How to Evaluate Free Website Hosts

Here is a guide to evaluating free website hosting services. Consider these features and options before you start using a free website hosting service. This how to guide will save you some time and help you focus on the features you need in a free website host.

Finding the right free website host won't cost you money, but it will cost you time.Each free website hosting service has its advantages and disadvantages. When picking a free website host, the user needs to decide which features matter the most.

One of the biggest complaint with free website hosting services is down time. For this reason, if you will using a web site for a business site or comers site, you may better off using an affordable host rather than a free one.

Note: What is not included here are free blogging sites.

How to Evaluate Free Website Hosts

Some considerations I looked at when evaluating each free website hosting service:

How much space do I get?

One issue you could run into with a free web space is space. Some free website hosting services place limits on space and even on the number of pages you can create. Space is a big consideration for photo-heavy web sties including online galleries.

Are the type of files limited?

Some free website hosting services will not allow free users to post certain types of files including photos, MP3s, or zip files. If you would mainly like to use free site to store photos, you may be better off with a photo hosting website.

Bandwidth Limit?

If you expect a lot of traffic to your web site daily, then you will need to strongly weigh the different daily bandwidth limits placed on your free website by the free website hosting services.

Check the monthly bandwidth limit of the free website host. Also read the details on each site to find out what happens if you exceed your limit. Will the host notify you? Do you have the option to upgrade? Or will your account simply be shut down?

Does the hosting service force banner ads onto my free website?