Free Hosting – So What’s the Catch?
Free hosting services often try to reel you in with big promises, only to lead you to disappointment. This may come in the form of hidden fees, ads that annoy your site’s visitors, or even low availability, so that visitors can’t even find your website half the time.
If you’re hoping that I’m about to tell you how GoogieHost has come to save the day – spoiler alert – I’m not. You can expect no sugar-coating here. This review is based on my experiences from testing GoogieHost for three months, with a basic website.
There are some benefits to using GoogieHost’s free shared web hosting service, and there are some drawbacks, as well. But if you want to get a web hosting service that you can really count on, I’d check out bluehost. It isn’t free, but the cost is extremely low and its quality service is definitely worth it.
Free Features Galore
GoogieHost’s free plans include lots of features that you don’t usually get for free—like a website builder, design templates, and spam protection, as well as an SSL certificate. Plus, with unlimited bandwidth, you have peace of mind that if your traffic increases, your expenses won’t.
Unlimited Subdomains and FTP Accounts
GoogieHost is a free host, so you won’t get a free domain name, but you do get unlimited free subdomains. This means you can build multiple websites on various subdomains, for no additional monthly fee.
Free Email Accounts
GoogieHost offers free professional email addresses. That’s a great feature, perfect for those starting out and not ready to pay for a professional email with Google (or a similar provider)—especially when you want to keep your expenses down.
No Ads on Your Website
When you opt for a free hosting provider, you’re often forced to place advertising on your website. Refreshingly, GoogieHost doesn’t expect or even try to put up ads on your site, which means that your website will only ever display the content you put on it.
Unlimited Hosting of Website Files
GoogieHost claims you can host unlimited website files, but you’re really capped at 1000 MB of SSD storage. Yes, it’s a little misleading, but 1000 MB is more than enough for most websites, and SSD means it should perform up to ten times faster than traditional HDD.Beginner-Friendly Features
As GoogieHost’s target market is new website owners, as you’d expect, most features are simple to use. This is largely due to the proven combo of cPanel and Softaculous, rather than anything groundbreaking provided by GoogieHost.
cPanel
cPanel, if you’re not familiar with it, is an online control panel for managing your website. The panel is designed to assist and support your user experience and it’s widely trusted in the hosting industry. It’s where you’ll create new email accounts and sub-domains, install scripts, and so on. Basically, it will make your life easier, once you understand the interface.
Free Website Builder
GoogieHost has a great website building feature that allows you to build your website professionally—no need to hire a developer or learn to code. You’ll also have access to around 100 web templates, making it possible to create a website in minutes.
Create an Account
In order to test the account creation process, I tried to sign up for a free account with GoogieHost. Unfortunately, every time I went through the process I got an error message stating that only one free account is allowed per customer.
I didn’t have an existing account with GoogieHost, so it was very strange. I tried with multiple email addresses, using a VPN, and in incognito mode—and received the same error message every time.
Whatever I did, I was unable to sign up for the free account. Of course, this was disappointing and meant I wasn’t able to set up a test WordPress website, test the speed, or do any of the usual tests I would normally do.
Few Complaints from Users
If I were cynical, I might think the 99.9% uptime guarantee was more of a marketing ploy than a bona fide service-level agreement (SLA). I mean, if your plan’s free, you’re not going to get any compensation in the event of excessive downtime, are you?
However, considering it’s a free host, it’s great to see a 99.9% uptime guarantee, and aside from scheduled downtime, GoogieHosts’ reliability is good, and this seems to be the consensus from most users.Support
Helpful Support with Fluctuating Response Times
The type of support available to you from GoogieHost depends on what service you have opted for. If you have the free service, you have limited options. You can head to GoogieHost’s forum to find assistance or you fill out the online contact form.
The community forum was a bit of a flop in my experience—I submitted a question, but despite waiting 48 hours for the moderator to approve and publish it, as far as I’m aware, it never was.
If you’re ready to make a purchase (such as SSL certificate upgrades or domain names), GoogieHost only accepts PayPal, unless you’re based in India.
Cancellations & Refunds
As I wasn’t able to sign up for GoogieHost, I can’t comment on the cancellation process. However, canceling your account with GoogieHost can be done entirely from your control panel.
Comparison
How does GoogieHost match up to the competition?
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