ThatâÃÂÃÂs one intriguing title, isnâÃÂÃÂt it.. Well, itâÃÂÃÂs not only for capturing your attention: there are indeed some important facts about 000Webhost (and free hosting in general) that any webmaster needs to keep in mind
In this review we will dig a bit deeper than just saying that âÃÂÃÂ000Webhost is free, and what price can be better than 0 by rephrasing our question as follows:
If 000Webhost is free, and most other hosting providers are not, where is the catch? In other words, what do you have to give up compared to paid hosting services?
In order to find the answer, we will examine 000WebhostâÃÂÃÂs offer as well as its history and business model
ðÃÂÃÂàBy the end of this detailed review you will find out whether it is worth using 000Webhost for your new website âÃÂàand in which situations
How Does (Free) Hosting Work?
Paid Plans at 000Webhost
The 2015 Security Breach
000Webhost: Our Impressions
Pros and Cons of 000Webhost
Is 000Webhost Worth Using?
âÃÂæBy the way, as with many other brand names, the Internet has been creative with all kinds of misspellings for 000Webhost âÃÂàso if youâÃÂÃÂre here as a result of using search queries such as
00Webhost (two zeroes instead of three) or
ooowebhost (letter oâÃÂÃÂs instead of zeros) âÃÂàrest assured youâÃÂÃÂre in the right place!
**For those seeking a TL;DR** summary of this article: 000Webhost can act as a convenient testing ground for personal and other small-scale web projects, yet its limitations and safety issues make it almost unthinkable for hosting any serious website. For the latter, we recommend using value-for-money hosting providers such as Hostinger:
The more serious alternative to 000Webhost âÃÂú
Before we go on to poke mercilessly at the subject of our review, letâÃÂÃÂs first try to understand how hosting works âÃÂàand see if any hosting can ever be truly for free:
## How (Free) Hosting Works
Whenever you visit a website on the Internet or use an app on your mobile device, you are effectively sending a
**request** (for example, your clicks) and getting some **response** (for example, a new page being loaded)
And you expect the website or app to give you a response regardless of the time of day or season of the year âÃÂàin other words, weâÃÂÃÂve all grown accustomed to the fact that the Web
*just works* at all times
This means that in order to be accessible 24/7/365, a website (which is basically just a collection of files) needs to run on a computer that is constantly turned on, and has an uninterrupted Internet connection
This is a tough task for your typical laptop, so websites use specialized, powerful computers called
*servers* instead
Servers are not cheap âÃÂàprices can range anywhere between $500 âÃÂà$5000 and upwards. Moreover, since they are working non-stop, servers consume a decent amount of electricity, not to mention the fact that they require regular maintenance by qualified specialists:
See where this is going?
If a server costs money, and its operation costs money, and its maintenance costs money âÃÂàanyone offering to host your website for free is either a charity with very deep pockets or has other sources of income to cover its expensesâÃÂæ
There are two popular ways to do that:
Placing ads on the hosted websites: those can be either promotions for the hosting company itself or third-party banners that recoup the costs of running the servers Offering paid upgrades and extra services, while severely restricting the range of features available to the free users
If we think about it, the hosting company is actually interested in applying
*maximum possible limitations in both scenarios* ðÃÂÃÂç âÃÂàin the first case, this reduces their operating expenses âÃÂàand in the second it serves as a motivator for more people to upgrade
Which limitations are we talking here?
- For starters, thereâÃÂÃÂs the
monthly bandwidth cap, which means there is a maximum amount of data traffic your website can use. This quickly puts a ceiling on your audience growth as well as the type of content you can use âÃÂài.e. you can forget about videos and high-quality images
- Next, thereâÃÂÃÂs the
lower availability, which means the hosting provider does not guarantee that its servers will work 24/7/365, but more like 23/7/365. In other words, up to 5% of the time your website will be down. In the case of 000Webhost, you can check this by scrolling all the way down to the bottom of their status page and looking at the âÃÂÃÂlast 30 daysâÃÂàfigure
- Your website
will not be fast; according to our measurements, it will actually be quite slow by any standard, sometimes frustratingly slow. This makes sense because thereâÃÂÃÂs no incentive for the hosting provider to allocate too much of a serverâÃÂÃÂs resources (memory and computing power) to free accounts
- Finally, free hosting
does not allow using any custom addressfor your website (like
website.com) âÃÂàonly a sub-address of a specific domain name fixed by your hosting provider (for example
website.000webhostapp.com)
ThatâÃÂÃÂs
**exactly what 000Webhost does** âÃÂàits business model relies on everything weâÃÂÃÂve mentioned above
So, if youâÃÂÃÂre planning to start a free website on 000Webhost, it makes sense to be aware of these limitations
What about the paid upgrades we mentioned earlier?
This is where things get interesting, because thatâÃÂÃÂs what allows 000Webhost to pay for all those expensive web servers. LetâÃÂÃÂs see if their paid plans are worth considering:
## Free and Paid Plans at 000Webhost
From their official website you can see that there are actually four hosting plans at 000Webhost, only one of which is completely free to use. The other three offer more features and lift some of the restrictions of the free version:
As you can see from the left column, apart from the limitations we pointed out earlier there are several other significant caveats to the Free plan âÃÂÃÂ
You donâÃÂÃÂt get any dedicated supportapart from a public forum where confused users of free accounts post questions and other confused users try to answer them. There are no email accounts, so forget about communicating with your websiteâÃÂÃÂs visitors or your potential business partners using a professional-looking email address. Gmail if fine, right? You donâÃÂÃÂt get access to the Auto-Installerwhich lets you set up a website management system in a couple of clicks. The only piece of software you can install automatically on the free plan is WordPress, but thatâÃÂÃÂs usually enough for most beginners
ThereâÃÂÃÂs also the absence of automatic backups and the fact that your disk space is limited to 1 gigabyte, but these are not as serious as the ones listed above plus the other four (bandwidth, speed, availability, and domains) we discussed in the previous chapter
The paid hosting plans lift some or all of these limitations, while also introducing a 30-day money back guarantee. The
*Single* plan offers more server resources, a personal email account, live support, as well as a 99.9% uptime guarantee, so as to prevent situations like these from affecting your website:
On the
*Premium* plan, even more resources are allocated to your account, making your website load faster. Plus, you can register your own custom domain name for free âÃÂàso instead of
website.000webhostapp.com your visitors will be able to type
website.com into the browserâÃÂÃÂs address bar and visit your website
ThereâÃÂÃÂs one important thing to know about 000WebhostâÃÂÃÂs paid plans:
**they are actually provided by another entity Hostinger, a professional hosting provider that belongs to the same business group, is where you get an account once you upgrade to a paid plan at 000Webhost. Why is it important to known this? Because of âÃÂÃÂ
## The 2015 Security Breach
Personal records of nearly 13.5 million 000Webhost clients have been exposed in March 2015, as hackers gained access to the hosting providerâÃÂÃÂs databases via a code vulnerability. Names, account details, IP addresses, as well as passwords have been compromised, and became available via black-market forums
ThereâÃÂÃÂs a nifty little web resource called âÃÂÃÂHave I Been Pwned?âÃÂàwhich collects data about security breaches around the web. You can input your own email into the box and check if any online service youâÃÂÃÂre using it for has ever been compromised
Ironically, âÃÂÃÂHave I Been Pwned?âÃÂàshowed me that my primary personal email address has actually been exposed in the 000Webhost breach, along with millions other website owners:
Further research and analysis by security specialists after the event have revealed multiple instances of potentially unsafe practices by 000Webhost, including:
- Using a non-encrypted connection for the client login page, which meant anyone with sufficient skills could intercept vital user data
- Running its support forums on an old version of vBulletin software (3.8.2), which was
6 years out of date by 2015! The stable version at that time was 5.1.9
- Not using email validation, which meant that anyone could register an account with any email, even one that does not belong to them
Of course, 000Webhost apologized and took measures. In fact, it has fixed all of the above issues quite quickly, so we could argue that 000Webhost is actually much safer now than they were several years ago, specifically because of that breach
However, itâÃÂÃÂs worth keeping in mind that thereâÃÂÃÂs
**still not much motivation for a free hosting provider to be as secure as possible** âÃÂàafter all, if youâÃÂÃÂre getting something for free, you canâÃÂÃÂt really complain if it doesnâÃÂÃÂt work or does something bad. To put it bluntly, no-one owes you anything if you havenâÃÂÃÂt paid anything :)
Does it also automatically imply that paid hosting providers are more secure?
Usually yes: by the same logic as above, if you take someoneâÃÂÃÂs money for a service, you need to ensure sufficient quality âÃÂàotherwise your existing clients will leave, and your deteriorating reputation wonâÃÂÃÂt let you get new ones ðÃÂä÷
So, thereâÃÂÃÂs no âÃÂÃÂlaw of natureâÃÂàthat prevents free hosting providers from offering secure, high-quality services, but thereâÃÂÃÂs also rational economic reasoning that
**strongly motivates them not to do that In this uncertain situation, the only sure way of finding out whether a free host is any good is to test yourself
Which we did here at Satori Webmaster Academy
Quite extensively, in fact
In the next part of this guide we will tell you about our personal impressions from using 000Webhost; this will provide a foundation for the final verdict: whether or not you should choose 000Webhost for your online project
## 000Webhost: Our Impressions
In order to get the fullest picture of 000WebhostâÃÂÃÂs client offer, weâÃÂÃÂve registered an account with the username âÃÂÃÂsatoristudioâÃÂÃÂ, which means the address the system has allocated for our test website is
satoristudio.000webhostapp.com âÃÂàunfortunately the website itself isnâÃÂÃÂt available anymore, since 000Webhost took it down last year, for unknown reasons
The first thing that must be said about 000Webhost is that itâÃÂÃÂs
**very easy to use The entire process of creating an account and installing WordPress took us just a couple of clicks and 2 minutes at most. It also felt so much smoother than a similar procedure in, say, GoDaddy
You do get a lot of banners and messages prompting to upgrade to a more powerful hosting plan, but so far nothing is really suggesting that you should be doing it (apart from the fact that your siteâÃÂÃÂs web address looks quite
The speed of a 000Webhost website is
**far from awesome for a fresh WordPress install with our lightweight Bento theme, the speed test showed a load time of over 6 seconds, which is twice a high as GoogleâÃÂÃÂs recommended value âÃÂàbut hey, donâÃÂÃÂt forget youâÃÂÃÂre getting this for free!
Another reminder of that fact is a 000Webhost ad in the bottom part of your website. Not only does it overlay a part of your footer âÃÂàit also sometimes fails to load the banner image, thus displaying a rather dingy-looking text link accompanied by a âÃÂÃÂno image can be loadedâÃÂàplaceholder:
Where you really start feeling youâÃÂÃÂre on a free hosting, though, is the
**web traffic restriction Each account has a limit of 500 requests per minute, which shouldnâÃÂÃÂt be confused with *visitors per minute*: a request is just a single interaction (like accessing a file) in the process of loading a web page, so a single page typically needs between 30 and 100 requests
This means that when a visitor comes to your website and looks at three pages, around 150 requests will be made âÃÂàso the limit we mentioned above is really only 5-10 page views per minute
We were able to overload the requests-per-minute restriction quite easily by just opening the website on several devices at the same time. Once you approach and surpass the âÃÂÃÂdanger zoneâÃÂÃÂ, the website starts loading slower and slower, to the point when it becomes too annoying to continue using
While weâÃÂÃÂre on the topic of limitations, there is one more parameter that should be noted here:
**the maximum allowed number of inodes This roughly corresponds to the number of files and directories on a disk
On 000Webhost, each new WordPress plugin you install and each new image you upload will count towards your inode limit
This might sound like gibberish, but itâÃÂÃÂs worth considering the fact that even WordPress core (i.e. a fresh installation with no plugins at all) takes up around 20% of your allotted inodes at 000Webhost
You will need to install more than one WP plugin to exhaust the
20,000 inode limit, but itâÃÂÃÂs quite doable; for the sake of comparison, consider that even the cheapest hosting plans at paid providers allow up to
250,000 inodes
Finally, thereâÃÂÃÂs the matter of
**your website switching off** from time to time: 000Webhost is open about the fact that their services do not have the typical uptime figures you would expect from a hosting provider (i.e. 99.9% or higher)
According to 000WebhostâÃÂÃÂs service status page, the average 30-day statistic is around 99%:
While a difference of 0.9% might not sound like much, on a monthly basis this means an increase in offline time from 40 minutes âÃÂàto
**7 hours
This is not a big deal if youâÃÂÃÂre still just working on your website (part of those outages will happen at night anyway), but repeated breakdowns are not something that makes your visitors like (or trust) your website
If you do experience a glitch,
**thereâÃÂÃÂs no dedicated customer support** available at 000Webhost âÃÂàwhich is understandable, because support staff requires salaries, something that a free product canâÃÂÃÂt really cover
Still, there is a forum where users can ask questions and get help, mostly from other 000Webhost users. Reply times can vary, but on average donâÃÂÃÂt expect your problem to be resolved within less than a week âÃÂó
The good news is that all previous forum threads are freely available to the public, so if you need a solution quicker and you suspect your problem might be a standard one, you might want to browse older discussions
## Pros and Cons of 000Webhost
Now that weâÃÂÃÂve looked at 000Webhost from all angles, letâÃÂÃÂs summarize its strong points and weaknesses in order to arrive at the final assessment:
- ItâÃÂÃÂs free to use for anyone; you can even create more than one account if you have several email addresses (just donâÃÂÃÂt be too surprised if some years later you start getting more spam in those mailboxes)
- The sign-up process is really easy and fast, you can set up your first WordPress website in just a couple of minutes thanks to the built-in automatic installer
- There is a very decent hosting control panel, and although itâÃÂÃÂs hardly a professional one, most of the things you need are there, including file and database managers, as well as other settings such as redirects, email boxes, and basic security features
- Page load speed is not something to be proud of, but in fact itâÃÂÃÂs quite alright, especially for a hosting which does not cost money. As long as you donâÃÂÃÂt have more than 50-100 visitors per day, you shouldnâÃÂÃÂt worry about overloading your traffic capacity
- Oh, and did we mention itâÃÂÃÂs free?!
- Your only option in terms of your websiteâÃÂÃÂs address is a sub-domain which looks like
httpssite.000webhostapp.comâÃÂàhardly trustworthy or easy to memorise for your visitors. You can of course buy a domain elsewhere and attach it to your 000Webhost account, but that would get you theof both worldsâÃÂÃÂ: neither a completely free website nor a free domain. Check the next section for a more sensible solution instead ;)
- There will be 000Webhost ads at the bottom of your website, which will occasionally malfunction and display a âÃÂÃÂbroken imageâÃÂàicon
- The ceiling of 500 requests per minute effectively limits your websiteâÃÂÃÂs simultaneous audience to just 2-3 people. When it is exceeded the page load speed will deteriorate, and the website might even become inaccessible for a while
- According to the average uptime figures, your website is expected to be offline for several hours every week; if youâÃÂÃÂre lucky some of them will be at night
- ItâÃÂÃÂs quite easy to exhaust the maximum allowed number of files in your storage, even just with a WordPress website and a couple of popular WP plugins such as Jetpack
- The only customer support option is a forum where you can post your question and wait for other 000Webhost users to help you. Email, phone, or live chat support is not available on the free plan
## Our Verdict: Is 000Webhost Worth Using?
YouâÃÂÃÂre probably noticed that the number of pluses and minuses is roughly the same in the previous section. Which means thereâÃÂÃÂs no straightforward answer to our question, is that what weâÃÂÃÂre trying to tell you?
Well, no, actually we think there clearly is a case when using 000Webhost might be a good idea âÃÂàand thatâÃÂÃÂs
**when you are just starting to work on your first website ItâÃÂÃÂs hard to deny that paying a large sum of money upfront, to just test your idea, doesnâÃÂÃÂt make much sense
So instead of buying a paid hosting you might just as well start with a free plan at 000Webhost, take your time to build your website and show it to your first visitors, see how it goes:
When youâÃÂÃÂve finally validated your idea and gotten serious about your online project, though âÃÂÃÂ
upgrade to a paid planand get yourself a unique, professional-looking domain name. Your visitors wonâÃÂÃÂt take you seriously with an address like
something.000webhostapp.comand ads displaying in your websiteâÃÂÃÂs footer
The good news is, high-quality web hosting isnâÃÂÃÂt necessarily expensive. If you choose the most basic upgrade at 000Webhost (which corresponds to the Single plan at Hostinger, its paid hosting partner), you will get all the benefits of a professional hosting provider with none of the disadvantages of the free 000Webhost plan
You can even choose to get billed every three months instead of annually, which will make your upfront costs quite negligible
If you ever decide to upgrade or are interested in trying Hostinger right away, be sure to check out our guide on getting an additional 15% discount on its (already inexpensive) hosting packages:
Get a 15% Discount at Hostinger
Have you already tried 000Webhost? Or maybe youâÃÂÃÂre still having a hard time deciding whether you should choose it for your web idea? You can talk this over with other 000Webhost users and ask for advice in the comments section below âÃÂàletâÃÂÃÂs discuss!
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