Is Free Hosting Really Free?

Sooner or later, as everyone finds out, nothing in this world is free. Although there are literally hundreds of Free Hosting adds surfacing on the Internet, no one can stay in business very long giving it away. So how can hosting services offer free hosting?

Easy.

One way is to make some of their money from registering your domain name. Domain registration is a necessary step for any future web site owner, (some low cost host play a numbers game between your monthly cost and your yearly domain registration fee, for example: $5/month and $30 registration fee, or $7/month and only $6 to register, or...... you get the picture).

Another way they make money is to add advertising onto your web page. They will get paid either each time the banner is shown, or each time someone clicks on the advertisement. Some will offer extra add ons like Spam or Virus Protection, Domain Theft Protection, or other services at an additional cost. Of course if you feel you have need for these services, then you should purchase them.

There are also limitations such as storage space, bandwidth, number of email accounts, and so on, in hopes that you will need more later and decide to upgrade.

So are the so called Free Hosting Services even worth the time to consider?

Sure they are! There are situations where someone may not need tons of storage, bandwidth, email, and so on. Just find a host that offers what you need without to many compromises. One such host that I use quite often is doteasy.com. No banners, only a yearly domain registration. And for me, they've always responded to my questions within 24 hours by email.

So if your new at web page development, just want your own personal web page, ect., and don't really have that intensive of system requirements, then Free Hosting is the way to go.

Author is owner of HomeRunBusinesses.com