Many people are faced with this question everyday, after you have developed your web site you will most likely begin looking for good free hosting, but what is the catch with free hosting providers?
Nothing in this day and age is free, and this is especially the case with hosting. Try asking yourself this question. How do free hosting providers survive? They have to pay for bandwidth, server hardware, server software and support staff just the same as a paid web hosting provider, the answer to this question is advertising.
Most if not all free hosting providers place advertisements on your web site, either by framing your site within their own page with advertising all around, or using pop-up or pop-unders, these free hosting providers also may have tracking of your site to check if your site is generating income for them from these ads, if your web sites visitors are not clicking on these ads and generating income for the free hosting provider, don't be suprised to find your free hosting account closed after a some time.
Here are some things to consider when using free hosting.
Free hosting providers will usually place some form of advertising on your site. There are a few free hosting providers around that may not place on your site, but if you see some traffic pass through your site, the free provider may shutdown your account. Server side scripting languages such as PHP, CGI, Perl, etc. will most likely be disabled. You will have limited disk space and limited bandwidth. You may not be able to use your own domain name, instead you will be stuck with something like "/freehost.com/somedir/~youraccount". You won't access to useful utilities such as site builders and add-on scripts that paid hosting providers offer for free. You won't have an email address that matches your domain name. As these free providers are giving hosting away at no cost, they will not offer 24/7 tech support, or any form of downtime guarantee.
If you choose to pay for your hosting, you will eliminate all of the above inconveniences that come with free hosting. If you need just a simple site to share information with your friends, free hosting is most likely suitable for your needs.
But if your site is for a business, needs to be presented exactly as you wish, or requires server side scripting such as PHP, paid hosting is the only way to go.
Article Written By David J. Smith, owner and operator of Webhost-Advisor.com