3 Things to Budget into Free Web Hosting

Quality web hosting services are in high demand as the world turns to virtual living. The companies offering these services are pulling out all the stops to attract customers as people are spoilt for choice. This comparison of cheap Canadian hosts is evidence of that.

These measures of client attraction often include free web hosting as well as the offer of a free website domain – at least free for the first year (usually).

Although these freebies may be tempting, speed, security, and scalability should be prioritized when making your decision.

Speed

Slow websites lose people fast. Google even ranks slow websites lower, seeing them as subpar and a bad user experience.

We live in a very fast-paced world: Express delivery, online and at-your-fingertips everything. People are not going to wait for your website to load a product when they can close the tab and find a similar product elsewhere immediately.

Things to look out for that affect speed are bandwidth and the type of hosting being provided. Free web hosting tends not to be the fastest kid on the block as convenience always costs a pretty penny.

However, rather have a fast website with less media storage than a slow website trying to load a hundred images.

Security

With the continuing growth in Work-From-Home company mandates and All-Online Enterprises, Cyber Security has never been so important.

The world out there is a ruthless place with card fraud, identity theft, hacking, privacy infringement, and bad people doing bad things. Now more than ever, people surfing the web and visiting new websites want assurance that their software, hardware, identity, and information are safe. People visiting your website want to know they are protected.

Looking for quality web hosting services on a budget means that compromise will have to be made. However, do not let your website security be one of those compromises!

It is best to opt for a web hosting service that can offer you all these security measures:

• Spam filtering
• Blocking against unwanted traffic and DDoS attacks
• Integrated SSL to encrypt your user’s information
• Firewalls and server security

Read more: Costs and Benefits of Web Hosting Plans and Services

Scalability

Ideas and businesses grow. Trying to anticipate this growth can be very intimidating and take the fun out of the entire project. Nevertheless, provisions for growth need to be made.

The ideal way to make provisions for business growth is to have an infrastructure (in this case, your website) that you can change and add extras to – Think of it as a lego set with expansion packs. This ability to grow your infrastructure is scalability.

Plan for this growth by choosing quality web hosting services that you can change, upgrade or downgrade as your needs change.

It is important to remember, though, that what you can afford now is more important than what you will need in the future! The free web hosting options available might be the perfect fit right now.