Drawbacks Of Paid Web Hosting You Must Know

Amber Hunt
4 min readSep 16, 2016

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Web hosting is a process of getting your website live on the internet. It is an important aspect, so you can’t take any chances with it. There are many web hosting options available today, which makes things a lot more difficult for a newbie like you. While many people would recommend to go for the free web hosting sites, you will also find many people shouting in favour of paid web hosting. Well, both the hosting types have their own advantages and disadvantages. Where free web hosting has a limited amount of features and annoying advertisements, paid hosting charges for almost all the useful features that they offer to their users.

So, one service is absolutely free, but has nothing extraordinary in it, and the second one has a number of useful features, but they come with a certain price value. As a beginner to the world of online business, you have to consider saving every single penny because as they say, ‘A penny saved is a penny earned’. This can be a lot more confusing because there are so many things in favour of free hosting and paid hosting, but there are also a few things that go against the two services. The best approach would be to consider each and every point thoroughly in order to find the most appropriate hosting.

It is also the matter of perception because if you are planning for the long term, then you should go for the paid web hosting, but if you just want to concentrate on just here and now for the time being, then free web hosting is a good way to start things off. Many people blindly choose the paid hosting thinking it would solve all their problems, but does that actually happen? I don’t think so. Here are some of the negative sides of choosing the paid hosting without considering the important factors.

1. Unexpected Hikes: This is the most common drawback that people come across in the paid web hosting. Keeping aside some of the best website hosting, the second grade paid web hosting services increase the rates of their web hosting and all the features, which they provide at cheaper rates up till so far. This can really create some bad effects on the reputation of the web hosting companies, but more importantly, it can ruin the trust of the customers.

2. Lack of free features: Many people say that one should join paid web hosting, as it has many useful features that could make the website more attractive and user-friendly, but that’s only when they are using the top paid web hosting. Things are not the same when people use new and second grade web hosting service provider because they have all the features available with them, but they charge in order to get them activated.

3. Time-consuming technical support: Customer support is one of the biggest points that goes in favour of the paid web hosting, but does all the paid web hosting services have efficient technical support? Well I have to write NO again. Some website does have an impeccable technical support, while most of the average web hosting companies’ support system is time consuming and not as efficient as the others. The turn-around-time is between 24 to 48 hours, which is way too long, as you can’t hold your business for two days.

4. Add-on services: You will not get as many add-on services in the paid web hosting that are new and still in the developing mode. So, that’s a drawback as well.

5. Downtime: If the company is hosting more than the prescribed amount of websites, then it will lead to the downtime. So, there is no use of having custom error pages, if there are frequent downtimes.

6. Unexpected Shutdown: Any online business can shut down at any point of time. The company will put up a notice on the main page. Then, you will have to look for another hosting company. This is not a thing with free web host.

7. Pay for everything you add: Features that are free are not often used and the ones that are used are not free in the paid web hosting.

8. Limited free space: You will get a limited free space in the paid webhosting and if you want to get more, then you have to pay for it.

9. Limited Bandwidth: You will be allotted a limited amount of bandwidth beyond which you have to pay a cost, if you want to have more bandwidth.

10. Website monitored and maintenance not in your hands: In paid web hosting, your website will be monitored and maintained by the web hosting administrators, so your data will be checked by others as well.

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