Free domain vs Paid domain

Registering a domain name is an important preparation to have a website or blog. Among many important factors that affect the choice of domain name is the price one needs to pay for it. There are two types of domain name service providers - those offering free domain names and others offering paid domain names. However, the difference between the two categories is not only of price. Learn other important aspects that should help you make choice among free and paid domain names.

What You Get?

Anyone promising to offer top level domain for free is actually trying to cheat you. It is not possible at all to obtain top domain for free. What you get is a sub-domain which will be a part of a bigger domain. Some good examples of free sub-domains include www.abc.com/xyz and www.xyz.abc.com. Here 'abc' is the top level domain while 'xyz' is the sub-domain that could be obtained by paying no price.
On the other hand, a paid domain name helps one to obtain a top level domain. After purchasing the top level domain, one can create many sub-domains to test or launch different websites.

What You Pay?

It is quite obvious that you will pay nothing for a free domain name. The only drawback of a paid domain name is that you are required to pay the demanded price to own it. Moreover, you will be paying renewal fee every year to continue possessing the domain name. If you miss to pay this cost, the domain name will be tagged as expired and it will be made available for others to purchase. No such risks are involved in the case of free domain names.

Level of Control

For a free domain name, you will have less or no control over the content of the domain. In case the top level domain expires or runs down, the sub-domain you possess too will be affected. There is simply no way to save your domain name in such a situation and you will have to remain dependent upon the top level domain. You do not need to worry about such situations to arise if you decide to buy a paid domain name. You can enjoy full control on your domain name and only you will be responsible for the functioning of your domain.

Are There Any Additional Benefits?

There are no main benefits of a free domain name other than the fact that they are absolutely free of cost. The only thing is that you might not require putting huge efforts to obtain a desired domain name, as you will be choosing a sub-domain. However, many service providers offering paid domain names do offer certain benefits. For example, there are some companies which offer discount on web hosting services if a website owner or developer registers a paid domain name with it. Learn about these benefits and choose a reputed paid domain name provider.
The conclusion is that websites intended for high information sharing or commercial purposes can't survive using a free domain name. Prefer a paid domain name to obtain long term benefits by investing in your ambitious website project.