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Starting your own business can come with a lot of expenses that can strain your budget, especially if you’re launching a small business out of your home. Maybe you just want to create a personal website to blog, show off photos or highlight your work experience and resume.

The top free website hosting services let you create a reasonably sophisticated site with a professional presentation on a smaller scale or allow you to trial their platforms without having to commit.

We’ve collated a list of popular free website hosting options for individuals and small businesses. Due to the limited availability of free website hosting services, this is not a comprehensive list of all available free website hosting services, nor have we tested these services. This list is simply comprised of popular free website hosting options that we believe are worth considering for your businesses.

For a complete list of recommended website hosting services backed by a data-driven methodology, check out our best web hosting services in 2024 list.

Top free website hosting services

Top free website hosting services comparison

 Storage limitBandwidth capEmail addressWebsite builder
Weebly
500 MB
Unlimited
No
Yes
InfinityFree
5 GB
Unlimited
No
No
000webhost
300 MB
3 GB
No
No
Firebase
10 GB
360 MB per day
No
No
Neocities
1 GB
200 MB
No
Yes
GitHub Pages
1 GB
100 MB
No
No
Wix
500 MB
500 MB
No
Yes
WordPress.com
1 GB
Unlimited
No
Yes
Blogger
Unlimited
Unlimited
No
Yes
x10hosting
Unlimited
Unlimited
Yes
Yes

What is a free website hosting service and how does it work?

At the most basic level, a web hosting service provides a place to publish your website and make it available to users. When you sign up with a website hosting platform, you’re reserving physical space on a server where your website and all of its data and content will live. The host then ensures that the server remains running and available to internet users and distributes your site through web browsers. 

Most website hosts will also provide additional services, like security features. Many website hosting platforms also offer the ability to create a website as well, some by way of graphical or drag-and-drop editors, others through HTML or other coding interfaces.

Benefits of a free website hosting service

It is technically possible to host a website yourself, but it requires a great deal of technical expertise, as well as significant resources, including the actual server and accompanying hardware and software. A website hosting service can provide a number of valuable benefits:

  • Equipment and software: A website host provides all the hardware and software necessary to serve your website to users, as well as the technical expertise to configure and deploy a web server.
  • Security features: Many web hosts will include a number of security features to ensure that your data and users’ data are safe and that your site runs smoothly. To start, look for SSL for encryption and protection against DDoS attacks.
  • Storage and bandwidth: Web hosts provide storage space for your files and data and bandwidth to transfer them to visitors; free website hosting services don’t charge you a fee that you would otherwise pay to an ISP.
  • E-commerce tools: Some website hosting platforms will provide you with tools to create and run an online store, including ways for customers to browse your products and check out securely
  • Website builders: Beyond just hosting your website, some hosts will provide the tools to build the site as well. These come in numerous forms; commonly, there are graphical interfaces or drag-and-drop editors that will be familiar and intuitive for PC users, but there are also code and command line builders as well.
  • Custom domains and email: Some website hosting platforms will also provide custom domains for your site, though this is fairly rare for free services. It’s much more common among paid hosting subscriptions, as are custom email addresses, which allow you, for instance, to provide a support@yourdomain.com address for user support instead of a generic @gmail.com or other provider address.

How to choose the top free website hosting service

Choosing the top web hosting service will depend in large part on the kind of site (or sites) you plan to create and your intent for them, as well as whether you have existing sites and domains or need to create sites from scratch.

Key features to look for

There are a number of top-level features you should consider when choosing a free website hosting platform:

  • Website builder: If you don’t have a pre-existing site, you may want to choose a host that includes a website builder unless you plan to use independent site-building software. The type of builder is important as well: if you’re not comfortable with coding, you’ll want to select a host that provides a drag-and-drop or graphical editor.
  • Bandwidth and storage: For simple, personal sites, data and storage caps may not be a significant factor, but if you plan to create a more complex, multi-page or e-commerce site, they can be very important.
  • Intent: The type of site you intend to run is also a crucial factor in choosing the right host. GitHub Pages, for instance, is only appropriate for sites focused on software development and peripheral intents, while Blogger is almost exclusively designed to host fairly simple blogs.

Customer service

Customer service can be an important consideration when you’re choosing a free web host, as many of them don’t provide customer support at the free level. If you run into issues with your site or technical problems with the host itself, you may be unable to resolve them or get clear answers as to the root cause. 

This is a key difference between free and paid website hosting services, as most paid services will offer some level of technical support.

Software integrations

Third-party API and software integrations may be important to your site’s functionality, in which case you’ll want a host that plays nicely with other apps. Hosts like InfinityFree with its Softaculous installer or x10hosting with its one-click installation feature may be the better fit for your site.

Frequently asked questions (FAQs)

A number of website hosting services will offer a free plan as one of their subscription tiers. These free plans are often limited in some way when compared to paid tiers; many won’t offer custom domains or 24/7 technical support, for instance. Free plans may also come with much more restrictive data storage or bandwidth caps than paid plans, though it varies greatly from host to host.

Some web hosts will also provide a free trial version of their platform. This can be either a free trial or come in the form of a money-back guarantee if you decide you’re dissatisfied with the service within a certain amount of time of signing up and want to cancel.

Safety and security features can vary tremendously between web hosting services. Important security features you should look for include SSL certificates, DDoS protection, site backup and hotlink protection.

While not impossible, a truly free domain name is rare and usually comes with caveats. Free domains are often not secure and frequently don’t provide access to other essential web services and tools. Also, many domains touted as free are actually part of a package of paid services or software and require some kind of ongoing subscription to maintain, while some are only free and available for a trial period.

Blueprint is an independent publisher and comparison service, not an investment advisor. The information provided is for educational purposes only and we encourage you to seek personalized advice from qualified professionals regarding specific financial decisions. Past performance is not indicative of future results.

Blueprint has an advertiser disclosure policy. The opinions, analyses, reviews or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the Blueprint editorial staff alone. Blueprint adheres to strict editorial integrity standards. The information is accurate as of the publish date, but always check the provider’s website for the most current information.

Alan Bradley

BLUEPRINT

Alan is an experienced culture and tech writer with a background in newspaper reporting. His work has appeared in Rolling Stone, Paste Magazine, The Escapist, PC Mag, PC Gamer, and a multitude of other outlets. He has over twenty years of experience as a journalist and editor and is the author of the urban fantasy novel The Sixth Borough.

Sierra Campbell is a small business editor for USA Today Blueprint. She specializes in writing, editing and fact-checking content centered around helping businesses. She has worked as a digital content and show producer for several local TV stations, an editor for U.S. News & World Report and a freelance writer and editor for many companies. Sierra prides herself in delivering accurate and up-to-date information to readers. Her expertise includes credit card processing companies, e-commerce platforms, payroll software, accounting software and virtual private networks (VPNs). She also owns Editing by Sierra, where she offers editing services to writers of all backgrounds, including self-published and traditionally published authors.