With the arrival of very cheap web hosting services, free hosting has become obsolete in the present days. But still, it is a very good choice for first time users and limited budget webmasters. Students can learn to create their first websites in these free hosting instead of spending money. Also, small web business with limited budget don’t really need to waste money on web hosting when there are decent free hosting services available.

Before making your choice for a free hosting, keep in mind that in most cases there is a catch for the free hosting service. In some cases you will be bothered with ads in your control panel and in other you will have to post in forums regularly to keep your account active. Anyway, we have tried to select the best ones among the free hosting services so that you will get near-professional web hosting for free.

While making the list, the most important factors we have considered are uptime and ads. The free hosting should be fairly reliable (with >95% uptime) and the hosting should not force any ads on the user website. Here is the list of top 5 free hosting services that we have collected.

Frihost

Frihost

Frihost is a very reliable free web hosting. Along with the free hosting, you will also get a free subdomain like yourname.frihost.org . You have to be active in their user forums to continue with your free hosting. Being active on their forum is required for the free web hosting. 2/3 posts a week will be enough to keep your web hosting account alive. Frihost has  a popular online community, founded in April 2005, featuring 106697 members and 1115471 posts in their forums. Since 2010 they also provide free top level domain names.Features of frihost are

• 1500 MB of disk space
• 35 GB of traffic
• No maximum file size
• A free subdomain of your choice (eg. yoursite.frihost.org)
• Unlimited domains and subdomains of your own
• Php, perl, python, cgi, ssi and other scripting languages
• Unlimited MySQL databases
• Ftp access and browser uploads
• Unlimited email accounts
• cPanel or DirectAdmin control panel
• No forced advertisements at all! Your own ads are allowed

FreeHostingeu

FreeHostingEU

FreeHostingeu is another reliable free web hosting. Apart from its hosting it also provides free .eu.pn or .me.pn subdomains for free. It is powered by reliable cluster-based technology, and provides website hosting free packages that can suit any average personal site or small business website owner. You can also host your own domain along with the 5 free subdomains. It has one-click install of various CMS like joomla and wordpress so that you can create your blog or website quickly and easily. Major features of freehostingeu are

• Free Web Hosting No Ads at all
• 200 MB of free web space
• 4000 MB of monthly data transfer
• 5 short web addresses (domains) such as www.yourdomain.eu.pn
• FREE WordPress & Joomla hosting
• FTP Account, Web-based file manager
• Pop3/Imap, SMTP access, Webmail
• PHP, MySQL, CGI, Perl, Flash support
• Easy-to-Use Control Panel
• FREE Instant Account Activation

FreeHostia

Freehostia

Freehostia offers a free web hosting package called chocolate. They offer 250MB disk space and 6 GB data transfer which is enough for small websites. They can host 5 domains and 15 subdomains for free. They provide ticket support and 24/7 customer support even for the free hosting accounts. They support PHP script and don’t force any ads on your website. The main features of FreeHostia are:

• 250 MB Disk Space
• 6 GB Bandwidth
• 5 Domains Hosted
• + 1 MySQL Database
• + 1-click App Installs
• User-friendly Hepsia Control Panel
• POP3/IMAP Email Accounts
• Cluster-based Hosting Platform
• 24/7 Professional Technical Support
• 99% Uptime Guarantee
• Free Joomla & WordPress themes

000WebHost

000WebHost

000WebHost is another free hosting service without any forced ads. They provide 1.5GB of disk space and boast a whopping 100GB bandwidth. They also provide 99% uptime guarantee with every free hosting account. They offer 5 add-on domains, 5 email accounts, 2 MySQL Databases and much more.  There is a active forum where you can post any hosting related questions. They also have a promising referral system. They calim to pay 5$ for every free hosting account created using your referral. But a little research around the internet shows that the referral system is actually a scam. But don’t worry, you will get nice hosting for free, just don’t fall on the trap of referral.The main features of 000webhost are

• 1500 MB Disk Space
• 100GB Bandwidth
• No forced ads (your own ads allowed)
• 5 Addon domains
• 5 Subdomains
• 2 Mysql databases
• Custom Control panel
• 5 Email Address

AwardSpace

AwardSpace

Award Space provides very reliable free hosting even though the specifications of the hosting are not on the top. The disk space is 250 MB which is very less than what most free hosting companies provide. And the bandwidth is 5 GB. The free hosting may not be suitable for heavy websites but for a small business website, it is a good choice. They provide reliable free hosting without any ads. The main features of awardspace are

• 250 MB Disk Space
• 5 GB Traffic
• 1 Domain Hosting
• 3 Subdomains
• 1 MySQL(v.5) Database
• 100% NO ADS
• PHP5 , Perl/CGI-BIN , FTP
• Joomla & WordPress Installer
• 1 Email(IMAP, POP3), Webmail
• Email Sending (SMTP ON)

Although Free hosting are suitable for experimental purpose and for beginners, it may not be suitable for business websites where website reliability and data security are of greater concern. You can get a shared hosting with professional features with price as low as 3$ per month. You can always turn towards paid and reliable paid hosting when your website turns popular and you start generating revenue.