I have been wanting to do a post on a Free Web Hosting service for quite a long time. If you search on Google, you will find that tons of results come up that claim to provide free web hosting. I have tested most of them, and the underlying fact is that either their claims are false, or they do not tell upfront what features are included in free hosting.
Facts About so called “Free Hosts”:
Some interesting experiences I had with such free hosts
Free Account never activates: With 2 free hosts, I found that they never activated my free account. Instead, whenever I login, I would get a message that free account is under review, and I can switch to paid account for immediate activation.
Features Blocked in Free Account: Another interesting thing I found with some web hosts was that some of the features in free account did not work. They did not say that feature is not available, but the feature did not work. In one case I tried to install a wordpress script, and got a message that there is an indefinite downtime for that feature.
False Claims: In some cases, claims that such free hosts made were plain false. I came across an interesting free host that claimed to provide both PHP and MySQL support. I went ahead, and created a MySQL database. Then I got a message that the database has been installed, but I will need to upgrade to paid hosting to unlock it. That was quite hilarious.
In a nutshell, most of the free hosts basically take you for a ride.
DotEasy Free Web Hosting
Today I came across doteasy free web hosting. They provide $0 free web hosting if you register for a domain name with doteasy. The domain name registration is just $7.95 with coupon code 1003BPM. So, if you just register a domain name for $7.95, you get web hosting completely free! Free hosting includes 100MB disk space, and 1GB website traffic monthly.
Now, let me give a low down on features that why I prefer doteasy, than other free hosting providers that I have come across till now.
Why I love doteasy free web hosting:
Honest Claims: First of all, doteasy has completely honest claims. If you go to “EasyBox” tab on their website, you will see exactly which options are available under Free account. Not only that, they also let you take each of those services for a spin with a “demo” option. So, before spending even a single penny, you know what you are getting into.
Very easy to use Control Panel: doteasy has one of the easiest control panel that I have seen in any webhost (paid ones included). Even if you have never created a website before, control panel will make it extremely easy for you to know what you need. And this control panel is available with free accounts as well.
Applications in Free Hosting: Doteasy lets you install many doteasy hosted applications in your free hosting account. You can install a doteasy blog, doteasy forum, doteasy gallery application, and many more. All these are doteasy applications, and not the applications available outside. For instance, doteasy blog works a lot like Blogger blog. Again, you can take it for a spin with a demo as I mentioned above, so you know what exactly it is. You cannot use blogging software like WordPress with doteasy, but importantly, doteasy doesn’t even claims that you can. So, you know exactly what you are getting with free hosting.
Apart from above, doteasy free hosting includes following for free:
- doteasy website creator, doteasy website tools, free site designer, webform applications, and much more.
- 10 email accounts.
- Host 10 domains
- You get a cpanel
- FTP account (10 accounts)
- 10 sub-domains
- Free customer support.
As you would notice, doteasy free web hosting is packed with features. Free accounts are hosted on similar Dual Quad Core Xeon processor powered servers, as paid accounts are.
So, if you are looking to setup a quick mini site, or a completely managed blog/forum, doteasy free web hosting is a good choice. You get a completely free hosting with domain name registration for $7.95 (with coupon code 1003BPM).
Consider it this way: If you were planning to just register a domain somewhere, go with doteasy. You get domain registration at same price as elsewhere, and get hosting free :)
