12 Best Free WordPress Hosting Services in 2023 [Pros & Cons]

Undoubtedly, WordPress is considered to be among the best blog sites out there.

Every day, thousands of individuals, hobbyists, and business owners make the decision to join millions of websites served by WordPress. 

Even famous companies and brands use WordPress to enhance their online presence.  

And thanks to the platform’s free and straightforward CMS, almost everyone can create an impressive-looking website, regardless of their technical knowledge level. 

But the hurdle comes when they face the decision of choosing a hosting provider.

If you do a quick search, you will notice that there are a lot of free hosting services – and as a human impulse, we think that why pay for a service when you are getting one for free?

Yes, a free service is a good option for those who are just testing the waters and are (not yet) ready to invest in a premium WordPress hosting provider. The free services will get your site up and running on the World Wide Web – without any time limit and offer scalability options as well. 

However, it is a good idea to remember that with every free hosting, you get what you pay for!’ But at the same time, you should work on building your brand name from the first day. Consider buying a domain name and point it to free hosting.

These services are incomparable with the flexibility, performance, and support options of a paid WordPress host, and you may want to consider migrating to a premium service as you grow your business or blog. 

Meanwhile, free WordPress hosting is a viable option to get your website in front of an audience without any financial obligation.

In this post, we have put together our in-depth review of the 12 best options for free WordPress hosting

You can also check out more details related to free hosting by jumping to one of the categories below:

Without further ado, let’s dive in and find the right hosting for your needs.

Beginners often confuse WordPress.com with WordPress.org. However, the latter is an open-source website builder, while WordPress.com is a free web-hosting service.

Similar to its CMS, WordPress.com is easy to use. Just fill in a few details to register, and your website will be ready to launch within a few minutes. It is also scalable with plenty of upgrade plans that you can approach as your site grows. 

However, with a free WordPress.com account, you are restricted to control your website at full extent.

KEY FEATURES (FREE)

Benefits

Easy to Setup
WordPress.com is an ideal option for non-tech savvy users looking for a quick way to get their content online. It is easy to set up and no additional installations are required. At the same time, the company’s high-powered infrastructure ensures reliability at all times.

3GB Disk Space
With each WordPress.com, you get 3GB disk space, along with unlimited bandwidth. However, if you run out of space, you can effortlessly switch to paid versions that start from $48/year for 6GB.

Access to Features
Every user of WordPress.com hosting gets access to it’s customized dashboard, making it easy to manage the website. You can also upload themes and plugins from the free collection with just a click.

Daily Backups & Upgrades
With WordPress.com, you don’t have to worry about upgrades and backups. WordPress will take care of all the technicalities on your behalf..

Drawbacks

Disruptive Ads
WordPress places its ads on every free hosting plan. Unfortunately, this means that you cannot sell any other ads on the free version, giving you very few monetization options.

No Custom Domains
Free WordPress.com hosting will restrict you with a branded domain – https://yourwebsite.wordpress.com). And you will need to switch to a paid plan to customize your domain name. 

Your site can be taken Down
WordPress holds power to remove your site at any time if they find your website violating their terms of services

Infinity Free main page

Infinity free is one of the best free WordPress hosting providers out there, providing unlimited bandwidth and disk space for its free users.

The hosting provider is availed by over 300,000 users. You can get unlimited domains and 10 email accounts using the free WordPress Hosting service.

They are also capable of providing a 99.9% uptime but you will not get any support if your site goes down for any reason. The great thing about InfinityFree is, they provide features such as DNS Service, Cloudflare CDN and SSL for all websites, free of cost!!

KEY FEATURES (FREE)
Infinity Free features
Benefits

Excellent Uptime
Infinity free can give you an uptime of 99.9 percent, which is fantastic for a free WordPress hosting service.

Great Response Time
The average response time is around 230 ms, which is pretty good.

No Ads
Hosting providers offering free services often push their ads on your website. This, however, is not the case with InfinityFree.

Free Website Migration
Infinity free provides assistance in moving your WordPress site to another host, completely free of cost. If you want to migrate your website, you don’t need to do it yourself or pay the new host.

Drawbacks

Restrictions with Unlimited Disk Space
Even though InfinityFree claims to provide unlimited bandwidth and disk space, it comes with restrictions. Their users have complained about accounts being suspended without any notice for high CPU usage.

No Customer Support
As a free user, the hosting solution will not provide you with customer support. In case you need assistance, you have the option to get your queries answered on forum support via members.

Free Plan Does Not Offer cPanel
The hosting provider's free plan gives you access to vPanel, which is a pretty average content management system and the interface is not very user-friendly.

000webhost main page

000 WebHost offers a completely free unlimited web hosting for lifetime with no strings attached. It’s not a demo or a trial version and a fantastic option to host your first free professionally looking WordPress site.

The hosting service works well with databases and you have access to industry-standard database management tools. Unlike some other free WordPress Service providers, the uptime is more than 99% and you can easily sign up with the hosting service.

000WebHost also offers a couple of cheap monthly plans for you to choose from. You can check out the features, benefits, and drawbacks of the free version below

KEY FEATURES(FREE)
000web host key features
Benefits

Good Response Time
Average response time for 000WebHost is between 200 to 250 ms which is not bad at all

Place Unlimited Ads
One of the great things about the hosting service is you can place your own adds without any limitations

No Annoying Ads On Your Website
Once you have created your website, it doesn’t bother you with irritating advertisements or banners

WordPress AutoInstall
You get the option auto-install WordPress and manage your site with the admin panel. The hosting provider will do the installation automatically and you don’t have to worry about the file setup and transferring time

Drawbacks

Not Great for Many Visitors
Your free website will slow down if more than 20 to 30 people log on to it simultaneously

No Email Accounts
No email service is provided with the free account, so, unfortunately, you don’t get a cool branded email ID

No Customer Support
As a free user, you will not get any technical support from the hosting service

No Backups
No Backups are provided with the free version. If you are looking to run an online business, then backups are a must and if something goes wrong, you may lose all your data in an instance.

Byet_Host main page

With over a million websites hosted, Byet Host is amongst the top-rated free WordPress hosting services. It is easy to use and offers unlimited disk space.

Most hosting providers do not offer customer support with the free plan and here Byet is different. You can get help from their customer support without paying anything.

I would recommend Byet Host as a great option to consider, especially with small projects or blogs where you do not expect more than 20 to 30 visitors each day.

KEY FEATURES (FREE)
Byet_Internet_Services key features
Benefits

Fantastic Response Times
Byethost will give you one of the best response times for your WordPress website. You can get an average response time of around 200 ms, which is excellent

No Advertisements
Your website users will not be annoyed with any advertisements

Sub-domain Choice
You can get a sub-domain of your choice using Byethost. You may either select site.byethost.com or choose from 7 other names

Quick File Uploads
Byethost’s Softaculous Script Installer helps you upload files fast without having to wait a long time.

Drawbacks

Doesn’t Support Many Visitors
Like all free WordPress hosting providers, Byethost is not a good option if you are looking to cater to a large number of users. The performance would go down as the number of users will increase

Limited Tech Support
Customer support with free hosting is provided via a ticketing system and you would need to upgrade to paid options for live support.

5. Cloud Access.Net

Cloud Access.Net​ main page

Cloud Access.Net is another option for those looking for a free web hosting service. 

Each free website comes with a basic version of the Cloud Control Panel for robust management and ease of automation. 

The company has also proven to provide its users with a guaranteed 99.99% uptime, regardless of the payment tier they choose – so reliability is not an issue if you go with a freemium. 

A variety of premium plans along with the feasibility to upgrade as your business escalates are also available. 

KEY FEATURES (FREE)
Benefits

Exceptional Service
Cloud Access.Net offers several features that make it stand apart from other free hosting providers. Firstly, they provide guaranteed uptime of 99.99%. Moreover, the service backs up your day every night so you don’t have to worry about losing the data.

Keep Your Site Forever
There is no timeframe for keeping your site live with hosting by Cloud Access. This means you can keep your site running on their servers for a lifetime – with zero cost.

Access to Cloud Control Panel (CCP)
CCP is a top-of-the-line control panel in the hosting industry. The free plan by Cloud Access gives you access to the basic version of CCP that makes managing your WordPress site very easy.

Drawbacks

Custom Domain not Available
One of the most significant drawbacks of choosing a free hosting service is the unavailability of a custom domain. If you want your unique web address, you will have to upgrade to their premium plan – starting from $5. 

Site Removal 
Cloud Access can remove your site from their server in case they suspect any malicious activity. Moreover, to keep your site running, you have to log on to the CCP at least once a month – or you may face the extinction of your web site. 

6. GoogieHost

googie-host-website main page

You can easily confuse their name with Google. Well, that is one way of gaining attention. Nevertheless, GoogieHost provides cPanel and Cloudflare which are usually not offered by most other free WordPress Hosting services.

Unlike many other services, they offer customer support to their free users via email. You can also easily download several website templates using the control panel and upload them after editing.

One of the great things about GoogieHost is that it offers spam protection for its free users, a facility not offered by its competitors. The hosting provider also has some excellent reviews on the internet, which is kind of rare to see for free hosting services.

KEY FEATURES (FREE)
GoogieHost_Logo key features
Benefits

No Advertisements
GoogieHost doesn’t place any annoying ads on your website. You can place advertisements on your website to make some money out of it, completely free of cost.

Free cPanel
You are provided with absolutely free access to cPanel and a free subdomain as well

Free Cloudflare
The hosting also gives you access to Cloudflare, increasing the security and performance of your WordPress site

Excellent Reviews
If you check the web, GoogieHost has excellent customer reviews and most of their users appear to be very satisfied with free WordPress Hosting service

Drawbacks

100 Mbps Shared Uplink
This means that using the free of cost service, if 100 users have hosted a domain, 100 Mbps speed will be divided amongst the users. If you are looking for a normal one-page website, you shouldn’t face any issues.

Website Response Time
One of the major drawbacks of using GoogieHost is that it doesn’t give you a great response time. Especially, if you open a website for the first time, it may take a while.

New Domain Activation
Activating a new domain with GoogieHost can be time-consuming. It may take from 4 hours up to 24 hours to activate a new domain with the free WordPress hosting service

Security Errors
Some of their users have reported issues such as the connection not being private while trying to access cPanel

7. AWARD SPACE

Award Space is another major name in providing cheapWordPress hosting services. It’s easy to set up and provides 5 GB Bandwidth and 1 GB disk space, free of cost.

With the free service, you are allowed 1 domain, three sub-domains and access to one email account with spam protection. And Customer Support is also provided.

The great thing about Award Space is that you are unlikely to face any downtime, even with the free account. Their premium plans are also good value for money.

KEY FEATURES (FREE)
award-space key features
Benefits

Great Uptime
You get an uptime of more than 99% and downtimes are seldom reported

Free Website Builder
Award Space provides an easy to install, free website builder

No Ads
Your website is not disturbed with any advertisements

Customer Support
As a free user, you will get access to the customer support feature

Drawbacks

No cPanel
The control panel to manage your websites may take some time getting used to.

Limited Disk Space and Bandwidth
The disk space and bandwidth are not ideal – as expected with the free plan

Data Backup
You will not be able to back up your data with the free option and may lose all of it if your website goes down

8. x10hostings

x10Hostings main page

x10hostings is another hosting service offering free WordPress hosting. It’s easy to use and does not take much time to set up.

They claim to provide unmetered bandwidth and disk space and mention that you can grow your site without the fear of low limits offered by free hosting competitors.

However, it does come with restrictions.

KEY FEATURES (FREE)
x10Hostings key features
Benefits

Reliable Uptime
x10hostings provides a reliable uptime for your website and you are unlikely to face many downtimes.

Decent Response Time
The load time is not the best, but it’s still not bad. You may get a 350 ms average response time using the free service.

Free cPanel
You can manage your sites using cPanel, without paying any additional cost.

Drawbacks

Restrictions with Bandwidth and Disk Space
As expected, you will get very limited bandwidth and disk space with the free plan. Their high resource usage policy indicates that if you have a website utilizing a lot of resources, it may be temporarily suspended.

No Customer Support
You don’t have access to customer support with the free option. Also, they don’t have great reviews for customer services provided with the paid options

No Email
You don’t get any email account with the free option

9. 100WebSpace

100Webspace is a fairly popular free WordPress hosting domain with more than half a million users. They are a very good no-cost option to consider if you do not mind a small advertisement banner on your website.

It is easy to set up and like other free providers, you can switch to a paid option later with more features.

Their free plan comes with a web apps installer called “Elefante installer.” You can use it to easily set up a small page such as a profile page or even a photo gallery. The free version also offers customer support which is a fantastic option to have.

KEY FEATURES (FREE)
100 Web Space Logo
Benefits

High Uptime Percentage
100WebSpace offers an uptime of more than 99% and you are unlikely to face any outages, even with the free service

24/7 Customer Support:
As a free user, you will have access to their customer support via tickets/emails. Their average response time is around 1 hour, which is pretty good

Drawbacks

Limited Disk Space
Don’t expect too much from the free plan as they are only offering 100 MB disk space

Ad Banner
As a free user, you will see a small banner on the top of your free hosted site

10. AccuWeb Hosting

AccuWeb Hosting Main Page

When it comes to free WordPress Hosting, AccuWeb Hosting is a renowned name. You don’t have to deal with the hassles of banners or promotional ads. It is a fantastic option to host your website as it provides 100% uptime.

AccuWeb Hosting offers WordPress hosting for a lifetime. They give 100% assurance that you will not have to pay, unless of course you require more features.

You can get a user-friendly control panel to set up your website, and it enables you to enjoy a fully optimized WordPress account with SSD storage.

KEY FEATURES (FREE)
Benefits

Good Response Time
The average response time of AccuWeb Hosting is 280-376ms, which is quite good for a free service.

100% Uptime
Using the free plan, you get an uptime of 100% without any outages.

Free cPanel
You can get full access to the cPanel, and manage your files, databases and much more from a single account.

No Advertisements
Your website is not troubled with any ads or irritating pop ups.

Free CloudFlare
AccuWeb Hosting provides CloudFlare service, which speeds up your WordPress website and protects it from online threats.

Drawbacks

Disk Space and Bandwidth Limitations
As a free user, you only have limited disk and bandwidth space.

No Migration with Free Account
While AccuWeb Hosting provides free migration from your existing WordPress host, the offer is not available for the free of cost option.

Limited Customer Support
Using this free of cost service, you can get limited support via a ticketing system.

Limited Backup
With a free hosting plan, AccuWeb Hosting provides a limited backup functionality.

11. Freehostia

Free Hostia Main Page

Freehostia is another popular option for a free WordPress hosting service, if you may be looking to upgrade your site with a premium plan later on.

The free Chocolate hosting plan provides 6GB monthly traffic and 250MB disk space. You also get 24/7 customer support and a 1 click web application installer.

Freehostia is an easy to use and you can use it for as long as you want without paying anything.

KEY FEATURES (FREE)
free hostia logo
Benefits

Easy to Use
Freehostia is easy to use and includes a one-click web application installer.

Customer Support
The hosting service provides 24/7 customer support, even with the free option.

Drawbacks

Limited Disk Space and Bandwidth
As a free user, you only have the option to develop small websites due to bandwidth and disk space restrictions.

Response Times
Even though the load time is not bad, you can get faster website performance using some other free WordPress Hosting services.

12. FreeHostingNoAds

FreeHostingNoAds main website page

As the name indicates, the free WordPress hosting service ensures they don’t pop up any adverts on your website. FreeHostingNoAds is an easy to use service and creating a new account doesn’t take much time.

The service gives you 1 GB disk space and 5GB bandwidth. You can host one domain and have one email account with the free service. 

You also have the option to upgrade to one of their premium plans, if you ever wish to do so

KEY FEATURES (FREE)
FreehostingNoAds logo
Benefits

Easy To Install
The installation is pretty straight forward and you can use the services without much hassle.

No Ads
Your website will not be bombarded with annoying adverts.

Drawbacks

No Uptime Guarantee
Freehostingnoads do not offer an uptime guarantee. Your website may experience some downtime using the free service

Tech Support
Even though they claim to offer tech support, it is likely to be very limited

Free vs. Paid Hosting Providers

Apart from the ‘zero’ price tag, there are many features that differentiate the paid and free hosting plans. And to help you understand the difference and make the right decision, let’s discuss their pros and cons individually.

Free WordPress hosting providers’ benefits 

The advantages of choosing a free hosting provider from the recommended ones above include:

  • Free hosting plans come with ready-made layouts and enable you to set up your website within minutes.
  • They are easy to use, and the lack of advanced solutions make it user-friendly for a person with even the most limited technical knowledge.
  • It is also a great learning platform where you can get a better idea of the hosting features.
  • It works as a ‘tester,’ and you can experience with software scripts, new blogs, and or a startup idea before making a financial commitment.
  • Above all, it’s free to use and comes with several basic features that give your website optimal performance.

Free WordPress hosting provider drawbacks

There is no such thing as a ‘free lunch,’ and the free hosting plans are the same. Yes, they are providing free hosting servers, but they also have to make money somehow, usually at the expense of your website.

  • To monetize their company, free hosting providers often place ads on your website. Any profit made from these ads will go to the hosting company, while your monetization options will be limited.
  • The placement of advertisements on your site may make it appear cluttered. It will also create a distraction for the visitor, impacting their experience.
  • Your domain name will also include the hosting provider’s name when you sign up for a free web host. For example, www.yourwebsite.wordpress.com – instead of the www.yourwebsite.com making it look unprofessional and difficult to remember.
  • Free hosting providers do offer some technical support, but they are usually available via email. Moreover, the response time for free users is often 24 hours and will not help you resolve issues as required.
  • A website’s uptime indicates the reliability it offers. Most free WordPress hosting providers do provide more than 99% uptime – but with the industry-standard being more than 99.9%, you probably might experience outages.
  • Free hosting plans limit bandwidth, storage space, and even webpages that restrict your website’s growth.
  • Free plans do not usually have security protocols in place. You can, however, install a WordPress Security plugin to avoid any unforeseen issues.

Paid hosting provider’s benefits

You can count on the following benefits with a paid web hosting provider.

  • Premium hosting services charge you for their features and thus provide you with a guaranteed uptime of more than 99.9%. This means scheduled maintenance and upgrades are carried on swiftly to ensure it doesn’t disrupt your business operations.
  • You have control of your website and can customize it according to your unique preference.
  • Paid hosting providers employ hundreds of customer service agents to assist you 24/7, so you can get the help you need immediately.
  • Paid hosting providers allow you to a customized domain name relevant to your brand. Some also offer free domain registration, while discounts are further applicable when you sign up for a premium host.
  • Security is an ongoing issue with websites. However, paid plans have security protocols in place to keep your site safe as much as possible.
  • Paid plans come with several features, such as SEO tools, analytics, social media sharing, email integration, eCommerce tools, and upgrades.

Paid hosting providers’ drawbacks

  • The main disadvantage of a paid WordPress host, when compared with the free options, is, of course – the payment you have to make for the service.
  • Additionally, paid service providers give you full control of the website, and you should have basic technical knowledge. This is something every new website creator should consider before making the shift to a paid host.

Why Do Companies Provide Free WordPress Hosting Services?

You have probably realized the business model of all free hosting providers is to try and get you to purchase a paid option after you have tested the free service.

There is a lot of competition among hosting providers and it’s certainly not easy to build a name in the market of website hosting. Many website hosting services offering great features and technical support, do not have big budgets to spend on advertising. They try to lure in prospects by offering tempting free services, hoping they may upgrade to a paid option later.

You should keep in mind that none of the companies offering “zero cost” web hosting services will provide you with all the features required to run a high-end website. If you are looking to grow your business, I always recommend you carefully choose a free hosting service, so you can easily upgrade to a premium plan later.

Is Free WordPress Hosting The Correct Choice For You?

Overall, free web hosting is a great place to start working on the web, especially if your website is an experimental project or a source of entertainment during your free time. 

The prime feature you need to look out for in a free hosted server is stability and reliability. It is also a good idea to pick out a web host that offers good paid plans if you decide to upgrade later.

But at the same time, we wouldn’t recommend limiting your business operations with a free hosting model.

As mentioned earlier, free hosting plans lack several features that are an integral part of the business infrastructure today – such as eCommerce, branding, and search engine optimization. A sense of uncertainty is also apparent regarding the site’s ownership with a free hosting provider.

And this is where you can count on a premium web hosting plan!

Luckily, for those who are on a tight budget, there are thousands of cheap and affordable hosting providers available. Site Ground and WP Engine are two of our favorite premium hosting providers for their dependable infrastructure at an affordable price. 

However, if you really want to trim your costs, one of the best choices available is Cloudways. It's an excellent cloud hosting provider that offers a pay-as-you-go pricing model, so you only pay for the resources that you consume.

Similarly, many beginners opt for free themes using WordPress to begin with. And there is nothing wrong with that. But you should keep in mind that premium themes offer more options, are generally safer and provide customer support as well to their users. To use WordPress on any hosting service,  a premium WordPress theme from Templatic would be a good start.

So to sum it up:

Free web hosting service – Ideal for novice websites, hobbyists, and entertainers

Paid web hosting service – For all commercial projects that are hoping to make money off their website, enhance their online presence and website conversion rate – such as business owners, online vendors, bloggers, and service providers. 

We hope you gained valuable insights related to free WordPress hosting. And would love to hear what you have to say.

Have you ever experienced a free WordPress hosting provider? Do share your recommendations in the comments below!

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