by Matt Hedges
Ultra low cost web hosting has become the latest trend, whether it is a website for a new business or just for sharing knowledge and experiences. Small or startup companies have low budget and there are lots of areas where the owner needs to invest than just hosting the website. For those who want websites for individuals may not want to spend too much on web hosting as they do not require too many features or space. Keeping the small company and individual person’s requirements in mind, the Web Hosts have designed special packages that let you save money on Web Hosting.
If you need to keep your expenditure low, there are a number of options open for web hosting. There will be drawbacks and limitations of these services but they will come in a much more reasonable price.
Key areas of shared web hosting.
Do you know what Shared Web Hosting is? This is an affordable way for small businesses or bloggers to place their site on the internet. It comes when a web host places many websites on one server which is connected to the internet. As a number of firms are using the same server, the overall cost that each pays is lowered. This makes it an economically attractive proposition to many firms.
This is why many small or medium sizes firms are looking to sign up to a shared web hosting service. Each site has its own place on the server which keeps it apart from other sites so this is not an issue but the cost factor is what is best for many firms.
Making this decision will give you a bundle of features for a reduced fee. This may include having access to a number of email accounts, which is beneficial for a small or medium sized firm. This makes it easier for a firm to run their business site.
The shared web hosting system however has some disadvantages. It is true that you can save lots of money by opting for this package but it is necessary that you know about the limitations that you may have to face in the long run:
* There is no proper provision for properly support secure website (HTTPS.) This is because any virtual hosts which has the same IP address also has the same digital certificate.
* If you want to have a name-based virtually hosted site, then the Domain Name System needs to be in full working order.
They will not function with browsers that do not send the hostname as part of requests. For example, the older HTTP/1.0 browsers that have not retrofitted the host field feature from the HTTP/1.1 protocol.
Cheap Web Hosting
Many more people want an online presence but they do not need a lot of disk space or bandwidth. This allows them to have their own individual home page that contains private details about them. As they do not require much else, it is possible to have their goals met for a very low cost.
Although many Web Hosts offer a cheap price, they are also able to offer a good level of service, some of these firms are noted below:
* IX webhosting
* IXwebhosting
* Bluehost
* BlueHost
* Hostony
* Lunarpages
* GoDaddy
* Lunarpages
* midPhase
* Netfirms
Hosting your web site on a budget
If you are looking to save money then budget web hosting is the way to go as it is cheap and doesn’t require huge levels of investment. Yet it still manages to offer many good quality services. There is a large number of web hosts who provide budget services and they are good enough to meet many peoples needs.
Web Hosting for free:
Do you know what free web hosting is? This is where there is no cost for the web hosting service which usually features fewer functions and is offset by advertising. There are a large number of firms who state they offer free Web Hosting. If you do not need many functions and want a really low cost web host service, this is the service for you. It is common for the free hosts to offer a subdomain or directory and a number will offer the following additional functions:
* A control panel based on the web
* Being able to use scripting languages like Perl, PHP or ASP
* When they are domain or subdomain hosted, free email accounts
* File transfer via FTP
* The provision of MySQL or related Relational databases
* Scheduled processes
* No limits placed on space with regards to data limitations
* Shared community resources and forums which are not found on many paid web hosts sites
* The ability to be rewarded for loyalty and use by being awarded additional services or products
You may find these sites offering the basic package as a free trial and then have the ability to enhance the service by paying more. This allows the customer to get a feel for the site and they have the ability to upgrade if they require doing so. As in all walks of life, free web hosting has positive and negative points. There is no fee involved but the site may not always be available when the client needs it. There are a number of free host providers and they include Forward Host, AXSpace, X10 Hosting, Free Space, Trap 17,Gigacities, Free Web Hosting and Free Domain Site. If that is not enough choice thee is also Free Webhosting Pro and Agility Hoster.
Limitations of Free Web Hosting:
The size of each hosted file is limited
* A greatly reduced bandwidth size per month compared to paid for sites
* It is not possible to hotlink files
* There are restrictions on certain file types, such as MPEG, MP3 or ZIP)
There is enforced placement of the Webhosts’ Banner or Popup ads into all web pages
* Free web hosts will make no guarantee of uptime
Even with these limitations, using free web hosting can be very cost effective and attractive to many users. There is no investment to host your own site and is the ideal place to start for those who want to create their own self-start internet project.