Free hosting vs. Paid hosting

Free hosting is always the best way to get use to programming and the web. It can provide you with great experience and you can find out what you want to do on the web before you buy hosting. Free hosting is free so you can make as many websites as you want without spending a dime and if one of your sites (that's hosted with a free hosting) becomes very popular, you can buy paid hosting and a domain name and transfer your site. It's always good to be on the safe side. But if you have the money, time, experience, and a goal, then if you want to buy hosting and a domain name, go ahead. Just make sure that your goal is clear and concise so you can follow it and keep the site focused on one thing. If you attract more visitors, use ads to make money and pay for hosting and if your hosting is not able to support the amount of traffic you have, then upgrade your hosting with the money you're making from ads, etc.

Below is the break down on the 2 different types of hosting.

Free Hosting

Free hosting is hosting that is free, the name if very clear. It means that you don't have to pay for it like anything else that is free. The only problem with free hosting is that there are not as many features, for example web hosting providers may not let you upload large files, a whole bunch of files at the same time, not let you upload music, no downloads, etc. Also, with free hosting, there might be limited space and some times you an find it to be too little, and there's usually certain bandwidth limits and most free hosts will place ads on your page. It is their way of making money. You can some times find people who are not doing any business and they are willing to provide hosting on their site, then that's great because they generally will give you more features and freedom because they're not looking for profit. There are hosts that won't put ads up, but it is very rare. There are some good hosting, but not a lot and free hosting that lets you use things such as PHP or CGI is very rare. There are many disadvantages, but it is free.

Paid Hosting

Because free hosting has limited controls, many people who are most likely more experienced with the web buy paid hosting. Paid hosting isn't that expensive. They can vary from a few dollars to hundreds of dollars though. But for a small web site, generally the basic plans are good enough for it. Paid hosting allows the user to do whatever they want within the hosting's abilities and growing businesses generally have web sites. Keeping up a website might be costly so people usually try to make money from their site by placing ads on it. Ads are generally ok as long as it doesn't annoy the user and make them leave the site.