What does the hits limit mean?

The "hits" limit is a restriction imposed by Free-Hosting.org that affects how many requests are made to files on your website. This explanation will help you understand what hits are, how to manage your hit usage, and what happens if you exceed the limit:

What is a hit? A hit is essentially a request made to a file on your website. This file could be an HTML or PHP page, an image, a CSS file, or any other file hosted on your website. It's important to note that a hit is different from metrics like page views, visits, or visitors. A single visitor can access your website multiple times, with each visit consisting of several page views, and each page view containing numerous hits.

For example, if a visitor opens one page on your website that includes two CSS files, three JavaScript files, and five images, this action will generate 11 hits. Additionally, any background requests your website makes to its own resources (e.g., a chat script) also count as hits.

How many hits can I receive? Free-Hosting.org enforces a daily limit of 50,000 hits. This limit is calculated over a 24-hour period, not necessarily from midnight to midnight. If your website receives 50,000 hits in a single day, your hosting account will be taken offline for 24 hours. After this period, your account will be automatically reactivated. If your website consistently receives high levels of traffic and exceeds the hit limit frequently, you may be encouraged to upgrade your hosting plan.

Why do analytics tools show lower figures? Analytics tools like Google Analytics provide insights into how users interact with your website, including information about visitors, their sources, the pages they view, and their duration on your site. However, these tools have limitations:

  1. Blocking: Browsers with ad-blocking or tracking-blocking features can prevent the analytics code from running, resulting in data not being recorded.

  2. Limited Metrics: Analytics tools primarily measure page views, visits, and visitors and do not count every individual hit made to render a webpage.

As a result, analytics tools often report lower figures than your actual hit usage because they measure different aspects of website engagement.

Why is my hit count high? Several factors can contribute to high hit usage:

  1. High Traffic: If your website attracts a large number of visitors, it can result in more hits.

  2. File Loading: Websites that require numerous supplementary files to load, such as images, scripts, and stylesheets, will generate more hits.

  3. Attacks: Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks or other malicious activities can cause a sudden increase in hits as your server processes an influx of requests.

How to reduce hit usage: To lower your hit usage and improve website performance, consider these tips:

  1. Remove Unnecessary Files: Remove JavaScript and CSS files that are not needed for your pages.

  2. Browser Caching: Implement browser caching to reduce the number of requests for subsequent page views.

  3. File Combining: Combine multiple JavaScript and CSS files into a single file to reduce the number of requests.

  4. Use Caching Solutions: Employ caching solutions like Cloudflare to cache static files and limit queries to these files, reducing the number of hits.

How to increase your hit limit: On free hosting, the hit limit cannot be extended on demand. If your website consistently exceeds the hit limit, consider upgrading to premium hosting. Premium hosting offers higher hit limits and more lenient resource constraints, allowing your website to grow and handle increased traffic. Additionally, premium hosting may include features like automatic free SSL certificates, Cloudflare RailGun, and a more stable hosting infrastructure to ensure your website remains fast and reliable.