Last updated: 11 September 2026. Every row below was read off the provider's own site on that day.
Most "free hosting" lists are written once and never touched, which is why they still recommend hosts that shut down two years ago. This one is a catalogue rather than a review: the same fields for every provider, each read from the provider itself, and a section at the end for the famous names that no longer exist so you stop searching for them.
It is split by what you actually need to run. If you have a WordPress or PHP site and want space, a panel and a database, start with the first table. If you build with a framework and deploy from git, the second. If you need a process that runs your own code, the third.
How do I read these tables?
Space and traffic are what the provider publishes for its free plan. Where a provider does not publish a number, the cell says so instead of guessing.
Own domain means you can point a domain you own at the site, and whether a certificate for it is included. This is the single most common trap on free hosting: several hosts give free SSL on their own subdomain and charge for it on yours.
Every provider name is a link to the exact page the numbers in its row were read from, not to a homepage, so you can check any cell yourself. They open in a new tab, because you are here to compare.
Card and Ads are filled in only where the provider states them in writing. A dash means the provider is silent, and rather than assume, we say nothing. We did not create accounts on these hosts, so nothing in those two columns is based on watching a signup form.
Which free hosting runs PHP and gives me a control panel?
InfinityFree and ByetHost, and after them GoogieHost. This is the classic kind of free hosting: upload files, get a database, install WordPress. This is the group the big "free hosting" guides usually skip, because they are written for developers.
| Provider | Space | Traffic | Own domain + SSL | PHP / database | Card | Ads |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| InfinityFree | 5GB | Unlimited | Yes, free SSL | PHP 8.3, MySQL 8 / MariaDB 11.4, 400 databases | No | No, stated |
| ByetHost | 5GB NVMe | Unlimited | Yes, but SSL is free only on their subdomain; on your own you install it yourself | PHP 8.3, unlimited MySQL 8 / MariaDB 11.4 | No | No, stated |
| ProFreeHost | 5GB | Unlimited | Subdomain; own domain not stated | PHP up to 8.2, MySQL 5.7 | No | No forced ads, stated |
| GoogieHost | Up to 1000MB NVMe | Not published | Yes, free Let's Encrypt | PHP 8, MySQL | No | No forced ads, stated |
| AwardSpace | Not published | 5GB/month | 1 domain plus 3 subdomains | MySQL 5.7, email on your domain | No | No, stated |
| alwaysdata | 1GB, 256MB RAM, 1/4 CPU | Not published | Email on your own domain, site on alwaysdata.net | Not published on the pricing page | - | - |
| FreeHostia | 250MB | 6GB/month | 5 hosted domains | 1 MySQL 5 database, 10MB of database storage, 3 mailboxes | - | - |
| x10Hosting | 500MB | Not published | 3 domains | 2 databases, 3 mailboxes, DirectAdmin panel | - | - |
| WordPress.com Free | 1GB | Not published | No, subdomain only (yoursite.wordpress.com) | Managed WordPress, no plugin installs | - | Yes, WordPress.com shows its own ads |
InfinityFree and ByetHost are the two worth trying first: same size, current PHP, a real database, and both state in writing that they put no advertising on your site. FreeHostia's 250MB and 10MB database are a 2010-era allowance and will not hold a WordPress install with images. WordPress.com's free plan is the one to avoid if the point is a site of your own: no plugins, no custom domain, and it runs ads you do not control.
Which free hosting is best for a static site?
Cloudflare Pages, unless you have a specific reason not to, because it is the only free plan in this table with no traffic ceiling at all. For a site that builds to files: HTML by hand, or Astro, Hugo, Eleventy, Next in static mode.
| Provider | Space | Traffic | Own domain + SSL | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cloudflare Pages | 20,000 files, 25 MiB each | Unlimited bandwidth and requests | Yes, up to 100 domains, free SSL | 500 builds a month, 100 projects per account |
| GitHub Pages | 1GB per site | Soft limit of 100GB/month | Yes, free HTTPS | 10 builds an hour, static only |
| GitLab Pages | 1GB per site | Not published | Yes, up to 150 domains | Free tier, builds consume CI minutes |
| Codeberg Pages | No published limit | No published limit | Yes | Non-profit, static only, no server code |
| Neocities | 1GB | 200GB/month | No, custom domain and SSL are Supporter-only ($5/mo) | File type restrictions on the free plan |
| Surge.sh | Unlimited publishing | Not published | Yes, with basic SSL | Custom SSL is Professional, $30/mo |
| Firebase Hosting | 10GB | 360MB per day | Yes, free certificate | Daily cap, not monthly. App Hosting is paid-only |
Cloudflare Pages is the only one here with no traffic ceiling at all, which is why it is the default recommendation for anything that might get a spike. Firebase's cap is the one to read twice: 360MB a day is not "about 10GB a month" in practice, because one good day takes the site off until the counter resets.
Which free hosting can run my own code?
Render if your app can nap between visitors, Cloudflare Workers if it must always answer instantly. Both run a real process, not just files. This is where free tiers have thinned out the most.
| Provider | What is free | Sleeps? | Own domain + SSL | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cloudflare Workers | 100,000 requests a day, 10ms CPU per request | No | Yes | 100 Workers, 50 subrequests per request |
| Vercel Hobby | 1M edge requests, 1M function invocations, 4 CPU-hours, 360 GB-hours of memory | No | Yes | Non-commercial use only; over the limit it pauses rather than bills |
| Netlify | 300 credits a month on new accounts; legacy accounts keep 100GB and 300 build minutes | No | Yes | Credits cover bandwidth, builds and functions together |
| Render | 750 instance hours a month | Yes, after 15 minutes idle, and a cold start takes about a minute | Yes | Free Postgres is 1GB and expires 30 days after creation |
| Railway | $0 plan with $1 of usage credit a month, 1 vCPU and 0.5GB per service | Not stated | Yes | Separate $5 trial credit for 30 days, no card for the trial |
| PythonAnywhere | 512MB disk, 100 CPU-seconds a day | No | No, free accounts are username.pythonanywhere.com | Outbound network limited to a whitelist |
Render is the honest answer for a small backend that can tolerate a nap. Its trap is not the sleeping, which everyone mentions, but the database: a free Render Postgres is deleted 30 days after you create it, with a 14-day grace period to start paying. Free hosting for the app does not mean free storage for the data, and that is true almost everywhere in this table.
Which hosts are still recommended but no longer free?
These come up in nearly every roundup. Both still exist as companies; neither gives you anything to run for free any more.
Fly.io. There is no free machine allowance now. Their pricing documentation states every organisation requires a card on file, and what remains free is the first 10 single-hostname certificates and 10GB of volume snapshots a month. The old free allowances are on the discontinued plans page.
Koyeb. No free compute. The only free tier left is on their serverless Postgres: 5 hours a month at 0.25 vCPU and 1GB of RAM, scaling to zero. Paid compute starts at $29 a month.
Replit. There is a free mode, and their own pricing page does not publish its limits; the numbers it shows for free projects are described as part of the paid Core plan. We are not going to invent the terms, so it gets a line here rather than a row above.
Which famous free hosts are dead now?
Half the traffic to "free hosting" articles is people searching for a host that closed. Dates, so you can stop:
000webhost stopped accepting new users on 8 July 2024 and shut down completely on 14 October 2024, after 17 years. It was owned by Hostinger. The domain still answers, which is why people keep believing it is alive.
Glitch ended app hosting and user profiles on 8 July 2025. The site is still up and you can still open it, but nothing you make there is hosted any more.
Cyclic.sh turned off the free tier on 10 May 2024 and everything else on 31 May 2024. The domain no longer responds at all, which we checked while writing this.
Heroku removed free dynos in November 2022. It is still the single most common wrong answer to "where do I host a small app for free".
Deta Space and Adaptable.io are both gone: neither domain returns a working page.
How do I choose in thirty seconds?
If you have a PHP or WordPress site, take InfinityFree or ByetHost: 5GB, current PHP, a real database, no advertising on your pages, no card.
If your site builds to static files, take Cloudflare Pages. It is the only free plan here with no traffic limit at all, so a post that does well will not take the site down.
If you need to run your own code and can tolerate the first visitor after a quiet spell waiting a minute, take Render, but do not keep anything you care about in its free database.
If you need a process that never sleeps, no free web host offers that any more. A free VPS does: see Free VPS in 2026, where Oracle's Always Free tier still gives 2 Arm cores and 12GB of RAM at no cost.
And if you want the shorter, opinionated version of the developer half of this page, with the catches written out per platform, that is Free Website Hosting in 2026.
What does this page not tell you?
We read what each provider publishes. We did not create accounts, upload a site, or measure anything, so nothing here is a claim about speed, uptime or how a host behaves once you are on it. Where a provider is silent about card requirements or advertising, the cell is empty rather than filled with an assumption, and there are more empty cells on the smaller hosts than we would like.
The other thing to keep in mind: free hosting changes without announcement. Oracle halved its free tier on 15 June 2026 and published nothing at all, and people found out when their machines were switched off. Every number here has a date on it for that reason.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best free hosting with PHP and MySQL?
InfinityFree and ByetHost. Both give 5GB of space, PHP 8.3, a current MySQL or MariaDB, unlimited bandwidth, and both state in writing that they place no advertising on your site. Neither asks for a card.
Is there free hosting without a credit card?
Yes. InfinityFree, ByetHost, ProFreeHost, GoogieHost and AwardSpace all state that no card is required, and Railway's $5 trial credit needs none either. Most developer platforms (GitHub Pages, GitLab Pages, Cloudflare Pages, Codeberg) are used through an ordinary free account.
Can I use my own domain on free hosting?
Usually yes, but check the certificate separately. InfinityFree and GoogieHost include free SSL on your own domain. ByetHost gives free SSL on its subdomain and expects you to install your own certificate on your domain. Neocities and PythonAnywhere do not allow a custom domain on the free plan at all, and WordPress.com's free plan gives you a subdomain only.
Does free hosting put ads on my site?
The classic free hosts mostly stopped: InfinityFree, ByetHost, ProFreeHost, GoogieHost and AwardSpace all state a no-ads policy. WordPress.com's free plan is the notable exception, and shows its own advertising until you upgrade.
Which free hosting services have shut down?
000webhost closed on 14 October 2024, Glitch ended app hosting on 8 July 2025, Cyclic.sh shut down in May 2024, and Heroku removed free dynos in November 2022. Fly.io and Koyeb still operate but no longer have a free compute tier.
Can I run a real website on free hosting?
For a static site, yes, without reservation: Cloudflare Pages will serve it at any traffic. For a PHP site, yes for a small one, with the caveat that free hosts have no uptime guarantee and no support. For anything that earns money, treat free hosting as staging and put production on a paid plan or a free VPS.
