| Types of Internet hosting service |
|---|
| Full-featured hosting |
| Virtual private server · Dedicated hosting · Colocation centre · Cloud hosting |
| Web hosting |
| Free hosting · Shared · Clustered · Reseller |
| Application-specific web hosting |
| Blog (comments) · Guild hosting · Image · Video · Wiki farms · Application · Social network |
| By content format |
| File · Image · Video · Music |
| Other types |
| Remote backup · Game server · DNS · E-mail |
A free web hosting service is a web hosting service that is free, usually advertisement-supported. Free web hosts will usually provide a subdomain (yoursite.example.com) or a directory (www.example.com/~yourname). In contrast, paid web hosts will usually provide a second-level domain along with the hosting (www.yourname.com). Many free hosts do allow use of separately-purchased domains. Rarely, a free host may also operate as a domain name registrar. There are also some free domain companies which may provide free 3rd level domain names free with dns and other facilities.
Usually free webhosts are based on Linux based servers with support to php,mysql and cgi based scripts. The most commonly used control panel for these type of hosting is WHM and vistapanel.
Many free web hosting services discourage the use of their free web hosting services for file or image hosting only in which no web page is established or setup resulting in the use of bandwidth due to hot linking of files with no revenue gain to the service provider in the case of advertising supported services. As a result, hot linking or remote linking or inclusion of many image, media and download file formats is disabled or not permitted on many free web hosting services.
Other common limitations on file hosting limits on free hosts are limits on file size, for example no files over 5 MB or file types such as programs or large media files such as MP3.
This has resulted in the growth of free hosting services dedicated to image hosting, video hosting and general file hosting which permit remote hotlinking of files and larger file formats.
These let you brand fixed plans with your own company. Other services, offer WHM or panel reselling. This allows the client to develop his or her own web hosting plans and business.
Some customization commonly afforded to the co-branding or reseller owner would be the ability to set service quotas, to add, enable, disable or remove features of resold accounts, custom reseller or co-branded website, private label DNS and backend services among other items to differentiate the individual's service from the parent company of which they are a reseller or co-branded provider.
The key difference between co-branded and reseller services is the level of customization afforded to the individual setting up their own free hosting service and the level of autonomy afforded to the individual service owner.