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There are advantages and disadvantages for both paid and free web hosting. But it actually depends on what ones requirements are and what one is trying to achieve.

Advantages of Free Web Hosting

- As it is free it is the one of the most obvious advantage.

- Free web space can be used to practice programming. Some free web hosting plans support a programming language such as PHP, ASP, CGI/Perl, Cold fusion or JSP but several do not support all the languages.

- For creating a small personal website free web hosting plan is great.

Disadvantages of Free Web Hosting

- The majority of free web hosts cannot afford to offer 24/7 or any support as they are offering free hosting.

- Many free web hosts do not allow FTP access, which is an obstacle if one has many files to upload this one of the major flaws with free web hosts.

- Many free web hosts place their banner and text ads on the website.

- Very few free web hosts with their plans offer control panel.

- Ones website is placed in a sub-domain or a folder with a large number of free hosts, which results in poor search engine rankings most of the time.

- Much disk space or data transfer is not offered by free web hosting plans. This can be a problem if one have a lot of large files or if ones website generates a lot of traffic.

Advantages of Paid Web Hosting

- Most paid web hosts offer 24/7 supports.

- One will not have any unwanted text or banner ads placed on ones website with paid hosting.

- 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 are being offered by a lot of paid web hosting plans.

- One will have ones own domain name (consumerswebsite.com) which will not only result in better search engine rankings, but will also look more professional. Thus ones website will not be placed in a sub-domain or folder.

- As with paid web hosting one gets more disk space and data transfer, one can add more files to ones website and it can also handle more traffic.

- Most paid web hosts are offering FTP access.

- Couple programming languages such as PHP, ASP, CGI/Perl, the majority of paid web hosting plans is supporting Cold fusion and JSP.

Disadvantage of Paid Web Hosting

- It’s not free this is the only major disadvantage of paid web hosting.

When you are trying to decide what web hosting company to go with you may see that one of the hosting companies is offering Unix web hosting and another is offering Windows web hosting. There will even be times when you can choose one or the other from the same web hosting company. So what are the differences between Unix and Windows and which should you be using?

First of all it is important to note that it does not matter which type of web hosting you decide to go with when creating your site as the actual code used to create your website is essentially the same. The differences between Unix and Windows are actually differences that are more behind closed doors if you will. Here are some major differences between the two:

•Software: This is the biggest difference between the two. Because Windows is a Microsoft product it will stand to reason that the Windows web hosting will run Microsoft software such as VBScript scripting languages and Microsoft Access databases. Unix on the other hand will not be compatible with these types of software. If your website will require specific Widows or Microsoft applications it will better for you to go with a Windows web hosting service.

•Reliability: While both Unix and Windows web hosting are indeed very reliable, Unix does hold the slight advantage in this category and tends to spend less time ‘down’.

•Cost: A Unix web host will use any of a number of ‘flavors’ of Unix like Linux or FreeBSD. These operating systems are free and help to keep costs down. Windows on the other hand sees their server software cost thousands of dollars and this can mean more money out of your pocket as well.

•Bug fixes: Because Unix is run on free servers that mean that anyone has access to the full source code. While that may not sound like a good thing, when it comes to getting a bug fixed it is indeed a good thing as many individuals spend a good deal of time writing new code for Unix to help make it better and fix bugs. Windows though is again owned by Microsoft and because of that only Microsoft people have access to the source code which leads you to rely solely on Microsoft to fix any problems that arise.

So which one is right for you?

Before you make your final decision on whether to go with Unix web hosting or Windows web hosting you first have to figure out what features you will be running on your website. If you are going to use a bunch of Microsoft applications and software then you will of course need to go with a Windows web hosting service. But if your website will not be utilizing those types of programs then going with a Unix web host is going to leave you with more options and more than likely a better price as well. So the correct answer to the questions it, it is all up to you and your website’s needs.