free hosting vs paid Choosing a Hosting Company. Imagine you became ill and needed surgery. Would you say find me the cheapest surgeon you can? Of course not – you’d say get me the best surgeon you can! So why do people spend hours and hours developing their site and then choose to host them on free packages. Don’t be surprised when the site’s unavailable or it’s taken off-line without warning when you exceed your meagre bandwidth allowance. Oh and don’t complain when you don’t get a response from their support staff (do they actually have any!) you’re on a free hosting account after all. There are plenty of good hosting companies with plans starting at around $10/mo. Paid plans normally include a better range of services with your plan and allow you to grow as your website does. When choosing a host here are just some of the things you need to know: Is there a set-up fee? Is there a minimum contract period (i.e. minimum 12 months hosting)? Are there any charges if I cancel? How much bandwidth do I get and what happens if I exceed my allowance (some hosts will take your site down!)? How much web space do I get? If you create pages using MS FrontPage does the host support FrontPage Extensions? Do they offer any guarantee and what is their uptime? Can I run my own scripts? Do they offer database support? Can I administer my site though an easy to use interface - like a control panel? Ok – here comes the shameless plug for my own hosting company baport.com. We have plans that will cover most web businesses. Please click here for more information on baport