8 Best Free Blog Hosting Services (In 2024)

Choosing the right host is one of the most important decisions you’re going to make to ensure your blog’s longevity, reach, and growth potential. If you’re like me, you’re also going to look for a hosting plan that won’t deplete your life savings.

Many hosts claim to offer high-quality free hosting, but when it comes down to it, these services are often poor, filled with upsells, or straight-up fraudulent. That’s why I decided to put in the hours and find the best services to host your blog for free.

Yes, there are some paid options on the list. While I managed to find some good free services, the truth is that even the best free hosts are often lackluster. Free hosting won’t allow you to connect to a custom domain or monetize your blog, and will severely limit your traffic.

However, each of the following hosts offers either free plans, free trials, or high-value plans for really cheap. My top pick, Hostinger, has superior global performance for less than the price of a cup of coffee. So, keep reading to find the best host for you, or get started with a managed WordPress plan today.

What We Look For in the Best Free Web Hosts for Blogs

Every host on this list should meet the following criteria to ensure you can make the most out of your blog:

• Free (or very cheap) hosting. If a vendor is going to make it on this list, you need to be able to set up a blog for free or at the very least less than what you’d spend on a takeout meal.
• Content management system (CMS). Trying to set up a blog without a proper CMS is like trying to bake a pastry with only fire and your bare hands. It can be done, but it’s going to be painful. Some builders offer proprietary CMSs, while most hosting providers offer WordPress support.
• Respectable storage space. For a blog to stay afloat, it needs to be updated. That means consistently uploading new entries, images, and even videos. For a host to make the cut, it should offer enough storage space to support an active blog.
• SSL and security options. Not every blog will be used to publish state secrets, but you should still ensure your blog has a basic level of protection. An SSL certificate is a basic security measure, but it will also help you rank higher in search engine listings.
• Options for scaling. If you want to grow your blog at any point, your host should make it easy to scale to a better plan. Each plan should also be enough of a value proposition to justify the price leap.

1. Hostinger: High-Performance Blog Hosting for the Lowest Price

Before we go any further, I want to address the elephant in the room. Yes, despite being my #1 pick, Hostinger doesn’t actually offer a free plan. So, why is it here? Well, for starters, Hostinger is very cheap. You can get a fully managed WordPress hosting plan for as little as $2.99 per month.

Hostinger is also an outstanding service. Out of all the hosts that we’ve painstakingly tested over the years, Hostinger continues to deliver some of the best performance scores worldwide. Its wide distribution of data centers across the globe makes it a particularly attractive solution if you’re planning to attract a global audience. Plus, the 99.9% uptime guarantee means that you won’t lose any visitors due to unexpected drops.

Besides sheer performance, Hostinger also offers a suite of features designed to help you run your blog exactly how you want it. Do you want full control over the backend? Hostinger has a full suite of developer tools. Would you prefer to focus only on blogging? Hostinger offers managed WordPress plans with professionals who take care of the minutiae for you.

The Single Shared Hosting plan gives you access to 50 GB storage for a single website, 1 free email account, and WordPress acceleration features. You can upgrade your plan as your site grows, and the good news is that even at the highest tiers, each plan continues to be incredibly affordable. However, you may not be able to get this plan on the Hostinger website in your region – if this is the case, go to the 000webhost site where it should still be available.

Features

• Proprietary hPanel. Instead of the industry-standard cPanel for managing your hosting, Hostinger offers a more user-friendly alternative.
• LiteSpeed acceleration. Hostinger uses LiteSpeed as its main server software. Besides being faster for static content generation (i.e. most content in a blog), Hostinger also includes the LiteSpeed Cache for WordPress plugin, which can make your blog even faster.
• Fully managed WordPress. Hostinger offers a fully managed WordPress backend on all its WordPress plans.
• WordPress staging tool. On the Business WordPress plan and up, Hostinger provides the WordPress staging tool, which can help you make changes to your blog without disrupting your live site.

Read our expert Hostinger review for more details.

2. IONOS: A Well-Rounded Option at a Budget

One of the best things about blogging is that you don’t need much to get started. In other words, a host doesn’t need to have an avalanche of features to support a blog. So long as it offers good performance, security, and uptime, that’s enough to handle a decently sized blog.

IONOS is the perfect host if you want no-nonsense, reliable, and affordable hosting. Though IONOS has its unique qualities, its greatest strength is reliability. Every one of IONOS’ WordPress plans comes with a full suite of security tools, at least 9 GB of shared RAM, and a 99.98% uptime guarantee.

It’s also an ideal host if you don’t want to worry about “housecleaning,” as all WordPress plans come with regular update scanning, daily backups, and even a custom WordPress assistant that recommends the best plugins for your blog. Usually, you’d have to pay a fair bit for these features, but IONOS gives you access to all of that and more for only $4.50 per month.

Speaking of which, while IONOS is a low-cost host, its renewal rates get a bit pricey after the first year. Still, it’s a great choice if you have a flexible budget and are looking for a stable foundation to build your blog.

Features

• Personal consultant. When you sign up for any IONOS plan, you get assigned a personal consultant to help you resolve any issues that you might come across.
• Daily backups. IONOS offers daily backups of your site on every WordPress plan to ensure that you never lose your content.
• Extensive storage space. Even on the cheapest WordPress plans, IONOS comes with at least 25 GB of SSD storage, which is ideal if you’re planning on uploading tons of high-definition pictures and other large files.
• Developer tools. If you want to access the more technical side of things, IONOS gives you access to a full suite of developer tools to further tweak and customize your blog.

Learn more in our expert IONOS review.

3. Wix: Full Creative Control Over Your Blog’s Visuals

Thanks to its drag-and-drop builder, Wix gives you unparalleled creative control over your site’s look. Since it’s a website builder that offers hosting, Wix simplifies the design process and makes it accessible for everyone. And thanks to its forever-free plan, you can create a fully customized blog without ever dropping a dime.

With Wix’s proprietary CMS, it’s easy to set up and manage a blog page, as well as edit, publish, and categorize blog posts without the complications of the WordPress backend. That said, if you do want to publish your blog using WordPress or any other CMS, Wix offers a wide variety of third-party integrations to help you bring all of your different social channels under one roof.

You can access the full suite of Wix blogging and design tools on the free plan, so long as you don’t mind a Wix subdomain and some ads on your site. If you want to launch a more professional blog, I recommend going for the Unlimited plan. This gives you access to unlimited bandwidth, 10 GB of storage space, and the visitor’s analytics app, which can help you make informed decisions about future posts.

Features

• Over 800 niche-specific templates. Wix includes hundreds of high-quality templates fine-tuned to serve hundreds of uber-specific needs.
• Included SEO wiz. Wix includes an SEO wizard that can help you improve your SEO rankings and get your blog noticed.
• Vast app marketplace. If you’re looking to expand Wix’s functionality, you have access to a vast marketplace with hundreds of free and premium apps to cover virtually any need.
• Intuitive monetization tools. Wix includes user-friendly tools to help all kinds of bloggers monetize their content.

Check out our expert Wix review for more details.

4. 000webhost: The Most Complete Fully-Free Hosting Option

000webhost is Hostinger’s free alternative, which means you can enjoy Hostinger’s technology and reliability free of charge. While it’s significantly less feature-rich, 000webhost is still a very reliable free hosting provider.

But reliability isn’t all that 000webhost has going for it (although to be clear, that’s still plenty when it comes to free hosting). On the free plan, you get access to 300 MB of disk space, 3 GB bandwidth, and Cloudflare-protected nameservers.

That said, I would only recommend 000webhost if you’re testing the waters, as the free plan doesn’t offer daily backups, LiteSpeed cache, or an SSL certificate. If you’re ready to take your hosting to the next step, upgrading your 000webhost plan seamlessly transfers you to the Hostinger platform, giving you access to all of Hostinger’s best features.

Features

• 99% uptime guarantee. 000webhost isn’t the only free web builder to taunt a 99% or above uptime guarantee, but it sets itself apart by actually delivering on that promise.
• WordPress auto-installer. Free hosts are usually pretty light on features and sometimes complicated to use. Luckily, 000host comes with tools to help you easily install the WordPress CMS.
• Integrated web builder. If WordPress isn’t quite your speed, all 000webhost plans give you access to an easy-to-use proprietary web builder.
• Monthly cronjob. A cronjob is an automatic task that repeats itself in a given time interval. 000webhost is one of the few hosts to offer access to a cronjob for free.

Read our expert 000webhost review for more details.

5. Squarespace: The Best Builder for Photo Blogs

Squarespace is the de facto website builder for minimalistic, visually engaging blogs. It stands out thanks to its selection of over 140 professionally designed templates. However, I also appreciate its variety of image effects and animations, as well as the simple block editor that gives you a high degree of customization while maintaining a coherent website structure.

Squarespace’s striking visuals and gallery options make it especially great for photography and videography blogs. It’s also ideal if you want to spend as little time as possible messing with the dashboard settings, as Squarespace offers a completely user-friendly experience for blogging, marketing, SEO, and design.

While it doesn’t offer a fully-free plan, all Squarespace plans include fully-managed cloud hosting so you won’t need to pay extra for a third-party hosting service The Personal plan is quite affordable and gives you access to a custom domain, free SSL, simple analytics, and a slew of apps to expand your site’s functionality.

Features

• Elegant templates. Squarespace offers hundreds of professionally designed templates to give your blog a stunning look.
• Newsletter tools. Squarespace makes it easy to create and distribute custom newsletters to subscribers.
• Contributor settings. If you’re looking to build a more collaborative blog, Squarespace offers tools to publish and manage the contributions of several different authors.
• Easy e-commerce. If you want to create a merch store for your blog or sell any products, Squarespace comes with user-friendly tools to help anyone start an online store.

Read our expert Squarespace review to learn more.

6. WordPress.com: The Full WordPress Experience for Personal Projects

Most of the hosting services on this list offer integrations with the WordPress.org CMS, as well as plenty of optimization features. That doesn’t mean that external hosting is the only way to use WordPress, however.

WordPress.com offers a self-hosted version of the popular CMS along with its intuitive tools for blogging. The best part is that you can get WordPress.com for free, so long as you don’t mind WordPress advertising on your site and a branded sub-domain.

It’s a good option if you want a free WordPress blog and you don’t mind the branding. However, you won’t be able to access some of the most powerful WordPress features such as custom themes, plugins, and advanced integrations unless you’re on a paid plan.

Features

• Intuitive blog management. WordPress offers a uniquely user-friendly system to add blog posts, pages, and categories.
• Subscriber-only content. Starting from the personal plan and up, you can add exclusive content for different subscription tiers.
• Analytic and reporting tools. WordPress makes it easy to access custom site analytics that can help you identify your most successful entries and grow your audience.
• Simple, attractive themes. Even without third-party themes, WordPress.com offers a wide selection of visually appealing themes for blogging.

Read our expert WordPress review for more details.

7. GoogieHost: Great for Learning Hosting Fundamentals

GoogieHost is an outstanding tool if you want to learn blogging and hosting fundamentals. Not only does GoogieHost include a more traditional cPanel, but it also has a wide variety of CMS installers and decent performance speeds. This means you can try different configurations for your blog and see which system works better for you, and which gives you more reliable performance results.

To be completely honest, I wouldn’t recommend GoogieHost for a fully-fledged blog. The free plan is too restrictive and you can get significantly better features by investing in another hosting provider. But as a learning tool, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better platform to get started.

Features

• 3 websites on the free plan. Unlike most free hosting services, GoogieHost allows you to host up to three different websites using the free plan.
• Free business email. Yet another feature that’s usually reserved for paid hosting. A business email can help your credibility when you’re trying to score guest posts, interviews, and more.
• Malware protection. GoogieHost offers a wide selection of security features to ensure your blog’s safety.
• Plenty of CMS installers. GoogieHost offers installers for over 300 CMSs; ideal for learning different systems and finding the perfect one for you.

Read our expert GoogieHost review for more details.

8. AwardSpace: Decent Free Hosting for Small Blogs

AwardSpace is an easy-to-use and efficient free hosting solution for smaller blogs. The user experience is amazing – especially for a fully free host – and it offers every basic feature you could need to run a blog without friction.

The thing that keeps AwardSpace from taking a higher spot on the list is its limited storage and bandwidth space. While quite respectable for a free service, it’s nowhere near the standard set by competitors. However, if you’re planning to run a limited blog and want to ensure consistent performance and uptimes, AwardSpace offers everything you need completely free of cost.

Features

• Instant activation. You don’t need to wait to be vetted or provide a long convoluted explanation of why you need a free host. AwardSpace gives you access to free hosting as soon as you sign up.
• Integrated website builder. If CMSs aren’t your speed, AwardSpace comes with a basic website builder to help you get your blog online as soon as possible.
• Bandwidth usage analytics. With AwardSpace, you’ll always know how much bandwidth you have available before reaching your data cap.
• Customizable dashboard. Once you get used to your hosting, you’ll be able to customize your AwardSpace dashboard to give you easy access to the tools you use the most.

Read our expert AwardSpace review for more details.

Quality Hosting Doesn’t Have to Break the Bank

Blogging is still the quintessential way to spread your ideas, opinions, and knowledge around the web. It’s one of the few ways in which we can democratize a wide variety of voices and experiences, but that’s only true if starting a blog isn’t prohibitively expensive.

I wouldn’t recommend going with a 100% free option unless you’re learning how to blog, or just playing around, as even the best fully free options are severely limited. That said, there are plenty of high-quality hosts out there that can help you reach new heights for extremely cheap.

If you’re looking for outstanding speeds, an intuitive user interface, and full control over both the look and technical aspects of your blog, then Hostinger is the way to go.

If you don’t mind going for a more standard, but still feature-rich experience, IONOS offers reliable hosting for very cheap.

Finally, if you’d prefer to fully customize the look and feel of your blog without messing with the more technical aspects of hosting, Wix gives you nearly limitless design freedom.

FAQ

What’s the best host for a blog?

The answer is varied, as almost any self-respecting hosting provider will include the basic features required to host a basic blog. Overall, Hostinger is the best option thanks to its strong combination of performance and affordability.

What’s the best free blogging platform?

I’d recommend Wix. Not only does it come with a powerful and intuitive content management system, it also allows you to create a fully personalized website at no cost.

Can I monetize a free blog?

Short answer: no. Any worthwhile host or blogging platform will charge some kind of premium before letting you profit from their service. That said, you can monetize a very cheap blog. Hosting providers like Hostinger offer monetization options at extremely low entry prices.

Does hosting affect the speed of your website?

Significantly. Hosting will affect speed, security, growth and so many more aspects of your website, which is why it’s important to choose the right host for you. If you want to learn more about the best host for you, check out our list of the best hosting providers in 2024.