How to Choose the Right Free WordPress Hosting Service
Many people may have heard of WordPress, the free and open-source CMS powering over 100 million websites around the world. Since its establishment in 2007, WordPress has rapidly become one of the most in-demand content management systems around. The reason for this is quite simple. It’s incredibly easy to use, extremely flexible, and has a thriving community of over 500,000 users and developers. Combine this with the fact that WordPress offers some fantastic opportunities for those looking to monetize their content, and it’s no wonder why the platform is growing in popularity.
However, while the benefits of using WordPress are many, ensuring your content is stored safely and comfortably is always a key consideration. This is why we’re going to discuss a few crucial points that you need to keep in mind when choosing a free WordPress host.
Security And Privacy
When you host your website content on a free service, you’re generally giving up some level of security and privacy. This is often in the form of a dreaded viral bug that could potentially compromise your site. In extreme cases, a hacker could exploit vulnerabilities in the CMS to gain access to your site and wreak havoc. Thankfully, this kind of thing is extremely rare.
Nevertheless, as a precautionary measure, you should always look to secure your WordPress-hosted site against malware and hackers. Regularly scanning your site’s source code for bugs is an easy way to do this. Additionally, you can use a reputable security audit service to scan your site for any vulnerabilities and report back to you. The great thing about this approach is it ensures you’re always safe and sound in the event something does go wrong.
Features
Along with security and privacy, you need to take into consideration what features you need and want from a hosting service. Let’s take a quick look at what some of the most popular ones are and how they can easily be incorporated into your decision-making process.
First off, you need to consider how much you’re willing to spend on hosting. Naturally, the price is going to vary depending on the quality of the plan you choose, but you need to set a budget and stick to it. Nowadays, there are some fantastic free hosts available that still offer a satisfactory level of functionality.
Another key consideration is whether or not you want to go with a private or a public hosted solution. If you go with the former, you’ll need to take into consideration what level of security you want. For example, do you want full ownership and total control of your site, or do you want to share hosting with other sites?
The last but not least thing to consider is how much you trust the hosting service you’ve selected. You need to put your intuition aside and do your research. There are hundreds of reputable hosting companies out there, all offering completely unique packages and perks. Some of the more popular ones include:
1→2–4 Unlimited disk space
It is quite clear that you’re going to need plenty of disk space to comfortably upload and store your content. Fortunately, you can get an unlimited amount of disk space for free with most hosting services. So, if you’re looking for a free host, you should definitely check this box off your list.
1→2–4 Unlimited email accounts
You can also get unlimited email accounts with most hosting services. This means you can have as many email addresses as you need without having to pay a penny. So, if you’re looking for a free host with unlimited email functionality, this is a major plus.
In addition to that, some hosts offer free domain privacy which makes it much easier for you to conceal your contact details from spambots and other marketers. Freeing up your own personal details is also something you may want to consider.
1→2–3 Free dedicated IP (Flexible)
A dedicated IP is an IP address that is permanently and directly connected to your website. This means that all of your traffic is funneled through this one IP and is not shared with other websites. If you go with a shared hosting solution, the IP address is shared among multiple sites, and this can cause serious performance issues and unexpected downtime.
However, if you’d like to avoid these pitfalls, you should look into getting a dedicated IP with your host.
Fully optimized for SEO
Many websites are now becoming ‘mobile first’ and are adapting their approach to work on smaller mobile screens. To achieve this, SEO (search engine optimization) is becoming a much more important factor when selecting a web host. This is because SEO-friendly hosts typically offer a number of features and tools to help you build and grow your site using search engines like Google.
If you’d like to choose a host that is optimized for SEO, you should look into checking the following items off the list:
Caching
Caching is a technique where previously downloaded content is stored in memory so that future requests for the same content can be served faster. A cached copy is stored on a server somewhere so if a user clicks a link or enters a search term and the associated content is already in the cache, the web server can serve it directly instead of having to lookup the content from disk each time.
Nowadays, nearly all web servers come with some type of caching functionality built in. However, if you’re looking for the fastest possible load times, you should definitely look into getting a dedicated server with caching enabled.
Local DNS
When a user clicks a link or types in a search term, the requested content is often served from a content delivery network (CDN). A CDN is a large network of servers that are geographically distributed across the world. The distributed nature of the network means that content can be served from any one of the servers in the network. In some cases, this can lead to significant savings in terms of delivery speed and cost.
However, in order to fully take advantage of the CDN, you need to have a local DNS record that points to the corresponding CDN IP address. This ensures that all DNS requests are routed through the CDN and can take advantage of its distributed nature. If you go with a free host, you should definitely look into getting DNS managed by the service you’ve selected.
In conclusion, there are many factors to consider when choosing a WordPress host. This article will walk you through the key points that you need to keep in mind so that you can make the right decision for your needs.