I use both paid and free hosting.
for my free hosting I use doteasy.com, all you have to pay for is the domain name which is a high $35 a year. Now this isn't to say that the free hosting the offer isn't great. I have run a few website's including my own site and have found their service but be quite well. Now they don't offer, php or any kind of scripting but they do offer their own scripts and forum software to use with your free account. You get a generous 100mb space and 1GB traffic, for me that enough to run a small website that has a PR2 ranking. The best thing about this free hosting is that they do not post any ads on your site what so ever.

Paid hosting is better depending on the host that you are using. I am using downtownhost and they are a bit pricey but the level of service is way beyond other host's. The benefits of paid hosting is that you have tech support and you can run scripts of your forum. This kind of service isn't just for business but if you are running scripts or a forum its the ideal choice. You have to be very careful when choosing a paid host it could end up to be your worst nightmare or even worst than free hosting. I have had a bad experience with hosting zoom that after 3 months I couldn't even use my website because the server kept shutting down my scripts every time they ran. I contact support and only received excuses with no satisfaction to my problem.