Is free really profitable?

Nowadays, there are probably hundreds of web site hosting providers that will offer their services for free. The question that comes now is if this is beneficial for your business. We all know that every thing has a price, so the free web hosting will come with both advantages and disadvantages. The most important advantage is of course, the fact that it is free.

Most of the times, free web site hosting companies come with some requirements from the provider, such as a banner on your site, an advertising message or advertising pop ups. So, it is free as long as you do what you are asked for. This happens because the provider will have to support several costs, such as the bandwidth, or the space that in your case will be quite limited. So, a free web hosting provider will be a bad choice for a complex e-commerce site with real time statistics and payment options.