I’ll refer back to my intro: It’s human nature to look for the free route in any new business or personal venture. And dozens of companies have emerged to capitalize on that instinct. Some are worth your time; others are bogus. By partnering with sites like ours, you are privy to the latest deals made available by quality providers.
Take a look at 2018‘s best online promotions for hosting services we’ve already covered, or check out what the experts have to say about the free runnerup hosting sites and website builders below. See any familiar faces?
1. Wix.com
A strong, browser-based website builder, Wix.com reigns supreme if you want a simple, drag-and-drop interface for building basic sites(i.e., for portfolios, small sites, etc.).
While it’s not for those who are looking to work out their coding skills, house various video files, or host an app they’ve been tinkering with (If you match these descriptions, read on!), Wix leads the way when it comes to easy setup and robust features.
Note that advanced email, domain, and eCommerce features are available from Wix by upgrading to its non-free plans. Their support isn’t always great, but it almost doesn’t matter. We find Wix.com’s offering to be ideal for beginner site owners:
- Storage: 500MB
- Domain: Wix.com subdomain
- eCommerce: No
- Bandwidth: 500MB
- Email: Yes
- Website Builder/Design: Drag-and-drop editor with lots of templates and apps
Wix.com
Monthly Starting Price$0.00
- FREE signup with email or Facebook
- Drag-and-drop designing is super easy
- 1-year domain free with most plans
- Up to $300-worth of ad credits
- Access to 1,000s of templates and additional tools in the App Market
- Get started on Wix now.
Wix: Our Expert's Review
| Money Back Guarantee | Disk Space | Domain Name | Best Overall Hosting Plans |
|---|---|---|---|
| 14 days | 500 MB - 20 GB | Transfer | www.wix.com |
2. WordPress.com
One of the most well-known brands when it comes to getting online, WordPress powers 30% of all websites. The open-source version of the content management requires site owners to purchase and configure a web hosting plan, but WordPress.com removes all that hassle by pairing the popular system with plenty of online storage and support.
The biggest knock on WordPress is that it’s not as simple as some of the drag-and-drop site builders such as Wix and Weebly. But with hundreds of themes and customization options to choose from, WordPress gives users an extraordinarily high ceiling with which to create and grow an online presence.
- Storage: 3GB
- Domain: WordPress.com subdomain
- eCommerce: No
- Bandwidth: 3 GB
- Email: Yes
- Website Builder/Design: Hundreds of mobile-friendly themes and customizations
Even at the free level, WordPress.com allots users ample storage space. Upgrading to plans that cost as little as $4 per month, however, unlock more themes, advanced customization options, more storage, eCommerce functionality, and SEO tools.
Sign Up With WordPress Now »
3. Weebly.com
The well-known website builder also offers a variety of hosting plans that integrate with their brilliant platform. Weebly’s templates are among the most polished and modern you can find.- Storage: 500MB
- Domain: Weebly.com subdomain
- eCommerce: No
- Bandwidth: Unlimited
- Email: No
- Website Builder/Design: Free templates; can edit via HTML, CSS, or drag-and-drop
By upgrading to the $8/month plan, you can add an eCommerce store. The free plan has no ads, but Weebly does include their branding in the footer of your website.
Weebly.com
- All-in-one hosting and industry-leading drag-and-drop website builder
- Start designing for FREE, upgrade to an affordable plan whenever
- Easily build a blog, personal site, online store, or business portfolio
- 100s of FREE templates for websites and online marketplaces
- $100 credit toward Google advertising
- Get started on Weebly now.
Weebly: Our Expert's Review
| Money Back Guarantee | Disk Space | Domain Name | Cheap Hosting Plans |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 days | 500 MB - Unlimited | FREE (w/ paid plans) | www.weebly.com/site-builder |
4. Bravenet.com
Serving more than 15 million members, Bravenet provides a full-service hosting option for people looking for the complete package. In addition to a drag-and-drop site builder and unlimited storage, the Canadian company is one of the only free web hosters with an email marketing platform. Customers can also enjoy community-building features such as message boards, mailing lists, blogs, contact forms, polls, and other tools.- Storage: 500mb
- Domain: Free Bravenet subdomain
- eCommerce: Ecwid shopping cart, product search, and product listings
- Bandwidth: 1 GB
- Email: Unlocked with paid upgrades
- Website Builder/Design: Free drag-and-drop website builder
Bravenet’s email marketing tool helps you build a contact list and design your messages through templates or customized solutions. Plus, the company’s in-depth analytics dashboard will help you gauge your success.
Bravenet is currently revamping its site builder and preparing to roll out 400 top-level domains for customers who want to upgrade to their own registration, according to Founder and CEO Dave Shworan. With plans starting as low as 99 cents per month, the company provides a pain-free entry into paid hosting services.
5. x10Hosting.com
The veterans at x10Hosting pride themselves on giving their free hosting customers a stable and high-performance environment with the latest versions of PHP, MySQL, and cPanel.- Storage: 1 GB
- Domain: 2 add-on domains, 1 parked domain, and 2 subdomains
- eCommerce: 1-click installs for eCommerce platforms such as Magento
- Bandwidth: Unlimited
- Email: 3 free accounts
- Website Builder/Design: Website builder with more than 150 templates; other programs available via cPanel installations
Unlimited storage and bandwidth is a major plus for x10Hosting, along with a support community of more than 750,000 members.
Sign Up With x10hosting Now »
6. AwardSpace
A pioneer in the free web hosting industry with more than 10 years experience, AwardSpace.com relies on free hosting to grow their customer base.- Storage: 1GB
- Domain: Hosting for 1 domain and 3 subdomains is included
- eCommerce: No
- Bandwidth: 5GB
- Email: 1 email account and spam filter
- Website Builder/Design: No, but Joomla and WordPress installers are included
Their free plan, which is ad free, allows hosting newcomers to test the service and see if they want to invest in more features over the long term.
7. 5GBFree.com
One of the newer free hosting companies on our list, 5GBFree.com focuses on cutting-edge technology and security by recently moving to a top US-based datacenter and using the CloudLinux operating system.- Storage: 5GB
- Domain: 1 add-on and 1 parked domain
- eCommerce: 1-click installs for Joomla, PHPShop, and ZenCart
- Bandwidth: 20GB
- Email: No
- Website Builder/Design: 1-click WordPress installs; other apps available via cPanel
5GBFree.com stopped advertising on free accounts starting in late 2014. Support is limited to their forums, but you will never be asked to sign a contract for the free hosting plan.
8. Freehostia.com
With interesting plan names, Freehostia’s Chocolate flavor offers free cloud hosting. The load-balanced server cluster platform is up to 15 times faster than more traditional shared hosting setups.- Storage: 250MB
- Domain: 5 hosted domains
- eCommerce: 1-click cart installations of several top platforms
- Bandwidth: 6GB monthly
- Email: 3 email accounts
- Website Builder/Design: Free website templates, plus 1-click installs
While the 250 megabytes of storage is a little small, it’s hard to argue with Freehostia’s 24/7 support and ad-free environment.
9. FreeWebHostingArea.com
Without many of the bells and whistles of the more novice-friendly free hosting plans, Free Web Hosting Area gives the more tech-savvy folks room to explore and experiment with modern versions of PHP, MariaDB, and Apache.
Offering free hosting for more than 13 years, Free Web Hosting Area is a veteran option that upgrades users’ experience with multi-CPU servers, ample RAM, and solid-state disks that boost speed and reliability.
For less-experienced users ready to graduate from site builders, Free Web Hosting Area provides above-average support and has many more features in the works: a community forum, site builder, support for SSL certificates, and an auto-installer for popular software.
- Storage: 1.5GB
- Domain: Free subdomain or transfer your own registered domain
- eCommerce: No
- Bandwidth: Unlimited
- Email: No
- Website Builder/Design: In the works, slated for release in 2018
- Your free account will never expire so long as your site has at least one visit each month. Free Web Hosting Area guarantees that “small sites” will never have an ad, or you can guarantee no ads for $1 per month.
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