Best Free WordPress Hosting Services For Building Your Startup
A free WordPress hosting platform provides storage space to install WordPress on their servers. For online beginners, it may be a useful service to help you understand and learn how WordPress works before launching your online business.
We have saved you the hassle of searching for the perfect free WordPress host for your website. In this guide, we’ll list the best free WordPress hosting services for building your site.
Take note, though, that the performance of free hosting services cannot be compared to a quality, paid WordPress host. While it may be a good fit for online beginners, you should consider upgrading to paid or managed WordPress hosting once you are ready to grow your business.
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Is Free WordPress Hosting Worth It?
Choosing a good WordPress host is vital to website building as it affects your site’s overall performance. So you need to choose carefully. When it comes to free WordPress hosting, it is best suited for online beginners and users running a test project.
But if you’re a professional or want to create a business website, it’s best to go for a premium web host. Fortunately, there are cheap WordPress hosting plans if you’re on a budget.
As there are other services termed ‘quality’, the big question is: Is free WordPress hosting worth it? We will list the pros and cons of free web hosting for WordPress to answer this question. Afterward, you can decide whether you want to go for it.
Pros of Free WordPress Hosting
Below, we’ll consider the major pros of free hosting plans.
It is Free
The first benefit of free WordPress hosting is exactly what it is, Free! You can host your site without spending a dime. There is also no payment after a certain duration of the free trial or future ‘hidden fee’.
Provides a Learning Opportunity
With a free hosting service, you can understand what website setup is all about. This way, you can practice and learn more about hosting, designing, and managing a WordPress site before making a financial commitment.
Suitable for Beginners Sites
The free solution is also ideal for beginners and non-tech-savvy users. It is easy for them to use as free hosting services don’t offer many advanced hosting options. This way, they can reduce the website’s running costs.
Cons of Free WordPress Hosting
Yes, the service is free, and with it comes many risks. So before opting for a free WordPress host, you should consider its drawbacks too. Here are some of the cons of free hosting.
Security Vulnerability
Security and data privacy are essential for any website. Being a service that won’t generate revenue, these hosting companies mostly do not invest in security for their servers. As a result, their servers are susceptible to cyber-attacks.
Unwanted Ads on Your Website
Some hosting companies place advertisements on your website to compensate for the cost of the free service rendered. This is done to get more customers to use their service. But having ads on your site makes it look less professional to visitors, especially when you have little control over their placement.
Limited Server Resources
Many free hosting companies offer minimal disk space and bandwidth. For sites that upload media elements like images, videos, and audio, a large bandwidth is essential. As a result of the limited bandwidth provided, your site’s overall performance and loading speed will be affected.
Lack of Customer Support
Not paying for a hosting service will affect the level of support you get from the hosting service. Although some claim to offer 24/7 customer support, the response time will not be immediate. Priority will always be given to paying customers.
Best Free WordPress Hosting Services
Now you know the pros and cons of free WordPress hosting. Next, we’ll take a look at the best free hosting services.
WordPress.com
You may have come across WordPress.com and WordPress.org. These platforms are used for creating WordPress-based websites, but they are different. The major difference between them is the hosting providers.
WordPress.org is a self-hosted platform, while WordPress.com is a fully hosted platform. In simple terms, WordPress.com provides free hosting where users can create WordPress websites under a subdomain (e.g. yoursite.wordpress.com)
WordPress.com allows you to easily create a site in minutes. No WordPress installation is required. Simply register for an account and be fully hosted by WordPress for free. The platform provides you with different customization options. You can choose from over 100 free customizable themes and 200 premium themes.
They also offer up to 3GB of storage space. As for security, the platform is managed by Automattic, the team behind WordPress. They provide free SSL certificates and two-factor authentication to secure your account. Further, WordPress.com offers technical support through emails and live chat.
Cons of WordPress.com Free Hosting Plan
- Your WordPress site can be lost if you violate their Terms of service.
- Being a free plan, WordPress.com may place adverts on your site.
- It does not cater to eCommerce site builders.
- You are only allowed to install themes from its limited free themes collection.
- You can only install plugins after upgrading to their business plan.
Free WordPress Hosting by 000webhost
This is another free WordPress hosting solution powered by the Hostinger team. Unlike WordPress.com, 000webhost allows you to run a functional website without the hassle of ads. Its free service allows you to host one website with 300MB of disk space and a bandwidth of 3GB.
000webhost is a modern and easy-to-use service. The platform supports PHP and MYSQL, which enables you to use the WordPress CMS. It has a control panel where you can easily manage your website files, databases, and FTP accounts.
Further, 000webhost has decent web servers to ensure your website is always active.
Note that the platform does not provide SSL certificates, but it offers basic server-level firewalls, DDoS protection, and 24/7 server monitoring.
By default, your website will be available on their subdomain, i.e., yoursite.000webhost.com. However, you can buy a custom domain from them or link your existing domain to their free hosting plan.
Cons of 000webhost Free WordPress Hosting
- 000webhost does not offer active customer support to free users. Rather, there is a community forum and a broad knowledge base to answer users’ questions. It does not allow email, phone, or live chat on the free account.
- Due to the allocated bandwidth, there is a limit to the amount of traffic and content your website gets. This means you cannot post videos and high-quality images.
- There is a branded “Powered by 000webhost” watermark at the bottom of your website. This can be unprofessional for a business website.
- There is no SSL certificate on the free hosting plan.
AccuWeb Free WordPress Hosting
With AccuWeb hosting, you can enjoy a fully optimized WordPress site with SSD storage. This means your site gets to experience fast load times.
AccuWeb hosting extends its generosity by providing 2GB of SSD storage and 30GB of bandwidth. Therefore, you can have up to 5000 visitors monthly on your WordPress site. They also provide an uptime guarantee with very minimal outages.
Further, they grant you full access to your site’s cPanel, where you can manage your site’s files and databases. You can also create and manage 25 email accounts and customize your site’s domain name.
AccuWeb hosting offers free users basic backup support and security with multi-layer DDoS protection. It is also free of ads and sponsored links.
Cons of AccuWeb Hosting
- The platform offers limited customer support.
- AccuWeb hosting does not provide free migration from your current WordPress host to another.
- You can only host one website per account.
- It doesn’t provide an SSL certificate.
Freehostia
Next on our list is Freehostia. This WordPress hosting service offers a free plan called the Chocolate plan. The free Chocolate plan allows you to host up to 5 websites. It provides 250MB of storage space and 6GB of monthly bandwidth.
In addition, Freehostia provides 1 MySQL v.5 database, 3 email accounts, and 10MB of MySQL storage. Even with the free plan, the platform guarantees uptime and offers responsive 24/7 customer support.
Freehostia is an easy-to-use service that comes with a 1-click web applications installer. This means you do not have to install WordPress manually. It also comes with site management tools to enable you to perform site management tasks.
Cons of Freehostia’s Free WordPress Hosting
- Limited disk space and bandwidth
- For a platform that can host up to 5 websites, it has limited MySQL database access.
- No SSL certificate
x10hosting
x10hosting is a free hosting service that is easy to set up. The platform gives you access to unlimited free cloud hosting with SSD storage.
Further, its SSD storage is faster and more reliable than HDD storage. This feature makes this platform unique, as you’d usually get it in a premium service.
x10hosting service provides unlimited bandwidth. Although they also offer unmetered bandwidth, there is an initial allocated 512MB by default. With this hosting provider, you can control your PHP scripts.
Additionally, this hosting service provides access to 2 different hosting dashboards – cPanel or a custom hosting dashboard. The platform makes it easy for users to switch to the brand’s custom cPanel. You can also use your custom domain or choose from 3 free subdomains.
Cons of x10hosting
- You have no access to customer support.
- Limited security.
- Does not provide a free SSL certificate.
InfinityFree
Used by over 400,000 people, InfinityFree claims to be the fastest free hosting service in the world. With this service, you’ll get up to 5GB of disk space, unlimited bandwidth, and 400 MySQL databases.
This service provider offers unlimited hosting, so you can host as many websites as you want. You can use your custom domain or choose from over 25 domain extensions.
They offer up to 10 email accounts. In addition, the platform provides other features, such as free DNS service, cPanel access, and SSL for your website.
InfinityFree gives you full .htaccess support and boasts of reliable servers with minimal downtime. Best of all, they don’t place adverts on their user’s websites.
Cons of InfinityFree WordPress Hosting
- They do not provide customer support, either via live chat software or email.
- Limited disk space.
FreeHostingNoAds
You can say this hosting provider describes what you get with its name – a free hosting service with no ads. FreeHostigNoAds adds no text links, banners, or pop-ups to your site. Instead, they allow you to monetize your content by inserting ads yourself. That’s pretty cool.
This service provides a straightforward installation with ease. You can use your domain name or get a free subdomain from them. They provide 1GB storage space and 5GB bandwidth.
Additionally, it comes with an easy-to-use control panel. Their cPanel allows you to manage your hosting account, check stats and install apps.
They also provide FTP and file manager access. In addition, you’ll get free email accounts, technical support, and guaranteed uptime.
Cons of FreeHostingNoAds
- It has limited web space and bandwidth. As such, not suited for a high-traffic website.
- They don’t provide a free SSL certificate.
- No website backup
ByetHost Free WordPress Hosting
ByetHost has an impressive feature list for a free service. It comes with the Softaculous script installer, which automatically installs WordPress in one click. This hosting provider boasts of 1GB of storage space.
As for bandwidth, ByetHost offers 50GB of monthly traffic. They go further to provide usage statistics on your disk space, bandwidth, and daily stats. This data is available in ByetHost free hosting cPanel, also known as VistaPanel.
They offer up to 5 email accounts, full server access via FTP, and unlimited MySQL databases. This means you’ll be able to host unlimited sites.
ByetHost’s free hosting service provides 24/7 customer support via a ticket system. They also have a knowledge base section and provide video tutorials to users.
Cons of ByetHost Free WordPress Hosting
- Limited tech support.
- It cannot cater to a large number of users as individual files cannot exceed 10MB.
- They don’t provide a free SSL certificate on their free plan.
AwardSpace Free WordPress Hosting
This is a free hosting service suitable for users who are okay with having multiple low-traffic sites. AwardSpace is a user-friendly hosting provider that provides several tools to build your website. It comes with a one-click installer to install the WordPress CMS.
This free hosting service allows you to host up to 4 websites. You can host one domain and three free subdomains.
AwardSpace offers 1GB disk space and 5GB monthly bandwidth. You also get full MySQL support, one email hosting with spam protection, and firewall protection to prevent cyber-attacks. As for customer support, they provide a 24/7 live chat to free users.
Cons of AwardSpace Free WordPress Hosting
- The disk space and bandwidth are limited.
- You can only have one top-level domain. The others will be subdomains.
100WebSpace
If you want to host a one-page website, this free hosting service is for you. 100WebSpace comes with a one-click WordPress installer to get your site up and running.
With 100WebSpace, you’ll get 100MB disk space, 3GB bandwidth, 1 hosted domain, and 3 email accounts.
Further, you get full server access, including your FTP accounts, SSL certificates, and more.
For a free service, the platform provides customer support via tickets/emails. They have a response time of one hour which is pretty impressive. Further, it has an uptime guarantee of 99%, so you are unlikely to face outages.
Cons of 100WebSpace Free WordPress Hosting
- It shows a small banner ad on each page of your site.
- The storage space is limited.
Conclusion – Free WordPress Hosting
To sum up, free WordPress hosting is a great place to start if you’re a beginner or working on a test project. In this article, we have compiled a list of free WordPress hosts. You can go through the list and select the one best suited for your new business.
Later on, when you need to upgrade to a more secure hosting package, you can upgrade to the premium plan provided by the free hosting service you chose.
Alternatively, you can go through our review for the best hosting providers for WordPress users if you need a reliable hosting plan.
After choosing a web host, you’d need to design your pages using a responsive theme. For this, you can check our article on the best free WordPress themes to help you create a stunning website design.
