10 Best Free PHP Web Hosts (and Best Value Picks) for 2025

The best things in life are free, but they should also come with no strings attached. The truth is, there are several free PHP hosting options available, but only a few are reliable. Many free PHP hosting providers come with trade-offs, such as ads on your site, limited resources, or outdated PHP versions.

For example, GoogieHost offers one of the better free PHP hosting plans, but its restrictions on storage and bandwidth can make it frustrating for long-term use. That’s why my team and I tested multiple free and low-cost PHP hosting plans available so you can choose the most reliable option for your project.

Among them, Hostinger delivers the best value PHP hosting. Its cheap PHP hosting options include support for multiple PHP versions, automatic updates for your databases, and developer-friendly tools like SSH access and Git – all at a price so low it almost feels free.

Read on to discover other free and affordable PHP hosting providers. You’ll see where free hosting makes sense, where it doesn’t, and how you can start with risk-free, cheap PHP hosting plans that give you more value and flexibility.

What We Look For in the Best Free PHP Web Hosts

Separating a good free or almost free hosting service from a bad one comes down to a few important factors. Regardless of whether a service was free or paid, this is what I focused on in my search:

• Security. Up-to-date security is important for all websites. A combination of firewalls, antivirus, and anti-malware solutions will protect your website from DDoS attacks and secure your customers’ data. Regular backups are also important for data recovery and website restoration in the case of an attack.
• Latest PHP versions. Having the most recent version of PHP is important for better website security and performance. However, you may need to access other versions if you have an older site or multiple websites with different PHP versions. For this reason, I prioritized hosts with customizable settings and support for multiple PHP versions.
• Caching tools and optimized servers. Caching is vital for PHP performance as it stores static versions of pages of your website for your visitors, instead of building them each time someone visits. This speeds up your website loading speed and improves overall performance. I looked for hosts that offer caching solutions and optimized servers for the best performance.
• Value for money. Some free hosts offer very bare bones plans. That’s why I prioritized options with generous extras like free SSL certificates, a domain name, email accounts, and other useful features. However, do note that you’ll generally get better features (and performance) with paid hosts.
• No ads. Ad revenue is one of the top ways free hosts make money. These ads are displayed on your site, and you often have no control over the content of the ads. None of the web hosts on my list display ads on your website, including the free hosts.

1. Hostinger: Low-Cost PHP Hosting With All the Features You Need

With its Single PHP hosting plan, Hostinger offers excellent yet cheap PHP hosting for quick projects. It supports multiple versions of PHP, which is important if you need to support web pages running on a legacy version of PHP. Of course, you’ll also get access to the most up-to-date PHP version, which is vital for security and stable performance.

Unlike most free hosts, Hostinger’s Single PHP hosting plan offers everything you need for a smooth start. This includes a 10 GB SSD storage, free SSL, one mailbox, 100 GB bandwidth on one website, and the flexibility to switch between PHP versions and manage extensions. The only drawback of this plan is the lack of SSH access. If you need it, you’ll have to upgrade to Premium.

In my opinion, Hostinger’s Premium web hosting plan offers the best value PHP hosting for long-term projects. It offers everything on the Single PHP plan, plus a larger 25 GB SSD storage, a free one-year domain, and WordPress tools like the Command-Line tool for easy site management. You can use the 30-day money-back guarantee to test any of these plans risk-free.

Features

• Multiple CMSs support. Hostinger has optimized servers and one-click installation for a number of PHP-based CMSs, including Joomla, Drupal, and WordPress.
• Proprietary control panel. Hostinger’s hPanel has a minimalist design and intuitive interface to make managing your hosting easy. hPanel also supports up to PHP 8.2 and will update to support each new PHP version.
• Superb performance. In our tests, Hostinger posted impressively fast loading times and superior reliability – especially when compared to the free and budget hosts we tried.
• Generous freebies. All plans come with malware scanning and an AI website builder. 100 email accounts are featured in the Premium plan, while a free domain name for one year is included with all annual plans.

Read our expert Hostinger review for more on performance.

2. GoogieHost: 100% Forever-Free LiteSpeed PHP Hosting With No Ads

Not to be confused with Google, GoogieHost is a free PHP MySQL web hosting provider that uses LiteSpeed Web Servers for fast performance (the same servers used by Hostinger, in fact). GoogieHost supports multiple recent versions of PHP and doesn’t impose any limits on PHP memory.

GoogieHost’s biggest advantage is that it won’t post ads to your website or require a card for the free hosting. Its Free Web Hosting plan only offers a 99% uptime guarantee, which is lower than the industry standard of 99.9%. Plus, it doesn’t come with any service credits if that target isn’t met. You should also consider that, since it’s a free service, you may have to wait longer for activation than you would with a paid provider.

The host also offers Lifetime hosting plans that require a one-time payment. You’ll want to consider these if GoogieHost’s 1 GB of storage and 100 GB of bandwidth on its free plan isn’t enough. However, I find that GoogieHost’s security features are limited, and it doesn’t support older PHP versions. You can get a free SSL certificate and malware protection, but you’ll get better security options from other web hosts.

Features

• Impressive speed. If you’re using WordPress, you can take advantage of the LiteSpeed Cache (LSCWP) plugin included in the Lifetime plans. This plugin boosts your site’s loading speeds.
• Cloudflare CDN. The free plan comes with access to Cloudflare’s content delivery network. This will help your site to load faster for international visitors and offer some extra security.
• Free subdomain. The free plan offers subdomains with short, anonymous, and SERP-friendly extensions like “cu.ma,” “c1.is,” and “thats.im.” You can connect your own domain name if you have one.
• Control panel. The free plan lets you choose between the DirectAdmin control panel or GoogieHost panel. With DirectAdmin, you can easily install WordPress with the Softaculous installer.

Read our Googiehost review to see if it’s right for you.

3. IONOS: Older PHP Versions Supported at a Low Cost

IONOS offers almost-free PHP hosting for developers, considering its support for old and the most recent PHP versions. For example, its Plus web hosting plan starts at a generously discounted rate of $1.00/month for the first year. This plan includes unlimited storage, bandwidth, and websites. You get a one-year free domain and unlimited MariaDB or MySQL databases with up to 2 GB storage each.

Also, as part of IONOS’ PHP Extended Support service, you get critical security checks and updates for versions that are no longer offered by the PHP community. This is one of IONOS’ standout features, as PHP versions have a four-year life span for updates and patches. While there are generous discounts, IONOS’ hosting prices do increase after the one-year promotional period.

You can also try out IONOS’ Deploy Now plans for static sites and single-page apps. Its Membership plan is free for your first month and includes support for PHP frameworks like Symfony and Laravel.

Features

• Uptime guarantee. IONOS offers a 99.9% uptime guarantee and achieved 100% in our independent tests.
• Free domain name and hosting. All annual shared plans include a free domain name for one year. If you opt for a 36-month term (US only), you can also get the first year of hosting for free.
• Stellar security. IONOS offers enhanced data, website, and email protection, including a DDoS shield and malware scanning with all plans.
• $1 domains. IONOS offers .com, .org, .online, and .icu domains for $1 for your first year of hosting. You can add this deal to any plan that doesn’t offer a free domain.

For more on PHP hosting, check out our expert IONOS review.

4. FreeHosting: Free cPanel and PHP Support

FreeHosting, like the name suggests, offers free MySQL PHP hosting. Although you have to pay for technical support per task and are limited to only one 1 MySQL database, it does offer nice features, including a 10 GB storage, unlimited bandwidth, one email account, cPanel control panel (with Softaculous), and a 100% ad-free experience.

But as with many other free hosts, site uptime is not a guarantee and loading speeds can be slow. Also note that you can’t get a free domain/host a free subdomain, or change your PHP configuration, and you have to pay for your SSL encryption. Plus, the free hosting service is not available to users in Brazil, Cuba, Iran, Sudan, Syria, and Vietnam.

This host also offers paid packages that allow SSH access, multiple MySQL databases, and custom PHP configuration. But I’d recommend the low-cost plans from Hostinger, which gives you a free domain to start, better performance guarantee, and value for your money.

Features

• Automatic app installation. The free plan includes cPanel with Softaculous installer, which lets you easily install hundreds of apps with one click.
• Low-cost premium features. A variety of features can be purchased with a one-time fee, like SSH, subdomains, SSL, PHP mail, additional MySQL databases, and more. It’s important to mention that if you pay for all of these features, you’ll get more value for your money from a paid plan.
• No ads. FreeHosting is 100% ad-free so you don’t have to worry about unwanted ads on your website.
• Free resources. A free email account and user-friendly website builder are other nice-to-have inclusions.

See our expert review to learn more about FreeHosting.

5. AwardSpace: Free PHP Hosting Plan Includes 24/7 Support

AwardSpace has free and paid premium plans. With the free web hosting plan, you can host one website and add up to three free subdomains. While it supports multiple versions of PHP, it can be slow to include the newest versions. The free plan offers a one-click installer for three different CMSs: WordPress, Joomla, and GRAV, but you can manually add others.

AwardSpace’s free hosting plans are a good option for beginners or anyone wanting to test a new website idea. However, it doesn’t offer the performance and reliability needed for a more professional site. Also, the free version only allows PHP version changes and doesn’t allow you to customize PHP settings like memory limits or extensions.

AwardSpace offers 24/7 customer support, which is unusual for a free web host, but the response times may be slow. Free users also get 1 GB of storage and 5,000 monthly visits, and more is available on the paid hosting plans. The host also promises a 99.9% average uptime, which is generous for a free host.

Features

• No ads. AwardSpace does not automatically install unwanted ads on your website.
• Proprietary control panel. The control panel is easy to use and has the Zacky website builder, with lots of themes to get your website ready in minutes. You can install WordPress or Joomla in less than 5 minutes.
• Host multiple subdomains. The free plan supports 1 main website (domain not included) and up to 3 free subdomains.
• Firewall protection. The free plan comes with automatic firewall protection – an important security feature for protecting your website.

For more pros and cons, check out our in-depth AwardSpace review.

6. InfinityFree: Ad-Free Hosting With the Latest PHP Versions

If you’re looking for a forever-free and no-card-required PHP host, InfinityFree fits the bill. This host offers a decent amount of features, including an SSL certificate, unlimited bandwidth, and cPanel hosting. Like AwardSpace, InfinityFree will also let you add a domain or use up to 50 subdomains. The best part is that you get all this for free – and InfinityFree won’t show ads on your site.

While InfinityFree offers a truly free hosting experience, it’s limited in several ways. They don’t provide phone or email support, SSH or command line access, and you won’t be able to choose your PHP version. And while it also offers an uptime guarantee of 99.9% (no SLA though), InfinityFree struggles to meet this target.

Features

• Latest PHP versions. Despite not allowing PHP version selection on its free plan, InfinityFree does try to keep up with the latest PHP versions so it should be fairly secure.
• Free SERP-friendly subdomains. Free hosting with a paid domain kind of defeats the purpose. With InfinityFree, you get free subdomains, and you can select from various generic, SERP-friendly subdomain extension options like ct.ws, fwh.is, and rf.gd.
• Domain connection. InfinityFree not only welcomes external domains but will also connect it for free.
• Free website builder. InfinityFree offers a free version of Site.pro to help you build a code-free website. While Site.pro is not the most comprehensive site builder on the market, you can choose from 200+ templates to get your website started.

Is InfinityFree right for your project? Read our review for more.

Other Notable PHP Hosts With Free Trials

7. Kamatera

For high-resource PHP projects, I’d definitely recommend Kamatera. While it doesn’t offer a free plan, it has a generous 30-day free trial with a $100 credit. Aside from the credit, there are no other limitations on your setup and your server is completely customizable. Kamatera also has an impressive selection of over 20 global data centers across most continents, and you’ll be able to choose your data center during your free trial.

There are two ways to pay for your services: per usage or monthly. If you’re familiar with server setups, you can save a lot. Keep in mind that if you exceed the $100 limit during the 30-day trial period, you’ll have to pay the difference.

8. InterServer

InterServer offers an intriguing trial. Though it’s not entirely free, you’ll only need to pay a single cent for your first month. The trial is available for its VPS service (Linux, 1 core), after which standard rates will apply. While there’s a price jump, VPS plans still remain very affordable. If you’re unhappy with the service, you can cancel during the 30-day trial period.

As far as PHP hosting goes, InterServer supports the latest 8.4 version and a variety of PHP apps, including php.JS, phpwcms, FuelPHP, CakePHP, and more. You can install any of these on InterServer’s unlimited shared hosting plan, which also comes with a risk-free 30-day money-back guarantee. Unlike the other hosts on my list, though, InterServer’s web hosting plan lacks some free features like backups and a domain name.

9. Amazon Web Services (AWS)

If you’re looking for free PHP hosting for developers, Amazon’s Free Tier is ideal for hosting small PHP applications or websites with low traffic. A Free Tier membership includes free trials of EC2 cloud hosting (1 year) and Lightsail VPS hosting (90 days), as well as forever-free hosting on a serverless Lambda setup. While Lambda doesn’t natively support PHP, you can use a custom or third-party solution to run PHP and other programming languages.

AWS also offers its own Lambda runtime API that allows you to run PHP. You’re limited to 400,000 GB-seconds or 3.2 million seconds per month (there are around 2,628,288 seconds in a typical month). However, if you’re new to hosting, coding, or server setup, this highly technical platform may not be the best fit.

10. DigitalOcean

Taking a page out of Kamatera’s generous trial, DigitalOcean offers a 60-day free trial with a $200 credit. Sure, you’re limited to its Basic Droplets (maximum 10) with shared resources and have to add your card details – but it’s still not a bad offer for what you can do, as long as you can stay within limitations. This trial is not nearly as powerful as Kamatera’s trial, but it’s perfect if you want to build a low-traffic site or blog.

DigitalOcean also has forever-free Free Tier that supports up to 3 apps with static sites, plus up to 1 GiB bandwidth per static site and a free domain connection. DigitalOcean also throws in DDoS mitigation and a global CDN.

Choose a PHP Provider Based on Your Needs and Be Aware of the Limits of Free PHP Hosting Service Plans

The best PHP hosting provider is the one that meets all of your requirements. Personal projects and prototypes can be refined with free plans. If you want to reliably meet the needs of your audience, there are some real benefits to choosing a low-cost provider over a truly free plan.

For the best low-cost, long-term PHP host, Hostinger is my top recommendation. It has very affordable plans that remain budget-friendly on renewal, plus it offers many premium features. Best of all, Hostinger’s LiteSpeed servers and LSCache plugins offer top performance for PHP-dependent sites.

On the other hand, if you want a truly free PHP hosting provider, go with GoogieHost. It’s user-friendly and offers updated versions of PHP. It’s also completely ad-free, so you won’t have to worry about the content of your site.

If you want unlimited resources, consider IONOS. It supports multiple versions of PHP and has lots of great security features, which help to keep your site secure and ready for visitors.

FAQ

Which is the best free PHP web hosting provider?

My top free recommendation is GoogieHost, as it has good performance and doesn’t force ads on your website. However, I suggest selecting an affordable PHP web host like Hostinger because it has better performance and reliability.

Should I pay for PHP web hosting?

While there are some decent free PHP web hosts, there are also worthwhile low-cost alternatives. If you’re a hobbyist or dipping your toes into hosting, then a free web host is perfectly fine. But if you have an e-commerce or business website, you’ll definitely want a paid plan. Hostinger is a top-quality but low-cost PHP host with lots of features to enhance your website presence and performance.

Is it important for my web host to support multiple versions of PHP?

Yes. PHP is updated regularly and having the most recent version is crucial for improving your website performance and security. That said, access to older versions can be beneficial. Having the option to change the version of PHP you are using may be important if you have an older website or multiple websites using different versions of PHP. IONOS supports multiple PHP versions and offers PHP Extended Support for older versions.

Does it matter which PHP hosting provider I choose?

Yes, it does. Many of the best PHP web hosts in 2025 offer very similar features and services but some will have a better combination to meet your needs. Key factors to consider beyond cost are uptime, support for the most recent PHP versions, and other important features like strong security.

What is the best free PHP hosting with MySQL?

If you want 100% free PHP MySQL hosting, GoogieHost is a good choice. But if you expect growth, or want reliable performance and fewer restrictions, you’re probably better off with a cheap PHP hosting on Hostinger. For more options, check out the best PHP MySQL hosting services.