Free Webspace Hosting & Website Providers

• What are "free webspace providers"?
• Why are these website hosting services free?
• What are the best free website providers?
• How do I search for free webhosts which meet my needs?
• Where do I find what these webhosting words and terms mean?
• How do I add new free hosting services to this website?

What are "free webspace providers"?

These are online companies who offer to host your website on their server at no cost to you (you pay no money).  They do have several drawbacks over paid hosting (see next question), but they are especially great for beginners to learn, for those who can't afford paid hosting, or possibly even for "doorway pages" to your other websites (always check the free webspace provider's Terms of Service [TOS] first).

Why are these website hosting services free?

Most of these "free" services make profit from hosting your website, either by: (1) placing banner ads on your webpages, (2) placing banner ads on the administration pages which you use to upload files and other website maintenance, or (3) by sending you email from advertisers.  This is to your benefit in a way, since if they make money, they will probably continue to offer the "free" webspace.  The more traffic your website gets, the more their banners are viewed, and the more money they make.  (4) Some websites offer free hosting in hopes visitors to your website will visit the homepage of the URL you are given.  (5) Several commercial hosting services offer free webhosting in hopes you will want to upgrade to their paid hosting.  These are often unreliable, as they usually end up ceasing their free service.  (6) A few free webhosts are run as hobbies by the owner, and are the least reliable.  (7) There are several services, such as CommunityArchitect, which allow websites to offer cobranded free webhosting at no charge to the cohost (cobranded host).  These are not recommended, as your website will then depend on at least two services continuing their free service.  One such service (Excelland) recently quit, taking hundreds of cohosts with it.

What are the best free website providers?

That depends a lot on the hosting needs of your website (do you need CGI, PHP, ASP, SSI, unlimited bandwidth, domain hosting, FrontPage extensions, large file sizes, FTP upload, ecommerce with SSL, etc.).  If you serious about having a website, buying your own domain name is recommended.  Look for a webhosting service which has been in business a long time, and is making profit.  See our poll results on the home page, and our list of best free webhosts.

How do I search for free webhosts which meet my needs?

If you know exactly what services you need, the best method is the power search - choose only the features you need, click on the "search" button, and the free webhosts meeting those requirements are returned.  The simple search is best if you are looking for a particular free website provider, or a feature not listed in the power search.  You can also browse the full list of unique free website providers.  If hosting features aren't as important as the URL name you will use, also check out the cobranded hosts, such as CommunityArchitect, which aren't listed in the searchable database. If the freehosts's filesize limit is too small or you need more freewebspace, you can use one of these free image hosting providers or free file hosting sites.

Where do I find what these webhosting words and terms mean?

See our webhosting glossary.

Just go to our contact page and submit the URL, and preferably as much info as possible about it.  We always double-check the information, but it makes the process faster.