Web Hosting - Best Free Web Hosting in 2022

Web Hosting - Best Free Web Hosting in 2022

Web Hosting - Best Free Web Hosting in 2022
Best Free Web Hosting in 2022

The cost of setting up and maintaining a website can add up quickly, so choosing the best free web hosting provider for your needs can help cut costs. But be careful, because we found that out of the list of 18 free website providers we compiled, only eight - less than half, in other words - actually delivered stuff.

Out of 18 free web hosting providers, Infinityfree is our recommended choice with Byethost, Googiehost, 000Webhost, FreeHostingNoAds, and FreeWebHostingArea among other options.

Because you are being offered a free service, the obligations typically associated with a paid subscription are no longer in place, and you are usually left to your own devices when things go wrong. No free web hosting provider that has passed our test can measure up to even the cheapest paid-for-service service on the market.

But there is still worse news. We found that some free web hosting providers' websites were not properly secured, which doesn't generate much confidence in their ability to deliver the level of service you expect from paid providers. Remember the saying: 'You get what you pay for? Well, nowhere is this truer in the tech business than in web hosting.

Our advice would be to completely stay away from free web hosting services as it is not a good option for the majority. If you are on a budget then opting for the best cheap web hosting services can be a better option. However, do you still want to go ahead with a free web hosting service, scroll down to see the list that we have curated from the best free web hosting providers?

Is free web hosting good?

Yes and no, mostly no. While it is free, it has serious drawbacks. You are very limited with what you can do, a good deal of websites are not even properly secured, and you are largely left to your own devices if anything goes wrong.

As we have mentioned earlier, you are better off opting for some cheap web hosting provider instead of going for a free one. Still, it's ultimately your choice, and free web hosting may be sufficient for some specific situations, such as newcomers who want to do a little work with website building.

Top 3 web hosting services of 2022

These first three options are not free, but they are the best web hosting services you can get. Most people go for Bluehost as it is the best overall web hosting service provider and is available for a nominal subscription.

1. Bluehost Shared Plan | $7.99 $2.75 p/m | 63% off

Bluehost has reduced the price of its shared plan (regularly $7.99 p/m) to just $2.75 per month for the first term only. You get $175 in offers along with 24/7 support, plus a free domain and site builder and a 30-day money-back guarantee.

2. Hostgator surprises with the best-shared hosting service

Hostgator surprised us with a special offer that offers some of the best-shared hosting features we've seen in a very long time, including domain names, an SSL certificate, and marketing money from just $2.64 per month Like many are free.

3. Hostinger's Premium shared hosting

Look no further for the best value on premium shared hosting. Hostinger is allowing TechRadar Pro readers to get shared hosting for as little as $1.79 per month, which includes 100 GB of SSD storage, a free domain, free SSL, and a free email.

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This is all Best Free Web Hosting Providers, Join And Start Free Website

1. Infinityfree - Best Free Web Hosting

Best overall free web hosting

Infinityfree - Best Free Web Hosting

Pros

  • Good Performance
  • Unlimited storage/bandwidth
  • 400 MySQL databases

Cons

  • Average load times
Infinityfree Specification
Disk spaceUnlimited
Domain hostingUnlimited
Monthly trafficUnlimited Bandwidth
SubdomainsUnlimited
Email accounts10
FTP accounts1
MySQL databases400


Infinityfree - Best Free Web Hosting Review

In the world of free website hosting, Infinityfree stands out for good reason. It has a well-designed website that makes a positive impression and ticks the right box for us. Its homepage gets a C performance grade in our load time test but other than that, it looks pretty solid.

Infinityfree has been in business for over six years, claims to have over 400,000 users, and offers unlimited disk space and bandwidth (albeit with a very generous 50,000 daily hits). You can host as many domains as you want but you will only get 10 email accounts and one FTP to upload your content.

There are no hidden fees and despite its free status, you'll get a 99.9% uptime guarantee (though that said, you're more or less on your own if your site goes down) and the popular Softaculous Scripts installer with over 400 applications.

We were surprised to see that this provider's list of features includes 400 MySQL databases (where only a handful of others offer), a free DNS service, free SSL, and free Cloudflare CDN. This is impressive for the free offer.

As expected InfinityFree also sells cheap paid-for hosting (InfinityFree Ultimate Premium) that offers unlimited everything for $6.90 per month, which is worth an upgrade as you'll also get access to Cloudflare Railgun, which loads Cuts down on time significantly.

2. Byethost - Best Free Web Hosting

Quick and easy hosting

Byethost - Best Free Web Hosting

Pros

  • Good Performance
  • Good support
  • Easy to use

Cons

  • Limited server space

Byethost Specification
Disk space1GB
Domain hosting1
Monthly traffic50GB
Subdomains2
Email accounts2
FTP accounts1
MySQL databases5


Byethost - Best Free Web Hosting Review

Byethost is part of Byte Internet, a US-based provider of hosting, domain name, and reseller services. With over one million websites hosted, Bythost claims that its free hosting service is "one of the most powerful networks dedicated to completely free hosting in the world."

Users are given 1GB of server space, 50GB of monthly bandwidth, and MySQL/PHP compatibility. They also benefit from 24/7 technical support, which is a boon, as well as access to Bayhost's community and knowledge base.

Also, if you're ever interested in becoming a free web hosting provider yourself, Byehost operates a separate entity, myownfreehost, which allows you to do just that.

3. Googiehost - Best Free Web Hosting

A free host that gives you cPanel and Cloudflare

Googiehost - Best Free Web Hosting

Pros

  • Good Performance
  • 100GB of data
  • 2 FTP accounts
  • Free SSL

Cons

  • The site doesn’t inspire trust
  • Worrying security errors
Googiehost Specification
Disk space1GB
Domain hosting1
Monthly traffic100GB/Unlimited
Subdomains2
Email accounts2
FTP accounts2
MySQL databases2


Googiehost - Best Free Web Hosting Review

You can easily confuse GoogiHost with Google Host, a cheeky way to get some attention. However, eight-year-old Googiehost is one of the better options among a very large group of free web hosting providers.

That said, the company's website inspires a little confidence. The small print copyright notice was extended to 2021, even when it was the year 2018, possibly to protect against possible infringements by time travelers. Plus, weird grammatical mistakes happen - last, credible, powerful - that sort of thing (and at the time of writing, there are 2,12,820 users worldwide).

Still, it's not all bad. It is the only provider here that comes with cPanel and Cloudflare, although it is in its free form. However, note that we have experienced some instances where the dreaded “Your connection is not private” pop up on our screen when trying to access cPanel. This is never a good sign as Chrome is detecting it as a "not secure" property.

Googiehost's revenue model depends on some of its free websites, which convert into paid-for affairs through Interserver.net. Plus it runs some banner ads on the Control Panel and its website - but not on users' sites.

One final caveat: You need to provide a reason for the firm to accept your website, a special version of the Recaptcha, and a surprising way to weed out spammers.

4. FreeHostingNoAds - Best Free Web Hosting

A good alternative to Googiehost

FreeHostingNoAds - Best Free Web Hosting

Pros

  • Amazing Performance
  • Largest file size limit
  • Straightforward installation
  • 3 subdomains

Cons

  • Very limited 1-click install
  • Limited disk space and bandwidth
FreeHostingNoAds Specification
Disk space1GB
Domain hosting1
Monthly traffic5GB
Subdomains3
Email accounts1
FTP accounts1
MySQL databases1


Freehostingnoads - Best Free Web Hosting Review

FreeHostingNoAds delivers what it says on the tin: free web hosting with no ads. The brand is owned by RunHosting, an established web hosting provider that offers unlimited disk space and unlimited traffic for as little as $2.49 per month.

As expected, however, FreeHostingNoAds offers a small subset of what you get with a paid account and dashboard access similar to Batcave (1GB/5GB/1 domain) and FreeHostingEU (200MB/4GB/5 domain) does. The latter two are other free web hosting providers that share a similar set of features with FreeHostingNoAds, and may well be part of the same family.

An SSL certificate, which will give you the all-important security padlock in browsers, will set you back an attractive $30. The control panel through the Jackie Tools installer is extremely limited, with Grave, WordPress, or Joomla being offered as a one-click install. However, if you wish to do so you will be able to install your own - but keep in mind that the file size limit is only 15MB.

Creating a new account is straightforward, but we were a little concerned by the fact that account emails landed directly in our spam box, a sign that some sites hosted by FreeHostingNoAds may be on the reject list.

5. 000Webhost - Best Free Web Hosting

A controversial choice that can’t be ignored

000Webhost - Best Free Web Hosting

Pros

  • Amazing Performance
  • Established player
  • No 1-click install

Cons

  • No 1-click install
  • No email accounts or subdomains
000WebHost Specification
Disk space300MB
Domain hosting1
Monthly traffic3GB
Subdomains0
Email accounts0
FTP accounts1
MySQL databases1


000Webhost - Best Free Web Hosting Review

Our fifth choice is 000Webhost, a free website hosting provider owned and operated by Hostinger. 000Webhost has been around for 10 years and has millions of users, which unfortunately makes it a prime target for hackers. In 2015, the provider's entire database was compromised with details of an estimated 13.5 million accounts stolen. Since then, 000Webhost has completely changed but many users still remember the hack today.

With 000Webhost, you'll get cPanel, a website builder, and a WordPress auto-installer, plus another benefit is that there are no ads. However, the bandwidth and especially the disk space is less with 3GB of bandwidth and only 300MB of disk space.

As expected, there is no SSL certificate, but what is a bit surprising is the absence of subdomains and email accounts, as well as the lack of support via tickets (you have to go through forums when you need help

You should be able to set up two websites with 000Webhost, but we received an error message when we tried to do so a second time, saying we had reached our limit. In addition, the account creation email was flagged as a suspicious email by Google, with a pop-up warning that malware often comes from that URL. Note that you can also create a website at 000webhostapp.com using the same credentials as 000webhostapp.com.

6. FreeWebHostingArea - Best Free Web Hosting

Ideal for seasoned veterans

FreeWebHostingArea - Best Free Web Hosting

Pros

  • Good Performance
  • Unlimited bandwidth allowance
  • 3 MySQL databases
  • 1.5GB storage

Cons

  • No 1-click install
  • No site builder
FreeWebHostingArea Specification
Disk space1.5GB
Domain hosting1
Monthly trafficUnlimited bandwidth
Subdomains0
Email accounts0
FTP accounts1
MySQL databases3


FreeWebHostingArea - Best Free Web Hosting Review

FreeWebHostingArea may sport a website design from 1999, but it's another option if you want a free web hosting company that can give you (or at least the provider claims) unlimited bandwidth.

What's more, it offers more than generous storage capacity, giving you 1.5GB of web space, plus you get three MySQL databases - which again outperform most rival free website hosting providers.

The control panel is rudimentary, and at the time of writing, the site builder and auto-installer were not working properly, leaving any user with the task of uploading their files via FTP to build their website. The maximum file size allowed on FreeWebHostingArea is 12MB.

FreeWHA, as it is also known, gives users daily or weekly offsite backups and serves no ads on low-traffic websites. Upgrade to the FreeWHA Basic package for $12 per year and no matter how popular the site is, you get ads removed, along with five MySQL databases per account, one-click database backup, and priority technical support.

Why do web hosting companies offer free hosting?

Free web hosting should be viewed as a marketing tool which means the terms and conditions are subject to change frequently, and since there are no financial transactions, downtime may occur more frequently because SLAs (Service Level Agreements) are not present.

Free web hosting of course comes with many limitations. Server space, site speed, traffic, uptime guarantees, and backup provision are all features that are often undervalued, but that doesn't mean good cheap hosting isn't available.

Keep in mind that free web hosting exists because it allows companies to sell more expensive web hosting to people who may need it.

Pros and cons of free web hosting

There are more cons than pros to free web hosting. The main (and only) pro is that it's free, you don't pay a dime for it. It may be an okay option to try yourself at building a website but you are almost always better off paying for a good hosting provider, and there are some cheaper ones too.

As you can imagine, free web hosting has some disadvantages. Performance is much lower than paid hosting, security is questionable, don't expect too much (if any) from customer support, and more often than not, if there is some trouble with the website you are on your own. Overall, if you can, stay away from free web hosting and choose a good cheap hosting provider.

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