Web hosting is a service that allows anybody to make their website available on the Internet. Hosting is generally costly, but several website hosting services offer a free alternative that may suit your needs. But beware, not every hosting service is entirely trustworthy despite their apparent kindness. They may have hidden fees that may toil your budget. Also, restrictions on storage space and bandwidth are common, limiting your site’s size and traffic capacity. Whether it’s a personal or a company’s website, it may slow down due to the service provider’s impositions.
What is the Best Free Hosting Provider?
Google Cloud is the best free hosting service. While the service doesn’t explicitly provide you with free hosting, considering its performance, and professional features, the credits they offer are more than enough for any type of website, application, or similar things. Of course, you may be able to get completely free-forever services, but from our testing, none of them has even a quarter of the performance provided by Google Cloud.
Comparison of the Best Free Web Hosting Services
Hosting Service | Storage | Bandwidth | Subdomains | Support | Additional Features | Limitations |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Google Cloud | 10 GB | Not specified | Not specified | 24/7 Free Tech Support | $300 free credit, 1-click WordPress deployment, Machine Learning APIs, automatic daily backups | No explicitly free hosting, may require expertise |
ByetHost | 1000 MB | 50 GB/month | 5 (24+ choices) | 24/7 Free Tech Support | Free website builder, script installer, usage statistics, 5 MySQL databases | Advertising on the website |
WordPress | 3 GB | Unlimited | Not specified | Community Support | Jetpack plugin for SEO, site statistics, social media shares, free spam protection | Advertising on the website, limited customization |
x10Hosting | 500 MB | Unlimited | Not specified | Limited Support (for paid) | 1-click CMS installation, eCommerce tools, DirectAdmin control panel | Limited customer support for free users |
000webhost | 300 MB | 3 GB/month | Not specified | Limited Support | Zyro website building tools, 99% uptime, Cloudflare protection | No free domain, SSL, subdomains, or 24/7 support |
Freehostia | 250 MB | 6 GB/month | Not specified | 24/7 Customer Care | Cluster platform, 1-click Web Applications Installer, high uptime | Limited disk space and bandwidth |
FreeHostingEU | 200 MB | 4 GB/month | 5 (short) | Not specified | Easy-to-use control panel, one-click CMS installation, webmail, FTP, POP3, IMAP | Paid plans for unlimited storage and data transfer |
Tilda Host | 50 MB | Not specified | Not specified | Online Support | Responsive design, access to image library, Tilda CRM tools | Upgrade needed for SSL certificate |
SiteGround | 10 GB | Unlimited | Not specified | Limited (through referrals) | Free CDN, daily backups, Ultrafast PHP, SSL certificate, 1-click installations | Free hosting with referrals, limited storage |
Bluehost | 50 GB SSD | Not specified | Not specified | 24/7 Customer Service | Free SSL certificates, gratis domain for the first year, 30-day free trial | Not entirely free, but inexpensive, discounts available |
Top 10 Free Web Hosting Services
There are times when free hosting may be beneficial. It might be all you require for a personal project. The same is true if you’re testing out new web design and development ideas while practicing your skills. Here are some of the best free website hosting services you can count on:
1. Google Cloud
Google Cloud is the only entry on this list that offers free cloud hosting services for a website. If you are a beginner, this can be one of the best places to start. The company offers a $300 free credit and one of their plans is preconfigured to deploy a WordPress solution in one click.
If that’s what you seek, you’ll get 10 GB of storage space, a shared hosting machine with 2 GB of RAM, and an e2-small vCPU. The service also provides automatic daily backups, making it easy to recover your website if anything goes wrong or if you accidentally delete something.
Although this goes out of the scope of simple websites, and Google AutoML is unavailable for personal projects, Machine Learning APIs are freely accessible, letting you integrate AI technologies. This service also lets you access Cloud Vision API, Natural Language API, Translate API, and many other aids to web applications.
2. ByetHost
ByetHost is another notable name among free website hosting services. To get into the specifics, you can utilize 1000 MB of disk space and 50 GB of data transfer monthly. You also get space for 5 subdomains (and a choice of 24+ free ones) as well as parked and add-on domains.
Site owners can easily upload files of up to 10 MB at once using FTP or an online file manager and utilize up to 5 MySQL databases, a free website builder, and a script installer.
You’ll also get usage statistics such as disk space, bandwidth usage, and daily visits. This data is available in VistaPanel, ByetHost’s free hosting control panel, pivotal for managing your resources. Finally, ByetHost offers excellent 24/7 free tech support, which is unusual. A self-service knowledge base and video courses are available alongside a free ticketing system, too.
3. WordPress
WordPress offers 3 GB storage space without time constraints, as well as unlimited monthly bandwidth. It provides you with a WordPress.com subdomain (i.e., yourwebsite.wordpress.com), and free theme templates for your website.
It also comes with Jetpack, a plugin that will supply rudimentary SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and display information such as site statistics and social media shares. You don’t need to give your payment information when signing up and can enjoy free spam protection.
Unfortunately, the free plan includes advertising on your website. To get rid of them and gain additional capabilities, upgrade to one of four paid plans, whose price varies based on commitment. These plans start at $4 per month but come with discounts when you pay yearly or use promo codes.
4. x10Hosting
x10Hosting has been around for over a decade at this point. The hosting firm provides 500 MB of web space and unlimited monthly bandwidth free of charge. It also offers 1-click installation of CMSs (Content Management System) such as WordPress, Joomla, myBB, and b2evolution.
You’ll also find eCommerce tools like OpenCart and WHMCS, plus 300+ other scripts and tools. The provider utilizes a DirectAdmin control panel and awards free users with 2 databases and 3 email addresses and domains.
Unfortunately, you can’t rely on excellent 24/7 Customer Support through live chat & phone because it’s limited to paid users. If you sign up for the x10 Premium plan at $3.95/month down the line, everything we mentioned is unlimited, and you get a cPanel for administration.
5. 000webhost
000webhost is one of the most popular free hosting services for websites with over 10 million registered users. All its users get Zyro online website building tools, 99% uptime, 300 MB of storage, a 3 GB monthly bandwidth limit, 1 FTP account, 1 MySQL database, and Cloudflare protection.
You neither get a free domain and SSL certificate nor 24/7 customer support, subdomains, or daily backups. If you need more features, you can upgrade to monthly plans starting from $1.99 per month, which raises the storage space to 30 GB and bandwidth to 100 GB, for example.
6. Freehostia
Freehostia offers 250 MB of disk space accompanied by 6 GB of traffic per month. With a data center in Chicago and high uptime, you’ll have no problems utilizing 3 e-mail accounts, up to 5 hosted domains, 1 MySQL v.5 database with up to 10 MB of storage, and a free but optional website builder.
Freehostia’s cluster platform aspires to deliver more dependability through better load balance. This makes it a superior option to hosting a website on a single server and results in lower downtime.
Moreover, you get a 1-click Web Applications Installer with over 50 utilities and CMSs, including WordPress, PrestaShop, and Joomla. Surprisingly, even with the free plan, you get 24×7 Customer Care, a host of video guides, comprehensive online documentation, and a guaranteed 1-hour response to internal tickets or e-mails.
7. FreeHostingEU
FreeHostingEU offers a fully functional ad-free free hosting plan for everyone. It comes with 200 MB of storage space and 4 GB of monthly bandwidth. Furthermore, the company offers 5 short free domains, an easy-to-use control panel and website builder, a dedicated FTP account and MySQL database hosting, and access to webmail, SMTP, POP3, and IMAP.
You can also enjoy the one-click installation of popular CMSs such as WordPress or Joomla. Paid plans start at $4.95 and make data transfer and storage unlimited, award 20 free domain names, 100 email accounts, antivirus and anti-spam protection, 99.8% uptime, and 24/7 Customer Support.
8. Tilda Host
Tilda Host provides a free hosting service suitable for most users and includes 50 MB of web space, 50 web pages, and a free subdomain on tilda.ws. You also get online support, responsive design, access to their library of images and icons, and Tilda CRM (Customer Relationship Management) tools.
The downside to this plan is that you need to upgrade your account if you want an SSL certificate for your website. Although Tilda does not offer free SSL certificates, it provides one-click installation of Let’s Encrypt SSL certificates on all their shared hosting plans. This perk starts at $2 per month but based on everything else, it undoubtedly qualifies as one of the leading free hosting services.
9. SiteGround
SiteGround is among the leading website hosting service providers that offer free trials and a 30-day money-back guarantee. Moreover, they deliver complimentary hosting so long as you provide a referral link to someone who signs up.
Based on your account type, SiteGround will gift you extra hosting time. This is no joke; they utilize Ultrafast PHP to boost the speed of websites by up to 30% and time to first byte (TTFB) by up to 50%. The provider brings a gratis SSL certificate for all users who sign up, and a 1-click installation of more than 100 applications and CMSs, including WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla.
The company has 6 data centers on 4 continents and offers 10 GB of storage, free CDN (Content Delivery Network), daily backups, and unlimited monthly bandwidth for 1 website. All this is available with the bottom-tier StartUp plan, costing €3.99 or $4 per month.
10. Bluehost
Bluehost is a full-fledged service web hosting provider founded in 2003. It offered shared, WordPress-specific, VPS (virtual private server), and dedicated plans along with cloud hosting services. Bluehost provides free SSL certificates and a gratis domain for the first year.
The company has about 6 data centers worldwide and many locations in the United States. This helps the provider deliver exceptionally high uptime, irrespective of users’ geographical location.
Though not entirely free, it’s unbelievably cheap. Besides a 30-day free trial, it partners with affiliates to offer huge discounts, in the range of up to 70%, of their paid hosting plans. For instance, their cheapest plan, Basic, at $2.95/month, comes with 50 GB SSD storage for one website, custom themes, one-click WordPress installation and website builder, 24×7 Customer Service, and even complimentary CDN.