In a perfect world, everything would be free. But that’s not the reality we live in, and today’s businesses – big and small – have to take steps to reduce costs wherever they can in order to keep their profits as high as possible. This is especially true for those of us who are simply trying to make some money online by ourselves. That’s not always easy to do, and cutting corners in the wrong place is far too common.
One perfect example that stands out is using free WordPress hosting. It sounds great, right? You pay nothing and get to host your WordPress site. But it doesn’t take a genius to realize that there are plenty of strings attached to this deal and that free WordPress hosting isn’t something that can really help you, especially in the long term. In fact, there’s a good chance that using it may very well end up hurting your chances of success.
If you’re thinking about using a free WordPress hosting service, take a minute to read on to see some of the reasons that it might not be the best idea.
The Ugly Truth About Free WordPress Hosting
So what is it that makes free WordPress hosting such a bad idea, exactly? There are plenty of reasons, but what they all add up to is simple – you won’t get the same kind of service or the same kind of results that you would with a paid provider. The bottom line is that you get what you pay for, and when you’re paying nothing you won’t get a lot more than bare-bones hosting. In fact, even the cheaper paid hosting services can be a nightmare.
If you’re still not convinced that free WordPress hosting isn’t as good as it sounds, let’s look a little closer at a few points worth considering.
- Security – First and foremost is the security of your site. Even a basic page could be important and even have personal info. If it goes down, it could mean you lose traffic, visitors, and possibly even sales. Free WordPress hosting doesn’t always have great security, and your page and your info might be at risk. I had many issues with my WordPress sites getting hacked and bringing down my sites, even with cheaper paid hosting services.
- Stability – You’ll also be facing the risk of pages going down sometimes. Overloaded servers could crash and other issues might occur. These aren’t problems that are as common with paid providers, and when they occur it can be a huge ordeal overcoming them.
- Bandwidth – The bandwidth for your page refers to the number of people that it can handle visiting it at any one time. Lost bandwidth means lost visitors, which means lost revenue. And free WordPress hosting services offer very small amounts of bandwidth.
- Storage – Want to post videos or audio clips? What about tons of images of your products? If your host doesn’t offer the right kind of storage, you could run out of room fast.
- Support – What happens when something goes wrong? Free WordPress hosting is notorious for having little to no customer support. You may be able to access online tutorials, but in terms of actually contacting someone you will find that you’re on your own.
- Plugins and Features – The use of extra tools and features isn’t as easy with free WordPress hosting services. Some may not even support additional features, while others may make it much more difficult than it should be to use them. To get the most out of your site, you’ll need a paid service.
- Restrictions – You may also find that free services provide limited control and numerous restrictions on what you do with your page. In other words, you might be restricted on just what you upload, how you use your page, how you interact with visitors, and more.
- Scalability – When your business begins to grow, your website will need to grow and evolve along with it. Free hosting services don’t make it easy to do so, and in many cases you’ll be essentially stuck in a digital limbo with little room or capability for your page to move forwards.
This is just a rundown of the basic drawbacks to free WordPress hosting. As you can see, if something sounds too good to be true there is a good chance that it is. To get the best for your company, you need to invest in the best services. A few dollars a month is all it takes to sign up for paid options like WP Engine, and it’s money well spent.
Uses For Free WordPress Hosting
It is worth mentioning that in some instances, free WordPress hosting might actually have a few uses that make it worth looking at. These benefits will include:
- When wanting to set up a quick or temporary website with no commitment
- Testing the waters of the online world
- Learning about building a website
- Learning how to self-host blogs and use plugins or applications without impacting your main sites
- As a part of your PBN network
In other words, free hosting services are perfect for trying to maximize your skills or learn the basics of online hosting and website creation. They’re perfect learning tools or even placeholders when you need to get something up and running quickly.
But when it comes to getting serious about your page and ensuring that your business is able to get the best results from your online presence, it’s well worth spending the money to get the numerous benefits that can be obtained from a paid hosting service.
A Better Option
While you’re certainly free to use free WordPress hosting for your site, the reality is that it’s not the best option in virtually any situation. Instead, you owe it to your company and your future to invest the small amount of money needed in getting a hosting service you can count on like WP Engine.
Paid services like WP Engine give you reliability, high levels of security, excellent troubleshooting, and more. In short, services like WP Engine remove the hassle and worry and let you focus on making your site better and building your company’s future. It’s something everyone serious about their online presence should consider. If you want your company to take off and stand out, investing in certain aspects is important. WordPress hosting isn’t an area that you can afford to cut corners on.
