support.
Eleventh, you will want to enable interactive features with access to your own cgi-bin directory. This is the directory where your scripts are carried out. CGI scripts are the backbone of all the functionality of the web. This is very important if you want your site to be interactive.
Twelfth, if you plan to do transactions on your site consider a secure https:// if you go to a site like paypal you will see a green lock in front of that.
Thirteenth, you will want to consider the kind of host you are buying. Most will be just right for small websites. For your basic site having 512mb to a few gigs of ram will be fine. For a large site you will want to consider dedicated hosting.
Lastly, you are going to want to know the difference between a Windows server and a Linux server. Linux servers are usually less expensive to buy and operate, also they more stable and more secure than Windows servers. For linux servers there are more free source applications too.
Here are some examples from godaddy of linux and windows servers.
Now you know what to look for in a hosting company. Here some some cheap hosts:
Ipage
HostMonster
BlueHost
GreenGeeks
Godaddy
JustHost
Why you might consider off-shore hosting
If you have looked though all of the content above and think you might want an off shore host you are going to want to consider the following: Let's say you are going to want to run an illegitimate or illegal site in your country. If you look at off-shore hosts these things might be legal. For example: you live in asia and online poker sites are illegal, so you get a host from the united states to get around it. Normally banned products, forbidden content and other similar information are also outsourced to web hosting providers outside the country you are in. When looking for a host go back through this guide and pick out things that will best suit the website you are creating.
Here is offshorehosting.com's privacy policy
Here are some highly rated off-shore hosts you can look into
Alibabahost
lunarvps
fatpighost
altushost
underhost
Ultratechhost
Scorpio
Knownsrv
Scopehosts
redswitches
If you have any questions on this guide feel free to post them on the thread. Also I am working on making this much better in the future, so all suggestions are welcome.
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