Free Hosting
Free Hosting is a great way to start your first website. Later when you are used to creating and updating websites you can consider whether paid hosting might be more suitable for a long term professional internet presence.
Historically there were a large number of free webhosts in the mid to late 1990s but most of those have ceased doing business. At that time they offered up to 15MB of space (a wholly inadequate amount of space by today's standards) The companies made their money by placing adverts on the free websites which somewhat spoiled the websites themselves, mind you the websites were often gaudy affairs with flashing text, animated images as amateur webmasters tried out the new media.
These are some of the most well known of the free webspace providers from this era:
- Geocities (1994 - 2009) - 15MB
In 1997 it had one million member websites and was the fifth most popular website that year. Yahoo Geocities - Angelfire (1996 - still in business)
Part of Lycos offering 20MB of free space. Angelfire - Tripod (1992 - 2009 in Europe) - 20MB
Part of Lycos, still in business. Tripod
Today there are many free webspace providers with varying service levels (up time) however the following services are popular and worthy of consideration:
Website Builders and Free Hosting
Wordpress Free, Paid versions (Freemium model) 
- Wordpress review (WPKube)
- Wordpress review (PC Mag)
- Wordpress review (UK Webhost Review)
- Wordpress review (Tooltester Review)
Wix Free, Paid versions (Freemium model)
Weebly Free, Paid versions (Freemium model)
Jimdo Free, Paid versions (Freemium model) 
Squarespace Paid service (from £12/month)
Reviews of Website builders including wix, weebly and jimdo
8b Free, Paid versions (Freemium model) Now part of Mobirise.com
Free one page sitebuilder, free hosting including .pagexl.com subdomain.
Carrd One page website - Free, Paid versions (Freemium model)
Free Hosting, prepare pages offline and upload files to their hosting. .tiiny.site subdomain.
Dead simple, drag & drop websites for anything. .mmm.page subdomain.
Drag and drop builder, professional responsive templates. yourname.my.canva.site subdomain.
Free hosting, multipage, edit html online or upload files including .github.io subdomain
Free hosting including .netlify.app subdomain. Suitable for General static sites, blogs, and Jamstack applications.
Offers a free .vercel.app subdomain for personal use. A developer-focused platform for developers working with modern JavaScript frameworks like Next.js and React or even just plain HTML, CSS, and JavaScript..
WordPress managed hosting or Hosting with file manager to upload your own webpages etc including .altervista.org subdomain.
Helio Host - Free 1GB
Community powered free hosting for everyone. .heliohost.org subdomain names or use your own domain. cPanel - full functionality inclucing e-mail accounts. Note accounts can be suspended for inactivity.
XMail - Free 1GB
Webhosting/file storage, www.xmail.net/username address, free e-mail account.
Award Space - Free 1GB
Includes up to 3 free subdomains. Free website builder available.
Infinity Free - Unlimited
Includes up to 3 free websites/subdomains. A selection of subdomains available including .rf.gd, .42web.io, epizy.com, .22web.org.
Profreehost - Free, Unlimited
Up to three free .ezyro.com and .unaux.com subdomain names together with websites, cPanel (e-mail accounts not included) but option to install Wordpress or Pages can be created offline and uploaded by FTP. Sitebuilder also available.
FreehostingEU - Free, paid versions (Freemium model) 200MB
The free service allows you to host a wordpress or joomla blog. Webpages can be created offline using your preferred html or text editor and uploaded by ftp. FreehostingEU includes up to 5 free .eu5.net/eu3.org/eu3.biz subdomain names (see article on free domain names)
Free Web Hosting Area.com - Free 1.5GB
Choice of 10 subdomains - coolpage.biz, freeoda.com, freetzi.com, freevar.com, orgfree.com, noads.biz, ueuo.com, 6te.net, eu5.org, xp3.biz
Free Charity Hosting
Krystal Hosting - Charity Hosting
Purely - Free Hosting for Charities
There are many more companies offering free charity hosting for charities listed on Google. Just enter Free Charity Hosting into Google.
Pros and Cons of Free Hosting
Pros:
- Free
- No need to have a domain name
- Protect your privacy, since not included on whois registration records
Cons:
- Use of basic free hosting without own domain name can be considered unprofessional
- Reliability issues of free hosting (you cannot demand a certain service level if you are not paying anything!). If you find a service unreliable... just try another service!
Further reading:
The Best Free Web Hosting Sites (2021)
Recommendations:
If you are not conversant with html coding then consider the free offerings from Wordpress.com, Wix, Weebly and Jimdo. If you are only wishing a single page website then consider 8b, PageXL or Carrd
If you are conversant with preparing webpages offline (ie coding) then Tiiny.Host, Github Pages, Altervista, Helio Host and Infinity Free are worth looking into further.
Check out the trustpilot reviews because some of the providers only have moderate performance reviews.
Michael Fowler
Other articles by Michael Fowler:
Free E-Mail - Michael Fowler
Discussion of the inadequacies of isp e-mail addresses and the free e-mail alternatives available.
Hosting Reviews - Michael Fowler
A listing of leading website hosting companies with links to Review centre and Trust Pilot reviews.
Sitemaps - Michael Fowler
Discussion of the different types of sitemap, their value and the desirability of using them on a website
Broken Links - Michael Fowler
Discussion of broken links, what they are, how they occur, their detrimental effect and how to eliminate or minimise the effect they have on the performance of your website.
Disclosure: Potential Communications does not receive payments from any of the companies mentioned on this page
Disclaimer: The websites linked from this webpage are believed to offer services worth considering and to be factually correct but no warranty is offered as to the accuracy of the information on those linked websites nor that those services will meet your particular requirements. You are also subject to any copyright / terms of use restrictions of those websites.
