Best FREE Web Hosting Australia
(MARCH 2023 Update)
OUR PICKS FOR THE BEST FREE WEB HOSTING IN AUSTRALIA
If you’re considering setting up a website for your business and evaluating the associated costs it’s only natural that you might wonder what free web hosting Australia has to offer and who is the best free web hosting for Australia.
We understand that not everyone has a few thousand dollars in their budget for having a nice custom designed website and you might even things a few hundred dollars per year for hosting seems a bit rich so we’ve outlined which companies provide free web hosting and what they offer.
As an expert in the space, I do feel it is my duty to warn you though, it’s uncommon these days to choose free web hosting unless it’s a hobby and it doesn’t matter if your website is offline quite often. If I can twist your arm, I would whole heartedly recommend going with a paid web hosting service as the free services don’t even come close! I wrote an article about the best website hosting in Australia recently so check that out for more info.
Author: Jeremy Owen
Web Designer, Developer & SEO Specialist
Last Updated: March 16, 2022
There CAN BE Disadvantages To Free Web Hosting
While opting for one of the free web hosting providers when you first start your website might seem like a good idea, there are some serious disadvantages that you need to consider.
SLOW LOAD SPEED
Probably the biggest disadvantage with free web hosts are the lack of decent server speed. If you are running a website and need it to rank in Google then the speed of most free hosts is likely not going to cut it in this day and age of Core Web Vitals being a part of Google’s algorithm.
AD PLACEMENT
Strict Resource Limits
Poor Security
000WebHost
000WebHost would be our pick for the best free web hosting Australia has available. This company is affiliated with Hostinger which is a paid service, but relatively cheap. This means that if you choose to host your website initially with 000WebHost it’s relatively easy to upgrade to a paid Hostinger plan without jumping through a whole lot of hoops. Hostinger plans start from only $1.99 per month.
The free web hosting plan offered by 000WebHost includes 300 MB of storage, no ads, 3 GB of bandwidth and it’s easy to install WordPress on your site with just one click.
The speeds are moderate but their uptime is around 99%. What this means is that your website could be down for several days throughout the year but that’s better than many other free web hosting services.
Their website builder of choice is Zyro which allows you to add your own images and content from the front end. This makes it easy if you’ve never built a website before and are not familiar with WordPress or don’t know what a cPanel is.
FreeHosting.com
This company was first established in 2009, so they’ve been around for a while and have a customer base of around 20,000. Their free web hosting plan includes 10GB of storage, cPanel access with 1-click WordPress installs, no ads, and unmetered bandwidth.
Unfortunately, their uptime is even worse than 000WebHost at only 80%. This means that your website is likely to be down for many more days over the course of a year.
You will need to purchase your own domain name and these are also available through FreeHosting at a reasonable price. However, with FreeHosting you do get one email account.
Their free website builder is Site Builder with around 190 predesigned templates that you can use to easily create your own unique website. It uses a drag-and-drop interface which makes it simple, even for people who have never created a website before.
This is the perfect way to learn about creating a website, how to use WordPress, and how to navigate your way around a cPanel. Then, when you’re ready for more, you can easily upgrade to their paid hosting plan which costs around $7.99 per month.
X10Hosting
X10Hosting has also been around since 2009. This company offers free cloud hosting and 500MB of initial storage with free upgrades and unmetered bandwidth. You also get the option of 3 email addresses and a total of 3 domains.
However, their free web hosting plan does not offer access to cPanel but, you have access to their own control panel called DirectAdmin that allows you to install WordPress, Joomla, MyBB, and many other third-party scripts with just one click.
This is the perfect way to get started with your first website and once you’re familiar with how everything works, you can always upgrade to their paid hosting plan which starts at $3.95/month.
However, users have reported that their customer support is not all that good with the free plan.
InfinityFree
Their free web hosting services are a little different in that it comes with Softaculous Installer. This allows you to install a large number of scripts, apps, and content management systems like WordPress without having to understand how to use cPanel.
InfinityFree gives you 5GB of storage space, unlimited bandwidth, no ads, and free SSL certificates on your domains. You also get free subdomain names. However, you’ll need your own domain name that you’ve registered elsewhere to get started.
The only drawback with this free web hosting service is that if you happen to get more than 50,000 visits per day, your website will go down. However, once you reach this stage, you’re definitely ready for a paid hosting plan.
The other downside of using this free web host is that they don’t offer a paid plan that you can upgrade to and are not associated with other paid providers. This makes it a little more complicated to transition your website over to a paid plan.
Byethost
Byethost is another free website hosting service that includes the Softaculous Installer. This gives you easy access to a variety of different scripts, apps, and things like WordPress.
With their free hosting plan, you get 1 GB of storage, free FTP software for uploading your own files, 50 GB of monthly bandwidth, and a free site builder to help you build your website quickly and easily.
Their control panel is called VistaPanel and looks very similar to cPanel and includes features like important statistics for your website. This is something that you’ll want to familarise yourself with as you progress along your web-building path.
Byethost also has paid plans available starting from $4.99 per month which makes it easy for you to upgrade once you’re ready.
AwardSpace
If your plan is to build a simple website to start with and grow and upgrade further down the track, then AwardSpace’s free web hosting plan might be the right choice for you. It offers most of the features of their paid plans but at a more scaled-down level.
To start with, their free plan includes the ability to host 1 website and up to 3 free subdomains. It also gives you 1 GB of storage space and 5 GB of bandwidth. Their free website hosting services are ad-free and the company boasts a high 99.9% of uptime.
You also get access to their custom hosting control panel which allows you to install WordPress, GRAV, or Joomla with just one click. Plus, you get a free email account. Their site builder of choice is Zacky Website Builder with premade designs that you can use to add your own touches to.
Another benefit of AwardSpace free hosting is that you get effective firewall virus protection as well as spam protection. And, their control panel gives you up-to-date traffic stats so you can monitor how your website is doing.
Then, when it’s time to upgrade to a paid plan, these start from just $0.25 per month for the basic plan.
Wix
If you’re just interested in creating a basic website to show off your talents or your interests, then you can create this using Wix. Wix is a website builder that also has free hosting. The only downside is that you’ll get a URL that is a subdomain like ‘yourname.wix.com’.
With free hosting, there will also be ads displayed on your website whose aim is to encourage your visitors to try Wix for themselves. You also get an amazing array of templates that you can customise and make your own. In fact, there are over 900 of them, so be prepared to spend quite some time choosing the perfect one for your site if you decide to go down this route.
The free hosting plan includes 500 MB of storage and 500 MB of bandwidth. This is enough to get you started and you can upgrade to one of their premium plans when you’re ready. However, these do start at $15 per month.
