Using a free URL (subdomain) for your website is probably not worth the risk

I have built several websites since '98 and would like to give you a quick tip to beginners about choosing your web address.
In a nutshell, you can run a website completely free. If you're investing more than a couple of hours of your time to create it, you should consider buying your own domain.

It is very tempting to save $20/year by using a free URL (web address). But before you decide to do that please think about the risk.
For your visitors, your web address (URL) is the door to your website. If you're using someone else's domain, you basically lose all control over your door. It doesn't matter if you're using a free subdomain (eg. yoursite.gigafreehost.com) or a subdirectory (gigafreehost.com/yoursite). gigafreehost.com represents here the free provider - I'm using a fictitious example as to not advertise anyone's services.
This type of hosting is fine if it's your first website, you just want to test things, not sure if it will work out and you're not counting on inbound links or return visitors at all (which means you would only count on one-time visits, probably from social media).
Let's make it clear - there is nothing wrong with hosting for free in itself. I'm just advising you against using someone else's domain. There are many companies that will host (store your files on their server) free, which is great. But make sure they let you use your own domain. You can buy your domain with them or another domain seller.
There is a lot of things that can go wrong with someone else's domain - they can go bankrupt, change their mind about providing free services, get hacked, delete your account and not respond to your emails/tickets, suddenly decide they want to steal all your traffic and start displaying ads instead of your site etc. In other words, your web address can stop functioning in a matter of seconds. This has happened to a significant number of both small and large free webspace providers - searching for "my free host no longer available" will show you a million horror stories. Please keep in mind that the free webhost has to maintain the server and the domain - at some point they might simply run out of money if you're not paying for anything.

If you're lucky, your free website will run for years and years. But I just don't think it's worth the risk.

If people were accessing your website using that free URL, they will no longer be able to get to your site at all. If someone linked to your site, that link will no longer work. You would have to contact each person asking them to update the URL. If a search engine has your site indexed, this will be lost as well, along with your page ranking - something very hard to rebuild.

If you don't mind that situation, you don't need to buy a domain.

You can protect yourself from all that for about $20/year (in case of most popular domains, like .com. A lot of companies are offering a much lower price only for the first year to lure you in, so if you're planning longer-term, make sure you calculate the total cost correctly). For that price, any company that sells domain names (again: I'm not using any specific names here to avoid advertising) will let you choose a domain name (eg. yoursite.com, provided it's not owned by someone else already) and register it with ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. This will allow you to point that domain name to any server you want - a paid host, a free host, your home PC etc.
If you own a domain and your host goes down for whatever reason, you simply find a new host and repoint your domain.

Whichever option you choose - good luck with your website!

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