Web Hosting ProvidersTERRY HALL

Requirements

FREE

No advertising

FTP access (or another secure transfer method)

Near 100% uptime

Adequate storage

The Choices

Github

Self-Hosted

Weebly

Github

Github is a code/web hosting service that encourages collaboration amongst it’s users.

Because of this collaboration, it is easy to contribute to a wide variety of open source projects.

At the heart of Github lies Git, a version control system that allows developers to keep a revision history of their code.

Why Choose Github?

Free, though you can pay a small monthly fee to make your repo private.

No advertising

Reputable – used by many big name companies.

SSH or HTTPs access to upload files. Users also have access to a Desktop app that can be used to sync files with their repository.

The Github desktop app

Why Choose Github?

100% uptime

Version control -- Easier collaboration & trivial to revert changes.

My Github website

So what’s the catch?

Limited to static pages (html, css, etc.)

Strict limit of 100MB on individual file size & a 1GB repository limit.

Self-Hosted

If you’re a do-it-yourself type of person & interested in building a website, you may consider hosting the website yourself.

Why pay someone else to host your website?

Why deal with the hassle of finding a free web hosting service that isn’t littered with ads?

I’ve personally set up a Raspberry Pi as a network share / web server & have had no major issues.

Why Choose Self-Hosting?

You have complete control over not only the web page, but also the PC/server it’s hosted on.

Easy to use software for setting up web server environments. LAMP comes to mind: Linux or Windows OS

Apache HTTP Server

MySQL database

PHP server side scripting

Easy file sharing with FTP & SMB services.

Easy access to your server from the outside world with NAT / port forwarding.

Version control Subversion, Git, etc.

Pitfalls of Self-Hosting

It can be difficult & time consuming if it’s your first time setting everything up. There are a plethora of things to learn.

It’s not always the cheapest option & not always free. A Raspberry Pi can be a cheap option (under $50), but it’s still not free.

If your site goes down, there is nobody to assist you with getting it back online. The 100% uptime requirement is entirely up to you.

Weebly

Weebly is a web hosting service that attempts to make the site-building process much easier for everyone.

Weebly was founded by three college friends who were looking for a way to help others build professional looking websites.

Weebly offers both free & paid plans, depending on the services you want.

Why Choose Weebly? FREE

Easy to use – drag & drop website builder & many templates to choose from. Upload files with ease through the builder tools.

Built-in HTML / CSS editors

Unlimited pages

Email support option & Knowledge base if/when you have issues with your website.

Weebly Downsides

Very restrictive when compared to the other two Web Hosting options I’ve listed.

The FREE plan is missing a lot of the key features the paid versions offer: No domain name

No embedded video players

No way to remove the “Create a free Weebly website” footer.

10MB individual file limit

Conclusion & Recommendation

My choice will be Github for the projects in this course. I recommend using Github because it takes the hassle out of setting up a web server but also lets the user maintain complete control over the website’s content.