I know this info may be posted a little late for those of you on AOL's Hometown pages, but if you're still searching for a web host, this page might prove useful!
This page will compare different FREE hosting services most commonly used. I am not comparing these sites to a standard, but rather to each other. So, if one site has listed that it's interface is "decent" that would be as compared to one another, so it would be very similar to another site listed as "decent" and would be lacking some form of functionality as compared to a site listed as "simple" and would be easier to navigate than one listed as "cumbersome". It does not infer that a site with a description as "terrible" would be one of the worst sites on the web, but rather does not compare well to the other sites listed on this page!
Hope that makes sense!
Also bare in mind that this information is based on MY experience in setting up sites with these different hosts. You may find an interface more suited to your liking than I did or you may have a better experience in getting your site set up than I did! But, BEWARE, if I gave low marks to a host, I had some sort of problem with the service to figure it was not an isolated incident!
I tried to use similar terms to describe the different host in order to maintain some sort of guideline. If you have any questions, feel free to use the email link in the menu at the top of the page to contact me!
| Freewebs.com | 50Megs.com | Tripod.com | Webspawner.com | Angelfire.com | Yolasite.com | |
| Sample | VIEW | VIEW | VIEW | VIEW | VIEW | VIEW |
| Storage | 40MB | 50MB | 20MB | file size restriction only | 20MB | 1GB |
| Bandwidth | .5GB | 1GB | 1GB | no apparent limit | similar to Tripod | No apparent limit. |
| Setup | Simple | Simple | of personal info | Easiest | of personal info | confusing, to say the least! |
| Ads | 1 top | Pop-unders/ 1 Top, 1 Right, 1 bottom | 2 Top 2 Bottom Pop-unders | 1 Top | 4 Top Pop-unders | one small link at bottom |
| Interface | Simple | Simple | Cumbersome | Simple (very limited) | Cumbersome | Not real intuitive, no direct html editing (can use html within widgets). Very cumbersome for the advanced user. |
| Site Builder | Yes | Yes | Yes | Limited | Limited | Yes - No html editing |
| HTML Editor | Excellent | Excellent | Good | None | Limited | NONE |
BEST IN SHOW:
STORAGE: Yolasite.com
BANDWIDTH: All are sufficient (the worst being Freewebs.com)
SETUP: Webspawner.com (reflective of their options - setup was simple, and they offer very little). Honorable mention to Freewebs.com and 50Megs.com
ADS: Yolasite.com (just one very small link to yolasite.com at the bottom of your page)
INTERFACE: Webspawner.com (again, reflective of their options) Honorable mention to Freewebs.com
SITE BUILDER (WYSIWYG): All but Webspawner and Angelfire
HTML Editor: Freewebs.com and 50megs.com
Best to worst (based on comments above):
Freewebs.com - 5 stars
50Megs.com - 4 stars
Yolasite.com - 4 stars
Webspawner.com - 3 stars
Tripod.com - 2 stars
Angelfire.com - 1 star
