You want to have your own website, but you want it for free, right ? There are different services that provide free web hosting. But there are so many of them that, sometimes, it's difficult to make a choice. Before signing up for any free web hosting provider, consider the following:
- What kind of web site do you want, a static HTML and CSS based or a more robust, dynamic one?
- What platforms and programming languages do you need to use? For example, PHP, Python, Perl, Ruby on Rails, ASP.NET, CGI scripts, ColdFusion etc. What database server do you need, like MySQL ? Operating System, like Windows or Linux ?
- Consider the availability of features like FTP upload, CPanel, SSH access, email accounts and aliases (web based, SMTP, POP, relay etc), phpmyadmin.
- How much disk space do you need, and how much bandwidth?
- Do you need to have custom configuration facility like with .htaccess, php.ini etc ?
- Will you use CURL and/or cron jobs?
- Do you want to install scripts and applications (like drupal, joomla, wordpress, django, movable-type) or want them provided by the hosting provider ? Do you need website statistics, logs, website builder, custom error pages, templates etc provided by the hosting provider?
- What about backups and support ?
- Do you need SSL (shared or private)?
- Do you need free subdomains? Will you also park multiple domains in the same hosting server?
- Do you like to have ads in your website, placed by the hosting provider? In what forms? Are banner-ads fine?
- How often is the provider down? If the uptime is not satisfactory, signing up may be a bad idea, unless you have other reasons.
Normally, all of these facilities aren't available in "free" hosting option. Of those available, not all features are offered by a single provider. You have to choose from combination of the subset of these features.
Remember, web space and domain name aren't the same thing. Both are necessary to build a website, and in this post, we discuss only about web space, ie. hosting. You have to obtain a domain name separately. Hosting services sometimes also provide free domain names, or a subdomain like yourname.domain.com.
There are many free hosting providers, one needs to be careful to make a choice. Many hosting providers have stopped or closed their service altogether. This may result in a loss of your files and a change in your web-address, old-links not working and a lot of work finding a new, reliable provider and migrating files. Before making a choice, ask yourself the following questions:
- For how long has this provider been in service, and for how long does it look like being able to exist? Normally, the more, the better
- How many users/websites is this provider serving? The more, the better
- Is this provider making profit? You would want to choose a profitable company that is more likely to continue the business. Providers serving ads, paid hosting services or paid upgrades are generally more likely to be making profits compared to the ones without ads or paid services.
- How good is the support system? Are there good forums and discussions going on? How fast and frequent are the replies?
- What is the account-termination and notification policy? Do they notify users before terminating account or their service, and do they allow sufficient time to make backups? Do they help users in this process?
- How strict are the terms of usage? Some providers dont want to allow anything other than plain HTML pages and would terminate your account if you violate.
Here is a list of some good free hosting providers that we have compiled. The entries are in no particular order or preference and we suggest you to check with them for more information and confirmation. Their features, configurations and policies may change any time. Spend enough time to collect all necessary information before signing up.
- X10Hosting
- AwardSpace
- 365-Hosting
- Heliohost
- HostHelpers
- 110MB Hosting
- Trap17
- FreeSpace
- Host-ed
- T35Hosting
- LeadHoster
- 1ASPHost
- Free Domain Site
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