Website hosting is simply a cost of doing business online. You have a lot of options when it comes to choosing the right host for your website.
Depending on what your business goals are, a free web host may actually be a good idea for you have minimal requirements.
Free hosting requirements
Here are my personal non-negotiable requirements for a free host.
When it comes to free hosting, you’re typically going to be limited in some annoying way. Ads on your site, slow speeds, minimal amount of resources.
Here is what I look out for when choosing a free host.
1. No forced ads on your site
A lot of free hosts leverage display banners ads on your site. All providers listed here don’t do this.
2. Custom domain support
The whole point of using a web host is to use our own domains and install our own software. Any provider that forces you to us a subdomain did not make my list.
3. Free SSL inlcuded
SSL certificates are free now, but it’s techy to set one up. Most hosts do it on your behalf so I expect that even from a free host.
4. Softaculous (or similar)
One-click installation of software is a must. I’m fine if a free host has their own proprietary dashboard, but you have to at least let me install something like WordPress easily.
The best free web hosts
Note: Free hosting always comes with trade-offs. These options are best for low-traffic projects, learning, portfolios, or testing. For growing sites, consider upgrading or moving to paid hosting.
Ready to stop wasting time with free hosts?
➪ Hostinger – Recommended by the team behind WordPress. You can get 4 years of a quality web hosting for under $100, just use coupon code WEBPRO at checkout.
Infinity Free – The free plan leader
Infinity Free is a strong competitor to 000 Web Host. They market themselves as a full featured, 100% free web host. So how exactly do they make money? Through advertising and affiliate marketing to their users.
To be clear, Infinity Free does not put ads on your website, instead you the user are the product and when logged into your account you’ll have advertisements running on the back end of your hosting account.
In addition, Infinity Free will also email you promotional offers through to the email you used when signing up.
What you get in exchange however is totally free web hosting.
This included the ability to install WordPress and create your website as well as other scripts. You are also able to set a custom domain or use a sub domain. Last, you even get an SSL and can setup a professional email account.
Pros:
- They provide an SSL for free with your account.
- Good up-time, average speeds. Acceptable for a free host
- No front end ads on your website.
- Can install WordPress and themes.
- Easy to use, familiar experience to a paid host.
Cons:
- PU / Entry Process limits — Even moderate traffic or a busy WordPress site can hit daily limits and cause temporary suspension.
- No email hosting.
- They reserve the right to delete your website at any time.
- Limited support — Only community forum and knowledge base (no live chat, phone, or ticket support).
Byet.host – UK based, 20 years in business
Byet.host is one of the oldest free web hosting providers still standing, with over 20 years in the game and more than a million websites on its platform.
Byet positions itself as one of the few “truly free” options meaning no forced ads on your site, which alone sets it apart from many competitors.
What you get on the free plan
The free tier is genuinely generous (on paper at least).
You get 5 GB of NVMe storage, unlimited bandwidth, PHP 8.3 support, unlimited MySQL databases, and Softaculous which is a one-click installer that supports over 400 apps including WordPress, Joomla, and various e-commerce scripts.
There’s also FTP access, a file manager, a website builder, five email accounts, and a handful of free subdomains (like .byethost.com).
Setup is iquick, and the custom VistaPanel control panel keeps things manageable even if you’re a total beginner.
Pros and Cons
Pros:
- Completely free tier with no ads.
- Softaculous makes installing apps like WordPress very easy.
- Longevity for 20+ years in business.
Cons:
- Mediocre performance on the free plan.
- Support is lacking for the free tier.
- Site termination anytime they want and without reason.
x10Hosting – CPanel Access
This web host offers an great free plan that is ideal for simple, small websites. Overall, both x10Hosting and Byet.host are your typical “free hosting” experiences.
Useful for starter sites that are not production-ready. For more stability, consider cheap paid hosts (like Hostinger).
What you get on the free plan
Full cPanel access. This is a big deal as most free hosts lock you into stripped-down custom panel. You also get PHP and MySQL support, one-click installers for WordPress and Joomla, FTP access, free SSL via Let’s Encrypt, a website builder with over 150 templates, and a free subdomain.
Storage starts off conservatively, around 512 MB to 1 GB for new accounts but x10Hosting allows you to request unmetered disk space once you need it.
Upgrade (for free) to unmetered disk space.
After roughly a week of active use, and once you’re using at least half your current allocation, you can request an upgrade to unmetered disk space. It’s a deliberate friction point to filter out abuse.
Eligibility requirements:
- Your account must be at least 7 days old.
- You must be using at least 75% of your current allocated disk space.
- Your files must comply with the Terms of Service (no backups, temp/zipped archives, personal file storage, excessive media galleries and so forth).
- The account will be manually reviewed by staff, they can deny the request if they see abuse, too many emails, or non-website-related files.
- You cannot have compressed/zipped files or large backups stored on the account when requesting.
Once you meet these requirements simply contact them and ask for your account to have unmetered disk space. The do impose an inode limit (files/folders and what not) and won’t approve the unmetered disk space until you need it.
Pros and Cons
Pros:
- Completely free with no ads!
- Softaculous makes installing WordPress and other apps.
- Straightforward Generous storage (5 GB NVMe) compared to most free hosts.
- Decent performance for a free host.
Cons:
- Manual setup and renewal of your SSL. They have a feature in their CPANEL for “Get automatic certificate from ACME Provider.” You can do it yourself, but it’s more techy than it needs to be.
- No real support provided beyond a forum. Support is for paying customers.
- Must log in once a month. Not a big deal as you should be logging into your site on a monthly basis at a minimum.
Googie Host – Good performance
Googie Host is based out of India and has been around since 2012. Like the other free hosts, they’re ideal for simple personal blogs, portfolios, and low-traffic hobby sites.
It’s workable for learning WordPress, provided you stay within the resource limits. Don’t expect to scale anything meaningful on the free tier.
What you get on the free plan
The free tier gives you 1 GB of SSD storage, 100 GB of monthly bandwidth, one website, MySQL databases, FTP access, and a couple of business email accounts.
There’s a one-click installer for WordPress and other apps, Cloudflare integration for basic security and speed, a website builder, and free SSL that’s generally straightforward to set up. The control panel is a DirectAdmin or cPanel-style interface (functional enough for beginners).
Activation
Activation isn’t instant. It can take 24 hours or longer for your site to go live. Not a big deal as takes a day or two, more of an annoyance than anything else. This is in place to prevent spam.
Pros and Cons:
Pros:
- Genuinely free with no ads.
- Free SSL that’s fairly easy to configure.
- Decent bandwidth allowance (100 GB/month).
Cons:
- 1 GB storage cap is tight which is they’re at the bottom of my list.
- Site Activation can take 24+ hours.
- Inactivity policy (just 22 days and your account is deleted).
- Client area has annoying ads.
Honorable mentions:
- AwardSpace.com: Good for hosting up to 4 small sites + 24/7 support, but very low monthly bandwidth.
- FreeHostia.com: Load-balanced for better reliability, but only 250 MB storage (too small for most projects).
- FreeHosting.com: 10 GB space + unlimited bandwidth claims, but no free SSL on the basic plan and heavy upsells. Great domain name though, whoever owns FreeHosting.com has a winning name.
- 000Webhost.com: RIP 🫡 This was Hostinger’s free offer. They’ve since retired it.
- Google Sites: Not a webhost, but an excellent free website builder.
- Blogger.com: A free blogging platform from Gooogle.
Best Free Web Hosts Summary
For most people starting out, InfinityFree or Byet.host are the natural first stops.
If learning cPanel is a priority, x10Hosting is worth the extra patience, and if the others are full or unavailable, GoogieHost can fill the gap for simple, low-stakes projects.
InfinityFree tops my list for good reason: no inactivity policy, unlimited websites, and the strongest overall free tier available right now.
Byet.host earns second place through sheer longevity and generous storage. 5 GB of NVMe on a free account is hard to beat. A solid alternative if InfinityFree doesn’t suit your needs for some reason.
x10Hosting is the specialist pick. Full cPanel access on a free tier is rare and genuinely useful if you want to learn how real hosting works.
GoogieHost rounds out the list. It works for the most basic projects, but its strict inactivity policy, tight storage, and cluttered interface mean it’s the last resort of the four.
➪Hostinger – Recommended by the team behind WordPress. You can get 4 years of a quality web hosting for under $100, just use coupon code WEBPRO at checkout.
Hostinger
Recommended by WordPress, they are the best starter host and have the most competitive pricing for quality hosting around.
Use coupon code WEBPRO at checkout for an added discount!
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