SimGames is a content specific host, which is unique. Most free hosting sites will allow you to create a topic on almost any subject but SimGames limits their subject to gaming sites. To be even more specific, they state that the site has to be an English gaming site. Along with this unique requirement, you also get the unique feature of unlimited disk space and unlimited bandwidth. To pay for these features, SimGames does require that you have their ads on your site.

Looking at the other features that SimGames provides, it seems they are on par with other free hosting sites. All of their plans offer PHP5, CGI & Perl 5.8, MySQL 5.X and PostgreSQL 7.4.X. You also get unlimited email, via POP3. This email also features autoresponders, forwarding, SpamAssassin, and Clam for anti-virus protection.

Depending on the plan you request, will determine the amount of features you get. SimGames provides three plans, subdomain, domain plan 1, and domain plan 2. With the subdomain plan, their basic plan, you get a free subdomain (yoursite.simgames.net), four subdomains, and six FTP accounts. You also get four databases for each database type. The domain plan 1 is very similar in features as the subdomain plan, the only difference is that you get an unlimited domain aliases. From what the hosting page states, the only difference is who provides the URL. After proving your site has been established, your domain level 1 account could be upgraded to the domain level 2 account. In order to be considered established, your site must be updated 2 or 3 times a week over the course of a month. SimGames doesn’t consider forum posts, as being an update. By update they state that you must provide new downloads, screenshots, or articles on your site’s topic. If your site does get approved as a domain level 2 account, SimGames will provide you with an unlimited amount of all the features.

If you are looking to build a community based around gaming, SimGames may be a site you would want to look into. Even though there are a lot of requirements, having the chance of getting unlimited databases, email, ftp accounts, etc, is something that even paid hosting doesn’t provide.