Grace Cornish 
Are you thinking about building a website but don’t want to invest in hosting yet? Whether you are a student creating a personal website or blog, a business establishing an online presence, or a freelancer presenting a professional portfolio, free WordPress hosting offers a cost-effective and low-risk gateway to building your presence online.
Having said that, one thing that most guides won’t tell you about free WordPress hosting is that it has its own trade-offs. Understanding the trade-offs and knowing which provider can give you a complete value for money can help you in smart decision-making.
This guide provides you a deeper insight into five well-known free WordPress hosting services: MilesWeb, Hostinger, Namecheap, Bluehost, and GoDaddy.
Table Of Content
Free WordPress hosting- Who is it for?
Free hosting is not for everyone. Before knowing about individual providers, let’s understand who benefits the most from a zero-cost plan:
- Beginners learning WordPress for the first time without having to deal with any financial risk.
- Students and hobbyists running personal or academic blogs.
- Developers building demo or staging environments.
- Small NGOs or community projects with no dedicated IT budget.
- Entrepreneurs validating a business idea before committing to a paid plan.
If your website is an ecommerce store, a client-facing business website, or a monetized blog, free hosting is almost certainly a stepping stone rather than a destination. The limitations in storage, bandwidth, uptime guarantees, and custom domain support will eventually push you towards a paid plan. Considering all this, getting free WordPress hosting to get started is a completely legitimate and smart strategy.
What to look for in a Free WordPress hosting plan?
The following are some key considerations while choosing free WordPress hosting services. Free hosting is indeed good for beginners; however, the quality of service might not be consistent among all service providers. Considering these vital aspects will ensure that you get a good hosting service that matches the growing needs of your website.
– Storage Space
Storage space is determined by how much data your website will be able to store on the web server. This includes data like themes, plugins, images, videos, blogs, and many other pieces of information. Over time as your website grows bigger, storage becomes crucial for uploads.
– Bandwidth
Bandwidth controls how much data your website can transfer to users within a specific period, making it important to understand your website’s traffic and usage needs before selecting a hosting plan. For instance, if your hosting plan has a restricted amount of bandwidth, your website might slow down or be taken offline when the number of people visiting is extremely high. Ensure that you choose the package that provides sufficient bandwidth for easy operations of the website.
– Uptime Guarantee
Since your website visitors might not visit your website only from 9am to 5pm but rather around the clock, your website should always be operational. This is measured by the percentage of uptime. A good hosting provider will guarantee an uptime of no less than 99.9%. Failure to have enough uptime will make the website lose its credibility.
– Custom Domain and Email Accounts
A custom domain makes your website look more professional and improves your credibility and branding on the internet. Many WordPress hosting providers also include free domain and professional email accounts in their plans.
– SSL Certificate
Having an SSL certificate helps encrypt the information that is being exchanged between your website and the user. Websites that use SSL have a lock symbol in their web browser, thus making them more credible in the eyes of the visitors. Another advantage of using SSL is that it improves SEO rankings of your website.
– 24/7 Expert Customer Support
Technical issues may pop up anytime, especially for newbies who have no idea about WordPress. It is always preferable to opt for a hosting company that offers round-the-clock reliable support so that any technical issue related can be resolved quickly.
Best free WordPress hosting providers: Features comparison
| Company | Starting Price | Renewal Price | Storage | Free Domain | Free SSL | Bandwidth | Websites | Email Accounts | Uptime |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
£0.99/mo | £1.89/mo | 10 GB NVMe | Yes | Yes | Unlimited | 1 | 1 | 99.9% |
|
£2.99/mo | £10.99/mo | 10 GB SSD | No | Yes | Limited | 1 | 1 | 99.9% |
|
Free | £7.37/mo | 10 GB NVMe | No | Yes | Unlimited | 1 | No | 99.9% |
|
£2.93/mo | £7.34/mo | 10 GB NVMe | Yes | Yes | Limited | 10 | No | 99.9% |
|
£3.99/mo | £11.99/mo | 10 GB NVMe | Yes | Yes | Limited | 1 | 1 | 99.9% |
Pricing and hosting features may vary depending on promotional offers, billing cycle, and selected shared hosting plan.
Which are the best free WordPress hosting providers?
1. MilesWeb
MilesWeb’s free WordPress hosting is one of the most beginner friendly options. With its one click WordPress installation feature, you can launch a fully functional WordPress website within seconds. Backed with NVMe SSDs, free SSL certificates, free migrations, and around the clock customer support along with a combination of features like mPanel, automatic updates, and LiteSpeed technologies, MilesWeb is a reliable choice for someone who is starting their online journey and looking for managed web hosting services.
Their global network of server locations and around the clock customer support are the strongest points of MilesWeb, which means along with faster performance and low latency, it also promises reliable and timely support during emergencies.
Another key highlight of MilesWeb is its clear and fair pricing policy. Where most hosting services increase their prices drastically upon renewal, MilesWeb offers renewals at a very minimal price, allowing its users to save costs unexpectedly incurred in website management and maintenance.
2. Hostinger
Hostinger is globally known for its affordable hosting services for WordPress and an advanced user interface. You get managed hosting services for WordPress with features like SSD storage, free SSL certificates, regular backup services, artificial intelligence technology, and hPanel, which is their own control panel. The platform is meant to make web management easier for new users along with giving them the flexibility to grow.
Another reason why many beginners prefer its service is because of the simplicity of setting up a WordPress site on its platform. Its easy interface and swift setup time are the factors usually praised by the users.
Hostinger does not offer phone support. However, it has reliable 24/7 customer service via live chat and email helpdesk, well known for its fast response time, multilingual services, and large knowledge base.
3. Namecheap
Namecheap’s EasyWP Hosting is one of the most preferred options to build a website through WordPress. With features like a 1-click WordPress installer, automatic updates, a free CDN, free backup services, NVMe storage, and a convenient cPanel, using it becomes an effortless process for making your own website as a beginner.
The 30-day free trial for the EasyWP Starter plan offered by Namecheap is one of its most appealing benefits. You can test creating and working on a WordPress site for 30 days at no cost. It suits everyone from blog owners and students to freelancers and even small business hosting users wishing to create their first websites ever.
However, one downside of Namecheap’s service is that their renewal fees tend to be quite high compared to starting prices. While this is an excellent deal for newbies because of 1 month of free EasyWP hosting trial, you must also pay close attention to long-term pricing for renewal purposes.
4. Bluehost
One of the most recognized names when it comes to WordPress hosting is Bluehost. It is officially recommended by WordPress.org, a distinction shared by only a handful of hosts. This endorsement adds strong credibility to Bluehost, especially for new users and small businesses.
With its direct Cloudflare integration within its WordPress hosting ecosystem, it becomes easier for beginners to improve website speed and security without technical knowledge or external setup processes.
Like most international hosting companies, Bluehost has rather pricey renewal rates compared to the initial promotion ones, so users should carefully review long-term pricing before committing to multi-year plans.
5. GoDaddy
As one of the most renowned registrars of domains globally, GoDaddy provides its customers with domain registration services, WordPress hosting, email hosting, website building tools, and digital marketing services under a single roof. Its wordpress hosting plans come with features like automatic updates of WordPress core, daily backups, malware scanning, Web Application Firewall, DDoS protection, SSL certificates, caching, and staging sites.
One standout feature of GoDaddy is its AI-powered WordPress setup experience through “Airo for WordPress.” Rather than setting up a website manually, which involves many technical procedures, this offers the facility of answering some basic questions regarding your business, and then it sets up a WordPress website for you automatically.
Like other providers, GoDaddy’s introductory pricing can also appear very attractive initially, but the renewal costs for hosting, domains, and add-on services may increase significantly over time.
Wrapping Up
Choosing the best free WordPress hosting provider completely depends on your website’s requirements. Since the combination of features offered by each provider is different, the best way to make a decision is by making a list of features that are important for you, comparing them with each provider’s offer, and selecting the one that aligns best with your needs.
After comparing all the 5 providers discussed above, MilesWeb stands out as one of the most obvious options for someone who’s just starting out. The solid combination of features at such an affordable price makes MilesWeb one of the strongest choices for beginners.
FAQs
1. What is free WordPress hosting?
As the name suggests, free WordPress hosting is the platform that allows you to build and host your website online at no cost. Beginners, startups, small businesses, and bloggers use free WordPress hosting to build an online presence, test ideas, and understand their hosting requirements without spending a rupee.
2. What are some restrictions in free web hosting?
Free web hosting will always have restrictions when compared with paid hosting packages. Some examples are limited disk space, limited bandwidth, slow speeds, limited customization options, poor support, and branded or ad-filled websites in many instances.
3. Can I use my own domain name with free web hosting?
While some hosting providers allow users to add their own domain names to the hosting account, others assign only a subdomain to the user, like yoursite.providername.com. Even with a free hosting plan, many providers offer free domain registration and professional email accounts.
4. Is free web hosting suitable for a business website?
If you’re someone having a small business, just starting their journey and want to establish an online presence, free web hosting is for you. This can become your entry point on the internet and a platform to experiment with ideas and see what works for your business, all at a minimal or no cost.
5. Can I upgrade from free to paid hosting later?
Yes! You can upgrade from a free to a paid hosting when your website runs out of resources or needs advanced features. Most web hosting providers will seamlessly migrate your website to a higher plan without having to start from scratch.
6. How do I choose a reliable free hosting provider?
While looking for a reliable hosting provider, it’s important that you don’t focus just on the “free” label but also on factors such as performance, stability, flexibility, and support, as these can have a significant impact on your website and the user experience. By thoroughly comparing these factors, along with features of each hosting provider, you will be able to make a much informed decision.
