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But it doesn't have to be. Let's take a look at some of the most common features a good free web hosting provider should offer:
DISK SPACE AND BANDWIDTH
Disk space refers to the amount of storage space assigned to you by the free web hosting provider.

WEBSITE CREATOR AND FTP
If this is your first website and you have limited or no scripting experience, then look for a free web hosting provider that offers a free website creating application where you can create your website simply by choosing a template and adding in your own text and images.

FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. It is the protocol for transferring your website files from your computer to your free web hosting server, or vice versa. This allows you to upload your finished website files (including images and other multimedia files) from your computer to your service provider's server. It also allows you to download your files from your web hosting server back to your computer. A good free web hosting provider should offer 24/7 unrestricted FTP access.

EMAIL
Yes, your free web hosting provider should provide you with email services - so that you can setup @yourdomain.com email accounts. In addition to a webmail interface (so you can login and manage your emails using your web browser), the email service should also include POP3 and SMTP access so you can setup and access your @yourdomain.com emails using your mobile devices.

SUPPORT AND UPTIME
You should always choose a free web hosting service with free, reliable telephone and email support.
While no host can offer a 100% guaranteed uptime (think problems out of their control, ie. city power outage), they should provide "just-in-case" measures to limit website and email downtime to a minimal. These measures may include 24/7 server and network monitoring, redundant hardware and network configurations, and onsite backup power supply. While you might not completely understand the technicalities of these, look to see if your free web hosting provider has these listed somewhere on their website. If not, ask them about it.

PRICING
If you're looking for a free web hosting provider, then you should expect to pay absolutely nothing for all the basic features listed above. You shoudn't have to compromise pricing with banner ads. Any free web hosting providers that forces ads on your website is a no-no.


WHAT IS WEB HOSTING?
Web hosting is a service that allows organizations and individuals to post a website or web page on to the Internet. A web host, or web hosting service provider, is a business that provides the technologies and services needed for the website or webpage to be viewed in the Internet. Websites are hosted, or stored, on special computers called servers.
When Internet users want to view your website, all they need to do is type your website address into their browser. Their computer will then connect to your server and your webpages will be delivered to them through the browser.

Most web hosting companies require that you own your domain name in order to host with them. If you do not have a domain name, the web hosting companies will help you purchase one.

The basic features of a web hosting plan include:

DISK SPACE
All web hosting accounts offer a certain amount of disk space that you can use to store your web files. It is recommended that you have some sort of estimates on what you need for various tasks - the amount of space you need for your emails, web files, databases, etc. By breaking down your usage, you can better estimate how much space you should go for.


BANDWIDTH OR DATA TRANSFER
Very often web hosts talk about bandwidth and data transfer as the same entity. However, they are in fact, different.

Bandwidth is the amount of data that can be transferred at one time.
Data transfer is the actual amount of data transferred.
Think of it this way. If bandwidth were a tunnel, the bigger the tunnel the more cars can pass through it. Data transfer would then be the number of cars allowed to go through the tunnel in a given time period, say a month.

The less bandwidth you have, the slower it takes your website to load, regardless of your visitor's connection type. Visitors will have to wait their turn. The less data transfer you have, the more often you will find your website unavailable because you have reached the maximum amount of data allowed to be transferred.
To determine what is sufficient, you need to take into consideration the size of your website and the number of visitors you have in a month's time.
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