Discussion of Free Hosting Services

In addition to paid virtual hosting services, there are also free ones. Let's discuss their advantages and disadvantages.

They have only one advantage - being free. However, there are many disadvantages, and currently, they are quite critical:

Third-Level Domains

On free hosting, you get a domain for free, but it will be a third-level domain.

Of course, the fact that the domain is free - this is a plus. But this domain will not belong to you - that's a minus. If something happens to the hosting - for example, it closes down or changes its policy, your domain will be lost. And it might have been promoted, it could have had visitors, and so on.

It should be noted that there are free hosting services that allow parking your second-level domains, purchased from a third-party registrar.

Problems with Certificates

On free hosting, most likely the domain will be without an SSL certificate.

And browsers do not really trust such domains, displaying various unpleasant exclamation marks in the address bar, scaring the site's visitors.

Furthermore, modern messengers and social networks block transitions to sites operating via http://. This is a huge problem. After all, you can't even host a portfolio work on such a site, as a potential employer, when clicking a link from a messenger, will not be able to access it.

Advertising

Advertising and pop-up windows. Bad free hosting services often place ads on their clients' sites, which can irritate visitors and reduce conversion.

Lack of Support

Free hosting services usually do not provide technical support to their clients. In general, this is not very important, but having support is still more convenient.

Problem with Mail

Free hosting services usually lack support for site mail. That is, your site won't even be able to send an email to a user, for example, about successful registration.

Professional Image

Using paid hosting indicates the seriousness and reliability of your project.

Only PHP

As a rule, free hosting services support only static sites and sites on PHP.