UK-based Fasthosts advises small and medium sized businesses (SMEs) to avoid choosing free hosting and domain names. Through a study examining 100 free hosting providers, the company found various drawbacks for SMEs such as, illegitimate impressions free domains carry, space limits, lack of security and others

July 20, 2006 – (TopHosts News Brief) – Fasthosts Internet Ltd. announced that it conducted research which found many small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) remain unaware of the hidden costs of free Web hosting — impacting their future growth and success.

Fasthosts’ ‘How Free Is Hosting?’ research examined 100 ‘free hosting providers’. They found that by using free hosting providers, SMEs are vulnerable to a number of potential problems. First of all, businesses may have to append their name onto the end of the ‘free hosts’ domain name, making it difficult to remember (e.g. www.freewebhostdomainname.com/user/yourbusiness/ .html). According to Fasthosts’ research, free hosts’ domain names reflect disreputable or even “illegitimate” businesses, and are avoided by web-savvy customers.

The study revealed that, on average, these spaces offered 338 MB, with heavily restricted bandwidth allowances. When successful websites reach these limits and owners decide to register a specific domain name, they require a new address and will have to start all over again - which could result in businesses and customers lost.

Additionally, those using free hosting often cannot offer secure shopping carts or secure ordering system. SMEs may even need to purchase outside tools and buy in separate security solutions, ending up in more costs.

For more on Fasthosts visit http://www.fasthosts.co.uk.