Why I keep my domains and webhosting separate

I’ve been creating and publishing website ever since I was in high school, albeit with the help of a good friend at that time and a large amount of floppy disks. “Wilko’s Home Page” it was called, and it featured multiple frames, colorful backgrounds and even a MIDI background song, which in today’s world would have very much sounded like this (don’t judge – we all started somewhere).

My online adventures started without me paying anything for hosting – all my sites were based on free hosting accounts. I quickly learned that when it comes to doing anything online, the adage “What you pay is what you get” applies even more so than in the real, offline world. But I didn’t have a dollar (or euro, at the time) to spend, so I decided to find webhosting sponsors for my growing online business. In exchange for advertisement space they’d provide me with domain registration and online space. It sounded great on electronic paper, but once the relationship went sour or they all of a sudden starte…