Newbie bloggers, as well as people who are thinking about creating their own standalone project for the first time, are often not willing to pay for hosting. They can be understood, because for most beginners, a blog is not a source of profit. And some are not even sure if they will continue blogging a month or two after starting. They just try, check, test …
Which one of the free to choose?
Today, free hosting services are provided by many providers, as a result of which the author may face a difficult question of choice. Obviously, the minimum requirements for installing WordPress must be met. If the hosting does not support working with databases, you can safely refuse it. But besides this prerequisite, I would advise you to pay attention to four more things:
Server uptime
Unfortunately, free hosting isn't always synonymous with reliable. Moreover, some providers believe that if they do not take money for a service, then they are not responsible for its quality either. With such people, I would not advise to have anything to do with. After all, you do not want to waste your time on the creation and development of a blog, which then no one can go to, because it will "lie" 90% of the time. A good uptime (that is, the time when the servers are working properly and the site is available) for free hosting is 99% or more. For paid hosting, this indicator should be close to 100% (99.9% at least).
Additional terms
Each free hoster will "please" you with additional conditions. After all, no matter how it is, you do not pay for the service, which means that one way or another you will experience certain restrictions. The size and nature of these restrictions depends only on your ability to make the right choice.
For example, some hosters will delete your site along with your account if no visitor comes to it for a certain time or the author does not download a single file. Other hosters won't give you NS servers, domain registrations. Still others will prohibit the use of certain CMS, despite the fact that it is technically possible to use them. Fourth, they will block your site without warning if it exceeds the conditional limit on the use of server resources. And there can be any number of such additional conditions. So read carefully!
Presence / absence of advertising
A lot of free hosting services are actually not free at all. Of course, their owners will not demand money from you. But you will pay the full cost of using the hosting by placing advertisements on the site you create. Usually it will be a window or banner with information about your hoster, getting rid of which can only be paid.
Actually, there is nothing wrong or illegal in this approach - the hoster has the right to set its own conditions. You, in turn, have the right to decide whether to use the services of such a hoster. It might be cheaper to pay. Or find a hoster that does not require advertising (fortunately, there are such).
Hosting reviews
Last, but not least, the reviews about the hoster of its clients, and especially of former clients. After all, it is the people who have experienced hosting "on their own backbone" who can tell about all its advantages and disadvantages.
