10 Best FREE Web Hosting Services You Can Trust in 2024

High-quality free hosting is hard to find. Sure, there are many companies that promise “free hosting,” but they aren’t doing so out of the goodness of their hearts. In the best case scenario, free hosting turns your website into a free source of advertising – and in the worst one, it’s used as a way to steal your data.

There are some great free hosting alternatives, but they’re really hard to find. Besides telling you this to gain your eternal admiration, I’m also mentioning it because for most cases, I’d recommend an “almost-free” alternative instead.

Paid hosts that offer high-quality services at very low prices might not be completely free, you’ll get much better hosting for just a couple of dollars per month. But don’t worry, you will also find a few reliable, completely free hosting options.

If you aren’t adamant about going for a straightforward hosting plan, you could use a free website builder that offers its own hosting. I recommend Wix’s free plan for the quickest, easiest, and least expensive way to get a site up and running. You can try Wix for free or read on for more free and nearly-free hosting options for your needs.

Why Good Free Hosting Is Hard to Find

The reason it’s hard to come across good free hosting plans is simple: hosting isn’t free. Maintaining and updating a server costs money so a no-strings-attached free hosting service would be operating at a loss. Even if server upkeep was cost-neutral, for-profit companies are looking to make, well, a profit, so even then there’s little incentive to offer a completely free service.

For free hosting to actually make a profit, companies need to get more inventive. The scummier ones out there will recoup those costs by selling your personal information. The problem is that that information is, you know… personal.

More reputable free hosts will include advertising on your dashboard and website, or limit resources to push its paid options. Even then, the money that a free host is making off your site won’t be enough to offset the cost of very impressive features, causing your site to suffer from poor performance.

I’m not saying to run away from free hosting at any cost, just to consider its limitations. If you need more resources or enhanced performance, there are plenty of affordable hosts that can offer you a much better service. Most of these paid hosts also offer no-strings-attached money-back guarantees, which you can use as a free trial to test if the service is right for you.

What We Look For in the Best Free Web Hosting Solutions

When we put free web hosting solutions to the test, this is what we look for:

• Trustworthiness. Searching for a free web host can feel a bit like the wild west – there are lots of options, but many are just looking to scam you. I’ve personally tested the free hosts below so you can rest assured that it is a genuine hosting service.
• Enough storage and bandwidth for a simple website. You need to know that you have enough storage space, and that your website isn’t going to suffer downtime due to insufficient bandwidth.
• Installation of WordPress and other CMS. Basic website builders are nice for some purposes, but your site may need more. Your free web host needs to offer easy installation of more advanced applications, WordPress in particular.
• Easy-to-manage control panels. You want a hosting solution that makes it easy to manage your files and other aspects of your web hosting space, using a control panel such as cPanel.
• Freebies. Extras like a website builder, website templates, email hosting, stock imagery, and more make setting up your website that much more cost-effective and easy. Many of the selected hosts provide these extras at no additional cost.

1. Wix: The Best Website Builder With Free Hosting Included

Wix is our top-ranked website builder, and for good reason. It offers over 800 website templates to choose from – all of which are fully customizable. You can create a professional-looking website quickly with simple drag-and-drop editing and no coding skills. On top of this, Wix provides completely free web hosting alongside the builder itself.

Wix’s forever-free plan gives you access to every one of Wix’s customization options for free, so you have as much design freedom as any paid user. That said, Wix’s free plan comes with a Wix subdomain and displays Wix ads throughout. You also won’t get much storage or bandwidth and you’ll be locked out of e-commerce and marketing options.

If you need more functionality from your Wix site, the Light plan is just $16.00 per month and removes all Wix ads from your site. Plus, you’ll get a free professional domain for a year, automated marketing tools for email and chat messages, and lead-capture forms.

Features

• Free placement of site elements. Other site builders tend to restrict your creativity regarding setting guidelines and grids. However, Wix allows you to place text, images, and other elements wherever you wish, so that you can create a truly unique site.
• Wix App Market. There are 500+ (and growing) apps available in the Wix App Market, which lets you expand the functionality of your site easily. Some of which are also free to install and use, like Wix Chat, and Google AdSense. With paid and free apps, you can add ecommerce storefronts,  marketing tools, and various other types of social media widgets – and more.
• Easy SEO. The Wix SEO Wiz shows you how to optimize your site for search engines. It generates a simple checklist for you to follow, ensuring your site is desirable to Google searches. Plus, there are more SEO-optimization Wix apps you can add to get the task done.
• Wix AI Website Builder. This free feature offers an even easier way to create a site. By just answering a few questions about the type of site you’re looking to make and what features it needs, Wix will automatically generate a functional site for you in minutes (with text!). You can then leave it as is or fine-tune the design and content further.

Check out our expert Wix review to learn more.

2. Hostinger: Cheapest (and Fastest) Budget Host on the Market

Before going with a free web host, you should at least consider Hostinger’s incredibly cheap hosting plans. Starting at just $2.99 per month, you get a fully-fledged hosting experience, complete with an easy-to-use control panel, 24/7 live chat support, and automatic weekly backups.

Hostinger also provides top-notch performance. In our tests, it served web content faster than many other budget-friendly hosts. It was far more reliable than most – we recorded barely any instances of downtime in two months. This kind of speed and reliability is far better than anything a free host could provide – and outclasses most budget hosts as well.

Of course, Hostinger isn’t perfect. Its support agents aren’t always willing to go the extra mile with more complex queries, instead sending links to online documentation. However, this issue is a relatively minor one given that many free hosting providers lack support entirely.

Features

• Optimized WordPress platform. Hostinger uses the LiteSpeed web server, which provides a nice speed boost. It’s particularly good for WordPress sites – and it works with the LiteSpeed cache plugin to optimize your content for maximum performance.
• Robust security. Unlike many free providers, Hostinger takes your security seriously. You’ll be protected from DDoS and other attacks by a combination of firewalls and anti-malware solutions, such as  BitNinja, Monarx, Cloudflare, and Imunify360.
• Great-value advanced plans. Hostinger’s Premium shared hosting plan only costs a few dollars extra, yet offers a free domain name for a year and up to 100 email addresses and subdomains. So it’s an even better deal than the entry-level Single plan.
• Extensive knowledge base. While Hostinger’s support can be slow to respond, it does offer a very detailed knowledge base filled with simple tutorials and guides. Even complete beginners should have no trouble following along.

Read our Hostinger review to learn more about its plans.

3. IONOS: Premium Features At Very Low Starting Prices

IONOS is an interesting one, focusing heavily on low initial prices and flexible resources. And I mean they’re really affordable – the IONOS Plus plan is just $1.00 per month if you commit for a year. IONOS also offers deep first-time customer discounts for shared and WordPress hosting that can go as low as $1 per month for your first six months of hosting.

All paid IONOS hosting plans also grant you ad-free hosting, a free wildcard SSL certificate, and a free domain for one year. Your site is protected via daily automatic backups and replication across multiple data centers, keeping your content safe.

So, for such a small fee, you get access to all these premium features that would never be possible with a free host. What’s the catch? Well, IONOS’s great prices are just for the first year of hosting – upon renewal, fees rise sharply. Luckily IONOS offers a 30-day money back guarantee so you can try its services risk-free before committing.

Features

• Scalable performance. With most providers, if you want to increase your site’s loading speed, you’ll need to upgrade to a different hosting plan. IONOS allows you to upgrade your performance for a small extra fee so that you can avoid paying for extra features and resources you don’t need.
• Free domain name. Even the cheapest IONOS plan comes with a free domain name for a year. You’ll have to pay full price when the first year is up, though this is only a small annual fee.
• Dedicated personal adviser. All customers are assigned a dedicated support agent, who will be your primary point of contact for support. They will be happy to give advice for all things web hosting, which can be very helpful for a beginner.
• Manage your hosting on the go. IONOS offers a free mobile app that allows you to manage your website(s) wherever you may be. It’s responsive and easy to use. You can even access the MyWebsite builder via the app to edit your website design.

Take a look at our comprehensive IONOS review to learn more.

4. FreeHosting.com: Flexible Free Web Hosting

FreeHosting.com’s relatively high resource limits stand out. Unmetered bandwidth and 10GB storage is several times better than what you’re going to get with many other free hosts.

Unlike many free web hosting providers, FreeHosting.com doesn’t give you a subdomain (e.g. yourusername.freehosting.com). This has advantages and disadvantages. Your website will look more professional with your own domain name, but then again, domain names do cost money.

Unless you already have a domain name hosted elsewhere, you’ll have no choice but to pay a fee to get started. You’ll likely get better value for money if you pay for a budget entry-level plan from Hostinger or IONOS that includes a free domain name, but if you already have a domain name registered somewhere, you can simply connect it to your Freehosting.com website.

Features

• cPanel. The popular cPanel is included with the free plan, allowing you to modify your hosting space settings. Access also includes the Softaculous app installer, allowing easy installation of over 400+ apps.
• Apache/PHP management. FreeHosting.com comes with all PHP functions enabled. You may also configure Apache to meet your own needs.
• Premium features available. FreeHosting.com offers you the opportunity to acquire premium features through one-time fees. These features encompass SSH access, subdomains, SSL certificates, and more. Additionally, the free plan ensures a completely ad-free experience.
• Free email account. You get a single [email protected] email address included with your plan – with the option to purchase more addresses as and when you need them.

You can see the results of our performance tests in our full FreeHosting.com review.

5. GoogieHost: 100% Cloud-Based for Better Performance

If you’re looking for a free shared web hosting solution that can deliver decent performance, GoogieHost offers a decent setup. Of course, you can’t expect its hosting to compare to paid solutions like Hostinger, but GoogieHost does manage to outperform most free hosts.

GoogieHost utilizes subdomains, similar to many other free hosts. Nonetheless, if you have your own domain name, you can link it to your GoogieHost account. This plan is devoid of ads, provides malware protection, and grants access to the SitePad website builder.

Because you can only host a single free website, GoogieHost performs checks to ensure you’re not trying to cheat the system, so there’s often a delay before your free account is approved. If it thinks you have multiple accounts, you’ll be banned from the platform – and you’ll lose your website.

Features

• LiteSpeed web servers. Like Hostinger, GoogieHost uses LiteSpeed web servers for better performance. Doing so allows WordPress sites to take advantage of the speed-boosting LiteSpeed Cache plugin.
• NVMe SSD storage. GoogieHost offers 10 GB of NVMe SSD storage, which provides better performance than both regular SSDs and HDD drives.
• Free SSL certificate. You’ll get a free SSL certificate to secure your site. Your visitors’ data will be safe and search engines will recognize your site as trustworthy, giving your search rankings a slight boost.
• Cloudflare CDN. The free plan also comes with access to Cloudflare’s content delivery network (CDN). This helps your site load faster for international visitors, while also offering some protection against DDoS attacks.

Read our in-depth GoogieHost review to discover more pros and cons.

6. Kamatera: Extraordinarily Customizable Cloud Infrastructure With a Free Trial

Not sure if free or almost-free budget hosting will cut it for the project you have in mind? A free trial may be more fitting, allowing you to try out a more powerful plan without paying up front. As far as free trials go, Kamatera is one of the top options available. Try out one of its cloud VPS hosting plans on a 30-day free trial worth up to $100 in services

With both cloud and VPS hosting plans starting at 5 TB bandwidth and 20 GB SSD storage, high-traffic websites are accommodated. The host also offers a wide range of services, such as managed hosting, daily back-ups, and application hosting.

However, when you sign up with Kamatera, you won’t have access to a free website builder, templates, or preinstalled software for server operation. Setting up a server instance will require sysadmin-level knowledge, or alternatively, you can opt to pay for managed support.

Features

• Global servers. Choose from servers located around the USA and Europe and in Israel, Canada, and Hong Kong.
• Ultra-customizable plans. With Kamatera, you can select exactly the specs you need, from OS to storage space. Options range from 20-16,000 GB of storage, 1-524 GB of RAM, and 1-4 public IPs.
• 99.95% uptime guarantee. Kamatera promises to do its best to keep your website up and running. If not, it will refund you for any issues.
• Advanced security features. Keep your website safe from attacks with DDoS protection, anti-virus, and cloud firewall – but again, you need to know how to configure and maintain a virtual server, and many of these services incur extra charges.

Read our detailed Kamatera review to find out more.

Other Notable Free Web Hosts

7. AwardSpace

AwardSpace allows you to run a total of four websites on a single free account, but three of these can only be subdomains. This gives you the option to host subsections of – or companions to – your main website.

However, AwardSpace also has some significant limitations on its free plans. With a free plan, you don’t get access to an SSL certificate, and you’re limited to just two CMS options: WordPress and Joomla. That said, you do get access to its in-house Zacky Website Builder for free – both on free and paid plans. With it, you can build your ad-free website for nothing.

8. 000webhost

000webhost is Hostinger’s free hosting service. Expect decent specs with its free plan, including 300 MB SSD storage, 3 GB bandwidth, and a 99% uptime guarantee. But you don’t get a free domain name, email account, premium tech support, or LiteSpeed web servers as you would with Hostinger’s entry-level plan.

However, for a starter or test website – which is what I imagine you’re planning on hosting – the 000webhost free plan does nicely. Just remember that you’ll only be able to host your site completely free for one year. After that you’ll have to sign up for a paid plan if you want to keep your website.

9. InfinityFree

Much like 000webhost is Hostinger’s free service, InfinityFree is iFast.net’s free counterpart. Overall, InfinityFree’s offering is honestly pretty good. You get ad-free hosting, PHP and MySQL integrations, and tons of one-click script installations.

However, InfinityFree makes its money by hoping to convince you to switch to iFast.net, which delivered underwhelming results in our independent testing. InfinityFree’s performance also leaves something to be desired, but if you’re looking for a free host with decent features, it’s well worth your consideration.

10. WordPress.com

If you’re looking to host a WordPress website, there’s one provider that undoubtedly knows about WordPress, and it’s… WordPress! WordPress.com is the self-hosted version of the WordPress CMS, and it gives you easy access to all of WordPress’ basic features.

WordPress.com’s free plan won’t let you install any plugins and you’ll get ads as well as a branded subdomain. But if you’re looking for a simple solution to start a blog, there’s something to be said for going straight to the source.

Free Hosting Has Its Uses, but Beware the Limitations

While decent free web hosting options do exist, you can get much better service for just a small monthly fee. Free hosts can work for personal projects or prototypes, but if you’re looking to serve an audience reliably, I’d recommend going with a quality budget host.

Still not sure? Here’s my two cents:

If you really need a free solution, I’d recommend Wix. It’s one of the best site builders on the market today, being both easy to use and flexible enough that you can create something unique. The forever-free plan comes with limitations, but you can easily upgrade to a paid solution as you grow.

For the cheapest long-term solution, I’d choose Hostinger. With prices that start lower than much of the competition  – and remain low even after renewal – Hostinger is one of the most budget-friendly options out there. Best of all, it offers impressive performance on par with more expensive hosts.

For the cheapest premium option for your first term, IONOS offers affordable, high-quality hosting with plenty of business features, including a free domain for one year, professional email, and daily backup and recovery. It also delivers top-notch customer support, but be aware renewal fees can be steep depending on your plan

FAQ

Which is the best free web host?

My top recommendation is Wix. It’s not a web host in the classic sense, but it lets you build a website without having to spend anything and its free plan has less limitations than most free hosts. That said, Wix’s free plan does come with ads and a branded subdomain but you can remove these by upgrading to Wix’s affordable Light plan.

Is free hosting safe?

That depends. There are many free hosting companies that lack the necessary security or even turn a profit by selling your personal data. However, that doesn’t mean that you can’t get safe free hosting, just that you have to be extra careful. If you’re interested in finding a good free or nearly-free hosting provider for you, see our list of the best hosts.

Should I pay for web hosting?

To be honest, if you have any serious or professional goals for your website, you should pay for web hosting. Free hosting is a good way to try out a personal site or small projects, but it just can’t compete with a paid hosting plan for a fully fledged website. That doesn’t mean you need to spend a fortune, though. Web hosts like Hostinger offer high-quality hosting at affordable pricing, and most offer money-back guarantees.

Does it matter where you host your website?

Yes! Web hosting might seem a bit nebulous at first, but your hosting provider can drastically change your website’s user experience, reach, performance, and security. If you’re looking for the best provider for your needs, I recommend taking a look at our expertly curated list of the best hosting providers in 2024.