Free Hosting Providers
During the height of the dot-com frenzy, free Web hosts seemed to sprout with a weed-like intensity. When the alleged "new economy" became old news and the dot-commers went down in flames, a lot of the free hosts went sneakers up, as well. Of the survivors, many converted themselves into commercial hosts to survive. There are still lots of free hosts left, however, and you can find most of them via the following sites that review or compare these hosts.
100 Best Free Web Space Services
http://www.100best-free-web-space.com/
This top-quality site gives you a summary of the features of each free host, ranks the host on a scale of one to five, and offers a short review of the host.
Free Website Providers
http://www.freewebsiteproviders.com/
This comprehensive site lists hundreds of free hosts divided into various categories, including Personal, Business, Non-Profit, and Special Interest. The site provides you with a chart showing the features offered by each host and there are also reviews of some hosts.
FreeWebspace.net
http://www.freewebspace.net/
One of the nice features about this site is that it includes a large number of user reviews for various free Web hosts. There are also discussion areas, news stories about hosts, and much more:
FreeWebSpace411.com
http://www.freewebspace411.com/
One of the nice features about this site is that it includes a large number of capsule reviews for various free web hosts. One of the not-so-nice features is the ridiculous number of pop-up ads that the site foists upon a visitor. Annoying!
Yahoo's Index of Free Web Presence Providers
As usual, Yahoo is one of the best places to go for information. In this case, they offer an extensive index of free Web hosting providers (which they call Web presence providers). And, as usual, the URL is finger-numbingly long:
http://dir.yahoo.com/Business_and_Economy/Business_to_Business/Communications_and_Networking/Internet_and_World_Wide_Web/Network_Service_Providers/Hosting/Web_Site_Hosting/Free_Hosting/
Commercial Hosting Providers
The world's capitalistsefficient free-market types that they aresmelled plenty of money to be had once the explosive growth of the Web became apparent. This means there's certainly no shortage of commerical Web hosting providers available. In fact, there are hundreds of the darn things. Once again, here's a list of sites that provides lists of commercial providers:
C|NET INternet Services
http://www.cnet.com/internet/
This excellent site divides hosts into various categories and it also offers a "Most Popular" lists so you can see who's using who.
Host Finders
http://www.hostfinders.com/
As the name implies, this site also offers a search feature for finding a Web host that has what you want:
HostIndex.com
http://www.hostindex.com/
This site offers a large index of Web hosts. However, it's best feature is a monthly ranking of Web hosts based on user feedback, features, pricing, and more (see the next figure). Here's the address:
The List
http://thelist.internet.com/
This is the site for listings of Internet Service Providers. For our purposes, it also tells you whether or not the providers host Web pages. Here's the URL:
TopHosts.com
http://www.tophosts.com/
This impressively comprehensive site lists hosts in various categories, offers a "HostMatch" service to help you find a host that's right for you, has news articles and information related to hosting, and much more.
Web Host Directory
http://www.webhostdir.com/
Make sure you have plenty of time to spare when you visit this site. It not only lists hosts in a wide range of categories, but it also offers a quotation service, a search service, news and how-to articles, discussion forums, host awards, and more.
Yahoo's Index of Commercial Web Presence Providers
http://dir.yahoo.com/Business_and_Economy/Business_to_Business/Communications_and_Networking/Internet_and_World_Wide_Web/Network_Service_Providers/Hosting/Web_Site_Hosting/Directories/
Yahoo maintains a list of Web hosting directories at this address.