I think it has a small factor, simply because of the large amount of sites hosted on a single IP address while normally if you have a paid host, you get your own IP address. Simply the amount of sites on the single IP address may play into SERPs, but to how much, I have no idea.
Uhh.. Free hosts probably have 1000k's of sites with sketchy content. I can't say that I've done any test, but personally I would trust and free site hosting for anything of value that I would want to evolve and promote long term. http://www.linkbliss.com Eric
Historically speaking they used to yes. Geocities websites for instance were pretty much ignored. I don't know how true it is today, but I would assume that it is true to an extent. As we used to tell people, if the site matters (especially if there is an intent for commercial gain) don't use a free site -- after all there are some very inexpensive paid hosts.
Hard to say but common thinking would be that if the hosting is free then the value of the website and its content are questionable. Then again lots of blogs are hosted for free and can have quality content. Good luck.
There can be much disadvantages with free hosts. One amonth them is, there will be a large number of domains hosted, server might be very slow, downtime will be more because host dont care much. In such cases crawlers might not be crawling properly and thus a reduced weight in SERPs..
I think they used to be in the past but not now. As KLB mentioned, Geocities websites were not given much importance, but now, blogs are given so much importance, and most of them are hosted free on blogspot and other hosts.
due to pooer quality they may be so,but it is not that free hosting ot server with hugr domains will be ignored in serps, actually on free hostings or subdomain with doorway pages dont get banned soon.
No they do not. SEs do not mind if you pay or not for anything. Anyway, if you want to provide reliable online services, you should go for paid hosting. Free hosting (usually, thanks god for those hosting companies, this doesn´apply to) firms usually do not give enough support, which hurts your site in long-term view.
not problem with search engines. what i have observed with free hosts is you never know your page will be there or removed. thats the problem. whats most important is domain name + plenty of informative content.