Free website hosting can be suitable for hobby projects or short-term sites, but for serious and long-term websites, affordable web hosting plans or reputable hosting services are recommended. Bluehost is recommended for self-hosted websites, offering a discounted price of $2.75/month and a free domain name. Alternatively, Wix is an all-in-one solution for hosting and website building, with a free plan available for 14 days.
Free hosting services have limitations, such as instability, storage and bandwidth restrictions, and slower performance. However, they can be suitable for personal projects, practicing web design skills, testing plugins/themes, or creating staging sites. If you need a live site without the drawbacks of free hosting, consider affordable alternatives.
Ten best free website hosting services compared
The good news is that you can test drive free website hosting at no cost to see if it might work for you. If you’ve decided to give it a try, here are ten options to consider.
1. InfinityFree
InfinityFree is a free web hosting service that boasts a 99.9% uptime guarantee. It offers users:
You’ll also have access to the Softaculous Script Installer to set up WordPress. This hosting service provider doesn’t offer domain registration, but you can use one you’ve acquired from another registrar.
Once your website is published, your visitors won’t see ads. However, there will be ads in cPanel on the back end. Your site is also limited to 50,000 hits per day.
InfinityFree is powered by iFastNet, which also offers premium hosting. The cheapest plan starts at $4.99 per month and includes six free domains, unlimited disk space, and more features.
2. Wix
Wix is a drag-and-drop website builder – similar to tools like Weebly or Squarespace; and yup, you don’t need to be familiar with PHP, like you do with other solutions (e.g. – Joomla).
However, we’re featuring Wix on this list because it’s kind of an all-in-one solution for both a website platform and server space to host that website. Since Wix does come with a free plan, this makes it a free website hosting service as well. This free website builder is a unique way to enjoy awesome site-building features backed by enterprise-grade reliability. On that free plan, you get:
Unfortunately, if you’re expecting no ads, you will be disappointed. Just like most of the free web hosting providers, Wix places their own ads on free plan sites. You can only connect a Wix subdomain and would have to move to a paid plan for connecting a custom domain.
The eCommerce functionality is also unavailable in the free version. However, you can still set up things like bookings, events, and forums, and fill in your site with SEO-friendly content with just a few clicks.
3. ByetHost
ByetHost is another free hosting service that you could use. Its plan features:
ByetHost offers solid support for its free plan, which can be rare. You can access a self-service knowledge base and video tutorials, but a ticketing system is also available.
In addition, you’ll receive usage statistics such as disk space, bandwidth usage, and daily hits. You can find this data in VistaPanel, which is ByetHost’s free hosting control panel. Then, you can use the information to help budget your resources.
Like InfinityFree, ByetHost is managed by iFastNet. This company provides a variety of web hosting services at affordable prices. For instance, the Ultimate Premium plan comes with unlimited bandwidth, disk space, and addon domains. It starts at $7.99 per month.
4. HyperPHP
HyperPHP is a free hosting and domain service for personal websites. Its plan offers:
HyperPHP offers a few ways to make launching a new website easy. Firstly, a free domain transfer is available. This host also offers an automatic script installer, which you can access through VistaPanel.
HyperPHP is a free service offered by iFastNet. However, if you want to build a professional business website, we recommend upgrading to a paid plan. Starting at just $4.99 per month, these premium hosting plans include advanced features such as Cloudflare Railgun, which can help speed up your site and deliver a smoother user experience.
5. 000WebHost
000WebHost is a free hosting option from Hostinger. Some of its features include:
000WebHost comes with the Zyro website builder, which should make designing your site less intimidating. Like InfinityFree, visitors to your website won’t see ads, but there will be ads in your WordPress dashboard.
Free hosting from 000WebHost doesn’t even require a credit card to set up, and you can use it as long as you like. Also, if you outgrow your free plan, you can easily upgrade to a cheap plan from Hostinger. Hostinger plans start at $1.99 / month for your first billing cycle.
6. Google Cloud Hosting
Google Cloud Hosting isn’t technically free. However, it does offer a one-year free trial that includes:
While Google Cloud Hosting is tailored towards large businesses, anyone can use it. To get started, all you need is a Google account.
The free trial lasts for 12 months, or until you’ve used up the $300 credit it includes. After this, you only pay for the resources you use. Google offers a price calculator to help you estimate your costs.
If you’re planning to use WordPress, check out our guide on how to install WordPress on Google Cloud.
7. AwardSpace
AwardSpace offers a variety of hosting services. It’s best known for its free plan, which includes:
Awardspace includes one-click content management system (CMS) installation as well as the Zacky website builder. Also, the 24/7 live chat is available to free plan users if you have questions.
Once launched, your own website will be ad-free. Plus, you can place ads to monetize it. AwardSpace provides you with the ability to monitor your bandwidth usage as well, which may help you budget your resources.
8. Freehostia
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Freehostia offers paid and free hosting. The free plan, called ‘Chocolate’, provides:
Freehostia’s cluster platform aims to offer more reliability from its free hosting. Hopefully, this results in less downtime for your website.
You’ll have access to a website builder complete with templates. If you run into issues, you can have an answer to your support ticket in one hour, even with the free plan.
9. FreeHosting
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FreeHosting offers free and paid hosting from its two data centers. With the free plan, you get:
When you sign up, you can bring your own domain name, or FreeHosting can register one for you. This provider promises unmetered bandwidth as long as you comply with its Fair Use Policy.
One-time billed add-ons are available, such as an additional mailbox or SSL certificate. This lets you improve upon the free hosting plan while keeping costs low. Note that FreeHosting does not offer services for users in Brazil, Cuba, Iran, Sudan, Syria, or Vietnam.
10. FreeWebHostingArea
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FreeWebHostingArea is a volunteer-maintained free hosting service. It offers:
To use FreeWebHostingArea, your free site must have at least one visitor per month. It can be deleted due to inactivity if you drop below this metric. This service also prohibits private projects, APIs, and password-protected websites.
FreeWebHostingArea provides backups for all hosting accounts, although it’s recommended you create your own as well. You can bring a domain or purchase one through the provider’s own service.
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