Free Web Hosts

There are numerous free web hosting services available. So, if you can get a web host for free, why would anybody pay for it? Well, there are several limitations associated with free web hosting, including:

  • They typically have lower limits for disk space and bandwidth than commercial web hosts.
  • They typically have lower availability figures. As we mentioned in the previous section, web hosting services don't always advertise their availability figures, so it can be hard to get data, but free hosts are typically unavailable more often and for longer periods.
    Bear in mind that at first glance availability figures can seem very good, but when you look a little deeper that may not actually be the case. For example, if a web host has an availability figure of 99% (meaning it's available 99% of the time), that sounds impressive. However, it means your website will be unavailable for 3.65 days every year, which may not be acceptable if you're using it for commercial purposes.
  • You often need to use a specific second-level domain. So, your site couldn't be yourdomain.com, but would have to be something like yourdomain.x10hosting.com (if you're using the free web hosting from x10Hosting for example).
  • Some services requires that you include their advertising (from which they get the revenue) on your site.
  • Customer support may not be as good as for commercial web hosts (or could even be non-existant).
  • Some are only introductory offers, free for a certain period of time, after which you will need to pay.

The Best Free Web Hosts?

We don't have much direct experience with free web hosts, so aren't in a position to make a definite recommendation. However, some that you may want to consider include:

There's a comparison of free web hosts, including user reviews, available at: http://www.free-webhosts.com/webhosting-01.php.

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