Do you think Google makes a difference between paid and free hosting? If the loading speed of the site is decent, it does matter if the host are free ?
I don't think so, as long as your site has it's own domain name. The IP might be a problem also. Well, I always believe that clean/neat designed website and with content rich is what it always matters. considering your site doesn't have hours of hours of downtime every week
I do. Along with things like how long a domain is registered and how many sites show up under the same IP. It's probably a very small factor but I do believe it exists because it shows the SE's like Google how serious the site's owners take it - a level of investment.
Free hosting providers may attract scammy accounts and therefore put you in a "bad neighborhood" in terms of IP's. It may also be less reliable -- downtime could hurt your rankings.