Web Hosting Forum

which web hosting services are you people using for creating your websites. do you use free web hosting services or paid web hosting. what is the advantage of using paid web hosting services when free web hosting is available

[www.T35.com - Free Web Hostingwww.AlexMelen.com - About Me]

Paid web hosting doesn't have ads added to your website. So if you have a professional site, you might want to go with paid web hosting. Image something like a bank (even a small one) having a website with "Hosted by T35 Free Web Hosting" in the footer of every page It's fine for smaller sites to avoid paying for hosting, but once you have a professional site your best bet is paid.

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.

I use payed hosting, because of the account that I sell web hosting, and the fact that I run almost ten websites, most of which are forums with over 10K of posts... So for me, Payed web hosting is a must. I actually have outgrown shared web hosting, and have gone ahead to buy a VPS (Virtual private Server) which allows me more complete control over my web hosting experience.

Well if you are serious with web business and your websites you should get some serious hosting. I would not pay less than 8-10 bucks considering my experience with give bucks hosts.
If you are unsure then go with free first and when you get some visitors go paid.

Advantage of paid hosting is "Support". For example if you pay more than 20 bucks for hosting with most hosts you get live 24/7 support which is worth gold if you are serious website owner.

If you plan on getting lots of traffic to your website you will need to go with paid hosting. Paid hosting will give better uptime and speed as well as much better support, which is important for any big website. Also free hosts often have forced ads, or at the very least a notice at the bottom of every page saying "Hosted by 000webhost". Paid hosting also gives you more control over your website, such as the ability to add custom error pages, etc.

For me it really depends on the site and what it is being used for. Then I look at factors such as if I do not mind ads on the site or if it would enhance the site. Sometimes I have found it to be beneficial to use some free ones.

Free hosting is for people who are just starting out or learning how to create and maintain a website, they lack certain features like .htaccess for instance .so use a free host to learn

The best free host that I know of is www.freehostia.com they give you 250mb space plus 5gb bandwidth more than enough to get your project started plus you can park your domains there

Cheap hosting services are availabel so I prefer Bluehost an award wining company with great features, plus I get a free domain for life
cheap hosting services are good for professionals where their is no margin for error