The best free web hosting - which company offers it?

There is no agreement among commentators, bloggers or users about which of the hundreds of free web site hosting companies is the best.

All the best free web hosting services will offer much the same thing - some web space, a web address, and the ability to add and edit your pages at any time.;

But a good way of getting a 'feel' for a free web hosting service befire you commit yourself to using it is to look at the online support. Do they answer all the possible questions you might have? Are the restrictions, rules and terms of service clear? If there is a live forum, do people from the company actually visit it, or do they leave support to other users (this is not a joke - many companies actually do this). Is the feeling in the support forum supportive or critical?

Another way to gauge the worth of a free web hosting service, and to work out which of them are the best is to email in a question. Do they answer it, and how long does it take them?

Part of the reason there is no agreement about which of the free web hosting sites is the best is that everyone's requirements are different. Some people just want to get a hobby site online as quickly as possible. Others want to try their hand at ecommerce or affiliate marketing without spending any money. Others want a place to practice web page creation or design, or to test out scripts away from their 'real' web site.

If you simply want a free web host which will still be in business next year, you could try Yahoo's Geocities, which has been running for over a decade. They give you reasonable web space, web mail, stats and 3GB of bandwidth a month; you will have to put up with their ads on your site of course.