If you are creating a web site this question is probably one of many, so let's take a look at the main differences between the two. What a web hosting company will do, free or paid, is store you web site's contents on a server, than others can access your site from the World Wide Web . You should register your domain before you host it, this will make it easier for you if you ever need to switch hosts.

Let's take a look at some the issues that come with a free host. If you are creating a personal site a free host would work ok for you as long as you are not planning on the site growing too large. If you are creating a business site you should probably opt for the paid host because your site will more than likely be too large for a free account. A free host will have many limitations on what you can control through your FTP , and you more than likely will not have an email address with it. You will have a very long URL, that is not exactly what you want, and more than likely have to have ads on your site for the host. Then the biggest problem with a free host is the lack of support, you will more then likely have no or very little support.

With all the host companies out there all the hosts have had to really get competitive with their prices. You can get some really good packages that include the following; databases, 24 hour support, design tools, statistic reports, more storage space and more bandwidth. Before you pay for the host, look around at what others think of the host's services. You can do this by looking at forums, reading reviews and looking for customer testimonials. You want to really pay attention to how much downtime people are experiencing, this will cause you a lot of frustration and you don't want to have to change hosts a few months down the road, which is a lot of work.

The top five issues with free web hosting:

1) Little to No Support

2) Low Bandwidth

3) Advertisments on your Webpages

4) Server Downtime

5) Small Storage Space