It’s 2021 and it is now possible for anyone to create a fast, responsive and beautiful website super easily using site builder services such as Wix, Weebly, etc. Today, one can even create dynamic pages using Wix Code and Webflow. However, they are not the best option for anyone looking to have complete control on their website. Moreover, these services are expensive for the average Joe.
There exist several free platforms such as Blogspot, wordpress.com but they also come with a number of limitations. You can get a web hosting service and host your site there to have complete control but web hosting services can be expensive if you are looking to try out your hobby projects. Luckily, there is a great deal of free hosting services available today. One such company is 000webhost, try googling “free web hosting” and you will see this company listed as the very first result. This is my review of the 000webhost free web hosting company.
When to get a free web hosting service?
If you are a web developer you might occasionally need to test the website on a live server. But getting a hosting service just to try out your projects is not a great idea considering you are not Richie Rich. Here comes the importance of free web hosting services. These are super useful for developers to try out their projects and also to host small websites for short periods of time. That is when you should get a free web hosting service such as 000webhost.
Is it ok to host my portfolio website on 000webhost?
Yes it is! 000webhost is the best free way to create your portfolio website. I would totally recommend this option if you are not expecting it to have a huge number of daily visits.
000webhost review
“Type in “free web hosting” into Google and a variety of options are presented. Near the top is a company called 000Webhost. It’s high Google ranking could well be the reason it is believed to have millions of users. – Forbes”
000webhost is a free web hosting company under the parent company Hostinger. 000webhost has been providing free plans for quite some time now but it’s only now that I came to try it out. I was under the impression that free hosting plans suck and 000webhost changed my thought altogether. It was a few months back I first tried out 000webhost when my WordPress site didn’t work properly on wamp server. I was deeply satisfied with the performance of the site especially under the fact that the WordPress theme I used was quite a heavy one. I did experience slowdowns a couple of times but a part of it is to be blamed on the theme.
Now let’s see what do we get with the free hosting plan and what we miss out. You will get 1GB disk space with a 10GB bandwidth which is more than enough to get started. This free plan also allows you to host 2 websites which is cool but it doesn’t matter much since you could always create a new account. Most free hosting services inject ads into your website whereas 000webhost do no such thing and instead allows you to insert your own ads. All it does is add a “powered by 000webhost” badge at the very bottom of the site which is totally ok for most of us.
You have great control of your website with the Cpanel it comes with. It may look different from the Cpanel you have used but it’s a stripped version of the same with a clean UI. You get all the necessary tools such as redirection, cron jobs, security, etc. It even allows you to manage your database with phpmyadmin.
You can check the complete list of features that comes with the free plan here.
Creating a website
Creating a website is super easy, you click on the build website button at the top and you will be presented with 3 options. You can either build a website using the website builder, WordPress installer or you could upload it your own.
Site Builder
You can go with the website builder option if you are not a tech savvy or wouldn’t like to spend much time in developing a website. The website builder does offer several themes but most of them are having obsolete design trends or isn’t highly responsive. The builder itself isn’t much intuitive to be used but it can help you develop responsive websites. I would recommend anyone to upload the website on their own as you could have more control on your site as well as getting better-looking site templates from sites like html5up.net.
Going with WordPress
Installing WordPress on 000webhost is just a few clicks away. It’s so easy that you don’t have to go through the usual WordPress installation process. WordPress runs just fine in most cases except with resource hungry plugins like the revolutionary slider. Make sure to use light themes with WordPress if you are planning to share the website.
Reasons to get the paid plans
It’s not just more storage and bandwidth that comes with the paid versions. Your site will be hosted on faster servers too. 000webhost claims upto 5x performance gain on getting the paid plans. One thing I have to complaint about the free plan is the slower server response time. This slower response time will add up the website load time significantly with higher number of http requests so it’s important to have a faster server if you are hosting the site other than for testing.
The other good reason to get their paid plans is that you could host more than 2 websites. This only makes sense in this paid plans due to the increased bandwidth and storage availability.
Comparison of free web hosting companies
Now before concluding, let’s see what do we get with the rest of the free web hosting services.
Award Space – Like 000webhost they also provide 1GB storage space but with a bandwidth of just 5GB. They only support 1 website and doesn’t support cron jobs.
5gbfree – They offer 5GB storage and bandwidth but they too lack cron job support and site builder.
x10hosting – Although x10hosting unmetered bandwidth and storage, it is not available in all the countries which is a huge downside.
Final Verdict
I am extremely happy with my 000webhost experience. I would recommend 000webhost for absolute beginners and developers to try out their hobby projects. It’s ok to host your personal website if it exists just for the sake of having a website. You always have the room to grow with their paid plans so you don’t have to worry about migrating the site either. With features like cron job scheduling, email accounts, database manager, DNS support 000webshost easily stands out from the rest of it’s competition.
The company keeps improving their service and provides you the best possible experience for zero pennies. This 000webhost is byfar the most popular and the way to go provider in terms of free hosting.
What do you think of free hosting in general ? And what is your opinion about 000webhost? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Credits
Cover Photo by Thomas Kvistholt on Unsplash
