Top 5 Free Web Hosting Providers

Sounds awesome? Well, it sure it. These are great features for a plan that costs you less than a coffee! Besides, as and when your business grows and you are in need of more resources, you can upgrade this plan for unlimited bandwidth, SSD space, websites, MySQL databases, email accounts, twice the memory and processing power for just $1.35 more! 

Limitations

Unlike a majority of their competitors, Hostinger does not use the ever-popular cPanel, but a customized version of the same, which they call hPanel. So if you have used cPanel in the past, you may be in for a minor surprise. But it is a minor grouch when you compare the host of features you get for the rock-bottom price of $0.80!

2. 000Webhost - Most Popular Free Hosting

000Webhost started operations in 2007 with an aim to provide free website hosting for everyone, and since then has emerged as a favorite in the budget-hunter community. Its parent company is Hostinger, and takes pride in providing services with absolutely no hidden costs and zero advertising, unlike a number of other providers. 

The company’s very active forum has categories such as tutorials (over a 100 topics such as tracking visitors, securing a WordPress site, adding comments to your website and so on), community support, website building and site showcase, among many others. The forum has Spanish and German versions as well.

The company uses the same marketing motto of its parent company, “Zero cost web hosting with PHP, MySQL, cPanel, and no ads!” 

This is what 000Webhost includes in their no-cost plan: 

Apart from these features, customers have reported that the speeds are generally good with this provider and the website has a very clean, easy-to-use interface. The no-advertisement policy is a major plus as well, where users can put up their own advertisements rather than supporting a third party. 

Limitations

We must bring it to the reader’s attention that in October 2015, the company suffered a major security breach when a server comprising their database was hacked. This resulted in theft of information of over 13.5 million clients. The company moved quickly to plug the leak and blamed it on outdated software.

The company maintains a page explaining exactly what happened and about any security measures they have taken to prevent it from happening again.

The free service does not include live support, email service or backups. Another major drawback of this free service is that every website hosted on this platform gets 1 hour of “sleep time”.  What this means is that your website would not be reachable to the public at this hour. The saving grace is that you can set the sleep time yourself so it is not random. 

One more major drawback would be that the bandwidth and disk space is limited to a mere 10 GB and 1GB respectively, which is nearly not enough to achieve much. Still, they are one of the few providers that offer free web hosting with no ads whatsoever so you can create a website and test them out very easily.

3. Infinityfree.net

This is a new entrant in the market, with just 200,000 customers to its claim. They may have a small client base, but they have made a name for themselves by offering a number of features for their free plan. If you look for their name, you will find that there are mixed reviews about their service, but that is expected of any hosting platform that offers free services. 

They say that they have kept their prices low by developing a unique cloud hosting solution using which they can host a lot more accounts per server than while using traditional hosting software, without affecting the speed. Another reason, they say is that the service is entirely supported by a community. By doing so and not hiring a help desk that would have cost them extra, the most common questions can be answered by the community. 

Another way to support themselves is advertisements, and the company is pretty open about it. You can read about it in detail here. 

This is what they offer in the terms of their free hosting plan:

Sounds too good to be true? Well, yes and no. In terms of offering features for no cost, Infinityfree.net scores big time here and emerges as the most generous free service providers. Their free SSL is a real catch, because even some paid services out there do not offer this! 

Are there any limitations?

Users who have been attracted by the unlimited bandwidth and disk space do not realize that there are some major restrictions when it comes to the usage of these features. 

If you take a look at their terms of service you will find some interesting use of language under the disk space usage terms and right to suspend/terminate hosting services sections. Users cannot store any backups, non web-based content and downloads on their websites hosted by this provider.

They can also suspend or terminate a user account if they “consume excessive server resources” and if it affects a clustered or shared hosting server. They also reserve the right to suspend the service without any prior notice.

4. x10Hosting.com

Limitations

The company does not provide any form of backups, and they are the sole responsibility of the user (they do offer it, but take no responsibility of its failure). Also, accounts which are found inactive for 21 days are suspended and then removed from the servers.

Once suspended, the account holder forfeits all rights to the account. Also, if your usage is found to be “too high” by x10Hosting, they can suspend your account temporarily. These are some terms listed on their terms of service page, but users can expect even stricter restrictions in a real-life scenario. 

There are also numerous complaints by furious customers, accusing the company of removing their websites and even going ahead and terming them “incompetent”. We would suggest you approach this one with thorough research and caution.

5. AwardSpace

You can also host a free domain and add up to 3 subdomains, and if you have a blog or small business, this would work out great for you. 

What are the limitations?

For starters, just 1GB of disk space and 5GB of bandwidth is not going to last anyone very long in the present times. What it really means is that you can run a small blog which does not see too many visitors on a regular basis.

There is also the matter of the company sharing your information with third-party vendors which would set the alarm bells ringing. You can read their terms and services in detail here.

Why Should You Avoid Free Hosting Providers

Even though we have listed some of the best free web hosting services, it should be pretty evident from their features that most of their services leave a lot to be desired, and the end result is, but a shadow of their paid, premium services. 

Quite a few users have also complained that some of these companies tend to completely remove your website without any warning, leaving you hanging. So where does that leave you if you have been looking for low-cost (preferably free) alternatives? 

Be sure to check out our top recommendations for cheap web hosting.

Conclusion - What Should I Do?

Because of the tough competition and the number of players on the market, any hosting company these days is offering more and more competitive prices and features, and it is possible to get the best possible deal for the money you want to spend. 

With so many players and attractive pricing, it is easy to secure up to 3 years of web hosting without spending thousands of dollars, and within a $100 budget.