How to Find the Best Free Website Hosting

Start a Blog or Web Page with a Low Budget

© Jennifer Marsh

Oct 24, 2009
Free website hosting offers HTML and blog tools, Wikimedia.org
Free website hosting is beneficial for people who want a simple blog or personal website and have a small budget to get started.

Website hosting is costly especially if you include all the bells and whistles available for blogs, web design, and eCommerce solutions. For people who just want to blog about their favorite hobby or interest, free website hosting is available.

Most of these providers offer webpage builders and blogging tools free of charge. The catch is that the blogger or website owner agrees to display ads on the pages, which is how the website hosting service generates income to provide free server storage.

Decide on Website Hosting Services Requirements

The first step in finding the best free website hosting service is deciding what the website will entail. Will the main focus be a blog, a personal website, or a business advertising page? Free website hosting services differ in the amount of tools provided to the owner of the domain. For instance, if the focus of the website is a blog, then the best solution is a company that provides blogging tools or content management systems. The most prominent blogging tools on the market are Wordpress and Typepad.

Determine Database Hosting and Hard Drive Space Requirements

A database hosting service is used for dynamic content such as blogs, shopping carts, and login pages. Some database services are costly and aren’t included in free webhosting service packages. For robust data operations, the website owner will likely need to pay a fee. However, small websites or bloggers can find free website hosting packages with limited space. MySQL is a freely distributed database application, so website hosting packages that provide blogging and web design services use MySQL as a solution. Understanding MySQL helps the website owner work with the free tools provided in the control panel of the host.

Prepare for Paid Website Hosting

If the website expands or needs better tools and options, the owner needs to move the pages and data to a paid service. Scalability isn’t an option for free webhosting service, so businesses and bloggers need to prepare for a server move. A server move involves exporting the web pages to a different server and exporting current data from the database, then importing it to a new location. When choosing a free website hosting service, ensure that the data and files can be exported and moved to another server easily and without assistance from the website hosting administrators.

Finding the right solution may take several hours or days, but the better solution will make designing and moving easier. Once the pages are designed and uploaded, choose the right SEO services company to help build traffic. Placing ads on the page also monetizes the site and alleviates the cost of moving it to a paid service. These steps help the website owner start with an affordable host solution and move into more robust options once the business or blog expands.


The copyright of the article How to Find the Best Free Website Hosting in Webmaster Resources is owned by Jennifer Marsh. Permission to republish How to Find the Best Free Website Hosting in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.


Free website hosting offers HTML and blog tools, Wikimedia.org
Servers for free hosting save money on startups, Wikimedia.org
     


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