You will not find any server hosting for free... The companies that provide game hosting, charge for it. It's one of the services they provide to make a profit with. Take minecraft, TF2 and many other games that have dedicated hosting as an example. You wont find any free hosting. If you want to run a server you gotta pay for it. That's because the companies that have the hardware and the large bandwidth connections to the internet need to pay the equipment, internet, lights, staff, and then make a profit at the end of the day.
Every dedicated game server (as far as I know) is ether:
A. Being hosted by a game hosting company who is charging the server owner for that privilege.
B. Being Privately hosted by a guy that has the spare computer parts (expensive), business class internet (Also can be very pricey) and lots of Tech knowledge to get the server put together, running, and then get the game to run and support it.
C. Is an "Official" server run by the company that made the game. In this case it would be Schine, paying for a server and running it so that players could play on it.
D. Is being hosted on a clients PC and their friends are connecting too it. This CAN work if you have both really good internet, and a really powerful computer. odds are you wont be able to support many players even with good specs, you would need a pretty high end gaming PC.
I am not aware of any other option. If I knew, you can believe I would have used it for many games I have played over the years.
I would highly recommend you and your friends just join the same server. That is unless you actually have the cash to use for a server host, but based off the fact you want to find one for free I am going to assume you don't.
I also recommend that if you do decide you want to have a server, then do TONS of research. Not just into the hosting companies but also into what you actually need in the hardware they provide, for the number of players you expect. You will also need to study up on how to manage and run a server. You don't want to have the server crash and corrupt your game world without setting up backups and knowing how to use them.
Hope the info was helpful. Even if it wasn't the answer I think you were looking for. Good luck with whatever you decide.