Are hosts and free web hosting reliable and above all effective? It's always nice to get something for free. However, know that in this specific case, it is clearly not the best choice to make.
For what reasons? What are the disadvantages of free hosting? And above all, which host offers the best free web hosting?
We will answer all of these questions in our detailed comparison for 2024. Following you will find a top 5 of the best free web hosts, a quality (but inexpensive) paid alternative, as well as a presentation of the main disadvantages a 100% free offer.
Best free web hosting (2024):
- 000WebHost
- PlanetHoster
- OVH
- LWS
- 11VM Serv
The best almost free (and quality) web hosting
To get started, we are going to present you with a practically free solution (€1.49/month). Why then are we here to talk about free web hosting?
Well for the simple reason that100% free web hosts are unreliable and too limited. This is why we have decided to present you with a solution that is practically free, but does not have all the disadvantages described in the rest of our article.
This solution isSingle hosting from Hostinger.
Although it is available for less than €2 per month, it will give you the opportunity to enjoy good performance and interesting features to create a quality website.
© Hostinger
Just to give you an idea of what you will be entitled to, here is a quick list:
- 10 Go of SSD storage
- 1 free email account
- Certificat SSL offert
- 100 GB of bandwidth
- LiteSpeed Server technology + LSCache plugin to make your site faster
- Access via FTP and GIT
- Ability to create up to 2 databases
To find more information about Hostinger and its cheap hosting, we advise you toread our full review.
In the end, Hostinger's “Single” hosting will only cost you 18 euros per year if you commit for a long term. It is difficult to do cheaper given the quality of service offered.
Ranking of the best 100% free web hosts
If our almost free hosting solution hasn't convinced you, or you don't have the means to purchase it, don't panic.
We will now present to you our list of the best free web hosting for 2024.
1) 000WebHost
© 000WebHost
After several dozen free hosts tested and compared on our side, the best in terms of performance and features offered turned out to be 000WebHost.
We'll be honest with you, even though we mentioned that it's the best when it comes to performance, don't expect it to be a blast. We remain far from the loading times and stability that you will be able to find on paid hosting.
Now to get started, that will be enough. Here's a quick overview of the free hosting from 000WebHost that we think is the best:
- 300 MB of disk space
- Protection CloudFlare
- 1 SQL database
- FTP access
- Automatic WordPress installer
- 3 GB of bandwidth
- …
The subdomain that 000WebHost will make available for your site will be the following: yoursitename.webhostapp.com.
And at any time, if you want to upgrade to a paid offer, you will be able to subscribe to Hostinger hosting. 000WebHost and Hostinger are indeed one and the same entity. This will greatly facilitate your task, and give you the possibility of hosting your site with one of the market references (Hostinger).
Discover free hosting 000WebHost
2) PlanetHoster
© PlanetHoster
PlanetHoster's free hosting is pretty generous. It is even more than that of 000WebHost. Now when it comes to performance, it remains behind.
As you can see in the screenshot above, you will have the right to:
- A website without advertisements
- 2 free email boxes
- A wizard to install your site on WordPress
- 750 MB of disk space
- Choice of data center where your site will be hosted: in Canada or France
- Free SSL certificate
As for the domain name, you will be able to choose between different subdomains. And regarding technical support, PlanetHoster gives you the opportunity to use its community forum to ask your questions.
This isn't real customer support but it's still good to have. This forum will allow you to interact with other customers, as well as the host's technical teams.
Discover World Lite from PlanetHoster
3) VAT
© OVH
OVH is without the slightest possible doubt, the most widespread French web host. But is its free web hosting offer up to par?
Well we must admit that we were a little disappointed by what was offered.
The first thing to note is that OVH's free hosting is called Start 10M. It includes:
- 10 MB of web space
- 1 Go to monthly traffic
- FTP access
- Support for PHP version 5.3 or higher
- 1 email account (with 5 GB of storage)
It's not bad at all to start with but you will very quickly get stuck. And knowing that we were a little disappointed by its paid offers (see our OVH opinion), we must admit that we advise you to opt for one of the free hosts placed in 2nd and 1st position.
That said, if you just want to “practice” and familiarize yourself with web hosting, don't hesitate and use OVH's free offer. This does not commit you in any way.
4) LWS
© LWS
The French host LWS also offers free web hosting.
Be warned, however, that to take advantage of it,you will have to buy a domain name. Without this, you will not have access to LWS's free web hosting.
The disadvantage is that you will have to pay the price of your domain name (between 8 and 15 euros). The advantage is that at least your site will be able to have a real domain name... and not a subdomain as is the case with 000WebHost or PlanetHoster. That said, nothing stops you from buying a domain name and linking it to one of the hosts mentioned.
What are the technical specificities of the LWS offer? We offer you a short summary:
- 2 Go de stockage
- Latest versions of PHP and MySQL supported
- Solid State Drives
- E-mail address
- …
This is clearly not the most attractive free host in our comparison for 2024. Now, this offer has the merit of existing.
Want to learn more about LWS? In this case, consider consulting ourtest complet de LWS.
5) 11VM Serv
© 11VM Serv
The last host in our ranking for the best free web hosting for 2024 is 11VM Serv.
Unlike all the hosts listed so far, with 11VM Serv you will have access to four different plans.
What will change each time is the allocated disk space (which will vary from 250 MB to 1 GB).
Otherwise, the rest of the functionalities and technical characteristics will remain the same:
- Support de PHP et MySQL
- Unlimited traffic
- Free SSL certificate
- Ability to make a backup
In terms of performance, we must warn you that it is not really that. Which is understandable since 11VM Serv wants you to then switch to one of its paid offers.
Having tested this free web host at length, we only recommend it as a last resort. Although his plans are generous, they are too weak. To host a WordPress (or other) site, you will very quickly be limited.
What are the disadvantages of free web hosting?
Why we don't recommend staying with a free web host? Well the reasons are numerous as you may have already noticed during our presentation of the top 5.
To prove our point, we are going to focus a little longer on all the disadvantages that come with free web hosting.
As you might expect, by choosing not to pay anything, you will not be able to expect good performance and, above all, unlimited service.
Presence of advertisements
The first very unpleasant thing is the fact that with most free web hosting, you will have to put up with a certain amount of ads.
Once your site is created, the host will in fact give itself the right to place one or more advertisements on your site.
Yes, you cost them something by using their free offer and you bring them nothing, so the host must make some money in a roundabout way.
If your ambition is to create a professional and serious platform, having ads (which will also bring you nothing personally) will be a big disadvantage.
To remedy this, there are not 36,000 solutions. You will have to opt for paid web hosting and therefore avoid 100% free web hosting.
Limited performance and bandwidth
What's the point of having a website if it takes almost ten seconds to load each time you open it? Well if you ask us, it doesn't really make sense.
Unfortunately, this is what you are going to expose yourself to by going with a free web host.
As said previously, hosts have no interest in rolling out the red carpet for you by offering you good performance, all for free.
Their goal is to make you want to switch to their paid offers. And to achieve this, they will not hesitate to restrict your accommodation. To the point where your site will very often be slow and limited from a bandwidth point of view.
Given that Google is increasingly taking into account the speed aspect for its SEO, your website, although free, will start with a significant disadvantage and may well never position itself as it should on the queries you are targeting.
Little available disk space
We're certainly not telling you anything by telling you that a website needs storage space to function.
You will want to upload images to illustrate your articles and your comments. Or to set up an online store.
In addition, you will certainly want to install new themes (whether on WordPress, Joomla, etc.) as well as plugins.
All of this requires disk space. Something that free web hosting has difficulty granting you. As you can see from our comparison above, you can claim a maximum of 1 GB of storage. Which isn't much, even for a small site.
By spending a few euros per month to obtain paid web hosting, you will have access to at least 10 GB, or even unlimited storage space.
No SSL certificate offered
Once again this is not a generality but the vast majority of free web hosts will not allow you to benefit from a free SSL certificate.
As a reminder, an SSL certificate is what will give you the possibility of securing all connections made to your site. This will force the use of the secure HTTPS protocol.
In 2024, not having such a thing on your site will penalize you.
Indeed, search engines place a warning message indicating that your site may potentially be dangerous.
To avoid bad publicity and also prevent your potential visitors from fleeing before even arriving on your site, you will need to set up an SSL certificate. A host like Hostinger offers one for any new subscription to its hosting (even the one at €1.49/month).
No domain name offered (only a subdomain)
We continue with the (many) disadvantages linked to the use of free web hosting. We will now talk about the domain name.
As described above, each host that offers free hosting will give you access to a subdomain. This may seem sufficient but in reality, it is not.
When you create a website, it is important to have a domain name that matches the name of your blog, your brand, your business. Without it, you will lose credibility.
Furthermore, by using the subdomain provided via the free hosting offer from 000WebHost, PlanetHoster, etc., you cannot hope to break through from a natural referencing point of view. For this you once again need your own domain name!
If you don't want to pay anything, please note thatHostingeretPlanetHosteroffer a domain name with their paid offers.
No email address linked to your domain/site
The fact that no email address is offered by completely free web hosts follows what we were able to raise in the “Domain name” section.
Since you will not have your own domain name (but a subdomain which links you to your host), no email address will be offered to you.
This is not an end in itself but it must be admitted that for many, it can be embarrassing.
It is interesting to have an email address directly linked to your domain name. For example, for iPhon.fr: news[a]iPhon.fr.
It actually looks a lot more professional, don’t you think? In short, you will have understood, you will have to give up on this by choosing free web hosting.
Unavailable or slow customer support
Finally, the last big disadvantage related to using a 100% free web host is the fact that the customer support offered will be disappointing... or even completely absent.
You can imagine that because you are not going to pay anything, web hosts will put you after everyone else.
What's the point of favoring users who pay nothing? You might as well satisfy paying customers as quickly as possible.
In the event of a problem or question, you will therefore have to be very patient. And that’s if you’re lucky enough to have access to customer support.
It is increasingly common to find free web hosts that do not provide any technical support.
It makes you think. Especially knowing that by paying only a few euros per month, you will have the right toHostingerorPlanetHoster, 24/7 customer support. Plus, you'll never have to wait long to get a response.
The best free web host: conclusion
If, despite all the disadvantages listed, you still want to go with a free web hosting offer, then we recommend that you opt for the 000WebHost host.
Although limited, it will give you access to everything you will need to create your first website.
Its very big advantage over the competition is that you will subsequently be able to migrate to the parent company and its quality paid offers: Hostinger.
As a reminder, if you have not had the opportunity to readour comparison of the best hosts, according to our tests and our feelings, it is the reference in 2024.
Frequently Asked Questions
To really cover all the questions related to free web hosting, we will still answer a few questions that come up repeatedly.
Is it possible to have free web hosting for life?
Yes it is entirely possible. All of the free web hosts presented in our comparison can be used for an unlimited period. So you can enjoy it for as long as you want. Be aware, however, that if your goal is to set up a professional and ambitious site, you will instead have to turn to inexpensive web hosting like that ofHostinger (from €1.49 per month).
What is the best free web host with FTP?
All the names cited in our 2024 ranking of the best free web hosting come with FTP access. You will therefore have no trouble administering your site, installing a theme manually, or modifying certain configuration files via FTP.
What is the best free web host for WordPress?
In our eyes, the reference free web host for a WordPress site is000webhost. It will provide you with an automatic WordPress installer, offer you 300 MB of disk space (which is enough to get started), no ads will be placed on your free WordPress site, and in addition you will be able to benefit from a panel administration based on cPanel.
Is there free web hosting with domain name?
No free web host will offer you a .com, .fr, or even .net domain name. It simply doesn't exist. What no-cost web hosting will offer you is a subdomain. For example, by creating hosting with 000WebHost, you will have a domain name in nomdevotresite.000webhostapp.com.
What is the best free web hosting for your site?
If you really want 100% free web hosting, then the host you should choose is 000WebHost. It is one of the most generous and in addition, it will allow you to subsequently migrate to the paid offers ofHostinger(since the two are related). It is therefore the perfect solution to start without paying anything, then move on to something more serious as soon as the need arises.
