I would use a hosting company due to the simplicity of it.
But for more advanced websites that needs a lot of space and bandwidth i would go with self-hosted websites.
Now how do you know if a webhost is a scam?
You can search for it and see what other people say about them.
Take your hosts name and add the word Scam and search in Google.
Now, there are false sites, saying that webhosts are scams even though they are not.
These are there because the hosts are in a constant battle with each-other, so they write fake and bad things to make the other host look like crap.
If you find over 30 sites saying bad things, it's most likely a bad idea to use that host.
For example we got the
000webhost.com.
It's a scam, but how do we know?
It has multiple sites saying it's a scam. Their affiliate program promises you a load of money for inviting people to their host, but they have never paid anyone.
They offer services like fantastico, even though they don't have them.
If you want a quality host you will most likely have to look above the
$5 a month line.
Some paid hosts that are good are:
BlueHost.
GoDaddy.
FatCow.
There are only
one free host so far on the internet that's really worth using, it's called
Weebly.
They offer
unlimited bandwidth/space, 99.99% uptime, drag and drop system to build your site.
How do we know?
We have been using Weebly for over a year and they have never let us down, NEVER.
We do not get anything for saying this, we do it cause we want to, ain't that enough proof?
They are friendly, responding to your mails, letting you know of all the updates and new functions on the site and never sends you spam.