Lately I have been trying to find the perfect free WordPress hosting.
Free WordPress hosting definitely has its challenges but it also has a lot of benefits for learning and practice specially if you are new into the world of WordPress and want to get your hands dirty with the platform without having to invest any money.
In some of my WordPress courses i.e. DigiSkills and SkillsFirst, I have been recommending 000webhost and until now it had a unique advantage of being the best free WordPress hosting but as I found out through some of my course students that 000webhost has changed its layout and put limitations on usage so I set out on the journey again to find the perfect free WordPress hosting and in this detailed post I try to compare a few of them.
Hosting WordPress for free
By now we hope you know that WordPress is one of largest free and open-source content management systems (CMS) and needs a hosting space to run.
But why do you even need hosting?
When you are up to create a new website, you require a hosting service. Web hosting is basically the space that you buy on a web-server to store your website files. With tons of available hosting service providers, you can go for premium and paid to host, but what if I tell you that you can get your website up and running with totally free of cost hosting service and that too with a possibility of no time limit?
Free hosting can do that for you but it comes with own challenges.
But Free hosting can’t have all the features right?
I know what you are thinking. You are thinking that if its ‘Free’ that it might have limited features right? Well! it turns out yes free hosting does have some limitations:
- Site speed might be slow
- Limited Storage and bandwidth
- Unavailability of 24/7 support
- Unavailability of Security
But being a beginner, you can work and practice with free services and get those premium services for the features that you still require. Some of these free hosting service providers fulfilling your needs to save you both time and investment are tested and described below.
000webhost is worth a try:
As suggested, it is one of the most popular FREE hosting service providers from Hostinger, a popular budget host
Features:
Some of the specifications of 000webhost are:
- 99% Uptime guarantee.
- Supports PHP and MySQL with no restrictions.
- Large disk space of 300 MB and bandwidth of 3GB
- One-Click Installation process.
- In-built Easy Website Builder.
- Friendly and responsive customer support.
- Support for PHP and MySQL databases.
- Instant activation with zero cost.
It is great, But…
It has recently changed its layout so new WordPress learners are facing issues and now they have also imposed quite a few limitations on usage.
Some of its limitations are
- Chances of spamming.
- A limited number of concurrent MySQL connections.
- Minimal security.
- No email account possible
- Unavailability of priority support
To get started, visit the website here.
The best alternatives to 000webhost
1. Cloud Access
Anyone can use it to launch a WordPress site and have it hosted for free with basic Cloud Control Panel™(CCP) features like the one-click Site Replicator and App Snapshot tools. In addition, they take daily backups of your site for safe-keeping.
Specifications of this service are:
- 500MB Disk Space
- 1 CPU Core
- 1 GB RAM
- Free Subdomain
However, there are certain limitations:
- Limited to subdomains and you need to upgrade to a paid plan (starting at $5) to use your own domain name.
- To keep your site online, log into the CCP at least once a month. If you do not, your site may be removed. Don’t worry, you surely get the reminders.
- They reserve the right to remove any site being used for malicious purposes.
For more details, visit their site here.
2. Google Cloud:
Google Cloud Platform (GCP) provides:
- access to all Cloud Platform products to build and run your apps, websites and services, including Firebase, Google Maps API, Kubernetes Engine, BigQuery, and other Cloud Platform products
- $300 for Free to spend on Google Cloud Platform over the next 12 months.
- No auto-charge after free trial ends
Pros of using Google Cloud hosting are:
- Better Pricing Than Competitors (in case of premium)
- Private Global Fiber Network
- Live Migration of Virtual Machines
- Improved Performance
- State of the Art Security
- Dedication to Continued Expansion
- Redundant Backups
You can use services up-to 300 dollars without any cost. Once you consume your limit only then it will charge you.
You can get started here.
3. Localhost – Xampp:
Xampp is a free and open-source cross-platform web server solution stack package by Apache’s friends and a tool in the Web Servers category of a tech stack used by developers for hosting their websites.
Some of the pros of Xampp are:
- little or no configuration of the various components
- Self-contained
- Existence of multiple instances of XAMPP on a single computer
But its installation can get tricky and maybe annoying.
4. Local by Flywheel:
With One-click WordPress installation, Local by flywheel is providing the following lifetime free features:
- SSL Support
- Custom environments
- Unlimited environments
- Live links
It has the following cons in its free service:
- Priority support not available
- Link checker not available
- Image optimizer not available
- Live reload not available
For more details, visit their site here.
Our Recommendation – CloudAccess:
After analysing all the other options for free WordPress hosting, we highly recommend CloudAccess.
Step by Step guide on using CloudAccess:
Here’s a step by step guide on using CloudAccess.net for creating your free WordPress website.
Step 1: Launch your free Website on the homepage of Cloudacess.net.
You can get started here by typing your site name and then click on ‘Launch Now’.
It will move you to the Cloud Control Panel, CCP page where you can manage all your applications.
Step 2: Create a subdomain & Choose the WordPress Version and Pre-installed dataset:
Next, you can create a subdomain and then click on the Next Step button.
Here, you need to choose the WordPress version and the pre-installed dataset along with answering a question. After this, click on the Next Step button.
Step 3: Checkout.
Then, you will get your Order Summary of 0$. If you have not registered, it will ask you for your information, after filling the form, you have to click on Checkout on this page.
Step 4: Complete your Order
Check the box that I agree to the terms and conditions and then click on Complete Order.
After your order is complete, you will have to go to your Cloud Control Panel.
In CCP, you will see:
Tadaaa…
As you click on your website, you can see your site hosted on Cloudaccess instantly with these 4 easy steps.
You can manage it from your Cloud Control Panel (CCP) or simply start editing right on this page.
Cloudaccess.net, a perfect free hosting for WordPress
It is a perfect hosting service for your free WordPress website which you use, own, and build while they host, maintain, and support it with one-click access although it is limited to some features in its free version.
Any other free WordPress hosting that comes to your mind? Please post in the comments below.