Free scripts? Hmmm...
Define "free". With cheaper companies ($5/month and under), I have spent hours of my valuable time on the phone with their support center or wading through their support FAQs trying to get their "free" scripts to actually work. And I've been in this game for years! The scripts are "free" because they're open-source and available everywhere, but most cheap web hosting companies offer minimal support for them. Instead, they direct you to the website where the script came from and then it's Happy Troubleshooting! And don't even mention the time spent trying to get the "free" stuff to look professional enough for a business website—if that's even possible.
1,000 Email Accounts? Hmmm...
Will you EVER use 1,000 email accounts? How about 5 GB of disk space? Or 50+ databases? For most small businesses with 200 employees or less, I've found the answer is: most likely not —even if your business doubles in size. Those email, disk space and database offerings are usually inflated by the cheap web hosting companies to give the appearance of value. In my experience, many small businesses never use more than a few MB of disk space unless they're storing audio, video, large documents or hundreds of photos on their websites. And of the 40+ businesses I've worked with in recent months, none have yet used more than 10 email addresses and they're unlikely to surpass 100 anytime soon. My point is, most likely there are other more immediate web hosting features you should look for.
What To Look For In a Web Hosting Company
It's fine to shop around for a good price. But when researching web hosting companies, be sure to consider:
• availability and speediness of customer support (24/7 phone & email)
• choices in hosting platforms (Windows/ASP, Linux/PHP, etc.)
• choices in database platforms (Microsoft SQL, MySQL, etc.)
• availability of scripts you'd actually want to use on your business website—and I'm not talking about guest books, counters and clocks!
• support for any useful free goodies
• your web designer/programmer's preferences—what's most familiar for them will usually save you money in terms of their time
Most of the above can easily be found for $9-12/month—just a few dollars more than the cheaper web hosting companies. You may pay more for databases, advanced stats or add-on applications so be sure to compare those costs as well.
Bottom Line
We're all smart business people here, right? So you know no one is in business to give you anything substantial for "free". And it's not that cheap is "bad"—we all know there's a huge market demand for cheap stuff—but it always comes with limitations and trade-offs. Some trade-offs you can live with and others will eventually cost you. Just keep your business smarts about you and don't fall prey to all the cheap web hosting company hype.
