Free or Paid Blog Hosting?

A common question bloggers ponder when starting a new blog is 'free or paid hosting?'

For new bloggers, my first suggestion would be to try a free service first and decide whether or not it is something you want to keep doing. There is no point to investing in a domain and/or hosting if you are only going to quit within a few short months. Blogger and WordPress are great for newbies.

For the more experienced blogger, a decision like this isn't always quite as simple as we'd like it to be. There are a number of questions to ask yourself when trying to make this decision:

What is your niche?

Is it a business or personal endeavor?

What are your blogging goals?

Is this a long term project?

Do you intend to build a brand?

These five simple questions can help a great deal when reviewing the benefits and problems with both free and paid hosting:

Benefits of free hosting:

It's free. Simple enough, right? This is perfect for those who don't have the money (or don't want to pay) for a domain and hosting. It is also ideal for a (relatively) short-term blog.

Problems with free hosting:

It may not be a very reliable service. Because you are not paying for hosting, there is no guaranteed uptime, and it may take a while for the site administrator(s) to fix the problems.

There may not be a support team to help with issues you may encounter with your blog. Or, if there is, there is a possibility that it is not a free service.

Free blogs also tend to lack the features an experienced blogger may want or need.

Sub-domains can also be an issue. They are long, harder to remember, and make it difficult to brand your website.

Some free hosts may decide to place their ads on your site in order to pay for the service they are offering to you for free. This is an inconvenience in many ways- it clutters your page, makes it hard to earn money with your own ads, it can often look unprofessional, etc.

Benefits of paid hosting:

You get your own domain. This allows you to develop a brand for yourself and your blog, and creates a door of opportunity for those who want to expand as time progresses.

A paid host can guarantee uptime, and because it is a paid service, the tech team has more incentive to work harder and faster in order to please their clients.

Paid services usually have a support team available via phone, chat, ticket, etc. waiting to help you with whatever problems you may encounter.

Paid hosts will not (or should not) place ads on your pages, and you have the freedom to control your own advertisements.

Usually your hosting package will come with a number of features- bandwidth, tools, etc.

Problems with paid hosting:

Monthly (or yearly) costs can sometimes add up (especially for larger hosting packages) and become a burden if you are not making money from your blog. Some people don't mind, and others do. It all depends on why you are blogging.

When it comes down to it, it all depends on why you are blogging, and there is no right or wrong answer for the blogging community as a whole. Decide what is important to you and what you hope to achieve, and your answer will come.

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Comments

[Will]

Nice article. I just changed from a very inexpensive hosting package to a more costly one at HostGator. So far I am very happy with the change. I am getting a lot more for the costs and because I went 3 year term, actually pay about the same as my old host.

A good follow up would be an article comparing a few free and paid hosts and detailing things to look for along with those to watch out for. Free or cheaper is not always the best choice.

-Will