Is free website hosting any good? Well, âÃÂÃÂfreeâÃÂàis always good, but not always worth it in the long run. Let me explain:
In short, if you want to run a test website, youâÃÂÃÂre not expecting much of it, and you donâÃÂÃÂt want to invest any money in the project at all, then free website hosting might indeed work for you!
In 95% of other cases, youâÃÂÃÂre going to be better off with a cheap website hosting plan âÃÂàno more expensive than $2.75 or even $1.99 / mo (small businesses or online stores often choose something in this price range).
If youâÃÂÃÂre in a hurry, hereâÃÂÃÂs a summary of our findings based on the analysis below:
**TL;DR
Free website hosting is okay for a hobby project or a proof-of-concept type of project.
**ItâÃÂÃÂs okay if you want to run a site for a short while, get your data and thenit off
For any sort of serious website building project or a site thatâÃÂÃÂs meant to stay online for a longer while, youâÃÂÃÂre better off with an affordable web hosting plan or even a pick from the very best web hosting services out there. Alternatively, a website builder can be indeed a great option.
For example, Wix is a good choice for a quick start covering both hosting and website builder in one place. Although there is a free plan, you can try any premium plan offering 14 days of money-back.
Bluehost is our recommended self-hosted website server. If you check them out through our link, youâÃÂÃÂll unlock a special discounted price of $2.75 / mo vs the $3.95 standard entry-level price. You also get a free domain name bundled in.
Want to get the full story? We compared ten of the best free website hosting options to help you make your decision.
Here are the pros and cons of each one, plus when going with free website hosting might be a good idea:
== The limitations of free website hosting ==
In life, you tend to get what you pay for, and web hosting is no exception. If you choose the free hosting route, be prepared for some common issues that come along with it.
Even the best free hosting tends to be fairly unstable, which can result in downtime. Also, providers typically place restrictions on storage space and bandwidth, limiting your siteâÃÂÃÂs growth and traffic capacity. Your personal website or business website may also have slow performance.
That said, there are times you may want to consider free hosting. For a personal project, it may be all you need. The same is true if youâÃÂÃÂre practicing your web design and development skills and just want a space to try out new ideas.
Perhaps youâÃÂÃÂre setting up an area to test new plugins or themes. In that case, the limitations of free hosting shouldnâÃÂÃÂt be a barrier to what you want to accomplish. Of course, if you simply need a staging site, you may want to use a local development tool, such as Local and not worry about hosting at all.
However, if you need a live site and donâÃÂÃÂt want to deal with the drawbacks of free web hosting, there are some affordable alternatives to consider. A cheap host can help you keep your budget low while avoiding poor site availability.
== 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 youâÃÂÃÂve decided to give it a try, here are ten options to consider.
- InfinityFree
- Wix
- 000WebHost
- Google Cloud Hosting
- AwardSpace
- Freehostia
- FreeHosting
- ByetHost
- HyperPHP
- FreeWebHostingArea
1. InfinityFree
Wix is a drag-and-drop website builder âÃÂàsimilar to tools like Weebly or Squarespace; and yup, you donâÃÂÃÂt need the knowledge of PHP like you do with solutions like Joomla.
However, weâÃÂÃÂre featuring Wix on this list because itâÃÂÃÂs 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:
- Wix.com subdomain
- Beautiful templates
- 500 MB disk space
- 500 MB bandwidth
- Global content delivery network
- Free SSL and security monitoring
- Knowledge base and customer support
- Decent load time
Unfortunately, if youâÃÂÃÂre 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, but you can still set up things like bookings, events, forums, and fill in your site with SEO-friendly content with just a few clicks. ThereâÃÂÃÂs a free SSL certificate as well.
3. 000WebHost
Freehostia offers paid and free hosting. The free plan, called âÃÂÃÂChocolate,âÃÂàprovides:
- Five websites
- No subdomains
- 250 MB disk space
- 6 GB bandwidth
- One MySQL database
- FAQ and ticket support system
FreehostiaâÃÂÃÂs cluster platform aims to offer more reliability from its free hosting. Hopefully, this results in less downtime for your website.
YouâÃÂÃÂll 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.
7. FreeHosting
HyperPHP is a free web hosting service also provided by iFastNet. This plan offers:
- 1 GB disk space
- Free subdomain included
- MySQL database
- Free tech support and community forums
HyperPHP offers a few ways to make launching a new website easy. First, a free domain transfer is available. This host also offers an automatic script installer, which you can access through VistaPanel.
10. FreeWebHostingArea
FreeWebHostingArea is a volunteer-maintained free hosting service which offers:
- 1.5 GB disk space
- Unmetered traffic
- MySQL databases
- Free email support
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 itâÃÂÃÂs recommended you create your own as well. You can bring a domain or purchase one through the providerâÃÂÃÂs own service.
== Conclusion ==
While your free web hosting platform might not be perfect, it can be a viable option in some scenarios. However, finding a quality provider that delivers on their promises is no easy task.
In this article, we shared our opinions on the ten best free website hosting options available. You have nothing to lose by giving one a try. Our top pick in the category of best free web hosting is AwardSpace for its 24/7 live chat support and easy WordPress installation.
However, for any type of serious project, we recommend using at least a cheap paid shared hosting service. In our collection of cheap web hosting sites, youâÃÂÃÂll find services that cost just a few dollars per month.
As we mentioned earlier in this post, you can get quality, affordable website hosting for $2.75 or even $1.99 / mo. âÃÂàclick on the prices to learn more
*Have any questions about whether free website hosting is right for your needs? Ask us in the comments!*
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* This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links and then purchase the product, weâÃÂÃÂll receive a commission. No worries though, youâÃÂÃÂll still pay the standard amount so thereâÃÂÃÂs no cost on your part.
