Using a free hosting website can be a great way to get started with your website, but it comes with some major drawbacks. Limited bandwidth is one of the biggest issues with free web hosting, as the more pages, elements and media you add to your website, the more difficult it will be for your visitors to access it quickly and consistently. This is because free web hosting providers offer a single server for hundreds of websites, resulting in slow loading speeds due to server load. Such a slow speed not only drives away visitors, but it also contributes to a poor search engine ranking.
Root access is another issue with free web hosting, as you won't be able to install PHP modules, stacks or applications on your websites. Various website customizations also become impossible with limited control over the hosting server. Additionally, free web hosts are not optimized and will not be able to manage any modern website with several dynamic elements. The quality of websites hosted for free is usually poor, so the algorithms of the major search engines don't offer much importance to them.
This makes it difficult for these websites to rank higher in searches on Google and Bing. Moreover, free hosting plans provide you with very limited bandwidth and a limit of inodes files with little disk storage space, making it difficult for you to store and transfer a lot of website data. When you don't pay for resources, free web hosts cut costs by keeping you at the bottom of their client priority list. This means that you won't get access to certain services such as customer support or website migration.
Some companies also use marketing tricks to lure customers into taking their paid hosting plans, which tend to be higher priced than most other plans available with other major hosting providers. If you're creating a website without intending to make money with it, then a free hosting plan can be a good option. However, if you're looking for a reliable and secure hosting solution for your business website, then it's best to opt for paid hosting plans from reputable companies such as Hostinger, Hostgator, Siteground, Godaddy, Bluehost & MilesWeb.
