The Top 10 Best Free Web Hosting for Students in 2020
FREE AND ALMOST FREE WEB HOSTING FOR STUDENTS
WEB HOSTING |
STORAGE |
SSL |
BANDWIDTH |
EMAIL ACCOUNT |
DOMAIN |
Siteground |
10GB |
Yes |
Unlimited |
Unlimited |
Not free |
Bluehost |
50GB |
Yes |
Unmetered |
5 free |
Free |
InMotion |
Unlimited |
Yes |
Unlimited |
Unlimited |
Free |
AccuWeb |
2GB |
Yes |
30GB |
25 free |
Free |
Interserver |
Unlimited |
Yes |
Unlimited |
Unlimited |
Not free |
iPage |
Unlimited |
Yes |
Scalable |
Free |
Free |
Wix |
500MB |
Yes |
500MB |
Not included |
Free |
CampusPress |
--- |
Yes |
Unlimited |
Free |
--- |
ZNetLive |
500MB |
Yes |
Unlimited |
5 free |
Free |
DreamHost |
50GB |
Yes |
Unlimited |
Unlimited |
Free |
Students everywhere in the world are always creating innovative ways to earn money, grow websites, and even find ways to improve sites for educational purposes. The hard part would be choosing a free web hosting for students that are still learning about it.
If you are a student, then this is especially for you. It can be tough out there for you since it can get really overwhelming and difficult to navigate. But, you won't need to worry anymore. We'll be laying out what features to look out for for the best free web hosting experience even if you are on a budget.
There are actually a lot of free web host sites that you can find on the internet. These free hosting websites offer different services that could help you out with your specific needs. You can save yourself a great deal of stress and time by knowing what would be the right free web hosting features for you.
If you are building a site from scratch, you will also be needing support from a free web hosting site to set you up and get started. The right free web hosting for students would make running your student blog or education site faster with less hassle.
You don't have all the time in the world to search for free web hosting for students that would fit your needs. So, we’ll share 10 web hosting for you to look into. Let’s get started!
The 10 Best Web Hosting Providers for Students (Free & Discounted)
Overview:
- SiteGround
- Bluehost
- InMotion
- AccuWeb
- Interserver
- iPage
- Wix
- CampusPress
- ZNetLive
- DreamHost
1. SiteGround
SiteGround is a hosting provider for small and individual sites. They offer discounted hosting for students and faculty. This faculty partnership plans come with free student use for the duration of the course.
This hosting provider is a great choice for creative courses that include free hosting for student blogs, e-portfolios, and projects through your faculty account. Their student plans are also affordable for more advanced programs.
SiteGround has been recommended by WordPress for its easy and reliable hosting. Its plan costs $1.99 per month which is 80% off the regular price. It comes with Siteground's regular StartUp shared hosting plan features. These include:
- 10 GB storage
- Free email accounts at your domain
- Unmetered traffic
- cPanel and Softaculous
- 24/7 support for students
For the first year, you will pay the special student price of $1.99 per month, then pay the regular price of $11.95 per month once the first year ends. If your university has partnered up with SiteGround, then you won't have to pay a single penny.
To qualify, you must be a student in North America. You will also have to use your university email address when you sign up.
If students wish to continue with their hosting plans after graduation, Siteground's regular plans are still affordable with a starting price of $3.95 per month.
2. Bluehost
Bluehost is a reliable web hosting provider with a great track record. It has been supporting WordPress users since 2005. Their cheapest shared plan offers a variety of features beneficial for students and teachers.
This web hosting provider is particularly affordable. They don't offer special student or teacher plans. However, their cheapest plan has a starting price of $2.95 per month, then one has to pay the regular price of $7.99 per month after the first year. Bluehost also offers a 30-day money-back guarantee. Their cheapest plan has features that include:
- 50 GB storage
- SSL certificate
- Unmetered bandwidth
- Supports one website with a free domain and free backups
- WordPress pre-installed
- Cloudflare Content Delivery Network (CDN) and security
Bluehost is a great web hosting provider for advanced students. It has impressive WordPress features and is also the number one recommended provider by WordPress itself.
3. InMotion
InMotion is a top-quality hosting provider, especially for shared and VPS hosting. It provides discounted plans made especially for students and educators. It includes different features that would develop your online presence.
This hosting provider offers a student discount on its shared web hosting Power plan. It is reduced from $9.99 to $4.16 per month. This Power plan includes multiple features which include:
- Free domain for one year
- Free SSL security
- Unlimited disk space, bandwidth, and email
- InMotion's security suite, including hack protection and automatic backups
- 24/7 support
Students receive a 49% discount on InMotion's six-month plans. You also receive a 58% discount on one-year plans whenever you sign up with a.edu email address. It goes between $4-$5 per month depending on the term length.
To sign up for InMotion’s student web hosting plans, just type in your .edu email and claim your discount. If you don't have a .edu email address yet, you could contact the Confirmations Team with your student ID, and then you're good to go.
4. AccuWeb
AccuWeb is a web hosting provider that offers a variety of hosting options: shared, cloud, WordPress, VPS, and dedicated hosting. It also provides services like domain registration and SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificates.
You can gain access to AccuWeb Hosting if you're a college or university student. You can use this free web hosting up until you graduate. This free access to AccuWeb Hosting includes basic2 features of their shared hosting plan:
- 2 GB of SSD storage
- 30 GB of bandwidth
- Cloudflare CDN and security
- 25 free email addresses
- Free backups for crashes or data loss
With the free student plan, you can host a single website that won't have pop-ups and advertisements. 2 GB storage is more than enough for average-sized websites. If you wish to keep your website after graduation, plans are still affordable with a starting price of $3.49 per month with no upcharge on renewals.
AccuWeb Hosting takes pleasure in its positive customer relationships. It guarantees 99.99% uptime with hassle-free cancellations, and of course, 100% customer satisfaction.
5. Interserver
InterServer is a web hosting provider that offers efficient features for students and educators. They offer different services from standard shared hosting to dedicated servers.
This web hosting provider has a free student plan that includes a solid variety of services. They might come a little generous with their free student plan because it is actually their Standard Web Hosting package which usually costs $5 per month. These features include:
- Free SSL certificate
- Free backups
- It uses SSD storage for better performance.
- It features the easy to use cPanel as its standard control panel.
- Unlimited storage, bandwidth, websites, email
- Performance optimization and reliable uptime
- One-click installation for WordPress and other popular Content Management Systems (CMSs)
Its student plan is free for its first year. After the first year, it renews for $5 per month. It's easy to sign up for this plan. You just have to sign up using your .edu student email address or you could contact Interserver directly.
6. iPage
iPage is one of the cheapest web-hosting providers out there. It offers a one-size-fits-all plan with a $1.99 per month rate for one-year terms. This is a fairly affordable choice for students since it also comes with a domain name. This plan's features include:
- Unlimited disk space and scalable bandwidth
- It has the ability to host as many domains on a single account
- One-click WordPress installation
- Integrated website building tool
- Custom email addresses at your domain
- 24/7 support
There are a lot of extras that come with this web hosting plan. It comes in handy for students that have small or growing websites. This plan includes a free domain, free drag-and-drop website builder, free SSL, free domain transfer, free email, 24/7 support, and a lot more.
iPage isn't the most powerful or the fastest hosting provider, but again, it's one of the cheapest. This low-priced plan might not be the best in the roster but it's definitely worth it especially with all its features and extras.
7. Wix
Wix is a well-known website building platform. This means that they won't be able to get the back end and hosting account experience they will need to pursue web-based or tech careers. However, it can produce quality student blogs and portfolios. It gives students the chance to focus on the content fo the site that they are building.
Its features include:
- Easy to use drag-and-drop tools and templates
- The Wix logo maker tool
- Free domains with premium plans
- Scalable storage and bandwidth
There are a few options for plans that could be compatible with the students' needs. These plans come with limited storage and bandwidth that would work well with single projects. A student discount is also available for 50% off when you avail of the premium plans. It has a starting price of $13 per month.
8. CampusPress
CampusPress is a WordPress-based platform made for educators and students. While WordPress is in charge of over one-third of all websites on the internet, CampusPress has included WordPress to be accessed in its educational settings.
CampusPress makes your student life easier by making it accessible for multisite networks to create and support your district site, class blog, online student portfolio system, and online learning hub. This web hosting provider offers plans with different features which includes:
- Unlimited bandwidth, data, and uploads
- Automated backups and security
- Administrative features for educators and training
- Full website maintenance
- 24/7 support
Its pricing structure depends on the size of your project or your organization. They also have a sister company, Edublogs.org for individual teachers and students who want to get WordPress sites.
9. ZNetLive
ZNetLive is a web host provider that began in 2002. It provides everyone's needs from domains, security, email to SSL certificates. It also offers shared hosting, WordPress, cloud, and dedicated server hosting. It allows students to use hosting plans in a simple and easy way.
They have a long list of features which include:
- 500 MB storage
- Unlimited data transfer
- Free domain name
- Five email accounts
- Free SSL security
- Backups
ZNetLive is very user friendly. You can get more technical tools like Secure Shell (SSH) access. It will allow you to connect with your server remotely. It also uses cPanel along with a Softaculous script installer which makes it easy to install extra applications.
Your student package is free until your first renewal. Your plan is then re-assessed at each renewal. To sign up for the free plan, you just have to submit your student ID as proof.
10. DreamHost
DreamHost is another web hosting provider recommended by WordPress. You can use this provider to support your WordPress site. You can get a large amount of storage available from this web host. It's one of the providers that stood out because of its storage space.
Its cheapest plan, Shared Starter hosting plan has a price of $2.59 per month. This shared plan comes with a 97-day money-back guarantee which gives you the confidence to sign up risk-free. The features of this plan include:
- Hosting a single website
- Free domain
- Free SSL security
- Pre-installed WordPress
All of these features are offered to get your site running as smoothly as possible. The $2.59 per month price plan apples to the three-year plan. This price would last for the three-year term then, it will renew to the regular price of $4.95 per month.
Which One is the Right Student Web Hosting For You?
First, what exactly is a web host?
A web host is a company that provides services and manages, runs, and stores your site then making it conveniently available to your audience. There are many free web hosting for students, you only need to find the right one that matches your site needs whenever you're planning to launch an online educational platform like educational sites and e-portfolios.
It is important for you to know what makes one web host better than its competitors. Otherwise, you'll be having a difficult time with properly handling your site if your chosen provider is unreliable and lacks support in multiple site areas.
You'll want to look for standard qualities all websites can benefit from, including:
- Uptime guarantee and strong performance
- Excellent customer service/customer relationships
- Efficient maintenance services and features, such as backups
- Security measures such as a server firewall
- Ability to add new domains as necessary
With all these standard qualities, you will also have to consider your budget and the quality of the services. As much as free hosting is fine, discounted web hosting for students is also better to get greater results and features.
When you get a good host now, you can be confident in your site even after you graduate. Your site can even scale with you.
If you are looking for a cost-free way to try, then we'll recommend you consider free hosting for web to support your site.
Even if it is free, you must also still look out for spammy and very limited free web hosting for students.
There are still a variety of free web hosting for students out there that offer special plans, shared plans, discounts, free domain, and many more along with those we discussed in this article.
Should you have any questions about your site and web hosting needs, do not hesitate to get in touch!