Hosting your site on a free platform is an excellent choice if you want to create a website without completely emptying your savings account in the process. Knowing which option to choose might be challenging, given the abundance of choices. This buyer’s guide was developed; as a result to assist you in locating the top free website hosting services.
To assist you in making an educated choice and launching your website quickly, we evaluated and assessed the best solutions. We have you covered whether you’re beginning a blog, building a portfolio, or opening an online business. So let’s get started and locate the ideal free website hosting solution!
Should You Really Use Free Website Hosting?
Building a website is now the single most important thing you can do to get your message out to people all over the world. On the other hand, you can choose that you don’t want to spend any money on developing a website after you first get started.
The majority of people merely require something that’s expedient, uncomplicated, and free of charge. There are several web servers whose services are offered without charge. On the other hand, as a savvy buyer, you realize that nothing comes for free. A catch is always present.
The operation of a website hosting provider may rack up significant costs. Web hosting companies that provide their services for free are going to have to come up with a method to make money, or they will be forced to shut down.
They may accomplish this goal by inserting adverts onto your website, limiting the number of visitors that may access your site, interrupting your service, requiring you to use their platform, or upselling you on more services. There is a possibility that some of the advertisements that are shown do not provide an authentic representation of your brand and may even include that of your competitors.
With one notable exception—a test website—going with a free website hosting provider is almost never a good idea. Because of the plethora of problems linked with it, free website hosting comes with a high risk, especially for businesses that are trying to make a profit online. However, what if you only have a certain amount of money?
You may be a non-profit organization searching for free WordPress hosting, or you could be a school seeking free website hosting for your kids. All of these scenarios are possible. Have no fear; an answer to your problem may be found in this article.
Our list only includes free website hosting providers that promise to let you keep your site up indefinitely at no cost. Yet for those who take their websites seriously, we highly advise utilizing a budget-friendly, feature-rich website hosting service.
At $2.75 to $5 per month, the bulk of these shared hosting providers will provide you with a free domain, free emails, free SSL, eCommerce capabilities, and a lot more. It won’t cost you nearly as much, considering the amount of extra money you’ll make from your website.
If you pay this very little amount, you could have access to more competent assistance and, in general, better service. The primary advantage is that you will have complete authority over your website. It’s possible for you to choose not to show any advertisements at all on your website in order to deliver the best possible experience for your users.
In light of this, let’s start by investigating some of the most well-rated, almost free website hosting options available. In the next section, we will talk about some of the best free web hosting websites.
5 Best Website Hosting Sites On the Market
The criteria we use to determine which websites are the best for web hosting include server uptime and performance, usability, customer service, features, and cost. To guarantee the accuracy and objectivity of our rankings, we extensively investigate and evaluate each web hosting provider.
To have a better picture of actual experiences with each service, we also take into account consumer evaluations and comments. We can give a thorough list of the best web hosting services by looking into these crucial variables.
Web Hosting Site | Price (Starting at) | Server Uptime | Customer Support | Ease of Use | Features |
Bluehost | $2.95/mo | 99.99% | 24/7 Live Chat, Phone, Email | Easy | Free Domain, SSL Certificate, 1-click WordPress Install |
Hostinger | $1.99/mo | 99.9% | 24/7 Live Chat | Easy | Free Domain, SSL Certificate, 1-click WordPress Install |
HostGator | $2.75/mo | 99.9% | 24/7 Live Chat | Easy | Free Domain, Unlimited Bandwidth, 1-click WordPress Install |
Namecheap | $1.98/mo | 99.9% | 24/7 Live Chat, Email | Easy | Free Domain, SSL Certificate, 1-click WordPress Install |
SiteGround | $2.99/mo | 99.99% | 24/7 Live Chat, Phone, Email | Easy | Free SSL Certificate, 1-click WordPress Install, Daily Backups |
Bluehost: Best Website Hosting Overall
Pricing: Starting at $2.95/mo
Star rating: 4.8/5
Bluehost is the name among the most successful web hosting companies in the world. They’re an authorized WordPress hosting provider. Their hosting packages provide a variety of perks, such as custom email addresses, unlimited storage space, a shared SSL certificate, a one-click WordPress installation wizard, and more.
Site builders, content delivery network (CDN) from Cloudflare, search engine optimization (SEO) tools, and other advanced features may all be activated directly from their control panel. Bluehost is ideal for creating blogs, small company websites, and personal websites.
The least expensive plan from Bluehost includes unlimited bandwidth, custom themes, 10 GB SSD storage, one website, and free domain registration for the first year. Storage, domain privacy, and scheduled backups are all included with higher-tier services along with limitless websites.
The majority of Bluehost’s shared hosting plans have a baseline CPU performance that’s sufficient for the majority of websites with low to moderate traffic levels. Their Pro plan has an improved CPU that contributes to quicker page loads and higher processing speed.
Read this expert Bluehost review to find more information about this hosting services.
Pros:
- High availability and quick loading
- Trustworthy security
- Integrate WordPress seamlessly
- Ample storage
Cons:
Pricing: Bluehost offers four shared hosting packages:
- Basic – $2.95/mo (Renews to $9.99/mo)
- Plus – $5.45/mo (Renews to $14.99/mo)
- Choice Plus – $5.45/mo (Renews to $18.99/mo)
- Pro – $13.95/mo (Renews to $28.99/mo)
- In addition to shared hosting, you have the option of VPS, WordPress, and dedicated hosting
Each plan has a refund policy that’s valid for the first thirty days.
Hostinger: Best for Budget
Pricing: Starts at $1.99/mo
Star rating: 4.8/5
Another affordable option to the providers of free website hosting is Hostinger. They provide low-cost shared hosting services that are an excellent choice for beginners who are creating their first websites. A web hosting and domain name registration business owned by its employees, Hostinger was founded in 2004.
In essence, you may begin for $1.99 each month if you so want. For only $2.99 per month, their entry-level package provides everything you need to get started online, including a custom domain name, unlimited website hosting, professional email addresses, and one-click installation of popular content management systems like WordPress.
Hostinger provides a lot of helpful features. Its smallest Single Shared Hosting plan, for instance, provides 30 GB of space, a single website and email address, 100 GB of transfer, and two databases. This would be plenty for a modest website. Also, if you want to utilize additional features, you may always subscribe to a premium subscription.
Pros:
- Affordable price
- Dependable operation and quick speed
- Simple to use
Cons:
- Lowest package with fewest features
- Minimal customer care help
Pricing: The top three shared hosting packages offered by Hostinger are:
Single Shared Hosting – $1.99/mo (Renews to $3.99/mo)
Premium Shared Hosting – $2.99/mo (Renews to $6.99/mo)
Business Shared Hosting – $3.99/mo (Renews to $8.99/mo)
Besides shared hosting, Hostinger also offers Cloud, WordPress, and VPS hosting.
Every hosting package has a risk-free trial period of 30 days during which the customer may request a refund.
HostGator: Best for Beginners
Pricing: Starts at $2.75/mo
Star rating: 4.6/5
HostGator is widely considered to be among the industry’s elite web hosting service providers. They began in 2002 and have made consistent progress toward being one of the largest hosting providers in the globe since that time.
Their incredible growth may be attributed to the fact that they provide reasonably priced, trustworthy web hosting together with outstanding customer service.
The hatchling plan, which costs $2.75 USD per month, is the least expensive option. Every plan comes standard with a free domain name, an unlimited number of subdomains, an infinite number of email addresses, free HTTPS and SSL, an unlimited number of FTP accounts, unrestricted storage space (disk space), and limitless bandwidth.
Every single hosting account comes complete with a cPanel, which not only contains an automatic installation for WordPress but also a variety of other website-building tools that are quite popular.
Pros:
- Ample Storage
- limitless bandwidth
- Versatile Terms
Cons:
- Enigmatic pricing
- Regular upselling
- Subpar backups
Pricing: The entry-level shared hosting plan from HostGator is $2.75 a month, and the company provides a variety of web hosting packages at affordable rates. At an extra cost, they also provide add-on services like website backups and SEO tools.
Namecheap: Best for Domain Name Registration
Pricing: Starting at $1.98/mo
Star rating: 4.6/5
Namecheap is a well-known domain name registrar that also provides affordable web hosting services. A free one-year SSL certificate and a risk-free trial period are included in all of our plans. Small companies may be drawn to the affordable price, but this comes at the expense of inadequate customer assistance and restricted storage space for the lower levels of the service.
In addition to providing enough to launch a modest website, Namecheap’s entry-level shared hosting plans are reasonably priced and come with a 100% uptime guarantee, free SSL certificates, and twice-weekly automatic backups. Namecheap excels in these starting plans.
Pros:
- Affordable price ranges
- A user-friendly interface
- Clients who purchase reseller and virtual private server (VPS) accounts can expect their services to be available 99.9% of the time
Cons:
- No assistance by telephone is available
- Few hosting options
- Limited storage for fundamental plans
Pricing: Packages with annual pricing consist of:
- Stellar: The most economical plan is priced at $2.18 every month and provides an allowance of 20 GB of SSD space as well as support for a maximum of three websites.
- Stellar Plus: It’s possible for people to create numerous websites, receive automated backups, and have an inexhaustible amount of storage available at a rate of $2.98 per month.
- Stellar Business: Subscribers are able to access a maximum of 50 GB of storage, an infinite number of websites, automated backups, and cloud storage all for the cost of $4.98 a month.
SiteGround: Best for Website Security
Pricing: Starting at $2.99/mo
Star rating: 4.4/5
The excellent free website host SiteGround is yet another option. They’re renowned for their fantastic assistance and lightning-quick response times. Moreover, SiteGround is an authorized WordPress hosting provider.
The hosting packages from SiteGround include a website builder, a 1-click WordPress and Joomla installation, SSD storage, limitless email addresses, first-rate customer service, and more.
Also, they have developed sophisticated website speed features, including security plugins, site optimization, and lightning-fast PHP and MySQL databases. In addition to providing a 99.99% uptime guarantee, SiteGround offers data centers on all four continents of the globe.
When building a website for your shop or small company, SiteGround is ideal. You may upgrade to the VPS web hosting package to receive quicker performance and scalability as your website expands.
Pros:
- Very quick page loads
- Servers across four continents
- New technologies that increase speed
- Daily backups at no cost
Cons:
- There is no mid-tier scaling option
- A difficult pricing structure
- There is no free domain offered
Pricing: Shared hosting options from SiteGround, a little more expensive hosting company, start at $2.99 per month.
- StartUp – For a tiny monthly fee of $2.99, you can have the capability to host one website with 10GB of Solid State Drive space and can handle up to 10,000 visitors a month.
- GrowBig – You will get access to an infinite amount of websites, a storage capacity of 20GB based on solid state drive, a limit of 100,000 users per month, a service of making backup copies at any time, the capability to create a test environment, a very rapid configuration of PHP, and a tool to work in collaboration all for just $4.99 a month.
- GoGeek – You can have an abundance of websites, 40GB of solid-state storage, up to 400,000 visitors each month, on-request backups, staging capabilities, ultra-quick PHP, a personalized DNS, a collaboration application, a white-label customer portal, and priority support – all for a recurring fee of $7.99 per month.
7 Really Free Web Hosting Services
WordPress.com: Best Free Website Hosting Site Overall
Pricing: Free
Star rating: 4.8/5
A customized version of WordPress may be obtained via the use of the free hosting provider WordPress.com. This should not be mistaken with WordPress, a well-known platform for creating self-hosted websites that may be accessed via the website WordPress.org.
A WordPress.com subdomain (i.e., yourwebsite.wordpress.com), 3 GB of storage, and access to free website designs are all included with WordPress.com’s free website hosting package.
With the free version, your website displays several forms of advertising. You may remove adverts from the site and use a domain name of your choosing, you may also unlock more features by subscribing to one of their premium packages. Then any of the aforementioned “near free hosting” options is a better choice.
Wix: Best Free Website Hosting Site for Ease of Use
Pricing: Free
Star rating: 4.7/5
Wix, a fully-hosted website generator, offers free website hosting in addition to its other features. Similar to the majority of free hosting options, Wix.com branding and advertisements will appear on any free website. By switching to their paying programs, you may eliminate it.
You will have access to website templates, a Wix.com subdomain, 500 megabytes of storage space, and 500 megabytes of bandwidth with the free plan.
Weebly: Best for E-commerce
Pricing: Free
Star rating: 4.6/5
A well-known site hosting service platform with its headquarters in San Francisco, Weebly is run by its parent firm Square, Inc. Together with the newest website designs and drag-and-drop capabilities, it provides a variety of hosting services.
Moreover, Weebly has a number of built-in capabilities that may be used without installing any other software. Weebly does, however, include certain features that are restricted, similar to other free hosting platforms. For example, your site must use the Weebly subdomain as its web address, and Weebly adverts must be shown on your website, among other things.
It comes with a user-friendly website builder that allows you to drag and drop elements as well as layouts that have already been created. The free option includes a subdomain and 500 MB of storage space, in addition to the presence of advertisements. You must subscribe to one of their paid plans in order to eliminate advertisements, get greater storage space, and unlock features.
Squarespace: Best for Stylish Websites
Pricing: Free
Star rating: 4.5/5
Squarespace, a popular website builder, does not need any prior technical experience. It offers themes that are tasteful and beautifully designed, and the user interface is as easy as dragging and dropping content.
A free trial of website hosting is provided, and it’s for a period of time equal to and lasting for fourteen days. You may use their website builder using this link and investigate the features it offers. Your website will not be open to the public unless users first purchase a membership to it.
The monthly cost of the paid packages starts at $12. Each membership comes with a number of included perks, like a free personalized domain name, unrestricted bandwidth and storage space, and pre-designed templates for websites.
Google Cloud Hosting: Best for Scalability
Pricing: Free
Star rating: 4.4/5
Small companies and educational institutions may make use of Google’s many free website hosting options It comes equipped with all of the powerful capabilities that one would imagine from a company of Google’s caliber and stature.
As a result of the pay-as-you-go structure of their software, learners may quickly adopt it. If you just need basic hosting for development and staging sites, the promotional credit of $300 that Google is offering should be adequate to meet your requirements for the whole year if you only require this kind of hosting.
Google Cloud can host any kind of website, as well as offer WordPress hosting via Google Compute Engine.
Amazon Web Services – Best for Enterprise-level Hosting
Pricing: Free
Star rating: 4.3/5
Among the frequently visited websites on the planet are run by Amazon Web Services, generally known as AWS. While it’s difficult for small companies to utilize, it’s a fantastic platform for new developers and students.
The Amazon Web Services (AWS) Free Tier is always free to use and comes with a free item bundle that’s good for one year’s worth of service. It’s without a doubt, among the best free website hosting alternatives available for trying out sites. Learners get the opportunity to learn and improve their programming skills by using the sophisticated platform that’s given by Amazon.
InfinityFree – Best for Unlimited Free Hosting
Pricing: Free
Star rating: 4.2/5
InfinityFree (opens in new tab) is an incredible free web hosting that offers 5 GB of storage space, 99.9% server uptime, unlimited website hosting, and data transfer for absolutely no cost at all. The fact that this web host has been in business for more than ten years and has served more than 400,000 clients demonstrates that it’s a legitimate business that’s very competent in its field.
You’re able to get started right away by constructing as many cost-free websites as you want, either using a cost-free subdomain or by utilizing an existing domain that you currently possess.
WordPress, Joomla, and more than 400 more popular software can all be quickly and easily installed on your websites with Softaculous. There are no adverts to inform visitors that you’re utilizing free hosting, and they all get complimentary SSL.
Ranking Methodology for the Best Free Website Hosting
Due to the abundance of accessible choices on the internet, finding the most reliable free website hosting provider may be a challenging and time-consuming endeavor. But there are a number of things you need to take into account to make sure you’re choosing a dependable and trustworthy hosting company.
To determine the top free website hosting providers, we looked at the following ranking factors:
- Server Uptime: A hosting service’s uptime is essential to your website’s success. Try to choose a service that promises a minimum of 99% uptime.
- Disk space and bandwidth: Think about the hosting company’s storage and bandwidth options. Make sure your website has appropriate space and bandwidth.
- Security: To stop viruses and hacker assaults, your website’s hosting company must provide a safe environment. It’s important to get a host that provides security measures such as firewalls, virus scanning, and SSL certificates.
- Customer service: Look for a hosting company that provides dependable customer service, including round-the-clock technical help.
- User-friendly Control Panel: Choose a hosting company with a control panel that’s simple to use and intuitive so you can manage your website with ease.
- Watch out for hosting companies that place adverts on your website. Choose a host that doesn’t have any ads.
Best Free Website Hosting Services – Buying Guide
What is Free Web Hosting?
An essential component of website development is web hosting. After all, it provides the tools and services a website requires in order to be seen online. In terms of web hosting companies, there are many options.
You may choose from a variety of web hosting packages and services based on your needs and financial situation. Each host and service has a different price range. On the other hand, there are a plethora of web hosts that supply their services.
Free hosting, as the name suggests, is a hosting service that’s not charged. Typically, it has limited resources, constrained support, and constrained functionality. In spite of this, it can be the best option for those who wish to launch a personal website or blog, create a simple website, or experiment with web coding and design.
Whatever your reason for choosing a free web server, you should make the biggest effort possible to select a reputable one.
How to Choose the Best Free Website Hosting Service
We’ve gone through the drawbacks of free web hosting services in detail; if you’re still interested in using one, however, you’ll need to choose one that’s friendly to newbies, doesn’t bombard you with ads, and has plenty of powerful tools.
Free hosting has limited bandwidth and storage space, and your choices are more varied if you’re building a simple website. Having said that, you have nothing to lose by trying out these hosting services since no money will be taken out of your account.
Why Do Web Hosting Companies Offer Free Hosting?
Gratis website hosting ought to be considered a marketing tool, which implies that conditions and terms could change often, there wouldn’t be a cash exchange, and there wouldn’t be any service level agreements thus, downtimes might be more common.
Of course, there are a lot of restrictions on free website hosting. Even if features like server space, site performance, traffic, uptime assurances, and backup supply are sometimes limited, decent inexpensive hosting is nevertheless accessible.
Keep in mind that the reason why organizations provide free website hosting is so they may upsell more costly web hosting to customers who may need it.
Pros and Cons of Free Website Hosting
Free website hosting has many more drawbacks than benefits. The major (and only) positive is that it’s absolutely free; you don’t have to spend any money on it. This could be a nice option if you’re just trying out website creation on your own, but it’s nearly always preferable to simply pay a reputable hosting company—there are some affordable ones, too.
Free website hosting comes with a lot of disadvantages, as you may expect. You shouldn’t have too high of expectations for the customer service (if there is any), and most of the time, you’ll be on your own if there’s a problem with the website. The performance is far worse than that of commercial hosting, and the security of the website is doubtful. In conclusion, avoid free website hosting wherever possible and use a reputable, affordable hosting company.
Is Free Website Hosting Safe?
With the proviso that less emphasis is placed on the website’s stability and support, free website hosting is just as risk-free as any other kind of hosting service. This means you can’t rely on the fact that backups will be produced or that they will be secure, and you’ll have to go the additional mile to save and retrieve your own information whenever it’s needed.
This is not meant to imply that firms offering free website hosting are poor or unreliable; it only means that when using premium services, you’re paying for stability, support, and dependability.
The truth is, even if free website hosting is fine for little hobby websites, any important website — even one with simply a contact page — has to have its own premium web hosting provider. Apart from the obvious security benefits of removing extraneous website credits and adverts, a cleaner, more streamlined website also presents a more credible and trustworthy image.
Free vs Paid Web Hosting,
A free hosting provider is especially enticing if you’re just getting your website started. A website’s construction and upkeep may be expensive, after all. As a result, you may naturally desire to use any chance to save costs that come your way.
You may be curious as to how website hosting companies can give these services without charging anything. Hosting a website isn’t absolutely free, in fact. A free hosting package has several trade-offs, such as:
- Ads placed on your site: Due to their ability to monetize your website with adverts, website hosting firms may offer free hosting options. After your website is online, their or outside advertisements will bring in money for the hosting company. You no longer have any control over the kinds of advertising and the number of displays on your site as a result.
- Branded domain names: For your online presence to succeed, you must use custom domain names. In contrast, with a free web server, you get to choose your own domain name in addition to using their branded URL. If you choose WordPress, for instance, your domain name would be mydomainname.WordPress.com.
- Limitations: The most fundamental functions will undoubtedly be included in a free hosting package. A bundle will only include the necessary functionality to launch your site. For instance, having a restricted quantity of bandwidth might affect how much traffic your website gets. Maybe your ability to generate web pages is constrained.
- Slow loading speeds: Before the website even loads, many potential clients may leave if it takes too long.
- Limited customer support: Little customer assistance is available with a free plan. Whenever you submit a ticket with a complaint, they see you as a low-priority client. They could also just get in touch with you by email, which would take much longer.
- Lack of security: Encryption, firewalls, and spam filtering are less safe on free hosting servers. Your website might be attacked due to the increase in security breaches.
Free Website Hosting – Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Is Free Website Hosting Good?
Both, but generally not. Although being free, it has many flaws. You have very few options, many websites aren’t even fully protected, and you’re very much on your own in case anything goes wrong.
As was discussed earlier, it’s in your best interest to deal with a web hosting company that charges a reasonable fee rather than opting for free service. Free website hosting may be sufficient for certain particular circumstances, such as beginners who just wish to dabble a little bit in the process of constructing a website. But this decision ultimately rests with you, and you have the freedom to make any selection you see fit.
Which Free Hosting Is Best?
Your unique website demands and requirements will determine which free hosting provider is perfect for you. While there are numerous free hosting options, not all of them give the same degree of support and functionality. You could wish to take into account several well-known and trustworthy free hosting companies, such as Google Cloud Hosting, InfinityFree, WordPress.com, Wix, and Weebly.
Is Free Web Hosting Worth It?
If you need to get your website up and running quickly but don’t want to spend money on hosting, free web hosting may be a viable solution. But, you should be aware that choosing free web hosting might have certain drawbacks. Limited features, dependability, security, ads, and support are a few of them.
Bottom Line on the Best Free Web Hosting Sites
In conclusion, people on a restricted budget or those working on modest personal projects may find free web hosting to be a decent alternative. But, there are also possible drawbacks, such as a lack of resources, a delay in page loads, and security concerns. Consequently, it’s essential to thoroughly examine the demands of your website and assess the features and restrictions of every free hosting company before selecting the one that’s most suitable for you.
You could wish to take into account InfinityFree, WordPress.com, Wix, Weebly, Google Cloud Hosting, and Amazon Web Services as some well-known and trustworthy free hosting companies. Many options are available from these suppliers, including unrestricted disk space, bandwidth, email accounts, cost-free SSL certificates, website builders, and intuitive control panels.
Paid hosting, like that offered by Bluehost, Hostinger, or HostGator, may be a better option if you need additional features, speed, and security, or if your website is more important to you or you need superior customer care. Your website’s demands, objectives, and financial constraints will ultimately determine the ideal hosting solution for you.