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Quote:
carnuke wrote:
I really REALLY do not advise following the path of free hosting. $5-6 /month buys you a tremendous package with many hosts previewed here already. More than that it buys you 'peace of mind' What am I saying here? When you pay for something there is a 'contractual obligation' between you and the supplier. I known its not worth much these days, but free hosts offer you nothing in contract. They can and often do change their rules overnight and often start off well, to get their customers, then place adverts or other restrictions on their users. There is nothing you can do, except go along with it, or leave, or end up paying to remove the restrictions. How much is your hard work worth? Do you really want to risk so much for the sake of a few dollars?
I couldn't agree with you more. I tried the free/cheap hosting route for over two years and every time I ended up sorely disappointed. I finally ended up going with
1and1.com, and have had no regrets, or problems ever since. And at $10/mo. for Linux hosting with 3 free domain names, redundant connections, daily backups, industry leading control panel, free software, free scripts, and a ton of other features, I feel the expense is well worth it.
I realize $10/mo may seem like a lot at first, but you have to ask yourself... How important is it that people actually get to see my site when they type in my URL? Given the nature of my business, it's very important. As it is, I'm going circles now with LowestHosting.com over transfering one of my domains to 1and1.com. I went with the "cheap" alternative a year ago, now I'm paying for it in lost business. Never again!
Free/cheap hosting is great for testing, if you don't know how to setup a local dev server. For production sites, I wouldn't recommend anything but a reputable hosting provider. If you earn money from your site, I'd recommending going with the biggest and best host you can find. 1and1 would be an excellent choice.
Look Ma' no affiliate links...