Does using a free hosting service like freehostia hurt my website? How much does it affect my page loading speed and all that?
There's the saying "you get what you pay for" but... there are some good free hosts out there which provide an above decent service for free, freehostia is one of those free hosts, I think you'll be pleased on the load time of your site if you host it with them... PS: Why are you opening tons of threads related to the same subject (free hosting) when you could ask all these questions in the same thread... ?
To answer your question, no. It will not hurt your site, however if reliability is paramount to you I would recommend going with a paid provider.
It does affect in some or the other way, Also the servers are overloaded and your site can load much much slower than expected.
If you're serious about your websites or have information on your websites that you cannot afford to lose then you really should pay for web hosting. I honestly don't understand why people continue to use free hosting when you can find web hosting providers that only charge as little as $2/month for shared hosting now-a-days.
I am hosting more than 600 people's web site for free and I dont think they are hurt with the good uptime and overall speed
Experts say that sites hosted with some of the free hosts are downgraded by Google. Of course it depends which one. If it's a really small host, a local church or organization, you'll probably be fine. Still, hosting is nearly free these days with plans starting as low as .99 cents per month! I've been with a reliable hosting company for over a year and the price is dirt cheap!
Yes, hosting is cheap lately. On the other hand, some youngster without CC or PayPal or online payment still might need free hosting or do not wanna pay for hosting.