Best Free Web Hosting Services of 2026

To be clear, in this article, we’re focusing on free website hosting services that let you build a website in a couple of clicks, and Wix is our top choice for that. WordPress is a bit better if what you really want is a good blog. And Squarespace is there if you want a premium-feeling, streamlined site-building experience.

Okay, hear us out. We know that Squarespace only has a free trial, not a free plan. That’s a bit of a downside. But we like Squarespace a lot, so much so that it felt like a crime not to include it here anyway. And hey, you can build unlimited free trial sites while you work out exactly what kind of site you want to build, as well as learn how to use the tools available.

But which web hosting service is right for your particular needs? Well, we’re here to help you with that.

Best free web hosting services of 2026

Compare the best free web hosting services

Best for	Best for customizable web design	Best for free WordPress sites	Best for streamlined site creation
Starting price	Paid plans start at $17.00/mo	Paid plans start at $4.00/mo	Paid plans start at $25.00/mo
Money-back guarantee	Yes — 14 days	Yes — 14 days	Yes — 14 days
Uptime guarantee	99.9%	99.99%	99.999%
Bandwidth	1 GB	Unlimited	Unlimited
Number of websites	999	Unlimited	Unlimited
Storage	500 MB on free plan	1 GB on free plan	30 minutes of video storage, otherwise unrestricted
Free SSL certificate	On all plans	On all plans	On all plans
Free domain for a year	On all paid plans	On all paid plans	On all paid plans
Learn more	Get Wix Read Wix Review	Get WordPress.com Read WordPress.com Review	Get Squarespace Read Squarespace Review

Wix: Best for customizable web design

What we liked

A powerful, easy site builder: Wix has one of the best drag-and-drop website design tools out there, and tons of themes and templates to choose from. You can build almost any kind of site in just minutes, and the AI website builder can even do a lot of the initial work for you.

Plenty of free add-ons: Wix has almost every feature you could want in a free website builder, and the kitchen sink, too. But for everything else, there’s the add-on marketplace, which will let you add everything from integration with third-party services to extra-fancy pricing tables. There are many third-party apps that extend Wix’s functionality, and quite a few are free.

SEO and blogging tools: A free Wix website comes with everything you need to help your site rank higher in search engines. It also comes with blog functionality, if you want to post those kinds of regular updates.

What we didn’t like

Ecommerce requires a paid plan: If you want to sell anything, or even send invoices, you do have to shell out to Wix for the privilege.

Test results

Out of all the site builders we tested, Wix performed the best, with perfectly respectable loading times for the test website, 100% uptime, and rock-solid server stability, as indicated by the low, consistent average server response time. Wix also handled the stress test like a champ, with the lowest server response time under load that I’ve seen on almost any web host.

Star rating summary

In our site builder rating system, the two most important categories are features and “Our Experience” using the site builder. Wix landed at a perfect 5/5 in all categories except features, and that’s only because the lower-tier plans are pretty limited in terms of storage and site contributors.

WordPress.com: Best for free WordPress sites

What we liked

All the power of WordPress, for free: The free plan doesn’t lock you out of any of the many features. This means that, while WordPress is best for blogs, you technically can use it to build almost any kind of website.

Customize (almost) everything: WordPress.com’s free plan comes with access to quite a few high-quality website themes. And, with the new-ish block editor that WordPress has been working on, some themes will even let you build your blog in a drag-and-drop fashion like Wix and Squarespace. There are some limits on custom code on this platform, though.

Massive community: WordPress runs a significant portion of the world’s websites, and the community is huge. This means that if you want to do something with WordPress, chances are that someone has already built a plugin, a template, or a guide to show you how to do it.

What we didn’t like

Limited support options: When you have a problem, there are few official support options from WordPress.com, even on its paid plans. Community support is good, but official support would be great.

Test results

Performance, as with most site builders, is a bit of a mixed bag on WordPress.com. Sites begin to load very quickly, but depending on how well the template you’ve chosen is optimized, it may take a little while to fully load. But the average server response times were low, and the test site maintained 100% uptime. The stress test results were stellar as well.

Star rating summary

While WordPress.com is indeed powerful and flexible, it’s not always as flexible as a full site builder, and that’s why, in this case, it comes in at a still-solid 4/5 in the features category. The Our Experience category comes in at 4.5, mainly because the platform’s power comes at the cost of some complexity. But scores aren’t the whole story, and if you need to do what WordPress does best, it’s a good option.

Squarespace: Best for streamlined site creation

What we liked

Professionally designed template system: Squarespace now uses a system where every website actually uses the same template. It’s just a template that’s fully customizable and comes with presets for almost any kind of site you could want to build. And all the presets look good!

Carefully implemented feature set: Just like with Wix, you can use Squarespace to sell things, blog, create random landing pages, and anything else you might like. But it has a bit less functionality, focusing more carefully on a smaller set of features. This author happens to actually prefer that approach to site builders.

A guided experience: All the way through the site creation process, Squarespace feels like it was designed to get you up and running with minimal fuss. Every step comes with instructions for beginners who are completely unfamiliar with the process, making it simple and easy. But those who are familiar with building websites will find a tool that’s fast and intuitive to use.

What we didn’t like

Slightly more limited site customization: You can build almost any kind of site with Squarespace, and you can do a lot with the design of a Squarespace site. But it doesn’t offer quite the same level of customization freedom as Wix.

Test results

The optimization of sites built with Squarespace could be better. Again, the initial loading starts quickly, but the test site took longer to finish loading than we’d like. This is due in part to the heavy reliance on tons of JavaScript, which is a feature of most site builders. On the other hand, the average server response time was low and steady, and Squarespace handled the stress test pretty well.

Star rating summary

Squarespace nailed 5/5 in all categories except features, where it scored a respectable 4.6. This is understandable, as Squarespace’s feature set is a bit more restrained by design and doesn’t have as many bells and whistles as some competitors. Nonetheless, it’s an excellent option among site builders.

And again, that’s why it’s on this list despite only having a free trial.

Is free web hosting worth it?

Free web hosting sure is worth it when you don’t have a ton of money to throw around! It’s also nice when you’re just learning how websites and hosting work. We selected the three options above because they’re well regarded, provide plenty of functionality for free, and are generally safe enough to use. Also, we tried them and liked them.

But free hosting always comes with some sort of limitation, whether that’s in how big a site you can make, how much storage or bandwidth you get, and what sort of site-building features you have access to. Even cheap hosting is (usually) better than free.

But if you’re out there, looking at various free hosting options and you aren’t sure what to pick, here’s a list of what to look for:

• A solid reputation for safety
• Enough storage and bandwidth for the site you plan to build
• Easy site-building tools are a bonus

Some free services are scams. Some are just bad and not secure. We all know this. Try asking around in web dev communities for recommendations.

Additionally, free site hosts usually put some kind of advertisement on your website or subdomain branding. If it’s a simple thing like “Made with Wix” that links back to the service, those are fine. But be wary of any free hosting site that puts in banner ads, animated ads, and other features that can be vectors for obtrusive user tracking and malware.

Bottom line: What is the best free web hosting provider?

It’s a bit of a tie in this case. For anyone who wants to start up a basic brochure site (or set up an events page for their local sports team, etc.), I would definitely recommend Wix as a simple way to get started on a nonexistent budget. But if you’re a blogger? Go with WordPress.com all the way.

And Squarespace is there if you want a free trial — to try your hand at using a premium site builder service before you commit to anything, since the service is not free.

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