Frequently Asked Questions

The NearlyFreeSpeech.NET FAQ (*)

General (*)

What's the most important thing to know about your service?

What's the most common mistake people make while signing up for NearlyFreeSpeech.NET?

Why do I have to enter my real/legal name when creating a membership?

Can I beat your pricing if I get my own VPS?

Do you provide email hosting services?

Is your service easy to use?

Do you provide DNS hosting services?

How many web sites can I host with a NearlyFreeSpeech.NET membership?

Do you register domain names?

How will I know if my account is about to run out of funds?

Why do you only offer prepaid service?

My web designer says I should use somebody else instead of you. What do you say?

Do you price-match your competitors?

How can you make money at these prices?

What is the minimum deposit?

Will you design my web site for me?

Do you offer collocation, dedicated servers, or VPS services?

What happens if I get slashdotted/reddited?

Are you about to pop up a "chat now with sales!" ad on me?

What if I want to set up a web site but don't have a domain name / don't want to fool with DNS?

Why don't you have a free tier?

What's the difference between bandwidth and storage?

Why doesn't your website look like other hosting provider sites?

Are your domain registration services intended for general-purpose usage?

What if my web site gets attacked?

Is your service only for controversial or extreme websites?

Should I set up my new small business website at NearlyFreeSpeech.NET?

Will you pre-approve my web site content or proposed use of your service?

How much will my site cost to host with you?

What kind of uptime can I expect with NearlyFreeSpeech.NET?

Is this cloud computing?

Where are you located?

Do you offer telephone support?

Someone else uses your service and wants my help with it. How do I help them?

Very carefully.

First and foremost, do not let the other person give you their login credentials. If they do, don't use them. Doing that will result in a suspended membership. That will cause both of you all kinds of problems and misery (including but not limited to a $50 surcharge) without helping anybody.

That means that to help someone else with our service, you're going to need a (free) membership of your own. There are two fundamental reasons for this:

  1. When you go to the signup page, you'll see bold print warnings that memberships are created for individuals (not companies or organizations) and that they may not be created for others, transferred, or shared. Make sure you heed those warnings. If you don't: suspended → problems and misery → nobody helped.

  2. Creating your own membership will allow you to look around our system and make sure that you're familiar with the features and limitations of our service and that you're comfortable that you can provide the necessary help.

With that out of the way, there are three main ways to help members of our service.

Due to our privacy policy, we will not discuss the details of another person's membership with you without their express written consent provided by them through our site.

Should I use NearlyFreeSpeech.NET or a VPS?