Free Web Hosting, a Good Idea or Not?

The best things in life are free—but websites are not among these things!

Free web hosting may seem like a great deal, especially if you’re a student or on a budget, but there are many good reasons not to go that route. What might save you in dollars initially can cost you in the long term in poor search results, eventual migration fees, and an SEO headache. Here are some reasons not to use free website hosts.

1. Unprofessional, hard-to-remember URL

You can’t choose your own domain name, and you’ll end up with a name that isn’t memorable and might appear unprofessional to people you want to impress.

2. Lack of portability

You may not be able to transfer your free website to another site should you decide you want a more professional design with more features up the road. You may not even be able to export the text and/or images. Check the web host’s TOS before committing.

3. Not indexed by Google

Your site may not be indexed by Google (yes, this really happens). In other words, your site may not be visible in first-page search results or at all.

4. No analytics tools

How will you know if your efforts to get traffic are working? Most free sites have few or no analytics capabilities, and there is no way to connect them to Google Analytics.

5. No on-page SEO tools

Without ways to optimize slugs, and titles and write meta descriptions, your site will not be competitive. Without writing meta descriptions, you can’t control what appears in Google search results or when you share a page or post to social media. Google will choose random text from your page, your code, or possibly not include any at all.

6. Lack of functional features

Your site will likely lack features like events, store capability, calendars, galleries, or other “dynamic” conveniences. Also, you may not be able to control permalinks, add admins and editors, or do basic things one would expect to do using a modern CMS.

7. Slow technical support (or none at all)

You will get little if any technical support should something go wrong. Paid accounts always have upgraded technical support.

8. Severe limits on bandwidth and storage

You will have limits on bandwidth and storage. This is especially a problem if you want to share media or grow a following. You may also have limits on the number of pages you can publish.

9. Ugly ads (this is almost a guarantee)

You will have ugly ads on your site (yes, you are being used for your content because nothing is really free). Also, you don’t have the option to opt into ugly ads and monetize your site because you don’t own the website.

10. Your personal information might be sold

They may be selling your information (again, nothing is free—check the TOS).

11. You may have difficulty removing the site

Yes, this can happen with some hosts. Remember, they are making money off your content, so they have a motive for wanting to keep it.

12. Inability to back up your site

You won’t be able to manage your own backups (this is a serious shortcoming).

13. Malware (sadly, this really happens)

Some free hosts distribute malware, so if you go this route, be sure to go with a reputable one that has been in business for a significant amount of time.

14. No page builder

You may not have a page builder, and you definitely will have very limited design choices, including few font selections and color controls. While there are free page builders out there, you likely won’t be able to use them on your site.

15. Less overall site control

You may have fewer protections, and they could remove your site for little or no reason (read their TOS). Many terms-of-service agreements have a clause that they can remove your site for any or no reason, but they are less apt to do this to paying customers.

16. Slow website (this can really hurt you)

Your site may be slow due to overstuffing servers with “non-priority websites.” If it is too slow, this will hurt your Google standing.

17. Lack of portability

Your site will likely not be portable—your host may even own your content (check the TOS). Moving the site later (if you are authorized to move your content) will be cumbersome (especially if you blog) and may require hours of work to reformat your content.

18. SEO problems with future moves

Moving the site, both to a new domain AND changing your domain name will negatively impact your SEO. You might lose your page ranking (if you managed to get indexed in the first place). Moving to an official domain (and changing domain names) means you will have to redirect every single page and blog post on your site, and then you are at the mercy of Google to index, then rank your new site.

19. Lack of website management tools

Free websites generally come with few web management tools such as backup controls, making it risky to make major changes to the site as you could lose your data. Most of them have weekly backups, but this doesn’t save a redesign when something goes awry while working on the site. You need to have the ability to restore your site to specific times and dates, not just once a week.

20. No Redirection tools

Not being able to redirect page URLS means SEO trouble should you need to change a page name or delete it. Error pages due to no redirection hurt websites both in terms of user experience and the site’s standing with Google. Of course, they are not good for the kind folks that linked to your website either. Broken links can result in site penalties by Google.

The SEO factors and lack of portability are the biggest downsides to free web hosting, so if you do choose to go with a free website, make sure you read all the terms of service and plan to do it short term, not long term. Scenarios in which free websites might make sense are when building hobby sites or for short-term projects that don’t require the long-term benefits of good SEO.

Know that even an inexpensive, 3-5-dollar-a-month site will have more features than a free one. If you shop around, you can get a robust package with unlimited domains for $100. Most managed packages are at least $300 a year, and if you don’t want to do backups and update plugins, a managed site is your best option, but make sure you go for a full-featured one because some of them may have pared-down dashboards that resemble free sites. Be sure to check the reviews of the hosts and ask lots of questions before committing to a contract. And lastly, should you choose to invest in a paid site, you can likely write it off your taxes as an expense (provided your website isn’t a hobby site).