The 12 Best Free Web Hosting Sites on the Market

Free web hosting is a fantastic alternative if you want to create a website without going broke. 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 best free website hosting services.

To assist you in making an educated choice and launching your website quickly, we evaluated and assessed the best free website hosting sites to consider. We’ve 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 Web Hosting

Creating a website is now the most crucial step in spreading your message to the globe. Nonetheless, you could decide not to invest money in creating a website when you initially start off. Most individuals only want something that is fast, simple, and free. But, as a savvy buyer, you realize that nothing comes for free. A catch is always there.

It’s quite expensive to operate a web hosting service. Free web hosting providers must find a way to generate revenue else they would have to close their doors. To do this, they may place advertisements on the website, set traffic restrictions, interrupt your service, lock you into their platform, or upsell you on other services. Some of the commercials that are seen may not accurately reflect your brand and could even be your rivals.

Free web hosting is usually a terrible choice, with the exception of a test website. Free web hosting is unwise for many reasons, particularly for corporations. But what if your budget is tight?

If you’re a nonprofit organization or a student in need of a free website host, go no further than WordPress. Fear not, this post has a solution for you. We’ve included only free web hosting sites that promise to maintain your site at no cost for as long as you want. But if you’re serious about your website, we highly advise utilizing a budget-friendly, feature-rich web hosting service.

At $2.75 to $5 per month, the bulk of these shared hosting providers will provide you with a free domain, a free SSL, eCommerce capabilities, free emails, and a lot more. Given that your website will generate much more revenue, that is almost free.

You may have access to knowledgeable help and generally better service by paying this modest sum. The most significant benefit is that it provides you with total ownership and control over your website. To provide the greatest user experience, you may select to display no advertising and keep your website completely ad-free.

In light of this, let’s first look at some of the top almost-free web hosting providers. The finest free web hosting websites will next be discussed.

 

 

5 Best Web Hosting Sites on the Market

Our rating approach for the top web hosting services is based on a number of variables, such as 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 sites by looking into these crucial variables.

 

Bluehost: Best Website Hosting Overall

Pricing: Starting at $2.95/month

Star rating: 4.8/5

One of the biggest hosting firms in the world is called Bluehost. They are a WordPress hosting company that’s officially endorsed. Unlimited disk space, a free SSL certificate, free branded email addresses, one-click WordPress installation, and other features are all included in their hosting packages.

You may activate more add-ons like a Cloudflare CDN, site builder, SEO tools, and other website features 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, 1 website, and free domain registration for the first year. Unlimited websites, free domain privacy, storage, and automatic backups are included with higher-tier services.

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.

Pros: 

• WordPress integration that’s seamless
• High availability and quick loading
• Trustworthy security
• Complimentary SSL Certificates and a domain name for a year
• Ample storage

Cons: 

Pricing: There are 4 shared hosting plans offered by Bluehost:

• 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)

A full refund is offered during the first 30 days of any plan’s purchase.

 

 

Hostinger: Best for Budget

Pricing: Starts at $1.99/month

Star rating: 4.8/5

Another affordable option to the providers of free website hosting is Hostinger. They provide inexpensive shared hosting packages ideal for setting up a beginner website. A web hosting and domain name registration business owned by its employees, Hostinger was founded in 2004. 

With services ranging from risk-free starter hosting to sophisticated VPS cloud architecture, it has progressively grown an international customer base that is dispersed over 39 countries.

Basically, you may start at $1.99 each month. For only $2.99 a month, you can have your very own domain name, 10 business email addresses, the capacity to set up 100 individual websites, and a one-click installation of content management systems like WordPress.

Hostinger provides a lot of helpful features. There’s a minimum of 30 GB of storage space, 1 website hosting, 1 email hosting, 100 GB of bandwidth, and 2 database hosting spaces in their lowest single shared hosting plan. 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: 

• Dependable operation and quick speed
• Simple to use
• Affordable Prices

Cons: 

• Limited assistance
• Lowest-priced plan with few available features

Pricing: The three most well-liked shared hosting packages from Hostinger are:

• 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. There’s a 30-day money-back guarantee on all hosting packages.

 

 

HostGator: Best for Beginners

Pricing: Starts at $2.75/month

Star rating: 4.6/5

One of the best free web hosting site on the market is HostGator. Since its founding in 2002, they’ve grown steadily to rank among the biggest hosting providers worldwide. Their affordable, dependable web hosting and top-notch customer support are to thank for their phenomenal development.

Their $2.75/month hatchling plan is the lowest price. Every plan comes with a free domain, an unlimited number of subdomains, an infinite number of free HTTPS / SSL, email addresses, an unlimited number of FTP accounts, an unlimited amount of storage (disk space), and unrestricted bandwidth.

The cPanel of all shared hosting plans is a one-click WordPress installation, among other well-known website creation tools.

Pros: 

• Flexible conditions
• Limitless bandwidth
• Large storage space

Cons: 

• Faulty backups
• Regular upselling
• Complex pricing

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 site backups and SEO 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

Namecheap is a well-known domain name registrar that also provides affordable web hosting services. Plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee and a free SSL certificate for the first year. 

Minimal storage for its base tiers and insufficient customer assistance may deter small enterprises, but the affordable price may attract them. But, people who don’t need elaborate configurations could find Namecheap enough.

The affordable basic shared hosting plans from Namecheap include everything you need to launch a tiny website, including free SSL certificates, automated twice-weekly backups, and a 100% uptime guarantee. Namecheap excels in these starting plans.

Pros: 

• Affordable price ranges
• The uptime guarantee is 99.9% for reseller and VPS hosting
• A user-friendly interface

Cons: 

• Limited storage for simple layouts
• Few hosting options
• No telephone support

Pricing: Plans with annual cost include:

• Stellar: At $2.18 a month, the entry-level plan offers 20 GB of SSD storage and up to three websites
• Stellar Plus: Users may create an infinite number of websites, set up automated backups, and purchase unlimited storage for $2.98/month
• Stellar Business: Users receive unlimited websites, automated backups, cloud storage, and up to 50 GB of storage starting at $4.98/month.

 

 

SiteGround: Best for Website Security

Pricing: Starting at 2.99/month

Star rating: 4.4/5 

SiteGround is a solid paid option for totally free web hosting services. They are 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, unlimited email addresses, first-rate customer service, SSD storage, and more. Also, they’ve developed sophisticated website speed features including security plugins, site optimization, and lightning-fast PHP and MySQL databases. It also provides a 99.99% uptime guarantee.

If you need more space and bandwidth as your site expands, they provide a VPS web hosting package you may upgrade to.

Pros: 

• Very quick page loads
• Servers across four continents
• New technologies that increase speed
• Free everyday backups

Cons: 

• There’s no free domain offered
• A difficult pricing structure
• No possibility for mid-tier scalability

Pricing: Shared hosting options from SiteGround, a little more expensive hosting company, start at $2.99 per month.

• StartUp – 1 website, up to 10 000 monthly visits and 10GB SSD storage space – $2.99/month
• GrowBig – Unlimited websites, Ultrafast PHP setup,100,000 monthly visits allowance, 20GB SSD storage, on-demand backups, staging, and a collaboration tool – $4.99/month
• GoGeek – Unlimited websites, collaboration tool, 400,000 visits/month, on-demand backups, staging, ultrafast PHP, private DNS, white-label panel for clients, 40GB SSD storage and priority support – $7.99/month

 

 

7 Free Web Hosting Services

WordPress.com: Best Free Website Hosting Site Overall

Pricing: Free

Star rating: 4.8/5

The free hosting service wordpress.com provides a special variation of WordPress. Not to be confused with the popular self-hosted website builder, WordPress, which may be found at wordpress.org.

A wordpress.com subdomain, 3 GB of storage, and access to free website designs are all included with wordpress.com’s free website hosting package.

On your website, advertising is shown using this free plan. Under their premium plans, you may get rid of advertisements, utilize your own domain name and unlock other features. 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

In addition to Weebly, Wix is another free option for creating a hosted website. It’s sponsored by showing adverts and wix.com branding on your free website, like the majority of free hosting providers. By switching to their paying programs, you may eliminate it.

A wix.com subdomain, 500 MB of storage, 500 MB of bandwidth, and website templates are all included in the free plan.

 

 

Weebly: Best for Ecommerce

Pricing: Free

Star rating: 4.6/5

A Well-known web hosting site 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 web 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 includes a user-friendly drag-and-drop website builder and pre-made layouts. Their free plan comes with 500 MB of storage, a Weebly subdomain, and Weebly advertisements. To remove advertising, acquire additional storage, and access features, subscribe to their paying plans.

 

 

Squarespace: Best for Stylish Websites

Pricing: Free

Star rating: 4.5/5

Popular website builder Squarespace needs no technical knowledge. It has elegant, well-designed templates and a simple drag-and-drop user interface. A limited 14-day free trial of web hosting is available. This enables you to access their website builder and explore its features. Without a paid subscription, your website won’t be accessible to the general public.

Paid packages begin at $12 a month. Every plan includes storage, unlimited bandwidth, and ready-made website layouts in addition to a free custom domain.

 

 

Google Cloud: Best for Scalability

Pricing: Free

Star rating: 4.4/5

For students and small enterprises, Google provides a huge selection of free web hosting options. It has all the potent features you would anticipate from a world-class organization like Google.

Students may easily start using it because of the pay-per-use model of their programs. If you just need free hosting for development or testing projects, Google’s $300 promotional credit should last you for an entire year.

You may host any kind of website on Google Cloud, including WordPress, and even utilize Google Compute Engine to run your site.

 

 

Amazon Web Services – Best for Enterprise-level Hosting

Pricing: Free

Star rating: 4.3/5

Some of the most 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.

Amazon’s AWS Free Tier is among the top free website hosting options for testing sites since it includes a variety of features and services and is available without any commitment beyond the first 12-month period. Students may acquire and perfect their development abilities using the robust platform provided by Amazon.

 

 

InfinityFree – Best for Unlimited Free Hosting

Pricing: Free

Star rating: 4.2/5

You may host an infinite number of websites on their servers and transmit as much data as you like for free with InfinityFree, a fantastic free web hosting service. We, too, were skeptical at first, but after looking into it, we found that this is a legitimate host with a proven track record and well over 400,000 satisfied clients.

Create as many cost-free websites as you need right now using a subdomain or an existing domain you own. With the help of Softaculous, you may quickly and easily install WordPress, Joomla, or any of the other 400+ popular software on your websites. 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 Web Hosting 

While looking for a web host, it might be difficult to narrow down the numerous accessible free alternatives to just one. 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 best free web hosting providers, we looked at the following ranking factors:

• Server Uptime: Your website’s success depends on the uptime of the hosting provider. Choose a provider that promises a minimum of 99% uptime.
• Bandwidth and Disk Space: Take into account the hosting provider’s storage and bandwidth offerings. Make sure your website has appropriate space and bandwidth.
• Security: To stop hackers and virus assaults, a hosting company must provide your website with a safe environment. Try to choose a service that provides SSL certificates, virus scans on a regular basis, and firewalls.
• Customer Support: Look for a hosting company that provides trustworthy customer service, including round-the-clock technical support..
• User-Friendly Interface: Choose a hosting company that has a simple and easy-to-use control panel so you can simply and quickly manage your website.
• Advertisements: Watch out for web hosts 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. Several web hosts, however, provide their services for no cost at all.

Free hosting, as the name suggests, is a hosting service that’s not charged. Typically, it has limited resources, constrained support, and constrained functionality. Yet, it may be a good option for those who wish to experiment with web design and development, launch a personal blog, or create a simple website. Finding a trustworthy web host should take up most of your work, regardless of why you’re doing it.

How to Choose the Best Free Web Hosting Service

We’ve gone into great detail about the drawbacks of using a free web hosting service, but if you still want to go forward, you’ll need to choose one that is user-friendly, ad-free, and loaded with useful features.

As most free hostings have limited bandwidth and storage space, your choices are more varied if you’re building a simple website. Having said that, you’ve 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

Using free web hosting as a promotional strategy implies accepting the possibility of frequent changes to the terms and conditions, and increased frequency of downtimes due to the lack of a service level agreement (SLA) due to the absence of a monetary transaction.

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 there’s free web hosting is so that businesses may upsell more costly web hosting to individuals who may require 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 free, and 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 always preferable to simply pay a reputable hosting company as there are some affordable ones, too.

Free website hosting comes with a lot of disadvantages, as you may expect. As compared to premium hosting, free hosting often has far worse performance, less reliable security, less helpful customer service, and leaves you to fix any issues on your own. In conclusion, avoid free web hosting wherever possible and use a reputable, affordable hosting company.

Is Free Website Hosting Safe

As compared to paid hosting, free hosting is on par in terms of security, with the proviso that reliability and customer service gets less attention. Because of this, you shouldn’t rely on regular or even occasional backups, and should instead take the necessary precautions to save and retrieve your own information at all times. This isn’t meant to imply that firms offering free web 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 a 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 web hosting sites 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. To contrast, with a free web host, you may choose your own domain name in addition to the host’s brand name. If you choose WordPress, for instance, your domain name would be mydomainname.wordpress.com.
• Limitations: Naturally, a free hosting package will provide some of the most fundamental capabilities. 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 Speed: Before the website even loads, many potential clients may leave if it takes too long.
• Limited Customer Support: Few customer assistance options come with a free subscription. After you submit your complaint ticket, they see you as a low-priority client. Otherwise, it can take much longer if they merely email you.
• Lack of Security: Encryption, firewalls, and spam filtering are less safe on free hosting servers. Your website may be open to assaults given the increase in security breaches.

 

 

Free Web Hosting – Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Is Free Website Hosting Good?

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.

Choosing a low-cost web host is preferable to using a free service, as we discussed before. Nonetheless, the decision rests solely with you, and there are instances when free hosting is sufficient, such as for novices who wish to dabble in website creation.

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 WordPress, Google Cloud Hosting, InfinityFree, 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 alternative. 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. It does, however, have some potential drawbacks, including resource limitations, security threats, and sluggish website loading times. Hence, before selecting the finest free hosting company for you, it’s crucial to thoroughly assess your website’s requirements and evaluate the features and restrictions of each one.

You could wish to take into account InfinityFree, wordpress.com, Weebly, Google Cloud, Wix, and Amazon Web Services as some well-known and trustworthy hosting companies. Many options are available from these suppliers, including unrestricted disk space, website builders, bandwidth, email accounts, cost-free SSL certificates, and intuitive control panels.

Paid hosting services like Hostinger, HostGator, or Bluehost could be a better option if you need additional features, speed, and security, have a larger website or need superior customer support. Your website’s demands, objectives, and financial constraints will ultimately determine the ideal hosting solution for you.

 

 

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