Paid vs. Free Web Hosting By Brian Shoemaker It really depends on what your needs are and what you are trying to accomplish. There are advantages and disadvantages for both paid and free web hosting. Free Web Hosting Advantages: - The most obvious benefit is that it's free. - You can use your free web space to practice programming. Not many, but some free web hosting plans support a programming language such as PHP, ASP, CGI/Perl, Coldfusion or JSP. - A free web hosting plan is great for creating a small personal website. Disadvantages: - A bunch of free web hosts place their banner and text ads on your website. - With a large number of free hosts, your website is placed in a sub-domain or a folder (www.yourwebsite.freehosting.com or www.freehosting.com/yourwebsite) which sometimes results in poor search engine rankings. - Because they are offering free hosting, the majority of free web hosts can not afford to offer 24/7 or any support. - Very few free web hosts offer a control panel with their plans. - Another flaw with free web hosts is many don't allow FTP access which is an obstacle if you have many files to upload. - Free web hosting plans don't offer much disk space or data transfer. This could be a problem if you have a lot of large files or if your website generates a lot of traffic. Paid Web Hosting Advantages: - With paid hosting, you will now have any unwanted text or banner ads placed on your website. - Your website will not be placed in a sub-domain or folder. You will have your own domain name (yourwebsite.com) which will not only result in better search engine rankings, it also looks more professional. - Most paid web hosts offer 24/7 support. - A lot of paid web hosting plans offer a control panel such as cPanel, Vdeck, Plesk or Ensim which offer features like web stats, the ability to password protect directories, and the ability to create web based email accounts. - Most paid web hosts offer FTP access. - The majority of paid web hosting plans support a couple programming languages such as PHP, ASP, CGI/Perl, Coldfusion and JSP. - With the more disk space and data transfer you get with paid hosting, you can add more files to your website and it can handle more traffic. Disadvantages: - The only disadvantage here is that it's not free. About the Author: Brian Shoemaker is the owner of the cheap web hosting directory Find-A-Web-Host.com offering affordable web hosting.