It wouldn’t be wrong to say that WordPress is one of the greatest content management systems in the world that can help you establish a strong web presence. With WordPress, you can build almost any kind of website. No matter, whether you keep the desire to build a basic blog or a fully functional eCommerce website, WordPress is there to help you.
Though WordPress is a great platform to begin an online journey yet it is crucial that you pair it with the right hosting service in order to take the outright advantage of it.
Usually, we see that people often get confused between paid and free WordPress hosting. So, if you’re one of them and want to banish this confusion, continue reading this post.
In today’s post, we will be comparing paid and free WordPress hosting:
Domain Name
One of the major differences between paid and free WordPress hosting is the domain address. With a free hosting provider, you often get a subdomain name that has their company’s name in the URL.
Since the domain name is an integral part of your online brand, it will not build a professional image for your business if you choose a subdomain. Moreover, it will be difficult for your users to remember such domain URL.
Opposed to this, with a paid web hosting company you get a personalized domain name offers a unique identity to your online business. Of Course, you will be paying for that.
However, the domain name shouldn’t a big issue for you if you’re just a hobbyist blogger or just a learner.
Bandwidth and Storage Space
These are the two major elements that play important role in the performance of your website. In the absence of adequate disk storage, you may encounter issues while uploading photos, video and other forms of content on your WP site. While limited bandwidth can stop your server from performing if more visitors are landing to your website.
With Free WordPress hosting, you get the limited allocation of disk space and monthly bandwidth.
On the other hand, professional paid hosting companies like Cloudways, Kinsta, etc. give their user liberty to choose from a variety of hosting plans with different disk space and bandwidth limit.
There are a few WordPress hosting services such as WordPress.com, 000webhost, X10hosting coming with a decent amount server resources, but if you need to host a resource-heavy website, it would be better to go with paid WordPress hosting plan.
Technical Support
If you are a newbie, it can be a little difficult for you to deal with technical issues single-handedly when running a website. Therefore, it is necessary that you have access to technical support team 24/7.
Though some free WordPress hosting providers give you access to their support team but it is usually limited and you may have to wait for 24 to 48 hours for a response. Sometimes, you may have to sign up for their paid version to get the technical support.
On the other hand, when you choose a reliable paid WordPress hosting provider, you get WordPress specific in-house technical support 24 hours all 7 days of the week. They provide support via different modes such as email, phone, and live chat, you may choose whatever is convenient for you.
Uptime
A good uptime is another important requirement for the success of your online business. Uptime is the time your website is available to your users. Though 100% uptime is the goal, 99.99% uptime is considered the highest availability.
There are many paid hosting providers that guarantee they have optimal uptime and will refund the money if fail to offer said uptime.
You can’t get such a guarantee with most of the free WordPress hosting providers. Since you are not paying anything, you can’t expect a free WordPress hosting provider to meet your all expectation.
Which Should I Choose?
Undoubtedly, for bigger online projects such as a professional blog, e-Commerce website, etc., paid WordPress hosting is a better option. After all, you will be requiring higher disk space & bandwidth and better customer support and uptime.
However, if you want to host a very simple website. For example, a company website that is designed to just display the contact details and services of a company, resources offered by a free WordPress hosting provider will be sufficient for you.
Moreover, people who want to learn WordPress development without spending too much budget can also benefit from free WordPress hosting service.
Final Words
In this post, we compared both paid and free WP hosting services on the basis of resources and technical support. We hope now you are aware of the abilities of both options. So, determine what your WordPress site really needs and go for the hosting option accordingly.
