I need expert advice on FREE web hosting!

[ifedi]

Hello Anyone,
I have a number of candidate sites that I would want to launch to the www. Problem is: the whole business of paying for domain hosting etc is something I would like to avoid if I can.
Since I hear there's a whole lot of free hosts out there (and I run into the adverts every now and then), I now want to know:

What are the pros and cons of free hosting?
How would you rate and rank some of the 'best' free hosts out there?
Is 'free' hosting really free? Or rather, where are the hidden costs?

I'd be a million times grateful for helpful answers.
Thanks, Ifedi.

[sicarie]

Well, free hosting is free, but you have to do things like upload everything to yourself, and there are usually size and feature constraints (if you want to use their SQL database, you have to pay for it, etc...). Free sites do not give you any sort of reliable uptime - you cannot get mad at them if your site goes down because you aren't paying for it, and usually have bandwidth limitations (if too many people visit your site at once, they'll just pull it). That being said, most hosting companies offer an SLA (Service Level Agreement) that says they will keep your site up for a certain percentage of the time, for a small fee.

Another caveat is that you will probably already have to have a domain registered, which can be found for under $10 a year, but I'm not sure.