I will not go for either one of them. My choice is go for mid range price host that provide timely support.
with free hosting your lucky to get good support and also good and fast service with a high paid host you will be getting ur wallet took off you for hosting id check out somone like www.hostingwide.com
Free hosting can be very good. Although it's few and far between. Look around and try out a few, read a lot of reviews. The great thing about free hosting... is that it's free, no cost to try it out for a month. Paid is usually good. I say usually... Because some companies get greedy and put too many people in too small of spaces. I wouldn't get hosting from a paid provider without a recommendation from someone i trust. Ex. A reseller company that started up several months ago offered outrageous amounts of space and bandwidth. A friend signed up.. That host is already closed down.
I have to see my websites as a business hence i need ultra reliable servers and support,paying for hosting is the only way and also a reliable backup facility using a differant company so that should we be hacked we dont loose our business and can be up and running again in a very short time duration.