Naturally, when you are just starting out, you may not have the funds to invest in the building, designing, and launching of a website. It makes more sense to start small and choose a free website hosting service that will allow you to build something that is easy, quick, and best of all, free.
The drawbacks to using free website hosting include: displaying ads on your site, limiting your website’s traffic, increasing downtime, and “locking you” inside their platform.
Your best bet, in the long run, is to pay even a small amount to have full access to expert support, have complete control and ownership of your website, and keep ads off for the best user experience.
Without further adieu, here are the 6 best free web hosting services companies.
The 6 Best Free Web Hosting Services
1. Wix
Wix is known as one of the best website builders on the market. Within their builder, they offer free web hosting. Anyone can create an attractive website by using their “highly intuitive UI”.
With their free plan, offerings are limited. Prepare to only get half the storage and bandwidth. You will not get a custom domain and your website will have Wix ads throughout. Customer support is 24/7.
However, if you are looking for a great free option to get started, Wix is the top choice for free hosting.
2. Atspace
Atspace offers a free site, 1 GB of storage, and unlimited bandwidth. They have no ads and offer domain registration. Although they do offer support, be aware that they provide “limited 24/7/365”, which includes live chat, online documentation, and limited ticketing.
Atspace also uses the website builder and app installer, Zacky, for apps like Joomla and WordPress.
3. Freehostia
Freehostia offers 5 sites and 6MB of bandwidth. There are no ads and they also provide domain registration.
It also offers free cloud hosting via its Chocolate plan with 250MB of disk space and 10MB of database storage. Due to this capacity, you won’t be able to host too much in terms of media on your website.
Freehostia provides 24/7 customer support with a 1-hour ticket response (almost unheard of) and online documentation.
4. Agilityhoster
Agilityhoster has a free tier that offers 1000MB of storage, 1 site, 5GB of bandwidth, and one 20MB MySQL database. Not necessarily a sticking point, but Agilityhoster does not have a website builder.
With a simple WordPress and Joomla installer, you can get up and running in no time.
You get unlimited sites, storage, and bandwidth. There are no ads. You get domain registration, 24/7 customer support, and a knowledge base.
5. Byethost
As the most generous free web host, Byethost offers unlimited sites, bandwidth, and storage, including five email accounts. There are no ads. They provide domain registration, 24/7 customer support, and a database.
The only downside observed is that their website is the least professional. Their website is poorly written and vague.
6. Awardspace
For well over a decade, Awardspace has provided a great hosting service. Their offerings include 1 site, 1GB of storage, and a 5GB bandwidth. There are no ads and it does include domain registration. Their “selling point” is that they offer one full gig of storage, which is more than what others offer.
Awardspace provides the Zacky drag-and-drop website builder. There is also the user-friendly WordPress and Joomla installer. It also offers limited customer support ticketing, live chat, and online documentation.
Closing Thoughts
Going with a free web host will have its benefits and drawbacks. Typical handicaps include limited bandwidth and storage, limited customer support, and “spam-flagging email”.
If your plan is to potentially grow your website and expand your reach, it is best to invest a little bit more for increased functionality, reliability, and customer support.