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Selecting the best web site hosting company for hosting your personal or business website is becoming increasingly difficult. There are plenty of free website hosting services available on the internet, but it can be difficult to determine which of these services are the best, and whether or not there are any hidden costs or fees that are not made apparent when you sign up for the service. Are these “free” website hosting services truly free, or are there hidden costs? If you choose the wrong hosting service for your website, you may end up wasting a lot of time and energy trying to fix the mistake. This is why it is so important to do your homework and to find the right hosting company for your website before you sign on the dotted line.

Not all website hosting services are created equal. Some website hosting services offer great hosting packages and amazing customer service, while others are so far from good that they simply should not be in business at all. Some website hosting services spring up quickly, and go out of business just as quickly. The following is a brief list of characteristics which you should find in website hosting services which are worth your time. If a free website hosting service is lacking any of these traits, move on to the next one!

- How much disk space are you given? More is always better, but you should not need a huge amount for a regular website, so look for at least two to five gigs.

- How much bandwidth are you given? Not enough bandwidth can make your website impossible to view. More bandwidth is always better, so the highest number that you can find will be generally preferable.

- Reliability, how reliable is the host? If the website hosting service you are thinking about is not reliable, then no amount of disk space or bandwidth is going to make them better. If your website is always down, the space and bandwidth afforded to you mean nothing.

- Are there ads? Some website hosting services place ads and banners on the websites that are using their services. Banner ads can be very annoying on a website, so opt either for hosting with smaller ads, or with text links instead.

- Is support offered? Most website hosting companies do offer support these days, but it may not necessarily be the best support. Make sure that the website hosting service has a support ticket system, and avoid any service that does not offer this option.