What do YOU want in a free host? Why?

[James]

I'm gathering ideas for a solid new free service:

In short, what do you realistically want in a free hosting provider?

My 5 main ideas:

1: A host that's informative for beginners and new webmasters.
2: Good resources with fair amount of specs.
3: A friendly community.
4: Helpful support.
5: Reliable.

If anybody has any other opinions on what a free host should aim for, please explain. This thread is not about whether a free host should have ads or not.

Thanks for your ideas in advance.

[hip_hop_x]

My ideas:
Helpful support
Good uptime ( I don't like the downtime, I lose many vizitators )
And no big ads for users, max 468 x 60

[AMC]

you really want something more, with such a competetive market these days, you really need something special to set you apart from the crowd

[Jovial]

no its the uptime and security
the rest are ok

[Blade1941]

5: Reliable. (they should not stop after 1 month or so) if they have to close down they should tell their users before they do so.

[James]

Thanks for the input guys, it is being very helpful, keep them coming:

I know that many of you change free hosts very frequently. What is the reason when you do and what could have the host done better to stop you from doing that?

[Oompa]

I always like to have shorts URL's with them

Like when you register to some sites and all that you get like a
.test.com
.cs.com

just for examples

but I like that! :D

[hip_hop_x]

Thanks for the input guys, it is being very helpful, keep them coming:

I know that many of you change free hosts very frequently. What is the reason when you do and what could have the host done better to stop you from doing that?

Well I moved my website from almost 4 website in 1 month. Reason: Downtime at many vizitators/not secure

[Brian]

1. IM contact with admins.
2. Regular backups from the host itself.
3. Unlimited Features. (It comes out of their space - Why not?)

[ddt]

uptime

[AMC]

Reliability, Im sure weve all experienced it when a host seems great for about a month or less, you work hard getting everything how you want it, and then the host just dissapears, without so much as an explanation :(

[ganesh.rao]

Good specs too. Not like 10 MB space with 100 MB bandwidth... I suggest min. of ... 300 MB space with 3 gig bandwidth!

[Darknight]

Good specs too. Not like 10 MB space with 100 MB bandwidth... I suggest min. of ... 300 MB space with 3 gig bandwidth!

300mb 3Gb is reasonable
I agree you need around that to make a website 10GB is a better amount of bandwdith

I would say 150MB 10GB bandwidth is a good amount to make a website

[Blade1941]

300mb 3Gb is reasonable
I agree you need around that to make a website 10GB is a better amount of bandwdith

I would say 150MB 10GB bandwidth is a good amount to make a website

Depends on how long the site will be up for.

Because if you have 150 MB space, then your forum/blog/website will regain the space within a month or so if it's big else it could still be there after a year ;)

If you have a website up for 1 year, and you update it a lot then you need much else you don't need much if you only update your site like once a week or so.

Small blog, updated once a week whould not need more than 50 MB, but a forum that is big and might be up for a year or two might need 2-3 GB depends on how big the site will be and how much visitors you will get and how long it will be up for etc etc.

But you can always upgrade the plan laters, (not all free hosts allow a free upgrade of space and BW though).

[James]

Thanks all for your input, they all seem fair and reasonable points.

[ganesh.rao]

How about 250-300 MB space? 10 gig of data-transfer (b/w) is good enough!

[Paul]

A webhosting company managed by James, If you think his free hosts are good you need to try his paid ones, Could not get any better

Regards,
Paul

[James]

A webhosting company managed by James, If you think his free hosts are good you need to try his paid ones, Could not get any better

Regards,
Paul

Paul the man from down under :beer:

[AMC]

*Hopes he doesnt watch cricket* seeing as I ( and it seems James,) come from the UK

Back to the point, Does Your-Websites.com have ads if so then you could have a range of plans from 200mb/2gb to 500mb/5gb to 1gb/10gb

really though, if you have a system like this to start off with then you could keep on going the money would come in if they are using the traffic, so you could go upto 10gb/100gb even, though maybe that is a little high

I tell you what you could say, is that you sign up for a site on the bottom pla and move up as your traffic requires it, you should then have an option for clients to get in contact with you if they need to give you proof that they will need to come straight in on a higher plan because they have an established site that uses that much.

You could of course also have a downgrade system, to minimize wasted bandwidth :)

[James]

Sure, that's a basic idea for any host, but seriously it's never so simple. There are lot of complications with free hosting that only grows as you get more and more members.

I don't intend on going ever beyond 100MB/1GB for the free basic panel. The model I worked on is that there are a lot of beginners who cannot use hosting because of their lack of experience. I wanted to provide a platform for them. Not for free host egoists wanting the largest space and bandwidth possible for their 5th proxy website. 100MB/1GB is actually more than enough for most people.

[AMC]

I know man, sorry i was just throwing figures in the air

and yeah, the basic panel should be small you are right, i just wasnt sure what your main revenue inlets were, and thought that rate of expansion as quoted above would probably be the best way to proceed.

And yeah again, most people dont use more than 100 mb, i just thought you had an offer on for 200/2GB

sorry :)

AMC

[James]

No need for apologizing :beer:

I just love helping new webmasters. :cool2:

[coolvision]

I want a free hosting with php and mysql support and without any banners/ads.

[darthtony]

I Think 150 MB 1 gb Of bandwith is reasonable !

But for forums and little portal I need also php senmail feature !
Is hard when your site doesn't send confirmation of activation or forum's notify !