The problem a lot of the free hostings are having is lack of funds for servers. Some promotions can make your first month really cheap.
I recommend shared like WallBB said, but I recommend Interserver, $0.01 for the first month and then the cost of a Starbucks drink per month ($5.00).
I've been using the shared hosting and it is supporting so far 3 add on domains, unlimited email accounts for each, and they are known to help troubleshoot MyBB (I have contacted them sometimes before even coming here)
Shop around, sometimes "free" is not the best answer but shared hosting is.
Plus, like WallBB said, you can always upgrade as you grow without having to do much.
thanks for the replies everyone, to be completely honest, shortly after my last reply i got super anxious and decided to just go with jcink because i wouldn't have to deal with WAMP or other virtual servers and deal with my supreme paranoia that someone is somehow going to want to get into my pc through a loophole every day i have it installed, ugh. i'm paranoid even looking up what is needed to make a virtual server totally secure. to be real, my insurance messed up recently and my anxiety isn't managed right now, so... while i look for a new doctor, i've been avoiding a lot of basic, minimal risks just to not to have to deal with my brain being like "what if the first google result is actually a virus and you have to OPEN MALWAREBYTES" for 6 hours at a time lmao.
but anyway, as expected, the more i work with jcink the more i resent doing so and the more i gaze longingly at the ease of a board software i'm meant to actually have all the codes for instead of having to use freaking javascript to edit the way the post editor looks..... at all. i really dislike having to use someone else's code organization system in my own code, etc, i just want to do it all myself & mybb is so much cleaner to do that w/.
really for this i just needed someone who i knew was a real person to recommend a cheap server while i work, so i'll check out some of the recs here. if anyone has any other tips to add to that/wants to second any of the servers that have been recc'd, feel free to add it; i don't personally know anyone who codes/does web hosting or even knows people who do, sooo i'm super in the dark here trying to keep working through this lol. obviously if anyone has any good, thorough guides to securing a virtual server (wamp etc) feel free to let me know of that too, but i'm gonna go checking it all out again on my own too. i really appreciate all the recommendations!
Free hosting is awful for users to access your website, the speed is much slower! Don't even consider free hosting. Try with some cheaper but faster hosting, such as Siteground.