Starting a business can be financially daunting and free web hosting in Kenya can be a cost saving initiative.At this juncture in business you are looking for the best ways to make profit by spending as little and earn more.
But is free web hosting really that free ? Be weary of free things on the internet, a friend once advised, because there is never anything that free, there are always hidden costs or limitations that come attached to these freebies.So what does free web hosting in Kenya mean? Together let us explore this topic.
What is Free Web Hosting in Kenya?
Free web hosting in Kenya means you have a website developed on a free hosted domain name.
A free hosted domain name is a case in which your domain name is a sub domain of a hosting company or free domain hosting site,such as “yourbusinessname.freehost.com”.
Most of us generally have this notion that free is good, and we opt to choose to get free services even though we can afford to pay for them. But we tend to reason out why pay for something when you can get for free.
What we fail to do at this point is to ask ourselves, what is the alternative and what are the limitations that come with a free service verses a paid service.
With free web hosting in Kenya, things are not any different to the above scenario, so let us look at the various limitations that come with free web hosting.
Limitations of Free Web Hosting in Kenya
As we said free can be expensive in the long run especially for business due to the limitations that come with “free hosting service.”
These are: –
- Limited storage
Most business websites require substantial storage space which should have the capacity to increase as your business grows and there is more content in your site. Free web hosting in Kenya comes with limited storage space which is dictated by the host company. This means on the server, you are allocated a limited space which you have no control and you will have to minimize the amount of files or data you put on this website.
- Limited Bandwidth
The bandwidth of a site can be compared to a pathway leading to your website. The more bandwidth your site has or the wider the pathway the more accessible the files in your sit are. With free hosting there is a fixed bandwidth allocated to each site and should you exceed this limit then your free hosted site is not easily accessible.
- Poor customer support
Websites can experience some downtimes and a good hosting company should be able to provide you with support immediately. Free hosting companies have no obligation to offer customer support, they have other websites on their vast hosting network so when yours goes down it does not really affect their income.
Free hosting is not an income generator for them and so they cannot afford to employ support staff to offer support services.
- Lack of unique domain
If there is one thing you need to get right when setting up a business online, is your domain name. This is going to be the identity of your business as long as you are on the internet.
With free web hosting in Kenya, domain names are longer and have fit in the specifications of the free web host provider. So in the place of yourbusinessdomain.com you have to settle for yourbusinessdomain.freehost.com.
Your customers may have a hard time remembering this long name.
Other Limitations of Free Web Hosting In Kenya include: –
Forced advertisements
Free web host companies raise their income from advertisements that they post on the websites they host. This means your free hosted website is one of such of their property, so they will place as many adverts on your website without asking for your permission.
If this is your business website, then you will have to deal with the fact that some of these advertisements may belong to your competitor and many take the customers who visit your site away to their site. So you lose to your competitors since they have paid to have their adverts put up.
- Poor website ranking
If you are serious in business, you want to optimize your website to improve web rankings. Free web host companies do not allow you to optimize your website and as a result your website will rank poorly thus losing you business.
As you look at all these limitations, one thing is evident as long as your website is intended for business, then you are better off buying your domain and paying for hosting, there are many credible companies that provide hosting services.
Let free web hosting in Kenya be for those who are not interested in using their websites for business.
Thank you for that, I was just in the process of creating a free website for a business I am just starting, now I have some insight thanks to you, the website can wait a bit. Do you think it is in order to get a website before registering a company?
Great article and great services.
If you want a good service, never choose free web hosting. It does not matter whether the host is Kenyan or from the US. Free web hosting is not for professionals. Maybe for students who are trying to learn without paying(which I would recommend). Kenya has some very good web hosting companies and the good thing is that support is local. Phone calls will always go through and you will get to talk to someone who speaks your language. Kenyans let us be patriotic and choose Kenya. That is what makes other nations great.
I totally agree Kariuki…
This is very true, especially when it comes to rankings your free hosted site will never rank among the first which is a major drawback to your business. Great article.
Wow! Thanks for that. I had created my website and wanted a free web hosting from Kenya. But luckily i saw your post which really helped. I would not advice anyone to go for free web hosting either.
First of all before even buying a hosting service, there are some factors to consider, one and most important is reliability, second security and privacy.
Thanks Pauline. You have really helped me. I am a student and currently I have been developing websites and I need to create my website to advertise myself. I would opt to purchase a domain and pay for web hosting.
i believe companies offer free web hosting in order to market their premium services. Although, its of no business value to the prospective users.