Creating a website means you are expanding your businesses on multiple online platforms. For that purpose, a website needs to be hosted on the internet so viewers can access the content online. Just like all other things, the cost associated with web site hosting can influence your decisions.
Just like any other service, there are some free website hosting platforms. However, several hidden costs are associated with these site hosting. You may initially cut cost, but it can end up costing you a lot of money in the future due to setbacks and issues that are far more expensive than you might think.
What to expect when website hosting?
Before we go any further, let us look at different types of web hosting.
- Dedicated hosting: This option is the most desirable and premium option when it comes to web hosting, but it comes at a high price. In dedicated hosting, your website is hosted on a single, personalized server that is for your use only.
For large scale businesses, this is the best option for web hosting, but for small businesses, it may be way more than what you need. - Shared hosting: This type of web hosting is the least expensive option of website hosting. The reason why it’s cheaper is that the server that stores your website is simultaneously hosting other websites too.
- Virtual Private Server (VPS): VPS hosting is less expensive than a dedicated server but had some additional perks and features than shared hosting. It is a middle option between the other types.
While free web hosting is an option that you can consider but keep in mind that you always get what you have paid for. When it comes to web hosting, cheap or free option is not always the best one.
On that note, here are some of the hidden costs of web hosting that you may be unaware of.
Web Traffic
When it comes to website visitors, there are several categories of them like local homeowners, small businesses, and even impatient “clickers.” Free web hosting seems like an appealing option, but with time as your website grows, the users may often have trouble accessing the content. With increased loading time, the visitors will bounce off to other sites. The majority of the website traffic comprises of impatient viewers who expect the site to load in the blink of an eye.
But the question is, how fast do the users expect the website to load?
According to research, more than 47 percent of the viewers expect a web page to load within two seconds or less! The analytics also concluded that about 40 percent of them tend to abandon a web page, which takes more than three seconds to load. With this behaviour, the traffic directs to other websites with faster servers.
A better and faster server can help with increasing traffic to your website. Amazon discovered how an extra second to load a page costs the company around $1.6 billion in sales annually. Small businesses don’t suffer a massive loss in sales, but it does divert traffic to other pages.
Security
One of the top priorities of a reliable and secure website is safety. Websites need to be secure, especially if you are processing payments. It’s the responsibility of the company to protect sensitive user information on your website from cybercriminals and attacks.
Following are some of the necessary security measures that your website needs:
- Firewall configuration
- Passwords
- User permissions
- Scan for viruses
- Spam filters
- Security audits
- Authentication procedures
Most of the servers provide a secured back up where you can store and access all the documents and files. But this costs extra money. However, if you hire services of a reliable web hosting and web development company in Dubai, you will be able to access several features as part of your subscription and cut additional expenses.
This is a much better option than acquiring free web hosting and paying individually for different services, as this can cause security problems.
Servers
When web hosting, make sure your hosting server is a reliable one. Free web hosting or a cheaper alternative may seem attractive, but their servers are mostly compromised on many levels. Some of the features of an excellent server are the updated software, regular checks and maintenance, automatic update, and 24/7 monitoring.
Web hosting depends on the type of servers that you choose for your company. Recent studies show that the size of dedicated hosting has increased worldwide, reaching almost 6.5 billion US dollars in 2020. However, the choice of the server depends upon the size of your website.
Renewals
When you first opt for free website hosting, everything seems great. Also, with other options where the price is very attractive. But that is just the initial cost of the subscription. Many companies offering free web hosting have very high rates for renewal costs, whether it’s after months or years.
Eventually, you have to pay a lot of price for renewal, which may end up taking all your profits. Good web hosting companies usually give a detailed timeline of web renewals at the time of subscription, so the clients know what they are signing up for.
Set-up fees
One of the most charming aspects of free web hosting is the point of: “Set-up Fee: Free.” This free set-up comes at a cost. In these cases, one should always expect compromises in other departments like server speed, storage, automatic updates, etc.
For a good dedicated server, paying the set-up fee is justifiable. It is because the provider is offering high-quality services with setting up physical hardware and software depending upon your requirements.
Operational cost
A lot of small business owners with a little technical background believe they can host their websites without help from an external party. Just because you can do something, doesn’t mean that you should.
There are several unexpected or hidden costs that an unprofessional developer might miss, and you will have to deal with that extra cost. There is a high chance that it will keep you away from actually running your business and focussing on sales and revenue generation.
However, a web developer can deal with the nitty-gritty of the whole process. If you opt for a good, professional web developing company in Dubai such as Spiral Click, there are several benefits you can enjoy, like servers, storage, automatic updates and maintenance, bandwidth, domain, etc.
Hosting on your own or getting a free website hosting can increase your overall operational costs. You would need to hire more people leading to inefficient use of resources. The other option is to find the right web development provider and focus your energy on running your business.
Free Web hosting?
Web hosting is crucial especially if you want to increase your online presence. When it comes to hosting, there are a lot of different options to consider in the market. The cost of web hosting varies depending on your choices of the server. Some of the options are more expensive than others.
You may also opt for free web hosting with associated costs that do not make it a free hosting service. Regardless of your choice, there are several hidden costs associated that you need to manage and look out for. A free web service plan may save you from the initial investment, but you will be paying down the road with your web traffic, operational costs, and security.
Always remember to use a reputable host for your website journey online. http://credit-n.ru/zaymyi-next.html