There are free website hosting services available, but all free plans have limitations. Customer support, storage, bandwidth and perks, such as free domain names, are usually lacking in free plans. Free web hosting can work for personal websites and blogs, developer testing, side gigs and startup sites. However, low-cost paid plans are typically more user-friendly and reliable for beginner users and business websites.
If you’re not ready to commit to a paid plan or are just interested in experimenting with managing a site, a free plan can be a cost-friendly way to get started—but there are drawbacks. Here’s what you should know about free website hosting services.
5 Free Hosting Services of 2024
- x10Hosting: Best Overall Free Website Hosting
- AwardSpace: Best Free Web Hosting For WordPress
- Byethost: Best Free Web Hosting For Website Developers
- 000webhost: Best Free Web Hosting For Reliable Uptime
- Firebase: Best Free Hosting For Google Cloud Users
Although there are many hosting services that tout themselves as free, not many of them are high-quality choices. We’ve searched through the options out there and narrowed them down to a list of the top five most worthy of your time and trust.
Compare Best Free Website Hosting Services
Best Free Web Hosting Of 2024
1. x10Hosting: Best Overall Free Website Hosting
- Standout features: Website builder with more than 150 free templates
- Who should use it: Startups and individuals who want a free website or online store with ready-made templates
x10Hosting is the free version of x10Premium and offers one of the few free web hosting services that give you ad-free websites with unlimited storage and bandwidth. x10’s free plan includes a user-friendly website builder with more than 150 free templates, including e-commerce store designs. x10Hosting also offers easy one-click installs for more than 300 web scripts, including popular website platforms, such as WordPress, Joomla, MyBB and add-on galleries, blogs, forums, gaming tools and more.
x10’s free web hosting supports a custom domain but doesn’t give you a free domain. You can use the free x10 subdomain or connect a domain that you own. You can add a free email address using your connected domain or free subdomain.
2. AwardSpace: Best for Free WordPress Hosting
- Standout features: Built-in virus, SPAM and firewall protection
- Who should use it: AwardSpace is a good choice for individuals and small businesses looking for free WordPress hosting with responsive customer support
AwardSpace is another free web hosting service that lets you build ad-free websites using its user-friendly Zacky website builder or use its one-click Zacky Installer to load WordPress, Joomla and Grav platforms. AwardSpace is a top pick for free and low-cost WordPress hosting in particular. It hosts millions of WordPress websites worldwide on both free and paid plans and provides extensive WordPress tutorials covering beginner through advanced topics.
You get a free email account on the free plan and can connect your own domain name and create three subdomains under that for blogging, forums and so on. Domain names aren’t free with the free hosting plan, but you do get a free domain for life with certain paid plans.
3. Byethost: Best for Website Developers
- Standout features: Developer-level free web hosting toolkit
- Who should use it: Experienced website developers who want free hosting with total control over their tech stack
Byethost offers a robust free web hosting service for the tech-oriented user. If you are a website developer or designer looking for free web hosting for your own projects or client websites, Byethost tops your list of limited options. It also supports reseller accounts under the free plan if you want to offer client-managed hosting under your own suite of services.
However, Byethost doesn’t provide one-click platform installation like the other providers in our free web hosting roundup. If you’re comfortable with server-level file management and file transfer protocol (FTP) interfaces, Byethost is one to consider. Beginners will have an easier time with other free web hosting services featured here.
4. 000webhost: Best for Reliable Uptime
- Standout features: Cloudflare-protected name servers, 99.9% uptime guarantee
- Who should use it: Those looking for simple web hosting with free WordPress installation, decent speeds and firewall tools
A much larger web hosting company known as Hostinger offers a basic, free hosting plan through 000webhost. With over 10 years of recognition as one of the best free website hosting platforms, 000webhost’s free plan is excellent for those looking for simple but useful features including a control panel, access to WordPress for website building and advanced web hosting features such as Cloudflare-protected name servers, PHP, MySQL and FTP.
000webhost offers up to 3GB of bandwidth delivered from its 24GB SSD servers and the company takes web security seriously, running Imunify360 to regularly monitor the sites it hosts for malware and other threats.
5. Firebase: Best for Google Cloud Users
- Standout features: Custom domain and SSL, multiple sites per project and 10GB of storage
- Who should use it: Great for those who want integration with Google Cloud’s other functions and are able to parse through Google’s confusing pricing structures
Google Cloud offers web hosting through Firebase, an app development platform for building apps, games and websites. Firebase offers free web hosting through its Spark plan, which includes up to 10GB of storage and excellent bandwidth (360MB per day). However, to integrate with Google Cloud’s products and features, users will have to upgrade to the Blaze plan.
Blaze is free, but the use of integrated Google Cloud features includes a no-cost quota which, once surpassed, will be pay-as-you-go. The Blaze plan also offers pay-as-you-go storage and bandwidth upgrades once users surpass the Spark plan’s initial offerings. Keep in mind that Google Cloud offers a 90-day free trial and around INR 24,741 in credits for feature use, but is not free forever.
What Is Free Website Hosting?
Website hosting refers to the service that allows your website to be accessible on the internet. In some ways, web hosting is similar to the process of buying or renting a plot of land to build a house, except instead you’re purchasing space where you can build and maintain a website. A web hosting provider will store all your website’s content and files on its servers, help manage data security and privacy, and assist in maintaining and upgrading your website so that it remains accessible to the public.
There are two types of web hosting: free and paid. With free website hosting, you will receive basic hosting features for no cost. With paid website hosting, you will receive a variety of hosting features based on a paid plan.
Is Free Website Hosting Really Free?
Short answer: yes, if all you need are the most basic features and you don’t mind some inconvenience, you can host your website for free (or close to it). Long answer: whether or not your web hosting is really “free” depends on what kind of website you are trying to build and what features come included in your free hosting plan.
Unfortunately, free web hosting plans only come with the most basic features. Limited resources, bandwidth and customization options can prevent your site from appearing the way you want it, especially since you will likely have a cap on the amount of content and storage your host can support. This means your free website might only be allowed to have a certain number of pages or cannot include certain plug-ins, widgets or add-ons.
Similarly, most free web hosting plans do not come with several standard and necessary add-ons, forcing you to purchase them separately and incurring extra costs. Domain names, for example, are essential if you want your site to be accessible online. Paid hosting plans will typically include one or two free domain names, but free hosting plans rarely do. Other hosts have such limited bandwidth that including media such as videos, songs or lots of pictures can drastically slow down your website’s loading times.
Finally, it’s important to read the fine print of any free website hosting offer. Some providers offer free hosting that is actually the trial period of a paid plan, charged automatically once the trial period expires. Others recoup profit losses by adding advertisements to your website, which you cannot control, or including their own branding on your website (for example, in the domain name or at the bottom of pages).
Pros and Cons of Free Hosting Sites
When To Choose a Paid Plan
There’s no denying that free website hosting is a good option for simple, straightforward websites with minimal traffic. Personal websites and blogs can do well with free web hosting. However, if you want more options and resources, have big visions for your website, dislike advertising or are worried about security and customer support, you should look into a paid plan.
In particular, you should consider a cheap web hosting service if any of the below applies to you.
- You are implementing a professional service, such as online shopping or user accounts
- You have lots of pages, files and content
- You want good security and responsive customer support
- You are trying to develop your own brand, portfolio or personal identity (monetized or otherwise)
- You are expecting a high amount of traffic to your site, either currently or in the future
- You want full customization and control over your website
How To Choose a Free Web Hosting Service
Choosing the best free web hosting service depends on your unique needs. For beginners, ease of use, customer service and website builder tools are probably the most important features. For seasoned website builders or developers, factors such as storage, bandwidth and supported platforms and scripts might top the list.
Following that, uptime guarantees, ad-free websites and free perks such as domain names, email addresses and SSL certificates are important to any user considering free hosting. However, after comparing your needs to the various free plan features, you might find that free web hosting isn’t for you.
Essential Web Hosting Features
- Ease of Use and Customer Service: Your average web host needs to be accessible and usable for a wide range of customers. While some clients might be web developers designing sites from scratch, others have no background in tech and rely heavily on the web host to meet their needs. Either way, the entire experience—from purchasing a plan to uploading files to navigating your cPanel—should be as streamlined as possible in order to provide a pleasant experience. And in the event you run into a problem, responsive, helpful and reliable customer service is a must.
- Website Building Tools: Web host providers frequently offer built-in website building tools, such as drag-and-drop features and pre-made templates, to help you get your website up and running with minimal hassle. Certain features may be locked depending on your plan’s tier, so if you want to use a website builder, make sure your plan gives you access to the tools you need.
- Disk Space and Bandwidth: Disk space is another name for storage space, and refers to how many files you can upload for your website (and subsequently how much content and customization you can have). Bandwidth refers to the total amount of data that is transferred between locations within a certain amount of time, and can have a huge impact on the loading speed of your website. The larger and more complex your site—especially if you have lots of media files—the greater the amount of disk space and bandwidth you need.
- Uptime and Website Speed: Both your website’s uptime and speed refer to how accessible your site is for guests, and are crucial to its long-term success. Being able to promptly address server crashes and offer solutions for improving loading speeds is an important responsibility of any web host.
- Security: Any good web host should have a robust security system to help keep your site’s information and your credentials safe from online attacks. The best plans offer security features such as SSL certificates, malware scans and firewalls to help encrypt your data, identify and remove threats and protect your data.
- Domain Names and Email Addresses: Purchasing a hosting plan that provides domain names and email addresses cuts out the need to involve an intermediary for these essential features. While some users may not mind purchasing a separate email client or finding a domain name provider, there is no denying the convenience of having them already included in your hosting plan.
- Add-On and Platform Support: It’s normal for a web host to not provide everything you need, but it should provide a way for you to get it. Reliable web hosts will be able to easily integrate other add-ons, plug-ins and features for your website. They should also be able to host common website platforms such as WordPress or Shopify.
- Regular Maintenance and Updates: Good web hosts need to ensure that their services are keeping up with the newest security, software and customer needs. Whether that means regular bug fixes or improvements to cPanel accessibility, look for web hosts that are taking an active role in improving the quality of their services and products.