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Best Free Website Hosting Platforms

The expense of setting up and maintaining a website can add up quickly, so picking the best Free Website Hosting provider for your needs can help cut costs.

We all love freebies, and it should come as no surprise that there are tons of freebies even in web hosting if you know where to look. Not all things free are equal, though, and this time I’m going to look at what some of these free (and “almost-free”) web hosts have to offer.

The “Truth” About Free Website Hosting Service

Building a website has become the most important way to get your message out in the world. However, when you start, you may not want to spend money on making a website.

Most people want something quick, easy, and accessible.

There are tons of free website hosting companies in the market. But as an intelligent consumer, you should know that there is no such thing as free lunch.

There is always a catch.

Running a website hosting service costs a lot of money.

The companies offering free website hosting need to make money somehow, or they will go out of business.

They do that by either displaying ads on your website, limiting your website traffic, causing downtime, locking you in their platform, and upselling their other services. In addition, some of the ads displayed may not represent your brand well, and it can even be your competitor’s advertisement.

Every free website hosting company on our list guarantees that you can keep your website for free as long as you want. However, we recommend that anyone serious about their website consider using a low-cost full-featured website hosting provider.

That being said, let’s take a look at the best free web hosting sites.

  1. Weebly

Free Website Hosting
Free Website Hosting

Weebly is one of the new generations of site-builder-slash-web-hosts that is doing very. It comes with an intuitive drag and drop builder and ready-made templates to create a website.

Their free plan includes a Weebly subdomain, 500 MB of storage, and displays Weebly ads. You can upgrade to their paid plans to get rid of ads, get more hold, and unlock features.

Also Read: Best Free Website Hosting Platforms

Features

Free website builder (Weebly!)

Free SSL security

Apps for your Weebly-built site

Ad-free hosting

Mobile app builder

Specifications

Disk Space: 500MB

Bandwidth: Unknown

Database: Proprietary

Control Panel: Proprietary

Easy to use but host in Weebly.com subdomain only

Reliability and uptime guarantees

Weebly is well supported through a vibrant community, and you can also reach out to them via email or live chat.

Weebly doesn’t support server-side scripting (such as PHP) nor database integration. And your free website domain will be in the form of the Weebly.com subdomain. True, it’s mighty on its own, but this also means in terms of flexibility, you’re likely stuck with Weebly for good once you start using it.

  1. Wix

Free Website Hosting

Wix is another fully-hosted website builder that offers free website hosting. Wix is a brand that has made its name in the website-building business and was one of the earlier new-generation of web tools. It’s excellent for newbies and is easy to use, plus offers enough for the starter-offs to get interested before they hop on to any paid plans.

Like most free hosting services, it is supported by displaying ads and Wix.com branding on your free website. You can get rid of it by upgrading to their paid plans.

The free plan will give you a Wix.com subdomain, access to website templates, 500 MB of storage, and 500 MB of bandwidth.

Features

Free website builder (Wix!)

Online Store

Free templates

Database: Proprietary

Control Panel: Proprietary

Free powerful web editor but with advertisement

Reliability and uptime guarantees

You get what you pay for, and aside from an extensive knowledge base, you can email them and take your chances for free accounts. Only premium accounts get ‘faster responses to any question or issue they may have.

Also Read: 8 Best Website Builders For You

Again, Wix is another proprietary engine which means it’ll try to hold on to you almost any way it can. The good news is that it plays better with other tools, so it is compatible with some devices such as Caspio, a free database platform. Oh yes, and Wix is not ad-free. If you’re not on a paying plan, it will plaster Wix ads on your site with enthusiasm.

  1. 000Webhost

Free Website Hosting

A free website hosting provider owned and operated by Hostinger charges for paid hosting based on the length of time you sign up for.. 000Webhost has been around for ten years and has millions of users. Since they also offer paid hosting options, their business model revolves around offering free hosting services funded by the paid end of the business. This works out in everyone’s favor since users of the free hosting services also have the option to scale up their sites by becoming paid customers at any time they wish.

With 000Webhost, you’ll get cPanel, a website builder, and a WordPress auto-installer, plus a further benefit is that there are no ads. However, the bandwidth and disk space are on the low side, with 3GB bandwidth and only 300MB of disk space.

As expected, there’s no SSL certificate, but what is slightly surprising is the absence of subdomains and email accounts, as well as a lack of support via tickets (you have to go through the forums when you need help).

Features

Free website builder

Auto Installer (WordPress, Joomla, etc.)

Ad-free hosting

PHP & MySQL database support

Specifications

Disk Space: 1GB

Bandwidth: 10GB

Database: 2 MySQL Databases

Control Panel: Cpanel

$0/mo hosting but one hour sleep time every day

There is a 99% uptime guarantee for free accounts, but in the case of 000Webhost, you’ll have to consider that there’s an enforced one-hour sleep period per day. That means that it will be unavailable to anyone – including you and your actual server uptime starts at 95.83% – less any fundamental technical difficulties.

  1. By Host

Free Website Hosting

Byethost is part of Byet Internet, a US-based provider of hosting, domain name, and reseller services. With more than one million websites hosted, Byethost claims that its free hosting service is “one of the most powerful networks dedicated solely to free hosting in the world.”

Users are given 1GB of server space, 50GB monthly bandwidth, and MySQL / PHP compatibility. They also benefit from 24/7 tech support, which is a boon and access to Byethost’s community and knowledge base.

Furthermore, if you are ever interested in becoming a free web hosting provider yourself, Byethost operates a separate entity, myownfreehost, that allows you to do just that.

Features

24/7 Support

Auto Installer (WordPress, Joomla, etc.)

Ad-free hosting

PHP & MySQL database support

Specifications

Disk Space: 5GB

Bandwidth: Unlimited

Database: 5 MySQL Databases

Control Panel: VistaPanel

Free VistaPanel hosting solution

Reliability and uptime guarantees

It’s interesting to note that Byet Host offers 24/7 support, even to free accounts. Even if they take some time to service tickets, it’s not often you see a free host that offers real support. Most of the time, either knowledge bases are used, or at best, a user forum where you help one another.

Although Byet Host sounds almost too good to be true, it might be good if you take some time to check what they offer in detail. I’ve found that many terms and services are worded to be a little shady and open to interpretation in various ways.

  1. Free Hosting No Ads

 

Free Website Hosting free hosting no ads

FreehostingNoAds has been around for 18 years, and I kid you not. This site is very generous in terms of what it offers, in fact, more than what some paid accounts go for. I guess part of it is subsidy through advertising, though, since they plaster google ads all over their website. They promise not to force you to carry their ads, though. The brand is owned by Runhosting, an established web hosting provider that offers unlimited disk space and unlimited traffic for as little as $2.49 per month.

Also Read: 8 Best Website Builders For You

Features

Free website builder

Auto Installer (WordPress, Joomla, etc.)

Ad-free hosting

PHP & MySQL database support

Specifications

Disk Space: 1GB

Bandwidth: 5GB

Database: 3 MySQL Databases

Control Panel: unknown

A free web hosting plan with 3 MySQL databases

Reliability and uptime guarantees

An SSL certificate will give you the all-important security padlock in browsers and will set you back an eye-watering $30. The control panel, via Zacky Tools Installer, is minimal, with either Grav, WordPress, or Joomla being offered one-click installs. However, you will be able to install your own should you want to do so – but bear in mind that the file size limit is only 15MB.

FreehostingNoAds appears to be another hosting site that doesn’t believe in uptime guarantees. However, users who join are offered technical support, even on the free plans.

Aside from non-existent uptime guarantees and cloudy reference to technical support, nothing else. This seems to be aimed mainly at people seeking a free or cheap hosting solution, and that’s all. Given that they have an entire page dedicated to HTML5 site-building that ends up directing to Wix, they might be a subsidiary or affiliate.

  1. Infinityfree

Free Website Hosting

In the world of free website hosting, Infinityfree stands out for good reasons. It has a well-designed website that makes a positive impression and ticks the right boxes for us. Its homepage gets a C performance grade in our load time test, but other than that, it looks pretty solid.

Also Read: How To Use Google Keyword Planner Tool To Promote Your Business

Infinityfree has been in the business for over six years, claims to have over 400,000 users, and offers unlimited disk space and bandwidth (albeit with a very generous 50,000 daily hits). You can host as many domains as you want, but you will only get ten email accounts and one FTP to upload your content.

There are no hidden fees, and despite its free status, you will get a 99.9% uptime guarantee (although that said, you are more or less on your own if your site goes down) and the popular Softaculous script installer with more than 400 applications.

We were surprised to see that this provider’s features list includes 400 MySQL databases (where others give only a handful, if any), a free DNS service, free SSL, and free Cloudflare CDN. That’s impressive for a free offering.

Risks with Free Hosting Platforms

Anything that comes with the word “free” can be very tempting. Understandably, most beginners starting a website for the first time would like to keep their costs low and save money.

But keep in mind that nothing is truly free in this world.

While using a free web hosting platform means that you won’t have to pay a single dime for creating and hosting your website, there are numerous risks and problems that you should be aware of if you intend to use them. We will talk about the three significant risks here.

Some free deals are never worth the downsides they come with. If your website matters, you should learn about these risks and consider opting for a reliable, full-featured hosting provider. Most good shared hosting providers include a free domain name, shared SSL support, email hosting, unlimited data transfer and disk space, and more website functionalities for the price of $2 – $5 per month.

Also Read: Top 10 Business That Can Make You 1000$ Daily

Risk #1. Poor Server Performances

The most glaring issue that comes with using a free web hosting model is the terrible server performance. You see, to help save server costs, a lot of providers will lump together hundreds, or even thousands, of websites in a single shared server.

When you have that many websites sharing the same server resources, your website will inevitably suffer many server issues such as slow loading websites or lots of downtimes.

Risk #2. Sudden Website Shutdown / Company Goes Out of Business

As I’ve said earlier, you won’t have to pay a single dime for their domain hosting services with free web hosting platforms. Because of that, most providers won’t take your website seriously. This leads to a considerable risk that comes with free hosting, in that your website can be taken down at any moment.

There have been many incidents where people who used free hosting platforms ended up having their accounts deleted or barred with no prior notice or warning. Since you’re not paying for their services, many providers don’t feel obligated to keep your website online indefinitely.

Risk #3. Getting Your Data Leaked

Data is an essential asset for a business, especially if you’re an eCommerce business. But with free web host models, you’re more likely to get your data leaked or stolen as most providers don’t follow and enforce the standard and fundamental security practices needed to protect their users.

Again, since many of these providers offer their services for free, they usually don’t feel the need to provide proper security to protect their users and their data. This led to cases where a user’s sensitive details, such as usernames and passwords, ended up stolen by hackers.

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