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If you’re starting your small business on a shoestring budget, then you will be looking to save costs wherever you can. One of the areas you may be considering cutting corners is website hosting: after all, website hosting prices can really add up.
There are a range of free website hosting services available for Australian small businesses, but it’s important to keep the following maxim in mind: all free plans have limitations. In other words, there is no such thing as a genuinely free hosting service as chances are you will be ‘paying’ for it via other means, such as limited features or functionality. Customer support, storage, bandwidth and perks, such as free domain names, are usually lacking in free plans. You may also notice that on free plans, the company (not your own) branding appears either in the domain name or on the website—sometimes both. You may also notice display ads are turned as well.
Free web hosting can work for personal websites and blogs, developer testing, side gigs and start-up sites. However, low-cost paid plans are typically more user-friendly and reliable for beginner users and business websites in Australia. You can read more in our guide to the best cheap web hosting for Australians.
If you’re not ready to commit to a paid plan or are just interested in experimenting with managing a site, a free plan can be a cost-friendly way to get started—but there are drawbacks. Here’s what you should know about free website hosting services.
Related: Best Web Hosting For Australians
Website hosting refers to the service that allows your website to be accessible on the internet. In some ways, web hosting is similar to the process of buying or renting a plot of land to build a house, except instead you’re purchasing space where you can build and maintain a website.
A web hosting provider will store all your website’s content and files on its servers, help manage data security and privacy, and assist in maintaining and upgrading your website so that it remains accessible to the public.
There are two types of web hosting: free and paid. With free website hosting, you will receive basic hosting features for no cost. With paid website hosting, you will receive a variety of hosting features based on a paid plan.
Short answer: yes, if all you need are the most basic features and you don’t mind some inconvenience, you can host your website for free (or close to it). Long answer: whether or not your web hosting is really “free” depends on what kind of website you are trying to build and what features come included in your free hosting plan.
Unfortunately, free web hosting plans only come with the most basic features. Limited resources, bandwidth and customisation options can prevent your site from appearing the way you want it, especially since you will likely have a cap on the amount of content and storage your host can support. This means your free website might only be allowed to have a certain number of pages or cannot include certain plug-ins, widgets or add-ons.
Similarly, most free web hosting plans do not come with several standard and necessary add-ons, forcing you to purchase them separately and incurring extra costs. Domain names, for example, are essential if you want your site to be accessible online. Paid hosting plans will typically include one or two free domain names, but free hosting plans rarely do. Other hosts have such limited bandwidth that including media such as videos, songs or lots of pictures can drastically slow down your website’s loading times.
Finally, it’s important to read the fine print of any free website hosting offer. Some providers offer free hosting which is the trial period of a paid plan, charged automatically once the trial period expires. Others recoup profit losses by adding advertisements to your website, which you cannot control, or including their own branding on your website (for example, in the domain name or at the bottom of pages).
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There’s no denying that free website hosting is a good option for simple, straightforward websites with minimal traffic. Personal websites and blogs can do well with free web hosting. However, if you want more options and resources, have big visions for your website, dislike advertising or are worried about security and customer support, you should look into a paid plan.
Unfortunately, free web hosting plans only come with the most basic features. Limited resources, bandwidth and customisation options can prevent your site from appearing the way you want it, especially since you will likely have a cap on the amount of content and storage your host can support. This means your free website might only be allowed to have a certain number of pages or cannot include certain plug-ins, widgets or add-ons.
In particular, you should consider a cheap web hosting service if any of the below applies to you:
Note: The below list represents a selection of our top category picks, as chosen by Forbes Advisor Australia’s editors and journalists. The information provided is purely factual and is not intended to imply any recommendation, opinion, or advice about a financial product. Not every product or provider in the marketplace has been reviewed, and the list below is not intended to be exhaustive nor replace your own research or independent financial advice. For more information on how Forbes Advisor ranks and reviews products, including how we identified our top category picks, read the methodology selection below.
Although there are many hosting services that tout themselves as free, not many of them are high-quality choices. We’ve searched through the options out there and narrowed them down to a list of the top five most worthy of your time and trust.
x10Hosting is the free version of x10Premium and offers one of the few free web hosting services that give you ad-free websites with unlimited storage and bandwidth. x10’s free plan includes a user-friendly website builder with more than 150 free templates, including e-commerce store designs. x10Hosting also offers easy one-click installs for more than 300 web scripts, including popular website platforms, such as WordPress, Joomla, MyBB and add-on galleries, blogs, forums, gaming tools and more.
x10’s free web hosting supports a custom domain but doesn’t give you a free domain. You can use the free x10 subdomain or connect a domain that you own. You can add a free email address using your connected domain or free subdomain.
AwardSpace is another free web hosting service that lets you build ad-free websites using its user-friendly Zacky website builder or use its one-click Zacky Installer to load WordPress, Joomla and Grav platforms. AwardSpace is a top pick for free and low-cost WordPress hosting in particular. It hosts millions of WordPress websites worldwide on both free and paid plans and provides extensive WordPress tutorials covering beginner through advanced topics.
You get a free email account on the free plan and can connect your own domain name and create three subdomains under that for blogging, forums and so on. Domain names aren’t free with the free hosting plan, but you do get a free domain for life with certain paid plans.
Byethost offers a robust free web hosting service for the tech-oriented user. If you are a website developer or designer looking for free web hosting for your own projects or client websites, Byethost tops your list of limited options. It also supports reseller accounts under the free plan if you want to offer client-managed hosting under your own suite of services.
However, Byethost doesn’t provide one-click platform installation like the other providers in our free web hosting roundup. If you’re comfortable with server-level file management and file transfer protocol (FTP) interfaces, Byethost is one to consider. Beginners will have an easier time with other free web hosting services featured here.
A much larger web hosting company known as Hostinger offers a basic, free hosting plan through 000webhost. With over 10 years of recognition as one of the best free website hosting platforms, 000webhost’s free plan is excellent for those looking for simple but useful features including a control panel, access to WordPress for website building and advanced web hosting features, such as Cloudflare-protected name servers, PHP, MySQL and FTP.
000webhost offers up to 3 GB of bandwidth delivered from its 24 GB SSD servers and the company takes web security seriously, running Imunify360 to regularly monitor the sites it hosts for malware and other threats.
Google Cloud offers web hosting through Firebase, an app development platform for building apps, games and websites. Firebase offers free web hosting through its Spark plan, which includes up to 10 GB of storage and excellent bandwidth (360 MB per day). However, to integrate with Google Cloud’s products and features, users will have to upgrade to the Blaze plan. Blaze is free, but the use of integrated Google Cloud features includes a no-cost quota which, once surpassed, will be pay-as-you-go. The Blaze plan also offers pay-as-you-go storage and bandwidth upgrades once users surpass the Spark plan’s initial offerings. Keep in mind that Google Cloud offers a 90-day free trial and $300 AUD in credits for feature use but is not free forever.
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Choosing the best free web hosting service depends on your unique needs. For beginners, ease of use, customer service and website builder tools are probably the most important features. For seasoned website builders or developers, factors such as storage, bandwidth and supported platforms and scripts might top the list.
Following that, uptime guarantees, ad-free websites and free perks such as domain names, email addresses and SSL certificates are important to any user considering free hosting. However, after comparing your needs to the various free plan features, you might find that free web hosting isn’t for you.
Cheap web hosting can be a smarter choice, especially for beginner users and business-critical websites. When comparing free and paid options, deciding factors often come down to features such as customer support and platform ease of use. Free perks, such as domains, email accounts and SSL certificates, can also sway a final decision. After that, storage, bandwidth and the number of websites supported can help narrow the list.
If you’re leaning toward a paid hosting plan, pricing is key. Most offer deeply discounted introductory rates for one- to three-year terms but renew at a far higher rate. Be sure to check the renewal rates so you don’t get a costly surprise when your introductory term expires.
Here are four of the top, low-cost website hosting alternatives.
You will note that we have included a star rating next to each product or provider. This rating was determined by the editorial team once all of the data points above were considered, and the pros and cons of each product attribute was reviewed. The star rating is solely the view of Forbes Advisor editorial staff. Commercial partners or advertisers have no bearing on the star rating or their inclusion on this list. Star ratings are only one factor to be considered, and Forbes Advisor encourages you to seek independent advice from an authorised financial adviser in relation to your own financial circumstances and investments before you decide to choose a particular financial product or service.
Few providers offer truly free web hosting services and those that do have prohibitive limitations, confusing or non-existent customer support or mediocre storage and bandwidth limits. Low-cost web hosting may be a better choice for those looking to save money. For additional options—including faster and more reliable providers than the free, or cheap, web hosting services detailed above—check out our comprehensive list of the overall best web hosting services for Australians.
Featured Partners
1
Bluehost
Starting price
$2.95 per month
Standout Features
Free domain name & SSL for a year
Money Back Guarantee
30 Day
2
HostGator
Starting price
$US3.75 ($5.62 AUD) per month
Storage and Bandwidth
Unmetered
Extras and inclusions
Free domain registration for a year, free website and domain transfer, free SSL certificate, free email
3
IONOS
Starting price
$US2 ($2.95 AUD) per month
Drag-and-drop interface
Yes
SSL certificate included
Yes
Yes, it does. There are a number of hosting providers that offer free web hosting, but be aware that may need to ‘pay’ for this service in other ways, such as via branded domains, ads or by limited storage, functionality and fewer features than paid iterations.
Web hosting is a service that allows anyone to rent space on the internet. Websites must have web hosting to be accessible online. Some content management systems (CMS), such as Squarespace and Wix, include web hosting as part of their monthly fee. For others, including WordPress, you’ll need to purchase web hosting from a web hosting provider, such as MochaHost or IONOS.
Yes, a few free web hosting services let you host a wide variety of websites with no start-up or ongoing costs. You can use a free web hosting service to run a WordPress website, blog or e-commerce store, host sites using Joomla and Drupal or use built-in website builders with plug-and-play website templates.
There are legitimate free web hosting services that offer guaranteed website uptime and customer support. However, SSL certificates, automatic backups, spam guards and malware protection typically aren’t included in a free hosting service. You can add them via plug-ins and scripts, but this can get pricey. Generally, low-cost paid plans that already include these features are better and more reliable.
A few free website hosting services offer free hosting with a free website. You can build your free website using built-in website builder tools or install free website platforms, such as WordPress, Joomla or Drupal. These platforms have a larger learning curve than site builder tools but offer more design options and functionality in the long run.
No, you do not need any special knowledge or skills to use a free web host. All good hosting providers offer clear instructions on how to purchase a hosting plan and start setting up your website. As long as your website is simple, and especially if you are enlisting the help of a website builder, it should be easy to get your website ready to go: no technical expertise necessary.
Setting up your new, free website can take anywhere from a few hours to several months. Depending on how complex your website is, how many extra features and pages it has and what it looks like, it is easy to spend weeks working on a single website. However, if you only need a simple, straightforward website with no extra frills, setting it up will take much less time.
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