Hi,

What do you think about F2S making a name for themselves with free hosting....then pulling the plug 2 years later. Is this a good business model?

It was good while it lasted I guess... Doesn't matter as a business model, if you can't stay in business, it doesn't matter how the model was..... There really is no money in freehosting, and so they had to get out of it.....

Originally posted by SimonMc
Hi,

What do you think about F2S making a name for themselves with free hosting....then pulling the plug 2 years later. Is this a good business model?

The costs of offering 'free' hosting just got too high for them - like it did for every other provider who provided 'free' hosting.

Just about everyone knows about them, which is a big part of what many of the new hosts have to deal with. I can't imagine what the costs were to provide ad-free space during the past couple of years, but I think everyone was amazed that it didn't happen sooner, more than anything.

Originally posted by voxtreme-matt


The costs of offering 'free' hosting just got too high for them - like it did for every other provider who provided 'free' hosting.

I totally agree with you. Almost every single free host is going to stop and move on to paid hosting unless they are a free host with hundreds of banners on their members' sites.

I think it's a viable model. When people developed the sites there for one or 2 years, it's a pain in the neck to move for some of them. If they are satisfied with f2s' service, they may just stay.

f2s gained very good reputation for the free service for a long time, so even when they cease the free hosting operation, nobody "cursed" it. From now on, any money gained from the converted members contributes to their revenue.

If the conversion rate is high, they may recover their spendings for the free hosting soon, and make money earlier.

i had my site with them. It was great while it lasted. the down time was a few hrs here and there. nothing to complain about. It goes with the ole saying "u get what you pay for". Since they announced that they will be pulling the plug, i decided its time to jump ship. The speed wasnt great, since it was based over the pond. Excellent free host. I'm a proud aletia member now. :D

I had a feeling it couldn't last and it was great while it did. I have 3 sites with them, and I never experienced any downtime in the 5 months since I signed-up
I would continue with them if not for the fact that I would like to keep all 3 sites and even for the 36pounds per year ( which is really cheap) it's more than I can afford. (36 *3 is quite a sum)..considering that 1 of my site is an acadamic project and the other 2 are personal sites which only gets visits from my friends.
Looking for other free hosting services to begin.....wouldn't mind a paid host if they offer all the features that F2s does and is able to host subdomains or mulitple domains.

(any takers?)