Every freelancer in Pakistan has been here: you spin up a site on a free host, it works for a portfolio or a side project, and you tell yourself you will upgrade later. Sometimes later arrives because the host adds banner ads you did not ask for. Sometimes it is a CPU limit that kills your contact form during a busy week. And sometimes β as with 000webhost, which stopped offering free hosting in 2024 β the platform itself disappears and you have a deadline to move.
Upgrading from free to paid hosting is not really about prestige. It is about keeping control of your domain, your email and your backups when the free tier stops cooperating. This guide is for that moment: what to save first, how to pick a plan priced in rupees, and how to cut over without your site vanishing for a day.
Signs free hosting has become a liability
Not every free account needs an immediate upgrade. But these are the patterns we see most often from customers leaving free platforms:
- Forced branding or ads on pages that are supposed to represent your business.
- Resource caps β CPU, inode or bandwidth limits β that trigger suspensions right when traffic picks up.
- No proper email on your domain, so you are still sending quotes from a Gmail address clients do not trust.
- Weak or missing backups, meaning one bad update wipes weeks of work.
- A subdomain instead of your own name β
yourbrand.freehost.cominstead ofyourbrand.pk. - The provider changing terms or shutting a tier, which is exactly what pushed many former 000webhost users to move.
If two or three of those apply, paying a few hundred rupees a month is usually cheaper than rebuilding from scratch.
What paid shared hosting actually buys you
A basic paid plan on a local host is still shared hosting β you are not renting a whole server. What changes is the floor under your site:
- Your domain, your brand β no third-party ads injected into your pages.
- Free SSL so browsers show the padlock; essential if you collect leads or run a store.
- Daily backups you can restore from the dashboard instead of hoping the free host kept a copy.
- Mailboxes on your domain β
hello@yourbusiness.pkβ included with the hosting plan. - Support during Pakistan hours when DNS or email stops working the night before a launch.
On PK Hosting, shared plans start at Rs. 699 per month for Personal, Rs. 1,999 for Business and Rs. 3,999 for Professional β all billed in PKR with JazzCash, EasyPaisa, bank transfer or card. There is no free trial; you choose a term, pay once, and the account is provisioned after payment clears. First-time shared orders may be reviewed for a refund if you contact us within seven days before meaningful use β see the refund policy for the full rules.
Step 1: export everything while you still can
Do this before you cancel the free account, not after. Log into the old control panel and grab:
- All website files β usually via File Manager or FTP. For WordPress that is the whole
public_htmltree, includingwp-content/uploads. - The database β export an SQL dump from phpMyAdmin if the free host gave you one. Static HTML sites may not need this step.
- A list of email addresses you were using, even if they were webmail on the free host.
- DNS details β where the domain is registered and whether it still points at the free platform.
If the free host already locked you out, check old laptop folders, emailed exports, or a Git repository. Archive.org may have cached HTML, but it will not restore a database β another reason not to wait until the last day.
Step 2: register the domain if you do not own it yet
Free subdomains cannot move with you. Buy the name you actually want β a .pk, .com.pk or .com β from a registrar you control. Search available names on the domains page; our beginner's guide to .pk domains walks through PKNIC rules and renewal terms if you choose a Pakistan extension.
Step 3: choose a paid plan that fits today, not three years out
Most people leaving free hosting land on a shared plan:
- Personal (Rs. 699/mo) β one site, enough for a portfolio, blog or small business brochure. Checkout: /checkout/?product=2.
- Business (Rs. 1,999/mo) β multiple sites and more headroom for a shop or agency client roster.
- Professional (Rs. 3,999/mo) β highest shared resources when traffic or staging workflows need it.
Compare limits on the hosting page and use the plan chooser guide if you are unsure. WooCommerce or heavy plugins may outgrow shared hosting eventually β the VPS page is the next step, not a requirement on day one.
At checkout, the promo code WELCOME10 takes 10% off eligible hosting-only orders. Domains, VPS and other add-ons are excluded.
Step 4: pay in rupees and get the account live
After you place the order, pay the PKR invoice by card, bank transfer, JazzCash or EasyPaisa. Wallet payments need the invoice number and transaction ID submitted through a dashboard ticket β the exact steps are in our JazzCash and EasyPaisa guide. Activation follows once payment is confirmed; there is no instant sandbox trial to click through first.
Upload the exported files into public_html, create a MySQL database, import the SQL dump, and update your app's config β for WordPress, that is wp-config.php with the new database credentials. One-click WordPress install is fine too if you prefer to restore from a migration plugin export instead of manual FTP.
Step 5: point the domain at PK Hosting
When the copy works on the new server, update DNS. The usual approach is to set your registrar's nameservers to:
- ns1.pkhosting.com
- ns2.pkhosting.com
Propagation can take up to 24β48 hours worldwide, though many switches land much faster if you lowered the TTL beforehand. Prefer to keep DNS at Cloudflare or another provider? Leave their nameservers in place and point the @ and www A records to the IP on your hosting service page instead β both paths are documented in the nameserver guide.
Recreate every mailbox on the new host before you move MX records, then issue SSL from the dashboard once DNS resolves here. Our longer zero-downtime migration guide covers the sequence if you want the full checklist.
Or hand the move to us
If the export step already ate your evening, eligible shared plans include a free website migration: we copy files, databases and email, test the new copy, and only switch DNS after you approve it. That is often the sanest path off a free host because the old site keeps running until you sign off.
The short version
Free hosting is a reasonable place to experiment. It is a poor place to run a business domain you cannot afford to lose. Export early, pick a rupee plan that matches today's traffic, pay once, point ns1.pkhosting.com and ns2.pkhosting.com (or the correct A records), and treat SSL plus backups as non-negotiable from day one.
Ready to move? Start with Personal hosting at Rs. 699, compare every tier on the hosting page, or request a free migration if you would rather we handle the copy.
