Should You Choose Paid Web Hosting or Free Web Hosting?

Should I choose free or paid hosting for my blog? This is a question every person starting a website asks themselves. It’s so tempting to go with free, but how is that going to affect my company, brand, and blog? Many people start a blog for a side income. Can you make the same amount on every hosting platforms? Find out all the information you need to get started on your new website.

• Pro’s and con’s of free hosting
• Pro’s and con’s of paid hosting
• What hosting platform to go with
• Why you should start your own website

Pro’s & Con’s of Free Hosting:

There are a few free hosting providers you can go with. Free hosting providers are website like Blogspot, Medium, WordPress, Tumblr, Blogger, and others. All you have to do is make an account and write for free! Sounds amazing, but there are mega downfalls. Below are a few pro’s and con’s of free hosting.

Pro’s

The Price | Many bloggers who are just starting out aren’t wanting to pay for a creative outlet to share their life. That is one positive about free hosting sites like Blogger or BlogSpot.

Con’s

Limited Control | When you have a blog on these free hosting providers, you have very limited control of what your site looks like and the ability to add features that you need to make money. 

Doesn’t Rank on Google | Seach engines don’t rank free blogging providers. When you own your own domain, Google knows you mean business so you are more likely to rank higher. This is very important as you continue to grow your blog.

You Don’t Own It | Why put hundreds of hours of writing and years of effort into a blog you don’t even own? When you choose free providers you don’t own your blog, the provider does.

No Customization | When you have a free blog, you aren’t able to personalize it at all. It’s going to look like everyone else’s. When you buy a self-hosted site, you pick from thousands of themes, customize it to exactly how you want it to look, or you can pay for a web designer to completely perfect it.

Your Blog Name | (The worst part) When you have a free blog provider, your name reflects it. For example, if I blogged on one of these free blog providers, my name would be ExploringLifesBeauty/googleblog.com or ExploringLifesBeauty/blogspot.com. Those are ugly and you don’t want those. 

Moving From Free to Paid | Some bloggers think that you can blog for a couple years on free platforms to see if you like it, then switch to paid hosting. Even if you still don’t want to pay for hosting, your blog will outgrow what the free hosting offers. It’s very very possible that when you switch you will lose posts. So what you’ve been working on for years is lost and you have to start all over.

Free Means Ads | When you hear “free hosting”, think advertisements. How do you think this free platform pays for so many users? Through lots of ads. You have no control over what ads get placed where on your posts. What if an inappropriate ad was placed on your page?

Pro’s & Con’s of a Paid Self-hosted Blog:

So now you know the pro’s and con’s of free hosting websites. What about paying for one? You definitely have a lot more freedom to design, make money, and more. (Because you actually own it.) But you may still be a little indecisive about paying for one. Let’s learn more about paid hosting. Below are a few pro’s and con’s for paid hosting services.

Con’s

The Price | Of course, free is better. It costs a little less than $4 a month to own your own website. (Skip one coffee a month and you just paid for your website!) If you are worried about investing too much on your website, just think about how the pro’s super outweigh the price.

Pro’s

You Can Make Money | If you want to make money from your new website (who doesn’t?), then you will need a self-hosted website. It is extremely hard to make any money from free sites like Blogger or Blogspot. And you have so much more freedom to make money with many different avenues when you own your own. When you pay just a tiny amount each month for your own website, you can have advertisements, affiliate links, or even sell your own products.

The Price | Many bloggers who look into free hosting don’t realize how inexpensive self-hosted blogs are. All you need to buy is a domain name ($12.99), a hosting site ($4+ a month), and WordPress ($100). You can pay for other things, like a custom website design or a special theme, plug-ins, and more, but we’re talking necessities here. (Here’s a coupon to get Bluehost hosting service for only $3.95 a month, your domain name for FREE, and WordPress for FREE!)

You Can Still Take Advantage of Free Services | When you choose Bluehost, you get WordPress.com for free. I love WordPress because it’s so easy, you can choose from thousands of free themes and free plugins to design your blog, and it is an excellent writing platform. So because I choose Bluehost, the only service I have had to pay for is my hosting. I definitely recommend taking advantage of the free version of WordPress. (WordPress.org is $100 more.)

Which Paid Hosting Service Should You Choose?

There are a couple different paid hosting platforms you can go with. There are HostGator, Bluehost, SiteGround, and more. There are hundreds of paid hosting websites out there, but you want to go with one of the big companies. This reason is because if they go out of business, your website is gone if you didn’t back it up. After too many hours of research, I chose Bluehost. Bluehost is one of the top web hosting companies this year, so I don’t have to worry about them going under.

I chose Bluehost because of the benefits and the price. You get a domain name for free (usually starts at $12.99), there is a 30-day money-back guarantee, you can download WordPress for free, you can design your site with thousands of free templates, and it also comes with a free SSL certificate. And the most important part: it’s only $3.95 a month! (Get that price and a domain name for free through this link.)

What are you thinking about blogging about?

What are your thoughts on free vs. paid hosting?

Comment below!

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