Is Free Hosting Worth It?
If you have been looking for a way to save money on web hosting, you have probably heard about 000webhost. This service is powered by Hostinger, and is summed up on the official website as “Zero cost website hosting with PHP, MySQL, Cpanel & no ads!”
It sounds pretty awesome, right? Why pay for web hosting if you don’t have to? Then again, it raises the obvious question: If free web hosting is so great, why isn’t everyone using it?
Let’s take a look at exactly what you can expect if you try out 000webhost’s free plan, including the features, benefits, and the drawbacks. Then we’ll check out some alternatives.
Free Means Free
First of all, you probably are wondering whether 000webhost’s free plan is in the “too good to be true” category. Is this hosting plan really free, or are there strings attached?
The website is pretty clear about this. In large letters on the sign-up page, it declares, “ZERO Costs!” Underneath that it reads, “Create an account, it’s FREE & always will be!”
Somewhat confusing, on top of the form, it says “Start” for free. This may lead you to wonder if the service expires or converts to paid hosting after some time has passed. A moderator on the community forum however has stated plainly, “You can host your website here forever. Our services are free forever.”
So in this case, yes—free means free. There is no catch with the pricing. You are not suddenly going to discover that the company has billed your credit card or cut off your services or anything like that.
Features And Benefits
So what do you get with a free account at 000webhost?
- Cpanel included at no extra charge
- Free Website Builder and templates
- No script, single-click auto-installer to use for Joomla, WordPress, and so forth
- Database support for MySQL and PHP
- 99% uptime
- 10 GB bandwidth
- 1 GB disk space
- Ad-free
As you can see, that is an abundance of great features. You also get the benefit of working with a company that has a decade of experience and a solid reputation to match. More than 17 million users have chosen Hostinger for their free or paid hosting needs.
Drawbacks
Now, 000webhost is a great option for newbies, and may also fit your needs if you are running a small site.
But if your site grows in popularity or you need to stream or host lots of videos or images, you may be surprised by how quickly you can run through 10 GB of bandwidth.
If you are getting even a few hundred visitors per day, you might very well require more bandwidth than the free 000webhost plan can provide. You could end up exceeding the 1 GB of disk space as well.
The 000webhost free web host plan also has some other severe limitations:
- There is no email service included with this plan. You are stuck finding a third party solution for your emailing needs.
- Your data will not be backed up at any point. You are solely responsible for maintaining your own backups, and if something happens to them, you have no safety net.
- You cannot contact customer service agents in real-time. So if you need a fast solution to an urgent problem, you could find yourself in a lurch.
There are also some other perks which come with Hostinger’s paid plans which simply are not available for the free plan through 000webhost.
An Affordable Alternative: Premium Plans From Hostinger
If you are looking for almost-free web hosting, Hostinger has a pretty amazing plan available for just $0.80 per month. Usually this plan is $5.99, so that comes out to a whopping 87% off as of the time of this writing.
Called the Single plan, it comes with everything you get in the free 000webhost plan, plus the following:
- 10 GB disk space
- 100 GB bandwidth
- Weekly backups
- Personal email account
- A free domain name
- Live customer service 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
That is a lot more value than you get with the free plan, for an incredibly reasonable price.
Being able to back up your website is very important, as it protects your site from buggy updates, viruses, hackers and other threats.
As to live customer service, it is pretty much vital. If your site is down and you are losing time and money every second, the last thing you want to be doing is waiting around for a reply via email or through the service forum.
Have a bit more to spend? The $11.05 Premium plan is currently 71% off, which means you can snag it for just $3.49 per month. It includes:
- Unlimited bandwidth and disk space
- Unlimited email accounts
- Unlimited databases
- Backups every week
- One free domain
- Host as many websites as you want
- SSH
- Live customer support 24/7
Shared, VPN and business hosting plans are also available for those looking for other options in terms of pricing and resource allocation.
Free Hosting Is Good, But The Real Value Is In Hostinger’s Paid Plans
With a paid plan from Hostinger, you can scale up your services as you need them. You will have all the resources you require to host a large, successful website, even one which is media-rich. All told, you will still be paying very little to enjoy those premium benefits and features.
Could you just start out free, and switch to paid? Sure; a lot of customers end up doing just that. They test drive the services, and they realize that Hostinger is a great company to be working with, but they also quickly discover they need more from a serious hosting plan.
Hostinger offers a 30-day money back guarantee on their paid plans, so you can try the Single or Premium plan risk-free right now. That means you can hit the ground running with the best value that Hostinger has to offer.
Ready to get started? Just click here to be taken straight to the order page. Good luck, and happy hosting!
Dreamhost has been around since 1996 and is known for their quick speed and reliable uptime, WordPress hosting, and their ecommerce features. It’s a great hosting option for people who run a small business.
