HostGator is my current host after trying some free hosting. Many bloggers begin with free hosts, sub-domains and free scripts – There is nothing bad in it. But decide it in time when it’s good to go for paid services. I switched to HostGator and find here why I did so? (Note: This is not HostGator paid hosting review)
Binaya overheard his parents say “Money attracts money” but he was never more in sorrow to see his coin dropped inside the piggy in an attempt to pull some money out with that poor coin. “Uuff! What the hell were they talking about?” Binay felt his heart down. Sat in a corner of his room and staring that smiling piggy, all of a sudden, he was enlightened “Oh yes, the more money inside piggy attracted my coin! Its true, its true!” That was a story we used to read in junior schools. Whatever, forget it. Today I am here to talk about my switch from friHost to HostGator. How I started my online journey and why I started buying the products online.
A Journey to HostGator from Free Hosting
Why friHost for free hosting?
Settled to friHost after hopping through at least half dozen other free hosting providers. Some were free but displayed their ads too much, some did not let me show my ads, some run my site for a week and sent a note to tell the quota was over and will be live again next month and bla bla bla… I’d read a lot about Adsense and at that time, it was a hot cake. Its about the time – four years ago. I knew some English, some computer and was studying computers in my college. Why not to establish a website and earn handsome money just from my desk without spending a dime? I did not have even that Rs 2 coin Binay found in his box. Had to push a folded paper inside piggy.
Our country still restricts money spending in foreign currency. We need to submit invoices to get permission to pay in dollars. PayPal does not work in our country yet. No way out, but I did not lose hope. On a quest to free hosting and free top level domain I got ddBoard and friHost. These were the two forums that awarded points which could be cashed into domain name and hosting (Read here how friHost offers top level domain name and free hosting). A great opportunity for me! After participating actively and proving myself worthy, I got the Premium like friHost hosting and PS Exam domain name. ddBoard no longer exists but friHost is still there and I still recommend it to anybody new to test and try before he/she plunges into full-fledged blogging. Click here to join friHost forum and earn your free domain name & hosting
#1. friHost is FREE!
Free goods and services are sweet, aren’t they? But here you need to pay with your work, though not money. friHost requires you to submit 5 quality posts before you can request hosting; and need to remain active in their forum to keep your free hosting alive. (But they have not deleted my account yet when I’m away for more than two years. They are just concerned more on spamming to delete your account instantly.
#2. Offers Premium though it is free hosting
I was provided cPanel to manage my account and hosting. I guess these days they offer ‘The DirectAdmin control panel’. 10GB bandwidth per month was more than enough for a beginning website. Fantastico, File Manager, Add on domain and everything that you get on paid hosting.
#3. Supports Joomla, WordPress and many other popular scripts
Because they provide Fantastico it is damn easy to install and configure the required scripts. This is very good for beginners.
#4. No Forced Ads
The best thing of friHost which is hard to get in any free hosting is, it does not show any ads. You are free to use your account as if you’ve paid $120/year.
#5. Supports Your Ads
This is what I started to create a website for. Incorporate your Adsense ads or any other as you wish. I run my PS Exam there for about two years before I decided to switch to paid hosting.
Why I moved to paid hosting?
You can understand, I wouldn’t stay on free hosted website for ever. I had to and learned a lot while in friHost but investment was necessary. Binay’s parents were not in illusion – they were talking real world fact! At the end of the day, “Money attracts money”
#1. Bandwidth
One primary reason for this switch was bandwidth. 10GB/month is not bad for free hosting but, as my site grew, the traffic grew gradually and there were good search engine visitors. The allocated bandwidth appeared to be insufficient. Two or three times, the administrator increased the bandwidth to 15 & 20 GB for that particular month but this was not going much far.
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Read this if you don’t know: What is bandwidth
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Read this to know How bandwidth is calculated and how much bandwidth you need.
#2. Shared IP and Bad Neighborhood
friHost work hard to keep its server clean from porn and illegal contents that may harm your website ranking on search engines. But still I was worried of the fact that almost all of the emails from website was blocked or thrashed in to spam box because of excessive spamming. Even on my own domain name could not help much. Through their forum I concluded this is almost impossible to solve it for free accounts.
#3 Limited support
Because there are innumerable free websites on their server, its not possible for them to provide individual support. I was in heavy learning phase and faced many nonsense problems. There was a separate section in friHost forum to talk about hosting and other service related issues, it was not always pleasant. And I could not expect more from a free hosting account.
#4 Website Hacked
It was not caused by friHost but my website hacked for three times when in friHost. On the first time, I did not have backup and there was nothing they could do. Everything was vanished and started again from scratch. I learned how important it is to have a backup copy of your website. On successive hacks, I could restore my sites quicker.
Interested to hacking? Read: Hacked blog, How My Site got Hacked, Preventing Hackers | Marathon You Can Do It Check if your site is hacked: Website Security Check – Unmask Parasites
#5 Had some money in pocket
By that time I had some money in pocket. Though I could not withdraw money from paypal, the account had some, to make online purchases. The first thing I’d thought of buying anything was paid host after own domain. My website earned some money through Adsense and I got some in payPal through selling links and other stuff.
Why I chose HostGator?
After going through all those sweet and sour experiences, there was no meaning to look for cheaper hosting. I was more concerned to quality service and better security. I hope, you’ll certainly agree that HostGator is the #1 hosting provider for small and large websites. Though I paid a few dollars more than what other’s tempt with, I’m enjoying the stability, reliability and top quality support. I say the money worth! I won’t sit on that corner to stare the piggy anymore! I’ve got the enlightenment. Click here to register on HostGator
#1. HostGator is suitable for all sort of websites
HostGator provides three different plans to suite everybody. Hatching for single domain but no worries about bandwidth and disk space all for $4.95/month. Baby for unlimited domains, disk space and bandwidth all for $7.95/month. Business plan for unlimited domains, diskspace, bandwidth and added dedicated SSL & IP with a toll free number for $12.95/month. Because I wished to host my PS Exam, ICT Trends and this blog all in one hosting, choose Baby Plan. After reading some posts on bad neighbourhood I’m planning to upgrade for Business Plan shortly when revenue will be sufficient to cover the expenses.
#2 Super quality support
May you never need to contact their support but ever if you need, you’ll love how they response. I made a few contacts and every time its well organized and problem was solved on single sitting. They provide toll free numbers to make a call and inquire or discuss your problems. For a couple of time I’ve used live chat and always appreciate how they helped. Click here to Chat with HostGator Support
#3 Recovery in case of disasters
Its always advisable to have a backup copy of your site. Its not always hackers and intruders who harm your blog but sometimes you yourself might be mischief. I have a bitter experience. I was working with a dummy site testing different things. When everything was over I was deleting that site through File Manager. You know how devastating it may be when you are not super-conscious. The whole hosting folder was deleted just in a click when I was intending to delete just a sub-folder. OMG! all my three sites were gone before I realized what I did. Now uploading everything was not much enjoying job. Thanks to the HostGator support. They provided me a link and the site was live just in another five minutes (I had to pay $15 for the service though
) I’m glad to know, they have everything we had in case of any disaster.
#4 Discount and Coupon Codes
Hostgator always offers lucrative discounts. If you wish to sign up with HostGator use ‘seommotips’ as coupon code to get a discount of $9.94 on hosting accounts.
What I don’t like with HostGator
I did not get any discounts when renewing my account and had to pay full charge. That is the worst thing I did not like
. Whatever, I won’t hesitate to pay HostGator for this superb services.
About Suresh Khanal
Frihost is good hosting site for some testing and other stuffs and they are really good with no hidden strings attached. I am hosted with them and I like it. Ya, I need to post in their forum but it is more of a fun than obligation.
Suman @ Crazy Blogger recently posted…Eliza Dushku Interview
That’s true Suman. After you write a post on your blog you’d certainly love to talk about it in the forum. Another way to effectively promote your post. Moreover each member there are so helpful and worthy. I got my site logo designed by friends out there paying some frih$
Interesting isn’t it?
I have never heard about frihost before.
When did you move the host? because i notice your blog loads faster than usual. Not sure if the host moving causes this.
However i use HostGator for my clients, compared with JustHost, i would prefer Justhost. Hostgator cPanel files don’t have tick box, for example if i am on my cPanel, i want to select a file, it does not have a tickbox.
I am happy with JustHost for now, and also fine with HostGator.
I am happy you have chosen the good hosting for this blog. Cheers.
Kimi recently posted…How To Use WordPress To Create A Website — WordPress Tutorial
It must be because you never look for a free host. My online career began when I got friHost hosting account. That is pretty loveable service except the issues I’ve discussed.
Blog speed should be the result of cache and cleaning up the plugins. SEO MMO Tips is on hostGator from beginning. That’s the story one and half year back.
I have not experience with JustHost and might be better. Regarding selecting files in cPanel you can do them as in your computer folder. Hold down the shift or ctrl key and click on the file names. Its more easier. I don’t need to mark on the check boxes. You won’t look for check boxes in your windows folder, do you?
Thank you Kimi for the comment and your support as always.
Noooooo, i always looked at free webhost, to host my test blogs lol..
I have so many test blogs everywhere, from x10hosting, qupis, 000webhost, etc but never heard abour frihost, will look for it, definitely.
I actually used test.web6.org, but it was indexed by Google, and i don’t want that, maybe i could of prevented it with robots.txt, however i choose free hosting to experiment my test blogs.
I don’t need tick box to mark, you are right. This is maybe because i am so used with JustHost, so whenever i login to hostgator for my clients, it is different
Glad you have cleaned up your plugin.
Take care, Suresh!
Kimi recently posted…Iframe Traffic — What is Iframe Traffic For
OK, then its a bit unusual. You can always try friHost. Its not completely free in fact, because you should pay the price with posting in their forum, isn’t it? Its good they offer top level domain names too in exchange of frih$.
Haha ! Good good Suresh ! This was certainly a good read and i enjoyed. Specially when u blinked by saying (I had to pay $15 for the service though Winking smile). I really loved it.
I am also BIG fan of smiles and use it often everywhere. Hostgator is surely Top Notch company and most popular ! Its one of the best hosting company to start with. According to sites popularity you may wish to change …I have known many of the sites are banned without notice from hostgator though 
All the best to you !
Baba recently posted…Get free High PR Do-follow Backlinks Every Week !
Hey! Baba, good to find you here on my blog! I can’t understand why HostGator would ban somebody? :-O
If your server uses more resources they will ban you without warning.
Plugins like backupwordpress use very high resources sometimes and if your stories get popular in social media sites then also high resources is used.
Thanks
Baba recently posted…Get free High PR Do-follow Backlinks Every Week !
OMG! That’s too bad! I have not used that backup plugin, I do it manually. I need to be alert when my posts get popular
It seems frihost is a good quality free host (from what you said in this blog post). It is a good place for initiate start I think.
Dana @ Cell Phone Reviews recently posted…Sony Ericsson Cedar J108i Cell Phone
Yes Dana, friHost can be a good choice for somebody who wish to learn self hosted blogs, honestly. Thank you for the comment.
Hostgator is great but it would be much cooler if it had the possibility to use coupons for renewals.(although this might be because of their high discounts on first time users).
And although I now have dedicated servers I still maintain 1 hostgator account for some low trafficked websites and I use it as a cdn for some of my files (considering I go through something like 100 GB of bandwidth a day on my servers that is a nice addition).
Having such great forums to start with and getting something premium for free is great and I think it spurs people to go forward with their plans.
Alex@Jocuri recently posted…Fotbal Lovituri Libere
Yes Alex, how lovely it would be a few coupons for renewing
I don’t have much idea about dedicated servers, how can one obtain that and is it too expensive?
Well, a dedicated is the same as a hosting account except that you can control all the server and your websites are the only ones on that server.
I have my server from hetzner and I pay around 70 euro a month. But I think they have cheaper plans. Of course you don’t have to buy a dedicated server if you have website with low traffic. The server is necessary when a shared account can’t handle your site anymore.
Alex@Jocuri recently posted…Curse cu Dubite
Thank you Alex for the information. It sounds good to have a dedicated hosting. Its must be like that for larger sites to keep healthy!
I used a free host like friHost for my blog for over 1 year. After posting some replies and threads, I got a free host with limited features but it is still too good for my blog’s traffic. However, it was dead earlier this year and I had to move to Justhost. So I recommend people not to use free service as it is not consistent and could bring many troubles to our blogs.
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It can’t be suggested to use a free hosting for anybody about to start serious blogging or professional blogging. That’s why I shared my experience. But when you don’t know anything, it better start with friHost and free domain names before you actually start invest, isn’t it?
Glad to know, you’ve started premium services
I love HostGator, after using a lot of free services I decided to go with a paid service by the name: “FatCow” they were horrible, their database kept giving me random errors and their servers would go down sometimes for more than a day, then again it was only about 66 dollars that I paid for their service.
I decided to pay a little more and go with HostGator, until now my site still hasn’t gone down yet, and their online support is fast and extremely helpful.
I’m going to upgrade to their dedicated servers once my site becomes a bit more popular and be able to cover its costs.
I recommend HostGator for any beginners who wants to focus more on growing their site rather than on fixing useless server problems.
Sayed recently posted…What Earns More- A Static Website Or A Blog
That’s more than horrible experience. Dreadful!
I agree with you, bloggers are to focus more n growing their sites and not fixing those silly server problems
Hostgator is good. There’s surely no regrets when using it.
Yup Andrew, nothing to grumble about throughout all these years. Thanks for stepping in and the comment.
Hi Suresh,
Very long review, but interesting, I agree with you even I am on your foot steps few of my blog are still hosted on free hosting and using my main blog on a dedicated server.
I knew the problem and pain in hosting in free and post to host servers. I have migrated blog in countless servers and settled with Tikolah which gives an unmatch service..
However Hostgator is the best hosting and unmatched support make them the No.1 hosting.
Thanks for Sharing
-Imran
Imran@TechiesBlog recently posted…Auto Traffic Monopoly – The Latest Automated Money Making Approach
Yes Imran, hostGator is #1 in their support. A few buks more worth the service they provode.
Never heard about Tikola, how are the charges there? I hope you are satisfied with what you’ve got.
From your review, I can understand that frihost is a good service for a beginner. I would love to switch to WP with frihost but I still have 6 months left with my domain. Right now, I am thinking about working harder and staying with blogger. I could switch to WordPress later if I want to.
Anyway, Nice post, Thanks Suresh,
Jeevan Jacob John
Note: I will try to write my guest post for your site (sorry for the delay, got busy with studies and the break)
Thank you Jeevan for your comment.
Switching to WordPress from Blogger expects more work to be done – especially we are more concerned to keep the urls of posts and pages unchanged otherwise there’s a heavy loss of PageRank.
I’m glad, a post from you on my blog is in pipeline. I’m also been much busy these days as I’m sitting for an exam. So, I’ll not be able to write new posts, it would be great assist if some friends contribute good posts to discuss on
Free hosting just using to start blogging if you don’t want or don’t have money to invest for a paid blog. However I think, this time most hosting and domain fees are cheap, there’s no reason for using a free hosting.
Because if you using free hosting, there are some issues such as ads, no safe for your content, overload … !
Tony recently posted…Orange UK Prices 3G iPad At £199 On Two-Year Contract- Taking Pre-order Today
I agree with you Tony.
You should going to your blog more frequently, it’s too late to reply for a comment in last year.
Dana @ TechAsking recently posted…How does the average PC and Internet user voice their opinion on the Microsoft takeover of Yahoo
We’re hosted on HG now as well and the process has been pretty good to date. There was one issue with the server being turned off by mistake but customre service has been accurate and on the ball.
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The support is super, that makes them most lovable.
I think we shouldn’t try free host this time. Because there’s a lot of free blog service that you can make your own blog such as Blogger, WordPress.com.
Debt recently posted…T-Mobile UK Offering The Samsung Galaxy Tab On PAYG Contracts
But the flexibility of self hosted blogs can’t be anywhere in blogger.com or wordpress.com. Serious blogging needs self hosting.
However, it’s safe than almost free hosting.
Dana @ TechAsking recently posted…I am not connected to the Internet
I never recommend for free web hosting.I have developed many sites and always used paid services.
That’s very good suggestion, but sometimes people need to. For beginners and learners, it can’t be ignored.
Not all of users can afford for a paid hosting while they are just starting in the zero point.
Dana @ TechAsking recently posted…computer issues please help
Hostgator rocking,Never disappointed me with my Hatchling plan and I recently signed up for a baby plan too.
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Little bit more money at first but affords a good night sleep
A dedicated SEO server, as the name itself recommend, is a server that’s dedicated solely to you and is not shared by anybody else. It is leased solely to your company so that you’ve got full authority to use it. With no one to share it with, for sure, your website becomes rather more reliable, fast; it unquestionably provides you the liberty of adding whichever function you want without compromising.
I love hostgator too! The customer service is great and the service is much more stable than the free service I used to use. I like that I can count on my site being online all the time and that’w worth $10 a month to me.
Absolutely John! You can’t expect too much from free services. When you’ve paid for, you must get most reliable.
I am currently using Hostgator and never had any problem in last 320 days.
Pankaj Gupta recently posted…Use of Google Search Operators are Case Sensitive
Hahaa 320 days! Thanks Pankaj, I’m glad I did not make wrong choice.
I was on the exactly same path as you. I don’t have a credit card when I first started, so I joined a forum offering free domain name, and hunt for a free hosting. When my AdSense earnings is sufficient to cover the price of a paid hosting, I switched over.
First host was DreamHost, then WPWebHost, and lastly HostGator. I doubt I would switch again. HG is just too awesome.
Vincent Chow@SheepTech recently posted…How-To- Downgrade from Windows Live Messenger 2011
This was the most safe road isn’t it Vincent, though we lose bit more time.
So, you settled with HostGator now, don’t you?
Yes, been over a year now.
Vincent Chow recently posted…Apple Might Bring e-ink To iDevices with Hybrid Displays
I’ve actually seen a few advertisements around town for HostGator, but I hadn’t seen any reviews of it. This was a really in-depth, thoughtful review. I was using GoDaddy for a while, but I never really did anything with my website so I let my domain expire. But this next time I’m building my blog the smart way, and I think I just might give HostGator a try.
Thanks for the review! It was very useful.
Delelna
Delena Silverfox@Coupon Codes recently posted…iContact Coupon Code
Thank you Delena for stepping in and for the comment. HostGator really worth giving a try.
I too went through the same track through which you went. My first hosting was from a post to host forum and I was using a free domain. But the bad thing in my case was that I lost all my posts and data since the host went offline forever. I had to restart again with a new host, that time I joined Arvixe my previous host and now I am at Knownhost. It certain that you need to invest something to get something back online
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Its really sad to loose all the posts and comments, this must be a misfortune. But you can’t blame them, and they are always safe
It’s definitely tempting to put your website on a free host, especially a blog. However, generally speaking I think it’s a bad idea for all the reasons you listed, plus since you don’t have ownership over a free site like blogger.com or Tumblr you risk having your blog taken down at any moment. I’ve seen it happen to numerous Blogger writers. Free is great, but self hosting your blog is so cheap these days, it’s almost always a better option.
Mark@Hospitality Marketing recently posted…Blogging for Restaurants and Hotels- What Do I Blog About
That’s what I realized when I come to know that some of the domain names worth even thousands. What the use if that is not yours? I agree with you, hosting your site is not that expensive these days to depend upon free blogging services, if you really wish to go for serious blogging.
From your review, I can understand that frihost is a good service for a beginner. I would love to switch to WP with frihost but I still have 6 months left with my domain. Right now, I am thinking about working harder and staying with blogger. I could switch to WordPress later if I want to.
Anyway, Nice post, Thanks Suresh,
You can use your domain name with frihost hosting. If you change hosting, it does not change your domain name. Just add your domain name in your hosting account and update NS Record of your domain. The same domain will point to your new hosting. Switching from blogger to wordpress is a hard work and even harder if your blog is older and contains more content.
If you really wish to grow blogging, I strongly recommend you to switch to WordPress as soon as possible. If you are interested, please check my recent post on Bivori.com, I found 12 month free premium hosting. Hope that will be more suitable because you are already blogging.
Hostgator is great but it would be much cooler if it had the possibility to use coupons for renewals.(although this might be because of their high discounts on first time users).
And although I now have dedicated servers I still maintain 1 hostgator account for some low trafficked websites and I use it as a cdn for some of my files (considering I go through something like 100 GB of bandwidth a day on my servers that is a nice addition).
Having such great forums to start with and getting something premium for free is great and I think it spurs people to go forward with their plans.
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Ya, once you bought HostGator, you don’t have any discounts on future purchases. Its sad, but true. Thank you for the comment.
Free Hosting not good for a paid blog.Because it some ome issues such as ads, no safe for your content, overload.
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There should be a proper investment if you wish to earn something. Free hosting are good till you learn and test the different aspects. But to step down to stage, paid services are a must.
Hostgator is good actually. I never heard about frihost before, I think it is good as well. Thanks for sharing this informative post! Keep sharing!
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Frihost is free hosting service if you post on their forum regularly. HostGator is #1 hosting service, no doubt.
hey there, thanks for the awesome article. I will be moving to frihost next week. thanks!