10 Best FREE Website Hosting & Domain Sites (2023)
Kristina Tuvikene
Web hosting is a type of Internet hosting service that hosts websites for clients, i.e. provides them with the necessary tools to create and maintain a domain and makes it available on the Internet. Companies that provide free website hosting services are known as web hosts.
Why is web hosting important?
An excellent website hosting service is essential to your brand’s ability to provide a quality service to the public. There are many applications that can be hosted, including online stores, blogs, and websites, with benefits ranging from better performance to greater security.
In this review, we will give you an overview of the 10 free and paid web hosting providers. We have compared different factors such as pricing, features, customer support, and of course, most importantly uptime and speed, to help you to make the right choice. Read more…
Limitations of Free Website Hosting
Even though opting for a free web hosting service is tempting, it might not be the best idea, especially if your main aim is to grow your business and keep the website running at all times. Here are some limitations that you need to consider when choosing a free web hosting provider:
- Forced ads
- Poor uptime and slow page loading time
- Limitations on storage and bandwidth
- Security vulnerabilities
- Site migration might become difficult since you might not have access to all of your files
- Poor customer service
So what we’re saying is that if you’re just starting out in the web hosting industry and testing the waters with website building for your own personal hobby site, free hosting is a good no-string-attached option. However, if you have an online business that you plan to expand, we recommend always choosing a reliable paid web hosting service.
Now without further ado, let’s have a more detailed look at the 10 best web hosting providers.
Best Free Web Hosting & Domain Hosting Services: Top Picks
Here is a curated list of Top Free Web Hosting Sites with popular features:
|
#1 Best Overall
|
#2 Top Pick
|
 |
|
| Hosting Provider | Hostinger | HostPapa | UltaHost |
| Reason Chosen | Best for uptime | Best for reliable hosting plans | Bulletproof security in attractive prices |
| Ad Free | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| Disk Space | 300 MB SSD Storage | 100 GB SSD Storage | 30 GB NVMe SSD |
| Bandwidth | Unlimited Bandwidth | Unmetered | Unlimited |
| Uptime | 99.98% guarantee | 99.9% guarantee | 99.9% guarantee |
| 24/7 Support | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ |
 Reviews |
Excellent – 4.8
|
Excellent – 4.5
|
Excellent – 4.8
|
| Review | Read Review | Read Review | Read Review |
| Link | Visit Hostinger | Visit HostPapa | Visit UltaHost |
“ Use an uptime monitoring service to immediately alert you via email/SMS if your web host goes down ”
1) Hostinger
Established in 2004, Hostinger is an employee-owned Web hosting and Internet domain registration company. It has steadily built an international user base that’s spread out across 39 countries from risk-free beginner hosting to advanced VPS cloud infrastructure.
Key Spec: Free SSL Certificate | Easy to Use Website Builder | Weekly and Daily Backups | 30-day money-back guarantee
Pricing
The three most popular Hostinger shared hosting plans are:
- Single Shared Hosting -$1.99/mo (Renews to $3.99/mo)
- Premium Shared Hosting -$2.99/mo (Renews to $6.99/mo)
- Free Website Hosting – Always Free
Besides shared hosting, Hostinger also offers Cloud, WordPress, and VPS hosting.
All the hosting plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Features
Hostinger offers many useful features. For example, their cheapest Single Shared Hosting plans come with 50 GB of storage, 1 website and email account, 100 GB of bandwidth, and two databases. This is more than enough for a small website. Also, you can always upgrade to a premium plan and get more use of the features.
Here are some more features:
- Easy to Use Website Builder.
- Auto Installer (WordPress, Joomla, etc.)
- User-Friendly Custom hPanel
- Free SSL Certificate
- Weekly and Daily Backups
- Free Domain (starting from Premium plan)
Customer Support
Hostinger offers 24/7/365 support in the form of:
- Knowledge Base
- Live Chat (available only for registered users)
Uptime and Speed
Hostinger strives to maintain 99.99% uptime for your website. They run CloudLinux – one of the most popular operating systems for hosting companies. Their systems are regularly updated, shielded from DDoS attacks, and optimized with the latest LiteSpeed technologies.
We started tracking Hostinger in March 2022. Our test site hosted at Hostinger scores above 99.95% uptime constantly. Their last 30 average uptime was 99.98%.
When it comes to the response time test of Hostinger, the software is able to get the score of a TTFB (Time-To-First-Byte) of less than 600 ms and an A+ on the speed test. This is excellent compared to other hosting services.
Datacenters
- Europe (the Netherlands, Lithuania, the United Kingdom)
- Asia (Singapore, India)
- North America (the USA)
- South America (Brazil
Hostinger also offers a data center location change as self-service. Change your data center location once a month to make your website load faster for your visitors.
2) HostPapa
HostPapa is a Canadian-based hosting company that was founded in 2006. They provide shared, reseller, and virtual private server (VPS) hosting.
Key Spec: Free SSL Certificate | 100 GB of SSD Storage | 100 Email Accounts | 30-day money-back guarantee
Pricing
There are 4 plans available:
- Start at $2.36
- Plus at $4.76
- Pro at $4.76
- Ultra at $10.36
Besides shared hosting, HostPapa also offers Managed WordPress, VPS, and Reseller hosting. However, opting for the latter options, expect to pay more. For example, their Managed WordPress cheapest plan starts at $19.95/month.
All HostPapa’s hosting plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Features
HostPapa’s shared hosting plans are packed with many handy features – unlimited bandwidth, free domain registration, and even a website builder.
Here are some more notable features from their cheapest “Starter” plan:
- Free SSL Certificate
- 100 GB of SSD Storage
- Offers cPanel control panel
- 100 Email Accounts
- Free Website Transfer
Customer Support
HostPapa provides customer support using:
- Live Chat
- Phone
- Support tickets
- Knowledge Base
However, if you submit a ticket, you will get your reply within 30 minutes.
Uptime and Speed
HostPapa promises fast page loading speed and reliable uptime. They’re backing up their promise with enhanced SSD drives, Cloudflare Content Delivery Network, fewer accounts per server, etc.
Moreover, they come with a 99.9% uptime guarantee. This means they ensure that your site’s uptime will never drop below 99.9%.
Datacenters
They have data centers at:
- North America
- Europe
They also help you select the Data Centers at the checkout time.
Pros
Cons
30-day money-back guarantee
3) UltaHost
Although UltaHost is a fairly new company that has quickly gained market share, it has earned a solid position. It is known for its highly competitive prices, but cheap hosting is not the market segment that UltaHost is targeting. It is a leader in the field of security systems: UltaHost’s multi-layered security systems protect its customers from all kinds of threats, from DDoS attacks to Malware.
Key Spec: Free SSL Certificate | 30 GB NVMe SSD Disk | Advanced security systems | Unlimited bandwidth
Pricing
UltaHost offers fully scalable plans at affordable prices:
- Basic: $3.29 a month
- VPS Basic: $5.5 a month
- Power Plus: $37.5 a month
Note: For annual payment UltaHost offers a free domain. For a two-year payment, UltaHost offers up to a 60% discount and a free domain.
Features
- BitNinja Security, Dedicated Firewalls, and Regular Security Patching
- Safe connection by SSH, SFTP or RDS
- Full root acces, staging environment,
- Free automated daily backups and auto healing
- Free SSL Certificate(s), HTTP/2 Enabled Servers, and CDN Cloudflare Add-on
- Free Migration and Free Domain Transfer
- 30-Days Money-Back
- 24/7 Real-time Monitoring, 24/7 assistance, and 99,9% Uptime Guarantee
You can install the control panel of your choice on UltaHost’s virtual servers. By default, you will receive CyberPanel or Hestia, but you can also choose Plesk or cPanel.
Pros
Cons
30-day money-back guarantee
4) Porkbun
Porkbun.com provides FREE WordPress, FREE Static Hosting, and FREE link-in-bio hosting. Their paid hosting packages offer free trials, and you can switch plans easily at any time.
Key Spec: Free tech support | Domains come with free WHOIS privacy | 3-month free email trial | 15-Day Free Trial
Pricing information:
- Starter Monthly Plans: $3-12
- Pro Monthly Plans: $6-24
- Starter Yearly Plans: $30-120
- Pro Yearly Plans: $60-240
| Disk space: | 2 GB to Unmetered* |
| Bandwidth: | Unmetered* |
| FTP accounts: | 1 or Unlimited if included |
| Add-On-Domains: | None |
| MySQL Databases: | Unlimited if included |
| Email address: | 10 free email forwarders, accounts sold separately |
Features:
- Free SSL certificate automatically installed.
- Free versions of Static hosting and Easy WordPress available, free trials for most options, can easily switch plans at any time.
- Free tech support (chat, email, phone, 365 days a year)
- Standard payment options also include cryptocurrency and Paypal!
- Some of the lowest pricing on domain names, with over 500 domain names supported.
- Domains come with free WHOIS privacy.
- 10 free email forwards per domain.
- 3 month free email trial.
- Nightly backups and versioning included for most plans.
- Extra security features available.
- Hosting, domain name, and email all on the same easy-to-use platform.
Limitations:
- Support is 4 am to 5 pm PT Monday – Friday, 9 am to 5 pm PT Saturday & Sunday
- SSH unavailable on most plans.
Pros
Cons
15-Day Free Trial
5) Domain.com
Domain.com is a privately owned Web hosting company. They offer shared hosting, virtual private servers (VPS), reseller, and dedicated servers.
Pricing
Domain.com comes with four shared hosting plans:
- Basic – $3.75/mo
- Deluxe – $6.75/mo
- Ultra – $13.75/mo
Besides shared hosting, you can also choose VPS, WordPress, and dedicated hosting.
All plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Features
Domain.com cheapest plan comes with 1 website, a free domain name for the 1st year, Unlimited storage, custom themes, Scalable bandwidth, and 24/7 customer support. Higher tier plans come with unlimited websites, storage, free domain privacy, and automated backups.
Here are some more additional features:
- FTP account and File manager
- MySQL databases & PHP support
- cPanel as control panel
- WordPress integration
- Free CDN and SSL Certificate
Customer Support
Domain.com offers 24/7 support by:
- Live Chat
- Phone
- Knowledge Base
Uptime and Speed
Most of Domain.com shared hosting plans come with a standard CPU performance which is suitable for most websites that receive low to moderate amounts of traffic. Their Pro plan comes with an optimized CPU power that helps to achieve faster page loading times and better processing power.
Datacenters
- USA
- Europe
Pros
Cons
30-day money-back guarantee
6) GoogieHost
GoogieHost remains one of the better options for free web hosting providers. It is the only free hosting provider that comes with cPanel and Cloudflare, albeit in its free form.
Pricing
GoogieHost offers two hosting plans:
- Free Web Hosting – Free to use
- Premium Hosting – starts at $2.50/month
Features
GoogieHost’s free plan is very competitive with many other paid hosts. For example, you will get a single website, 1000 MB of SSD storage, 100 GB of bandwidth, and even a free site builder.
Moreover, you’ll get:
- Free CMS Installers
- Direct Admin Panel
- Online File Manager
- PHP all versions
- 2 MySQL Databases
- SSL Certificate
- Malware Protection
- 99% Uptime
GoogieHost’s premium plan offers more unlimited features such as storage and bandwidth, email accounts, and databases. Moreover, premium hosting is promised to have a 99.9% uptime.
Customer Support
GoogieHost offers support via:
- Forum
Uptime and Speed
GoogieHost servers’ uptime is 99.95%, and you may experience downtime once a week for 10 minutes, and it won’t be more than 10 minutes a week.
Datacenters
- The US
- New Zealand
- The UK
Pros
Cons
7) Awardspace
Awardspace is offering web hosting since 2004. Over this time, they have to modify their free hosting offer and keep up with the competition as they streamlined their services last year.
Pricing
Awardspace offers three paid shared hosting pricing plans:
- Basic – starts at $0.25/month
- Web Pro – starts at $4.57/month
- Max Pack Plus – starts at $5.83/month
Besides the abovementioned plans, Awardspace also offers a free web hosting option.
All of the paid plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Features
Awardspace offers many features, including data backups, site builder, domain lock control, 1000 email accounts, SpamAssassin spam protection, SMTP access, and many more.
Their free plan includes the following features:
- 99.9% Uptime
- 5 GB Bandwidth
- PHP MyAdmin
- 1000 MB Disk Space
Customer Support
Awardspace offers customer support in the following forms:
- Ticketing
- Knowledge Base (including video tutorials)
- Live Chat
Uptime and Speed
Awardspace comes with a 99.9% Networks Uptime guarantee.
Datacenters
Their data center is located in Sofia, Bulgaria, Europe.
The average connection speed of the data centers peaks at 50 Mbit/s. Awardspace’s data center is Telepoint, a Tier 3+ Carrier Neutral Data Center. This allows them to optimize our colocation costs and provide free and premium hosting at a fraction of the price of other providers. Moreover, they monitor their servers 24/7.
Pros
Cons
8) x10hosting.com
X10hosting is an integrated web hosting and site-building platform. It helps users to create their domain name and optimize the ranking of their site through its available SEO tools.
Pricing
The x10hosing offers two plans:
- x10hosting Free – as the name suggests it is free to use
- x10hosting Premium – starts at $6.95/month
Features
The x10hosting Free plan comes with DirectAdmin control panel, two databases, three email addresses, 500 MB disk space, and three domains. In case you opt out for their paid Premium plan, you’ll get:
- cPanel control panel
- Unlimited Databases
- Unlimited Email Accounts
- Unlimited domains and Disk Space
Moreover, both plans are equipped with 1-click CMS installations and a website builder.
Customer Support
The x10hosting offers customer service as follows:
- 24/7 Dedicated Ticket System (Premium plan)
- Self and Community Support (Free plan)
Uptime and Speed
Your website is guaranteed to be fast and reliable by using fully optimized 100% SSD private Cloud servers.
Datacenters
There’s no information available on where the x10hosting data centers are located.
Pros
Cons
9) InfinityFree
InfinityFree is a free website hosting platform. It is one of the best free web hosting sites in India that provides unlimited bandwidth. Moreover, you will not have forced ads and it allows you to bring your domain name or pick a free subdomain name from over 25 domain extensions.
Pricing
There are three hosting plans offered by InfinitFree hosting and domain:
- InfinityFree – FREE
- Super Premium – starts at $3.99/month
- Ultimate Premium – starts at $6.90/month
Features
InfinityFree offers many handy features, for example, their free plan comes with 5 GB of disk space, unlimited bandwidth, 400 MySQL databases, a free SSL Certificate, and DNS service. You’ll also get a Softaculous Installer that lets you to install over 400 applications with just one click. Moreover, you’ll be guaranteed to have your site ad-free (even with the free plan).
If you opt for one of their premium plans, you’ll also get more unlimited features that also include, for example:
- Free Site Migration
- Unlimited Daily Hits
- More Server Power
- Official cPanel Control Panel
- Remote MySQL Access
Customer Support
InfinityFree offers support as follows:
- Knowledge Base
- Support Forum
Uptime and Speed
InfinityFree mentions that uptime is their main priority and promises a 99.9% uptime. And we’re happy to say that our test site hosted at InfinityFree has been scoring above 99.9% uptime consistently.
Regarding speed performance, then our test site managed to score a TTFB (Time-To-First-Byte) of below 600 ms and ranked A+ on the speed test. This is very good when compared with other web hosting service providers.
Datacenters
As of 2017, all the InfinityFree servers are located in Newcastle Upon Tyne, United Kingdom.
Pros
Cons
10) Free hosting
Free Hosting is another reliable web hosting platform. It is one of the best free hosting with cPanel which is available in both free and paid versions.
Pricing
Free Hosting comes with two hosting plans:
- Free web hosting – FREE
- Paid web hosting – starts at $7.99/month
Their paid plan comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Features
Free Hosting’s free plan comes with unmetered bandwidth, a MySQL database, 10 GB of storage, one website, and one email account. You’ll also get a 1-click installer for the applications and a site builder. However, there are some limitations, for example, PHP mail and Sendmail program scripts functionality is disabled and you can’t use their hosting service if you’re located in Brazil, Cuba, Iran, Sudan, Syria, or Vietnam.
In case you choose their paid premium plan, you’ll get:
- Faster Servers
- Backups
- Web Logs
- Custom PHP Config
- SSH Access
- Multiple Email Accounts
Customer Support
Free Hosting offers help as follows:
- Ticketing
Uptime and Speed
Free Hosting promises to keep your site up 24 hours a day. However, they also mention that their free hosting package is suitable for lightweight websites that get a maximum of 30000 visitors a day. Once this limit is reached, expect to have performance issues.
Datacenters
They operate their servers through a regional data center in Dallas, Texas, United States.
Pros
Cons
11) Freehostia
At Freehostia, they offer a variety of web hosting services, from free hosting accounts all the way to VPS and dedicated servers It is one of the best free domain and hosting providers that offers high-end services, such as dedicated servers to host a website for free.
Pricing
Freehostia offers a free “Chocolate” plan that comes with:
- 5 Hosted Domains
- 250 MB Disk Space
- 6 GB Monthly Traffic
- 3 Email Accounts
Besides the free plan, they also offer paid premium plans:
- Watercircle Plan starts from $2.95/month
- Lovebeat Plan starts from $4.95/month
- Wildhoney Plan starts from $7.95/month
- Supernatural Plan starts from $9.95/month
All the paid plans come with a 30-day free trial.
Features
It comes with 250MB of disk space, 6 GB of monthly traffic, 24/7 customer support, а 1-click free Web Applications Installer, and many more. This hosting plan is a perfect choice for your small online business or personal website. You can also upgrade your free plan to a paid one and get more unlimited features.
Customer Support
Freehostia’s 24/7customer support is offered in the following forms:
- Video Tutorials
- 1-Hour Ticket/Email Response
- Knowledge Base
Uptime and Speed
Our test site Freehostia s been scoring above 99.97% uptime constantly. However, since they only have one server in the US, expect to get more poor performance outside of the United States.
Datacenters
Freehostia’s data center is located in Steadfast, Chicago, USA.
Pros
Cons
What is Free Web Hosting?
Free website hosting is a perfect option for those seeking to host their websites without cost. Many web hosts offer free domain hosting services, which allow users to host their websites at zero cost. However, it’s essential to know that these free hosting providers typically come with basic and limited features compared to their paid counterparts.
While the prospect of hosting a website for free might be enticing, some drawbacks exist, like most free web hosting providers monetize their services by placing few ads on users’ websites. This can lead to intrusive ads that detract from the site’s overall aesthetics and user experience. Many free hosting services often come with the limitations of less reliable uptime, slower loading times, and limited or no customer support, which can be a huge barrier to the success of a website.
When considering free website hosting, it’s crucial to assess the specific needs of your project. For personal blogs or small-scale ventures with minimal traffic and basic requirements, free hosting can be a practical option to get started without any financial investment. However, opting for a reliable paid hosting service is generally the wiser choice for businesses or websites anticipating substantial traffic and seeking enhanced performance and security.
As per our review, paid hosting providers offer more comprehensive features, improved security measures, and dedicated customer support, ensuring a smooth and professional online presence. Some paid hosting services might even include free domain web hosting as part of their packages, providing added value for those seeking both domain and hosting services together.
Is Free Hosting Sites Really Free?
While they might advertise web hosts for free or free domain web hosting, limitations and hidden costs are often involved. These providers may compensate for the free services by placing ads on your website, which can impact user experience. Moreover, you may encounter slower loading times, less reliable uptime, and limited customer support. Beware of “Free hosting lifetime” offers, as they might come with strings attached or necessitate upgrades for essential features. Free hosting could suffice for personal or low-traffic projects, but investing in a reliable paid hosting service for businesses or serious websites ensures better performance, security, and support in the long run.
When to Choose a Paid Plan in Free Web Hosting?
Opting for a paid plan in free web hosting becomes necessary when you outgrow the limitations of basic services. While “web hosting free” plans may offer initial advantages like free unlimited web hosting or free domain hosting, they often come with resource constraints, such as slower performance and limited support. As your website or business grows and demands more bandwidth, storage, and features, upgrading to a paid plan becomes crucial. Paid hosting provides better scalability, faster loading times, and dedicated customer support, ensuring a seamless online presence and accommodating the evolving needs of your website or business.
How to Choose the Best Free Website Hosting
You should consider the following factors while choosing the best free web hosting:
- Disk space
- Uptime & Speed – when choosing a host check if their uptime is anything above 99.91% and page loading time below 890 ms.
- Bandwidth
- Quality of support
- Email account offered or not
- SSL offered or not
- Automatic backup
- Website builder offered
- Tools and plugin support
- Check user review
What are the Pros and Cons of Free Web Hosting?
| 👍 Pros of Free Web Hosting: | 👎 Cons of Free Web Hosting: |
|---|---|
| Cost-effective: No upfront costs for web server hosting free plans, making it ideal for personal or small projects with budget constraints. | Limited Resources: Free plans often have restricted bandwidth, storage, and features, hindering website growth and performance. |
| Easy to Get Started: Quick and simple setup process, allowing users to create and publish websites without technical expertise. | Ads and Branding: Providers may display ads on your site, affecting its professional appearance and user experience. |
| Free Unlimited Hosting: Some providers offer unlimited hosting, providing ample resources for basic websites. | Unreliable Uptime: Free hosting may experience more frequent downtime, impacting accessibility. |
FAQs
Best Free Web Hosting & Domain Hosting Services: Top Picks
|
#1 Best Overall
|
#2 Top Pick
|
|
|
| Hosting Provider | Hostinger | HostPapa | UltaHost |
| Reason Chosen | Best for uptime | Best for reliable hosting plans | Bulletproof security in attractive prices |
| Ad Free | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| Disk Space | 300 MB SSD Storage | 100 GB SSD Storage | 30 GB NVMe SSD |
| Bandwidth | Unlimited Bandwidth | Unmetered | Unlimited |
| Uptime | 99.98% guarantee | 99.9% guarantee | 99.9% guarantee |
| 24/7 Support | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ |
Reviews |
Excellent – 4.8
|
Excellent – 4.5
|
Excellent – 4.8
|
| Review | Read Review | Read Review | Read Review |
| Link | Visit Hostinger | Visit HostPapa | Visit UltaHost |