You can get free WordPress web hosting? Your inner cynic might ask, “What’s that catch?” Well, you really can get started with your first WordPress website without opening your wallet, but is free WordPress hosting always your best option? Not having to pay a web hosting bill can help you get your website project up and running when your budget has no wiggle room, but as the saying goes, you get what you pay for. In this article we will look at some of the best options for free WordPress web hosting, why you would or would not want to go with a free plan and finally a few cheap hosting for WordPress options for you to consider to get your online business or personal project off on solid footing.
When you are ready for professional WordPress website hosting, Freshy’s team of WordPress experts offers premium hosting solutions. We offer reliable security and expert support. Your customers deserve the best experience when they visit your website, and your choice of web hosting provider is an essential part of the success of your online presence. Contact us to get a quote today.
Table of contents:
- 7 free WordPress hosting options
- Why free web hosting might make sense
- Why free web hosting might be a bad idea
- 3 options for cheap, shared WordPress hosting plans
- Conclusion
7 free WordPress hosting options in 2024
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WordPress.com
WordPress.com is a popular, easy to use, free website hosting plan. Some of the benefits of WordPress.com, not to be confused with the self-hosted WordPress.org, include:
- Great option for beginners
- Free SSL certificate
- Access to free plugins and themes
- 3GB of storage space
- Easy site builder
Pros: With WordPress.com you can sign up and have a website quickly. You can start with the free option and easily upgrade to paid plans for access to higher level features.
Cons: The free WordPress.com plan includes lots of disruptive ads and limited monetization options. You do not get a custom domain. Your site’s URL will be branded: www.yoursitename.wordpress.com. If you violate their terms of service WordPress can take your site down.
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FreeHostingNoAds
As the name says, you get free web hosting without those annoying ads. Other features that FreeHostingNoAds offers include:
- 1GB web space
- 5GB bandwidth
- website builder
- Domain hosting
- Technical support
- PHP & MySQL
- Control Panel
- Email hosting
Pros: They provide a WordPress auto-installer, and it is easy to upgrade to paid plans which have affordable prices.
Cons: No SSL certificate for your website, no backups and limited storage space and bandwidth.
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Infinity Free
For more than nine years, Infinity Free has been offering free web hosting with 99.9% uptime. Their free plan offers ad free, 5 GB of storage, unlimited websites and bandwidth and no time limit on their free plans. You can bring your own domain name or choose from 25 available subdomains.
Pros: Infinity Free gives access to CPanel and Softaculous installer so you can install WordPress and other software quickly, free SSL, and it is easy to upgrade to an affordable, paid plan through iFastNet.
Cons: Does not include a free email and this plan would only work for smaller websites.
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100WebSpace
100WebSpace offers two tiers of free hosting space: one with a banner and one without the banner. The banner free option includes:
- 500MB of storage
- 10GB monthly traffic
- 2 domains
- 3 email accounts
- CPanel One-click app installer
- 24/7 support
You can upgrade to the $2.95 per month plan and get 15GB storage, 30GBs of traffic and host 5 domains.
Pros: HostAdvice.com gives 100WebSpace 5 stars across the board for their user-friendliness, support, features, reliability and pricing.
Cons: limited storage which barely allows for one WordPress installation. Add any images and you will quickly hit the limit.
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Byet.Host
Byet.Host’s free web hosting tier includes your choice of seven subdomain names for your website, which means your URL would be: www.yourawesomesite.byethost.com or whatever subdomain you choose. They offer the following features on their free web hosting tier:
- Email (up to five)
- FTP and file manager
- CPanel
- MySQL & PHP support
- Tech support
- No fixed disk space or limits on bandwidth
TechRadar gives Byet.Host three out of five stars due to their self-signed SSL certificates (i.e. not signed by any Certificate Authority but by a private key), insecure HTTP login links and a poorly maintained website.
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AwardSpace
AwardSpace’s free web hosting tier received four out of five stars from HostAdvice.com for their user-friendliness, support, features, reliability and pricing. The customer reviews are a mix of glowing recommendations and complaints about lack of support and slow speeds.
For their free tier plan, AwardSpace offers features such as:
- Ad-free web hosting
- 5GB bandwidth
- 1GB disk space
- MySQL database support
- Host one domain and up to three subdomains
- 99.9% network uptime
- File manager
Pros: One-click WordPress installer, 24/7 customer support, and affordable paid plans to transition into.
Cons: The free, promotional price is good only for one year and does not include a domain.
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Free Hosting
WebsitePlanet.com gave Free Hosting 4.4 of five stars, but the average user score was only 2.2 stars. But it is free web hosting which allows you to host your own domain and monetize your content, and there are no disruptive ads or banners.
Some of Free Hosting’s features include:
- Own domain hosting
- 10 GB disk space
- Unmetered bandwidth
- 1 E-mail account
- 1 MySQL database
When you have outgrown the free tier, you can upgrade to their paid hosting package with unlimited disk space, bandwidth and email accounts for multiple sites.
Pros: One-click installer for WordPress, cPanel, free templates.
Cons: slow page loading speed, downtime and no customer support.
Examples of when using a free web hosting plan might make sense
There are some web projects that would do well with a free web hosting plan. Projects that are not business-related, but need a place to host their content on the Internet, are perfect for a no-cost hosting plan. Here are some examples:
- A non-profit organization community project
- Student projects
- Teachers could use a free site to share content with their students
- Churches and other faith-based organizations
- A static, brochure website
- Testing online project ideas
- School or work portfolio
Why going with a free web host might be a bad idea
Nothing is really free. While you might get a website without forking over any cash to get started, you will pay for it in one way or another. It has been said that when something is free, you are the product. This means that the web host, which is in business to make money, has found a way to profit from offering you free web hosting services. Whether in the form of running free ads or posting a banner on your site, relentlessly enticing you with pop-ups to upgrade to a paid tier of service, or retaining ownership of your content, web hosting companies are not philanthropists looking to spread joy and free server space. They have developed a revenue-generating model that includes you and your content.
Some free web hosts don’t offer responsive customer service or support, some offer limited storage space so you run out quickly and you’re forced to either upgrade or start deleting files. You could spend hours building a website only to have it deleted for whatever reason. Free web sites can be slow, you may end up with a weird domain name, and some free hosts make it a challenging process to migrate your content to another hosting platform.
If you are starting a business, you want your customers to have the best experience possible so that you earn their trust and then their business. If you are getting your web hosting, which is the foundation of your online business for free, there is no promise of quality and no promise to help you when a catastrophic error occurs.
3 cheap hosting for WordPress plans
In a previous post on the Freshy blog, we shared a roundup of cheap WordPress hosting plans for websites on a budget. The top shared hosting plans in that article were:
SiteGround
From just $3.99 per month you will have access to everything you need to host your start up WordPress website including a free SSL certificate, email and automated updates.
Hostinger
With a 12-month WordPress starter plan for just $2.79 per month, Hostinger gives you 100GB of storage space, free domain, SSL, email and more.
BlueHost
For their most basic plan at $2.75 per month with an annual subscription, BlueHost provides 50GB of storage, 24/7 customer support, free domain for 1 year, SSL certificate and more.
A great thing about starting off with a budget web hosting plan with a quality web host is that they make it easy for you to upgrade plans as your business or project grows.
For less than $10 per month, you can have dependable WordPress web hosting with access to customer support to help when the unexpected occurs. Web hosting fees are a part of doing business online. You can feel a lot more comfortable knowing that your web hosting provider will provide reliable uptime, security and access to all the services you need to create a trusted web presence for your customers.
Conclusion
There are circumstances under which going with a free web hosting service would be an appropriate way to get started. If you are starting a business, and you want to impress your prospective customers, starting with a cheap web hosting plan and scaling up as demand grows might be the smartest option.
We have shared seven, free web hosting plans along with the types of project they might be appropriate for. There are many, quality web hosts who offer very affordable plans to help you establish a website you can be proud of.
If your business is growing and you are ready to consider off-loading some of your WordPress website maintenance and support tasks, or if you are considering moving up to a premium web hosting service, Freshy can help you with all of that. Contact us now for a quote. We are here to help you grow your online business presence.
