A seasoned blogger or any veteran e-commerce platform owner will tell you that setting up and maintaining a website is not an inexpensive affair. One of the costs that a newbie blogger may not know about is web hosting charges and if they know about it and have a tight budget constraint, they might opt for a free web hosting provider. However, experienced website owners will testify that free hosting services have lots of downsides. As you are getting a free service, you are not obligated to pay anything, and therefore in most cases, you are abandoned if something goes wrong with your website.
Before you ignore the customer support disclaimer and search for the best free web hosting sites in Google, you should know about one more thing. Most of the websites of free hosting service providers are not secure. As compared to a paid service, this doesn’t generate much faith. If we go by the adage, “You get what you pay for,” if we don’t pay anything for a web hosting service, then it can turn out to be a disaster.
Nevertheless, before you think all hope is lost, we have compiled a list of the best free web hosting sites that deliver a good and trustworthy service. Out of all the sites mentioned in the article, Infinityfree is the best free web hosting site followed by 000Webhost, Byethost, FreeHostingNoAds, Googiehost, and a few more. So, without any further ado, let’s get down to brass tacks.
10 Best Free Web Hosting Sites of 2022
1. InfinityFree
InfinityFree is the gold standard of free web hosting and for all good reasons. Apart from the slow loading homepage, the website is designed well and makes a great first impression. The web hosting service has been in the market for well over six years and boasts over 400,000 users. They offer unlimited disk space and a very generous 50,000 daily hits. While you can host loads of domains, you only get 10 email accounts and only one FTP to upload content. The site guarantees 99.9 percent uptime and offers a Softaculous Script installer that contains more than 400 applications. However, if the site goes down, you are on your own.
InfinityFree is the best free web hosting site because it offers features such as 400 MySQL databases. Others only provide a few and some don’t offer these at all. They also offer a free DNS service, free Cloudflare CDN, and free SSL. It is quite admirable for a free service offering. The service provider also offers cost-effective paid hosting for only $6.90 a month where you get unlimited everything. In this offering, you get Cloudflare Railgun, which reduces the load time substantially.
2. Byethost
As a part of Byet Internet, a US-based hosting provider, ByetHost is one of the best free web hosting sites. The service provider claims one million websites hosted and free hosting services. Byethost also claims to be among the most powerful networks that are dedicated to offering free hosting. With Byethost, users get 1GB of server space, MySQL/PHP compatibility, and 50GB monthly bandwidth.
One of the best features of Byethost is its 24/7 tech support as well as access to its knowledge base and community. Last but not least, if you want to become a free web hosting provider, Byethost runs, myownfreehost, which allows you to become a web hosting provider.
3. Googiehost
With a name that is very similar to Googlehost, it is very easy to confuse the name with Google’s top-class web hosting. However, it is still better than the majority of free web hosting services present in the market. With a below-average website with odd grammatical errors, it inspires little confidence. The service provider claims to have over 200,000 users around the world.
What makes Googiehost one of the best free web hosting sites is that it offers the combination of cPanel and Cloudflare even if it's free. From time to time, you might get a dreaded “your connection is not private” on your screen when you try to access the cPanel. In the eyes of Google Chrome, it sees the property as “not secure.” Googiehost earns its revenue from free users turning into paid-for customers via Interserver.net. Also, it runs a few banner ads on the control panels and its website. Lastly, you need to give a reason for the service provider to accept your website and a special version of Recaptcha.
4. FreeHostingNoAds
As the name suggests, FreeHostingNoAds offers free web hosting without any advertising. The service is offered by RunHosting, a veteran web hosting provider. The service provider promises unlimited disk space and limitless traffic for $2.49 a month. However, this is a small number of offerings you get for a full-fledged paid-for account.
An SSL certificate can cost you around $30, you can get it in the package of $2.49. The Zacky Tools Installer-powered control panel is extremely limited and WordPress, Joomla, or Gray are offered as one-click installs. It is simple and easy to create a new account, but you might notice that the account emails will land in your spam folder. It is a sign that this service provider might be on the deny list.
5. 000Webhost
Owned and operated by Hostinger, 000Webhost has been present in the market for over 10 years and is one of the best free web hosting providers. The service provider claims to have millions of users, which means they have a huge bullseye on their backs for hackers to target. Back in 2015, the entire database of the provider was compromised and the details of around 13.5 million accounts were stolen. After this incident, their service offerings have changed and fortified.
000Webhost offers a WordPress auto-installer, cPanel, and website builder. However, a 3GB bandwidth and 300MB disk space don’t work in the favour of the service provider. More red flags such as no SSL certificates, absence of subdomains, email accounts, and lack of support via tickets make it less appealing. When you create your account, Google might flag the email as a malware-carrying one.
6. WordPress.com
Usually confused with WordPress.org, a well-known self-hosted web builder, WordPress.com is one of the best free web hosting sites offering the unique characteristics of WordPress. You get a WordPress.com subdomain from the service provider which will show as: yourwebsitename.wordpress.com. You will also get 3GB storage and free templates to design your website. The free plan will show ads on your website but you can get rid of them by upgrading to their paid services. With the paid-for service, you will get a custom domain name and added features.
7. Amazon Web Services
Amazon Web Services or AWS is behind some of the most famous websites in the world. Not ideal for small businesses, AWS offers a great platform for developers and students who are just starting their careers. They can learn and know development inside out with Amazon’s powerful platform. On their AWS Free Tier service, Amazon provides 12 months of free as well as always free products, making it one of the best web hosting sites.
8. Weebly
Another free and famous website builder present in the market is Weekly. It is equipped with an intuitive drag and drop builder and off-the-shelf templates to build a website. The service provider offers free plans including a Weekly subdomain with 500MB storage. However, it will display Weebly ads. To get rid of the ads, you can upgrade to their paid plan and unlock more features and more storage.
9. Wix
Wix offers a website builder as well as free hosting. Their free plan offers 500MB of storage, 500MB of bandwidth, access to website templates, and the Wix.com subdomain. Just like other free hosting services, it will show ads on your website and you have to upgrade to their paid plans to get rid of them.
10. AwardSpace
This free website builder offers various hosting services but it's popular for its free plan. This free plan includes 1GB disk space, 5GB bandwidth, one website, three subdomains, MySQL database, and 24/7 tech support. One of the best features of Awardspace is the one-click content management system installation and a Zacky website builder as well. After your website is launched you can place ads and monetize your website. Furthermore, it provides you with a bandwidth usage monitor, helping you keep an eye on your budget resources.
How Good is Free Hosting?
If you are on a budget then yes because it is free but it has serious drawbacks. You have limited things that you can do and the majority of the websites aren’t secure. Also, if the website is down then you have to figure out a solution on your own. This is why, if we recommend selecting a cost-effective web hosting provider over a free one.
The Best Free Web Hosting in Summary
While free site hosting isn’t a perfect option, it can be a feasible one in some scenarios. However, you should steer clear of free hosting because the price tag might be enticing but you will pay by compromising reliability and performance. However, if you are a beginner and don’t want to spend any money, free web hosting can fulfill your requirements. Otherwise, a cost-effective shared web hosting plan will do the trick.