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When Should You Upgrade Your Blog from Free Web Hosting to a Paid Service?

Home Blog COVID-19 Resources When Should You Upgrade Your Blog from Free Web Hosting to a Paid Service?
You know what they say, ‘the best things in life are free’.   Unfortunately, the internet begs to differ!  If you own a blog and trying to get noticed and drive traffic to your blog, ‘Free’ is not an option – not for long at least! Using free tools, resources, and even free web hosting might have helped you get started but it’s not sustainable. You will eventually need to pick web hosting plans that come at a price but will definitely help your blog sustain and grow.   So, how do you know if it’s time to upgrade your free web hosting to a paid plan? Well, your blog will tell you!   Don’t believe me? Here are 5 signs your blog is giving you to move from free web hosting to a paid plan.  

5 Signs You Need to Move Your Blog from Free Web Hosting to a Paid Plan 

If you got a free web hosting service to get online and practice or learn, that’s not a bad idea. However, if you’re now ready to do more and grow your blog you will need a reliable paid hosting plan. Whether you’re a blogger, an e-commerce store or even a business website, hosting plans are built to help you grow, be more secure, have a better performing website, and most importantly be successful.   For example, if you build a WordPress website, it’s highly recommended to buy a WordPress Hosting plan to get access to powerful tools and a dynamic platform that allows you to build, manage and grow your website.   Alright then, let’s get to the 5 telling signs!   1. Slow Blog Loading Speed  The first sign to look out for is your blog loading speed. Free web hosting comes at a cost! Your blog does not have the necessary server resources or bandwidth that allows it to load quickly. This can have multiple negative effects ranging from losing traffic to poor ranking on search engines. Many surveys have shown that people expect a website to load quickly and 40% of people abandon a website that takes longer than 3 seconds to load! With a paid web hosting plan you are allocated bandwidth and resources that power just your website, thus ensuring that your blog can always be up and running.   2. Blog Crashes and Downtime  What’s worse than a slow website – one that’s always down or keeps crashing! As mentioned above, in free web hosting you are sharing server resources and bandwidth with thousands of other websites and it’s not necessary that your website will always be able to receive the required resources and bandwidth. Even though this may sound like Shared Hosting, in Shared Hosting plans the number of websites sharing a server is limited. Each website can utilize necessary resources and bandwidth – in free web hosting there’s no cap on that! With free hosting, if another website on the server uses a plugin with a bug, everyone crashes!   3. Constant Need for Tech Support  If you’re spending more time talking to technical support than growing your blog – upgrade now! Even with a paid hosting plan, you will require technical support but that’ll be more for upgrading or the one-off technical lags you may face. Firstly, most free web hosting plans don’t really offer effective support and secondly, even if they do it’s not adept to offer customized support. Paid hosting, on the other hand, comes with 24X7 support ranging from helping you grow your website, add/edit plans or resources, or even expert help to grow, build and manage your website.    4. Blog Monetization   The one thing that comes free with free web hosting plans is irrelevant, unsolicited and spammy display ads! Yes, when you get free hosting your hosting provider uses your website or blog to display ads without sharing the money they make from these ads. Some free web hosts may not run ads on your website but may not allow you to run your own ads either! You may even be ‘freely’ sharing all the data, or files on your website with your free host. In a nutshell, it’s not possible to generate revenue from your blog unless you have a paid hosting plan that allows you to run your own ads and keep your website data and files secure. If you’re ready to make money from your blog, it’s definitely time to upgrade to a paid hosting service.   5. Custom Server Options  When it comes to plugins and features to customise your blog, the world is your oyster! But wait, not with free web hosting! With a free hosting plan many features and plugins may be blocked or disabled from your server end, mostly due to security or load issues. Free hosts may be able to disable these for you but usually don’t, to cater to overall server requirements, plus as mentioned before, lack of customised support services. On the other hand, when you buy a web hosting plan you get multiple custom server options to be able to run and enhance your blog just the way you want it to.  

Free Web Hosting Vs Paid Services – Which Side Are You On?  

Have you noticed these 5 signs your blog is showing? If yes, it’s time to upgrade to a paid hosting service. Not only will your blog perform better but it will also allow you to customize and scale your blog. Additionally, you can start generating money and traffic with better SEO, the right tools and plugins, advertisements and much more.   To stay updated, and know more head to our Web Hosting Tutorials page. Feel free to drop your questions and comments below.  
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