New web technologies have made it possible for individuals to publish their own websites. Website builders let small businesses leverage on the power of digital marketing without the huge investment. And the use of a free web server means people with little to no website development knowledge can get their site up in no time. This is why free hosting services have become an attractive option for building sites on a budget.
It’s important to note, however, that free web server hosting may not necessarily be for everyone. These services address a specific need and you want to assess your requirements first before deciding to create an account.
What are free web servers?
A free website server is basically a service that houses your website’s files and information and get them ready for retrieval when search engines, users or other websites “call” for your pages. Server hosting usually comes with a price - a high one, especially if you’re using your own server to contain your web files. Website builders offer free website hosting by giving you a shared space where your files can reside along with other websites under their management.
Cost effective website hosting solution
Free web servers lower the barrier to entry for owning a website. It is a viable solution for beginners. The service is absolutely free and requires no subscriptions to any paid plan. Under a free service, you get a space on the host’s web server and a free domain name that you can use for your website.
Ideal for starting small
If you’re the type who wants to dip his toes into something before taking the plunge, starting with a free website hosting service might be a suitable solution for you. It lets you gain real world experience in creating a website for a targeted audience and understand the nuances of shaping your message to suit your niche - all of this at a minimal cost.
It can be a huge risk spending on a website before you’re absolutely sure that your venture will take off. Creating a free site to start may be a viable solution while you’re testing the waters and still in the process of identifying your market niche.
Strikingly offers free website hosting services that are perfect for new brands and professionals looking to create a starter website. We’ve hosted thousands of small businesses on our platform and enabled them to compete with bigger brands in their industries.
Bandwidth considerations
A free web server will naturally come with limited bandwidth. Strikingly’s free account, for instance, offers 5GB monthly bandwidth so you can upload high quality image files and videos for your site and users can load your page at a decent speed. During the early life of your website, you wouldn’t expect a huge influx of web traffic to come in and 5GB should be more than sufficient until you have a clear digital marketing campaign running.
Eventually, however, you will want to upgrade to a paid service with bigger bandwidth. As your site grows in scale, you’re going to upload more media files and expect more users to come in to your site. Having said that, your web server provider should be able to accommodate your site’s growth.
Reliable customer support
Free web server hosts are not created equally. One thing that you should look for when choosing a provider is customer support. You could get stuck while setting up your website or while you’re managing your content. It would be good to have somebody to ask when you run into a problem with your website. Many platforms do not provide sufficient support for free accounts so you’re left running your website on your own. Strikingly extends customer support services to free accounts so you never have to feel clueless about how to get the most out of the platform.
