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  1. #1

    free or paid hosting?

    I'd like some opinions, if you don't mind. I'd like to start a website focused on eating disorders recovery/body image and I'm not sure if I just want to go with a freeserver, or go all out and get a domain/paid hosting. I was just planning on having a wordpress blog with a few sections of information, nothing that big. What would be the advantages and disadvantages of both kinds of hosting?

  2. #2
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    or go all out and get a domain
    you should get a domain regardless of the hosting choice. It'll be your site's never changing address, and it's a small price to pay for that (typically under $10 per year for a .com. Look for coupons and the price might get quite close to $7, depending on the provider.

    Free hosting comes with potential disadvantages (ads placed on the site, lacking features, crowded servers, bad neighbors etc). But it is cheap, no doubt about that. freewebspace.net/forums and freewht.com might help you assess if there are worthy free hosting providers out there.

    People around there will probably advise you to go paid. Free hosting was a part of my early web experience, and it wasn't all that bad for what I needed back then.

  3. #3
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    If the site is important to you, go for paid hosting otherwise look for a free one.

    Note: We do not discuss free hosting here and if you want to go to that route, visit http://www.freewebhostingtalk.com/

    Specially 4 U
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  4. #4
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    You can always start off with a Free Hosting account, As 'net' mentioned we do not discuss them here, Though you can always advance to a hosting account later on if your site starts to accumulate in traffic.

    I would overall prefer a Paid Hosting account, It is entirely up to you.

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  5. #5
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    I don't recommend going to free hosting at all. Since it's free you never really know the downfall of what can happen. There's a lot of hosts you can look at do you have a price in mind?
    Fully customized hosting to your specific needs, no general plans found here!
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  6. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by jshtoch View Post
    I don't recommend going to free hosting at all. Since it's free you never really know the downfall of what can happen. There's a lot of hosts you can look at do you have a price in mind?
    I don't have a set price in mind, but I'm a poor college student, so definitely on a budget.

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by Becksabec View Post
    I'd like some opinions, if you don't mind. I'd like to start a website focused on eating disorders recovery/body image and I'm not sure if I just want to go with a freeserver, or go all out and get a domain/paid hosting. I was just planning on having a wordpress blog with a few sections of information, nothing that big. What would be the advantages and disadvantages of both kinds of hosting?
    You could get a domain and get free hosting through blogger.com, they host blogs and are owned by Google.

  8. #8
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    My advice is to avoid free hosting *at all costs*. Pun was sort of intended
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  9. #9
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    Buy a domain for your site. Domains are a good investment into your site. Also, pay for hosting. Never go with free as you pay for what you get. You don't pay anything then you can expect your service to be lowsy.
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  10. #10
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    Hosting is so cheap these days even "paid" is almost free. Some places will give you a free domain if you pay for hosting, so that should be helpful since you're on a budget. Hosting is cheap though. Skip a meal a month and it's pretty much paid for, unless you're like me and ate $.15 ramen noodle packs all through college.
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  11. #11
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    IMeanWebHosting said it well. Paid hosting has gotten so cheap that any budget can be met. Also, Ramen noodles all through college? Sounds like you didn't have to worry about running out of cash lol
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  12. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by romes View Post
    IMeanWebHosting said it well. Paid hosting has gotten so cheap that any budget can be met. Also, Ramen noodles all through college? Sounds like you didn't have to worry about running out of cash lol
    Running out of cash was the REASON I had to eat ramen noodles! Life's good now, but I was broke as a joke during college.
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  13. #13
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    Free hosting is nothing but a pain. Even if the company doesn't die out, it is likely they will start cutting back features, have abused servers, and a low uptime. If you care anything at all for your site, go for paid hosting, but keep in mind pretty much all paid hosts require you to own a domain (which as others have mentioned, is also a very good thing to have).

  14. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by IMeanWebHosting View Post
    Running out of cash was the REASON I had to eat ramen noodles! Life's good now, but I was broke as a joke during college.

    lol That makes sense. Ramen noodles are tasty though
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  15. #15
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    I would go with paid hosting because it offers better speed and control.

    With free hosting you are restricted with many things such as ads, slow speeds and bad panels.


  16. #16
    ramen noodles are a delicious way to achieve vitamin deficiency

  17. #17
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    Free hosting may be starting step. i started my website with several different hosts: some with forced ads, some with not...and ended in happy paid hosting customer.
    In free hosting you may be limited (for example, having no MySQL databases) or forced to do (forced custom 404 pages, ads). Usually there may be problems with support - you won't expect live chat or support ticket answered within a hour.
    Paid hosting is not very costly: you may get a quality host's starter package as low as 44$ a year. 4$ per month is not that big, you can surely afford this. Plus 10$ domain name - total some 50$ per year.
    If you want quality - go fo paid hosting.

  18. #18
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    Not all paid hosting is the same, using the prepaid package model. Take a look at nearlyfreespeech.net for example, for it is different. For a new webmaster, they might fit like a glove, as you only pay for what you use, which is little when you're new to it all. They don't offer email hosting, but do provide email forwarding if I recall correctly.

  19. #19
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    Quote Originally Posted by shad0wz View Post
    I would go with paid hosting because it offers better speed and control.

    With free hosting you are restricted with many things such as ads, slow speeds and bad panels.
    QFT.

    Exactly what I was going to say.
    I don't post a lot.

  20. #20
    There's also some free domain services out there, like co.cc , or also some provdiders offer a decent hosting service with a free domain, there's lot's of options, find some decent providers and discuss your situation with some maybe you can work yourself into your budget Goodluck!
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  21. #21
    i think if you are trying your luck at website then go for a free website in starting you can later move on to a paid host if you website works

  22. #22
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    Free hosting may take away your website when it recieves more visitors...
    You cannot do anything

  23. #23
    it depends on what you want. If you want business presentation than you should definitely go with paid hosting.

  24. #24
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    It's not that I wouldn't touch free hosting with a 40ft pole, but I would go for paid hosting anyday. Somehow, it gives me that sense of security that I'm paying for quality. However, sometimes, paid hosting companies fail to deliver too.

    The free hosting market is saturated with bad free hosts, which use terrible panels, have slow speeds, bad customer support (hey, for free what do you expect) and free hosts get abused too. However, there are some exceptions, but you are still quite limited with these.

    So if you're serious about building your own site, pay for hosting.
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  25. #25
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    Go with an inexpensive paid host because in general free hosts do not verify accounts since no transaction is involved. You want to be with good neighbors.

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