I've seen a lot of people here use free forum hosts and it really bugs me because they really are terrible. In this half rant, half educational lecture I'll explain to you the different ways that makes being self hosting so superior.
And where to begin other than the most obvious point? The paid alternatives are better. You can't get vBulletin from free hosting which is the best forum software. Don't argue. It is. IPB comes closely second. They have everything. Everything. That's why you pay $180 for a owned license and in comparison to the free alternatives even that sounds like a good deal.
No database backups. No brotha, not only are some free forum hosts modded so badly that they probably wouldn't even be able to produce efficient and working backups, but they want you to stay with their company and they don't want you to be able to switch. Their excuse? "Databases are private things which the administrators here would like to maintain to themselves," rubbish! They could provide backups so that you could export your forum to self hosting but no. Instead they hold onto them.
0-Customization! You can't install your own mods and only very small likely-to-go-down-soon free forum hosts allow you to request mods. The bigger ones have modded them themselves and are usually filled with bugs that cause your forum to malfunction. You don't get the mods you want and you don't have the option of editing the PHP code to make your own mods.
Skins? Yes, but not very much... Although you can customize your skins with colours and different images, you usually can't template edit and if you can then you can't edit the more important things. For example, you have a phpbb-modded-we-think-its-phpbb3 free forum hosted on phpbbfreeforums4u.com. You absolutely hate having the username under your avatar but cannot change it. You decide you want to move hosts and have already got a userbase of 1000 so ask the admins there to export your database. They, of course, decline and you're stuck with undernames under your avatar.
It's a liability. They host your files, so if they go bust you don't get them back. However if you have a self hosted forum you can backup onto your hard drive so you always have your beloved posts and members. There is no such satisfaction with free hosts and you're constantly under pressure knowing that you're not fully safe. Free forum companies go boom often so don't be surprised if you wake up to see your site isn't there.
Loads of Admin CP permissions are stripped off you because it would be dangerous for you to give you them. This means you don't have full control of your boards. You don't get any of those fun options that you had last time you worked with someone else on a self hosted forum.
Adverts. No free hosting forum site gives you a forum and doesn't put a link to their sites or ads on them. That's a fact. Whether it's a small link on the footer or a flagrant header advertising banners, you're gonna get them which can put users off and can make the site as a whole very unattractive and professional to look at.
So, I hope you've learnt your lesson and will go on to read how to self-host for free that I shall write some other time.
Thanks for reading 🙂
And where to begin other than the most obvious point? The paid alternatives are better. You can't get vBulletin from free hosting which is the best forum software. Don't argue. It is. IPB comes closely second. They have everything. Everything. That's why you pay $180 for a owned license and in comparison to the free alternatives even that sounds like a good deal.
No database backups. No brotha, not only are some free forum hosts modded so badly that they probably wouldn't even be able to produce efficient and working backups, but they want you to stay with their company and they don't want you to be able to switch. Their excuse? "Databases are private things which the administrators here would like to maintain to themselves," rubbish! They could provide backups so that you could export your forum to self hosting but no. Instead they hold onto them.
0-Customization! You can't install your own mods and only very small likely-to-go-down-soon free forum hosts allow you to request mods. The bigger ones have modded them themselves and are usually filled with bugs that cause your forum to malfunction. You don't get the mods you want and you don't have the option of editing the PHP code to make your own mods.
Skins? Yes, but not very much... Although you can customize your skins with colours and different images, you usually can't template edit and if you can then you can't edit the more important things. For example, you have a phpbb-modded-we-think-its-phpbb3 free forum hosted on phpbbfreeforums4u.com. You absolutely hate having the username under your avatar but cannot change it. You decide you want to move hosts and have already got a userbase of 1000 so ask the admins there to export your database. They, of course, decline and you're stuck with undernames under your avatar.
It's a liability. They host your files, so if they go bust you don't get them back. However if you have a self hosted forum you can backup onto your hard drive so you always have your beloved posts and members. There is no such satisfaction with free hosts and you're constantly under pressure knowing that you're not fully safe. Free forum companies go boom often so don't be surprised if you wake up to see your site isn't there.
Loads of Admin CP permissions are stripped off you because it would be dangerous for you to give you them. This means you don't have full control of your boards. You don't get any of those fun options that you had last time you worked with someone else on a self hosted forum.
Adverts. No free hosting forum site gives you a forum and doesn't put a link to their sites or ads on them. That's a fact. Whether it's a small link on the footer or a flagrant header advertising banners, you're gonna get them which can put users off and can make the site as a whole very unattractive and professional to look at.
So, I hope you've learnt your lesson and will go on to read how to self-host for free that I shall write some other time.
Thanks for reading 🙂
