Best Free Web Hosting Services to Choose for Your Site
With free website hosting, you may create a site without worrying about the cost. Knowing which choice to go with when there are so many to consider. To aid you in your search for a reliable and cost-effective free web host, we’ve compiled this buying guide.
To save you time and effort, we’ve compared and tested the leading free website hosting alternatives so you can make an educated selection and launch your website with confidence. We can help you get your online endeavors off the ground, whether you want to build a blog, a portfolio, or a business. Let’s get started searching for the best free web host that meets your needs.
Should You Really Use Free Web Hosting
Making your own website has become an increasingly important step in the process of disseminating your message. But, it’s possible that now is not the best time for you to put money into a website.
What most people really want is something that can be had quickly, easily, and at no cost. A large number of web hosts provide their services for free. On the other hand, as a savvy buyer, you realize that nothing comes for free. Always, someone or something is holding something back.
Web hosting businesses have high overhead expenses. Free website hosting providers still need to break even, or else they would soon go out of business. They may do this by inserting adverts into your content, throttling your traffic, bringing your site down, keeping you hostage, or upselling you to more of their services. There’s a chance that some of the adverts being shown are for your rivals, or at the very least, don’t bode well for your own company.
There are very few situations in which using free website hosting is a good choice. There are a lot of problems with using free web hosting for commercial purposes. Nevertheless, what if you have a limited budget? You may be a student seeking free website hosting or a non-profit organization in need of free WordPress hosting. This article has the answer to your problem.
If you choose a web host from our recommended list, it’ll always be free of charge, to whatever extent you see fit. A full-featured website hosting service can be had for very little money these days, and we urge anybody who is serious about their site to seriously consider signing up with one.
For as little as $2.75 per month up to $5 per month, you can get a lot from these website hosting providers, including free domain hosting, free emails, free SSL, e-commerce tools, plus a whole deal more. With the increased revenue from your site, that’s almost free.
This tiny fee buys you access to superior service and professional assistance. In addition, it allows you to fully manage and own your domain name and website. This suggests that you have the choice of creating an experience that’s totally free of advertisements for the people who visit your website.
Thus, let’s begin by researching the best almost-free website hosting that’s now accessible. Following that, we’ll look at many of the most popular free web servers that are currently available.
Bluehost Hosting Service for Your Site
5 Best Website Hosting Sites on the Market
- Bluehost – Best Web Hosting Site Overall
- Hostinger – Best for Budget
- HostGator – Best for Beginners
- Namecheap – Best for Domain Name Registration
- SiteGround – Best for Website Security
Server performance and uptime, user-friendliness, support, features, and cost are just a few of the variables that went into determining our top web host rankings. In order to guarantee reliability and objectivity of our rankings, we put each web hosting provider through extensive study and testing.
The evaluations and comments of actual users of each service are also taken into account. We’ve compiled a detailed list of the best web hosts by considering these characteristics.
| Web Hosting Site | Price (Starting at) | Server Uptime | Customer Support | Ease of Use | Features |
| Bluehost | $2.95/month | 99.99% | 24/7 Live Chat, Phone, Email | Easy | Free Domain hosting, SSL Certificate, 1-click WordPress Install |
| Hostinger | $1.99/month | 99.9% | 24/7 Live Chat | Easy | Free Domain hosting, SSL Certificate, 1-click WordPress Install |
| HostGator | $2.75/month | 99.9% | 24/7 Live Chat | Easy | Free Domain hosting, Unlimited Bandwidth, 1-click WordPress Install |
| Namecheap | $1.98/month | 99.9% | 24/7 Live Chat, Email | Easy | Free Domain hosting, SSL Certificate, 1-click WordPress Install |
| SiteGround | $2.99/month | 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/month
Star rating: 4.8/5
When it comes to the best web hosting services, Bluehost is a global leader. The WordPress team endorses them as a reliable host. 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.
Get sophisticated add-ons like Cloudflare’s CDN, and SEO tools straight from their control panel. Blogs, small company websites, and personal websites may all benefit from using Bluehost.
The Basic Bluehost package allows for a website with free domain hosting registration for the first year, 10 GB of SSD storage, unlimited bandwidth, and access to Bluehost’s unique themes and round-the-clock customer assistance. In addition to free domain hosting privacy and regular backups, the more expensive options also provide limitless website hosting space. We also recommend this hosting service as one of the fastest web hosting services on the market.
Bluehost’s shared hosting plans typically provide a baseline level of CPU performance, which is enough for most sites with light to moderate traffic. With the enhanced processing power and quicker page loads that come with their Pro plan, you can do more in less time.
Pros:
- First-year SSL and domain registrations are free
- Consistent uptime and lightning-fast page loads
- Dependable safety
- Full WordPress compatibility
- Capacity to store a lot
Cons:
- Large renew expense
Pricing: Bluehost comes with four shared hosting plans:
- Basic – $2.95/month (Renews to $9.99/month)
- Plus – $5.45/month (Renews to $14.99/month)
- Choice Plus – $5.45/month (Renews to $18.99/month)
- Pro – $13.95/month (Renews to $28.99/month)
- You may choose from a variety of hosting options, including shared, VPS, WordPress, and dedicated.
There is a 30-day satisfaction guarantee for all subscription options.
Hostinger: Best for Budget
Pricing: Starts at $1.99/month
Star rating: 4.8/5
Hostinger is a cheap alternative to free web hosts. For those looking to launch their first website, they offer affordable shared hosting packages. From completely risk-free entry-level hosting to cutting-edge VPS cloud architecture, it has progressively amassed a global customer base spanning over 39 nations.
For less than $2.00 a month, you can get started. For only $2.99 a month, you can have your very own domain name, 10 business email addresses, the capacity to set up 100 websites, and a one-click installation of content management systems like WordPress.
Hostinger has numerous features that are helpful. With their lowest Single Shared Hosting plan, for instance, you get 30 GB of space, a single website and email address, 100 GB of transfer, and two database accounts. For a little website, this is enough. Nevertheless, if you find yourself using a lot of the features, you can simply switch to a paid subscription.
Pros:
- Affordable cost
- Excellent availability & processing time
- Conveniently simple-to-use
Cons:
- Restricted functionality on the most affordable plan
- Customer care needs improvement
Pricing: The following are the three shared hosting plans offered by Hostinger that are the most popular:
- Single Shared Hosting – $1.99/month (Renews to $3.99/month)
- Premium Shared Hosting – $2.99/month (Renews to $6.99/month)
- Business Shared Hosting – $3.99/month (Renews to $8.99/month)
Besides shared hosting, Hostinger also offers Cloud, WordPress, and VPS hosting. The hosting package has a risk-free 30-day trial where you may get your money back.
HostGator: Best for Beginners
Pricing: Starts at $2.75/month
Star rating: 4.6/5
In today’s industry, HostGator stands out as a leading contender among web hosting service providers. They began operations in 2002 and have since developed into one of the most successful and well-known hosting firms in the world.
Their affordable and dependable web hosting in combination with their excellent customer service has contributed significantly to their phenomenal success.
Every plan comes with a free domain hosting name, an unlimited number of subdomains, unlimited email addresses, free HTTPS and SSL, an unlimited number of FTP accounts, an infinite amount of storage (disk space), and unlimited.
Each hosting account is equipped with a cPanel, which includes an auto installation for WordPress as well as other widely used website construction tools.
Pros:
- A generous amount of storage
- Bandwidth with no use limits
- Negotiable Terms and Conditions
Cons:
- Pricing gimmicks
- Continuous efforts to sell more
- Inadequate Backups
Pricing: Affordable web hosting packages are available from HostGator, with their entry-level shared hosting plan costing as little as $2.75 per month. In addition, for an extra cost, they provide add-on services such as website backups and search engine optimization tools.
- $11.95 – Hatchling
- $12.95 – Baby
- $17.95 – Business
Namecheap: Best for Domain Name Registration
Pricing: Starting at $1.98/month
Star rating: 4.6/5
Besides being a go-to registrar, Namecheap is also a great place to get hosting for your website at a low price. A free one-year SSL certificate and a risk-free trial period are included in all plans. The little storage for its lowest tiers and the lack of dedicated customer assistance may deter some small firms from signing up, despite the attractive price. Namecheap may be enough for individuals who don’t need sophisticated configurations.
Namecheap provides simple shared hosting plans at affordable prices, and these plans include everything you need to get your website up and running, including automated backups performed twice per week, a free SSL certificate, and a guarantee that your website will be up 100% of the time. Namecheap really excels at these introductory pricing tiers.
Pros:
- Alternatives to the prevailing market price
- User-friendly design
- Plans boast a 99.9% uptime guarantee, while reseller and VPS plans provide a full 100%
Cons:
- Lack of phone assistance
- Constrained hosting options
- Capacity constraints for even the most fundamental designs
Pricing: Included in the annual price plans are:
- Stellar: For only $2.18 a month, you may host a maximum of three websites with 20 GB of SSD storage space.
- Stellar Plus: Users may start building infinite websites with automated backups and an unlimited amount of storage for only $2.98 per month.
- Stellar Business: Users may have limitless websites, automated backups, cloud storage, and more for as little as $4.98 per month, and they can have as much as 50 GB of storage space.
SiteGround: Best for Website Security
Pricing: Starting at 2.99/month
Star rating: 4.4/5
If you’re not satisfied with the options for free website hosting, SiteGround is a fantastic choice. The quality of their service and the speed with which it’s delivered have earned them a stellar reputation. If you’re looking for a WordPress-friendly server, SiteGround is also one of the top picks from the WordPress team.
All SiteGround hosting plans include a website builder, 1-click WordPress and Joomla installation, SSD storage, unlimited email addresses, and 24/7 expert customer support, among other features.
In addition, they’ve developed cutting-edge tools to boost the speed of websites, such as optimized themes and databases, security add-ons, and PHP/MySQL code that loads in microseconds. SiteGround guarantees 99.99% uptime and has data centers on four different continents.
SiteGround is great for those who want to build a website for their own company or online shop. If you need more space and bandwidth as your site expands, they provide a VPS web hosting package you may upgrade to.
Pros:
- Very rapid page loads
- With hardware located on four different continents, the servers can accommodate almost any user
- No cost for daily backups
Cons:
- There’s no viable scaling option in the middle range
- Pricing structure is too complicated
- It doesn’t come with a free domain hosting
Pricing: Shared hosting packages from SiteGround begin at $2.99 per month, making it a little more expensive premium host.
- StartUp – $2.99 per month for 1 website with 10GB of SSD storage and up to 10,000 monthly visitors.
- GrowBig – With just $4.99 a month, you may have an unlimited number of websites with 20 GB of SSD storage, 100,000 monthly page views, scheduled backups, a staging environment, an Ultrafast PHP installation, and a collaboration tool.
- GoGeek – With only $7.99 a month, you can get unlimited websites, 40 GB of SSD storage, 400,000 monthly visitors, on-demand backups, staging, lightning-fast PHP, private DNS, a collaboration tool, a white-label panel for customers, and top-tier support.
7 Best Free Web Hosting Services
- WordPress.com – Best Free Website Hosting Site Overall
- Wix.com – Best for Ease of Use
- Weebly – Best for E-commerce
- Squarespace – Best for Stylish Websites
- Google Cloud Hosting – Best for Scalability
- Amazon Web Services – Best for Enterprise-level Hosting
- InfinityFree – Best for Unlimited Free Web Hosting
WordPress.com: Best Free Website Hosting Site Overall
Pricing: Free
Star rating: 4.8/5
When it comes to free website hosting platforms, few can compete with WordPress.com, which gives its own twist on the software. The official home of the popular self-hosted website builder WordPress is WordPress.org, which should not be confused with the former.
Under its free website hosting plan, WordPress.com provides you with a WordPress.com subdomain (such as your website.wordpress.com), 3 GB of storage space, and access to free website designs.
If you choose the free option, advertisements will be included on your site. The advertisements, the lack of the ability to utilize a custom domain, and the lack of access to other services are all things that may be remedied by upgrading to one of their paying plans. In this case, any of the nearly free website hosting options we discussed above would be the best choice.
Wix: Best Free Website Hosting Site for Ease of Use
Pricing: Free
Star rating: 4.7/5
Wix is another fully-hosted site creator that provides hosting at no cost. Free websites on Wix.com are funded by advertising and Wix.com logos, as is the case with other free website hosting providers. Just switch to one of their premium programs to remove the ad.
The free website hosting plan will provide you with a subdomain under the Wix.com domain, access to website templates, 500 MB of storage space, and 500 MB of bandwidth.
Weebly: Best for Ecommerce
Pricing: Free
Star rating: 4.6/5
Square, Inc., based in San Francisco, owns Weebly, a popular website provider. In addition to a selection of hosting packages, the newest website themes, and drag-and-drop site builders are included.
Weebly also has a number of useful features built right in, so there’s no need to mess around with add-ons. When it comes to functionality, however, Weebly is no different from the other free website hosting platforms, for example, you’ll need to use a Weebly subdomain for your site’s URL and will be subject to Weebly advertisements.
It has a user-friendly drag-and-drop editor and pre-designed themes to get you started quickly. You get 500MB of storage space and Weebly advertisements with their free plan, plus a Weebly subdomain. Ads, storage space, and access to premium services are all available as paid add-ons.
Squarespace: Best for Stylish Websites
Pricing: Free
Star rating: 4.5/5
Squarespace is a well-liked website-creation software that doesn’t call for any coding knowledge or experience. It has an easy-to-use drag-and-drop interface and stunning pre-made design templates for your next project.
They provide a free website hosting trial, but just for 14 days. You may now visit their website builder and experiment with its functions. Until you upgrade to a paying subscription, no one will be able to access your website.
Prices for the paid tiers begin at $12 USD per month. Every package includes a free domain hosting name, as well as limitless data transfer, storage, and pre-made themes for your website.
Google Cloud Hosting: Best for Scalability
Pricing: Free
Star rating: 4.4/5
Whether you’re a student or a small company owner, you may take advantage of Google Cloud Hosting options. It has all the high-powered extras you’d expect from a world-famous brand like Google.
Because of the flexibility of their plans and the fact that they charge only for the time that their customers actually spend using them, it’s an ideal starting point for academics. If you just need basic hosting for development and staging sites, Google’s $300 promotional credit should last you a full year.
Google Compute Engine supports WordPress, and other content management systems, so you may host any kind of site on Google Cloud.
Amazon Web Services – Best for Enterprise-level Hosting
Pricing: Free
Star rating: 4.3/5
Some of the most visited websites on the internet are run by Amazon Web Services. Small companies may find it difficult to utilize, however, students and new developers will find it to be a very helpful platform.
Among the greatest free website hosting options for testing sites, Amazon’s Free Tier provides free and always free items for a full year. Students may use Amazon’s robust platform to acquire and hone programming abilities.
InfinityFree – Best for Unlimited Free Hosting
Pricing: Free
Star rating: 4.2/5
InfinityFree is an incredible free web hosting service that opens in a new tab and provides 5 GB of storage space, 99.9% server uptime, unlimited website hosting, and data transfer for absolutely no cost at all. We were skeptical at first, but after looking into it more, we found out that this is a legitimate host with over a decade of expertise and over 400,000 satisfied clients.
Whether you already have a domain name or want to get started with free domain hosting, you may create as many websites as you want without spending a dime. Using Softaculous, you can quickly and easily install WordPress, Joomla, and over 400 other popular applications. They are all provided with free SSL, and your website doesn’t include any advertisements that might alert users to the fact that you are utilizing free website hosting.
Ranking Methodology for the Best Free Website Hosting
Choosing the finest free website hosting provider from the many accessible online might be difficult. Yet, there are a few things you should keep in mind to make sure you’re choosing a trustworthy hosting company.
These are the criteria we used to determine the best free website hosting sites:
- Server Uptime: Your website’s success directly correlates to the uptime of your hosting provider. Try to choose a service that promises a minimum of 99% uptime.
- Bandwidth & Disk Space: Keep in mind the hosting service’s storage space and transfer limits. Ensure that your website has sufficient storage and traffic capacity.
- Security: In order to protect your website from malicious software and hackers, your hosting service must offer a safe and secure environment for it. Check to see whether the service provider you’re considering provides SSL certificates, virus scanning, and firewalls.
- Customer Support: If you need help with technological issues at any time of the day or night, choose a hosting service that provides trustworthy customer care.
- User-Friendly Interface: Choose a host that has a control panel that is both straightforward and simple to use in order to simplify the process of maintaining your website.
- Advertisements: You should be wary of web hosts that insert ads into your site. Choose a server that doesn’t bog you down with banner ads.
Best Free Website Hosting Services – Buying Guide
What Is Free Web Hosting?
Building a website would be incomplete without web hosting. After all, it provides the infrastructure and tools necessary for a website to be accessible online. In terms of web hosting companies, the options are almost limitless. Depending on your needs and budget, you may choose from a wide variety of web hosting packages and providers. Costs might vary. Several web hosts, however, provide their services for no cost at all.
Free website hosting, as the name implies, is a service that doesn’t cost the user anything. Most of the time, it has fewer options, less help, and fewer tools at your disposal. It’s not for everyone, but it’s a great option for those looking to create a simple website, blog, or test their web development and design skills. It’s important to put the most time and energy into locating a trustworthy web hosting service, regardless of your motivations.
How to Choose the Best Free Web 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 find one that’s not just free, but also intuitive, ad-free, and loaded with useful features.
While the majority of free web hosting services come with capped amounts of disk space and bandwidth, the alternatives available to you for constructing a modest website are more numerous. Hence, there’s no risk in giving these hosting services a try since no money really changes hands.
Why Do Web Hosting Companies Offer Free Hosting?
Since that free website hosting is primarily a promotional tool, the terms and conditions may change regularly, and there’ll be no monetary transaction, downtimes could be more common, and service level agreements (SLA) will not exist.
Of course, there are restrictions associated with free website hosting. There’s decent inexpensive hosting out there, but it often comes with reduced resources like storage space on the server, page load times, traffic volumes, and even backups.
Remember that businesses can afford to provide free website hosting because it helps them sell more costly plans to those who really need them.
What Are the Pros and Cons of Free Website Hosting?
Free website hosting has several drawbacks that far outweigh the benefits. The one and only benefit is that it doesn’t cost you anything. If you’re only dabbling in website creation, this may be a decent option. Nevertheless, you’d be much better off investing in a solid hosting service, and you can find affordable ones.
However, there are a number of drawbacks to using a free web server. Free website hosting often has less performance than premium hosting, less reliable security, less helpful customer service, and leaves you to fix any issues on your own. Thus, it’s best to avoid free website hosting at all costs and instead go with a reliable, low-cost service instead.
Is Free Website Hosting Safe?
In terms of security, free website hosting is on par with paid hosting, with the proviso that less care is taken to ensure stability and offer customer assistance. Because you can’t guarantee that backups will be produced or kept in a safe place, you should always take the necessary precautions to save and retrieve your own information. You’re paying for stability, support, and dependability with premium services, but that doesn’t make free website hosting businesses poor or unreliable.
Although free web hosting may be enough for personal or small-scale hobby sites, any professional or even semi-professional site needs its own dedicated, premium web hosting service. This suggests additional safeguards for your website and makes for a more polished presentation if you remove any extraneous website credits or advertisements.
Free vs Paid Web Hosting
If you’re just getting your website up and running, a free website hosting provider may seem like the best option. After all, it’s not cheap to launch and keep up a website. This makes it all the more reasonable to look for ways to cut costs wherever possible.
You may be asking, nevertheless, how web hosts can afford to give their services gratis. Hosting a website really does cost money. The advantages of a paid hosting package aren’t without costs.
- Advertisements: In exchange for providing you with free website hosting, several firms will insert advertisements on your website. Your web server will start making money as soon as your site becomes online due to advertisements shown on it. You’ll no longer have any say over the quantity or quality of adverts shown on your site.
- Domain Name: Successfully launching a business online requires a unique domain name that reflects the company’s brand. In contrast, with a free web host, you may choose your own domain name in addition to using the server’s branded URL. If you’re using WordPress, for instance, your domain name will take the form mydomainname.wordpress.com.
- Constraints: As could be expected, a free website hosting package will only provide the barest minimum of options. If you purchase a starter plan, it’ll just include the features you need to launch your site. For instance, if you only have a certain amount of bandwidth available, you may not be able to accommodate as many visitors to your site.
- Load Time: Site visitors may abandon a business if they have to wait too long for the homepage to load.
- Priority: Access to customer help is restricted with a free plan. By submitting a complaint ticket, you’re no longer a high-priority client. They may only respond to emails, which would be much slower.
- Security: A lack of security measures such as encryption, firewalls, and spam filters characterizes free website hosting services. In an age when hacking is on the increase, your website might be a target.
Free Website Hosting – Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Is Free Website Hosting Good?
It’s cost-free, but it comes with a lot of major downsides. Very little is possible, many websites aren’t adequately protected, and you’re on your own if anything goes wrong.
As we said before, a cheap web hosting company is preferable to a free one. Nonetheless, the decision rests solely with you, and free web hosting may be sufficient in certain cases, such as for novices who wish to dabble in website creation.
Which Free Domain Hosting Is Best?
Determine your website’s individual demands and requirements to choose the finest free website hosting option. There are a plethora of free web hosting options, however, not all sites are created equal. WordPress.com, Wix, and Weebly are some of the most well-known and trustworthy free website hosting companies that you may think about using for your website. Other options include Google Cloud Hosting and InfinityFree.
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 may have certain possible drawbacks that you should prepare yourself for. Constraints in functionality, dependability, security, ads, and support are all factors.
Bottom Line on the Best Free Web Hosting Sites
Overall, free web hosting might be a great alternative for individuals on a budget or for smaller personal projects. The possible drawbacks include restricted access, longer page loads, and security concerns. As a result, before deciding on a free website hosting company, you should thoroughly consider your website’s requirements and assess the benefits and drawbacks of each service.
InfinityFree, WordPress.com, Wix, Weebly, Google Cloud Hosting, and Amazon Web Services are just some of the well-known and dependable free website hosting solutions you may look into. These companies provide a wide range of services, including unmetered storage and bandwidth, email accounts, secure server certificates, website editors, and administrative dashboards.
Paid hosting, like that offered by Bluehost, Hostinger, or HostGator, could be a better option if you have a larger website, need more features, speed, and security, or need superior customer care. In the end, you’ll want to consider your website’s specific requirements, your long-term objectives, and your budget before deciding on a hosting service.
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PARTNER CONTENT PRESENTED BY: Ahad Waseem