The only difference between free and paid web hosting is that the free ones come with certain attachments such as advertisement-support, where the service provider uses the free site to advertise, usually without permission from the owner. However, current free hosting providers promise to provide the service without banners or advertisements. The free sites will also come with sub-domains such as www.mysite.freeprovider.com or one with a directory like www.freeprovider.com/-my username instead of the common www.mysite.com. The free web hosting providers always provide a premium or paid option should one chose to upgrade to a second-level domain like www.mysite.com. The free web hosting providers offer packages that are however limited in terms of features as compared to the paid hosting. The difference between the features that include storage capacity, bandwidth, file size limit, free page builder properties, template variety and forum support is the basis for deciding which provider has the best offer. Most free web hosting providers generally allow the use of domains that have been separately purchased. A select number of providers offer packages that are accompanied by free third level domains and other additional features. The servers of free web hosting providers are Linux based and can generally support scripts modeled around MySQL and PHP. The favored controlled panels for this type of hosting are WHM or VistaPanel. Free web hosting providers are increasing by the day and challenge the competitors with even better features valued by the clients most or packages like speed, reliability, amount of webspace, bandwidth and easy site building properties. The most well known providers in the market include the likes of GoDaddy and HostGator who offer paid hosting but can also offer free hosting or trial versions. On the other hand, there are providers, who exclusively offer free hosting such as 110mb.com, 50webs, ByetHost, AwardSpace and X10Hosting. Whereas free web hosting is recommended for personal websites or simple experimental sites, it is advisable not to seek the services of free web hosting providers if one intends to create or host a business website because the professionalism will be questioned by the intended clients.
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