I have been at Dreamhost forever. 200 bucks every two years for unlimited everything, and a lot of build-ins and ready-mades for those that twirl that way.
I ain't that way. Most of my site is back-end and I mainly use it for FTP service and such.
You can build your own... A decent dedicated box and some reasonable broadband, and either a fixed IP or a DynDNS account to keep it pointed right... I do that too, with local.sitename.com pointed to a server in my house... But that needs some pooter literacy.
Depends on what you want it ~for~ .... If all you want is a wordpress blog and an email, about any ol thing will do. But in that case, free quits being free most every time... and they will have bandwidth throttles until you pay... Not a problem if you have limited reach, but it will become a problem if you reach up form anonymity.
But if you are serious, go for a paid hosted site. What's it costing me? Like maybe 7 or 8 bucks a month? For the whole show? Please.