This free web hosting guide will help you get your own free web page for a personal home page or business web site. Even if you've never created a web page before, you can quickly and easily create an interactive, personalized web site all for free with these free web space providers. It seems like just about everyone has a web site these days, and with our comparison table and these free web hosting and free web site design tools you can easily have your own too.
If you're tired of the limitations, pop-up ads, and annoyances of free web pages, check out Top10 Cheap Web Hosting, for professional web page hosting for as little as $5 per month.
Many Uses for Free Web Space
There are many reasons to have your own web page, and since it is really easy to do and totally free, there isn't a reason not to have your own web site. You can create a page about your family and pets including your favorite photos, a fan site
dedicated to your favorite music, TV, or movie star, or a website about your hobby. You can use your free web space to promote your business or even create your own online store. Basically you can create any web page you can imagine, and you can make as many
distinct free web sites as you want.
Getting Started on Your Free Web Page
If you have never created a web page before, you would probably be best off just starting with our featured free web page provider since they offer a great
combination of easy to use features and good support. However, if you have specific needs or you are an advanced user, you will want to select the best free web space provider from our comparison chart.
Free Web Hosting Features Overview
Typically web pages are fairly small, so the amount of free web space
isn't always that important. However, if you plan to include
many photos, MP3s, programs, or other files, you will want to pick a
provider from the comparison table
that offers a lot of free web space. To have the shortest and most
professional web address, you will generally want to pick a free web page
provider that offers subdomain addresses. Just about all free web
hosting companies use advertising on your web site to pay for the
service. Also, to keep your visitors from being annoyed, you will want to
pick a free web page provider with less distracting advertisements such as
banner ads instead of popups. If you are a beginner web designer,
you will also want to pick a host that offers free web site design
programs.
Featured Free Web Hosting Company
Doteasy.com is our featured free web page provider because they offer reliable free web site hosting,
without the annoying banner ads. This is really important since most free web host's advertising is annoying and can look unprofessional on a commercial site. They host your site with your own
domain name (www.you.com) and provide 20MB web storage, unlimited FTP access, unlimited Email Accounts (user@you.com), POP3 and web-based email access, email forwarding and an
email autoresponder. The catch is that you must register your domain name with them. However, this isn't a bad deal since they charge as low as $18 per year (while other registrars charge up to
$35 per year). If you already have your domain name, you must pay to transfer it unless you earn a free transfer by referring others to Doteasy.com.
They also offer the following advanced features for a reasonable charge: Front Page, CGI, Active Server Pages (ASP), PHP, Perl, SSI, ODBC, MySQL.
Free Web Space Comparison Chart
The following chart allows quick comparison of the important features of
the best free web page hosting services. For more details or to sign
up (you should read all the terms and conditions of the service agreements
first), go to the free web space provider's websites through the provided
links. For an explanation of the terms used in the table, please see our term definitions.
| Host | Space (MB) | Address Format | Ad Type | Page Builder | CGI BIN | FP Ext | FTP | Browser Upload | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 Global Mart | 12 | subdomain | banner | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Counter, form e-mailer, guest book and more. |
| AboveWorld | 25 | /dir/you | banner | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | Free virtual domain hosting including foreign domains. Provide message board and guestbook scripts. |
| Angelfire | 20 | /dir/you | popup or banner | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Provide a CGI and JavaScript library including counters, search, web polling scripts, and more. You start with 5 MB of free space but can upgrade to 50 MB of free disk space for free. |
| AOL Hometown | 12 | /you | adframe | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Provide chat rooms, counters, and guestbook scripts. |
| BizLand | 5 | subdomain | popup or banner | Yes | No | No | No | No | Now only a free trial. Services are geared towards small businesses. Has advanced features, more space, etc. with higher plans. |
| CyberCities | 25 | /~you | No Ads | No | No | No | Yes | No | No ads is enticing, but they have had major problems in the past with the servers being down for long periods, slow access speeds, and taking a long time to process applications. |
| Doteasy.com | 20 | you.com | No Ads | No | Fee | Fee | Yes | No | They offer free hosting with no ad banners. You also get unlimited email accounts (pop3 or web mail), forwarding and autoresponders. The catch is you must register your domain with them (as low as $18 a year) or pay to transfer your domain (free transfers if you refer others to the service.) The following are optional features that you must pay to activate: Front Page, CGI, Active Server Pages (ASP), PHP, Perl, SSI, ODBC, MySQL. |
| FortuneCity | 100 | /dir/# | banner | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Provide chat rooms and message boards for your site. |
| Free Info Center | 50 | /you | popup or banner | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | ASP supported. 1 free email account. Free virtual domain hosting. |
| FreeWebSites | 50 | subdomain | banner | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | You have a choice between freewebsites.com, koolhost.com, isportsdot.com, artshost.com, ibusinessdot.com, scripterz.com, or trancetechno.com domain names. They have a few ready made CGI scripts to use. They provide free virtual domain hosting. |
| Homestead | 16 | /you or subdomain | small ad | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | Dropped their free service and just provide a free trial. They provide a really easy to use site builder with lots of features. Ad banner can be a frame on bottom of page instead of the top. Can use their chat room, guest book, or hit counter. Can password protect your pages. |
| Hypermart | 50 | subdomain | popup or banner | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | SSI and SSL are supported. Free site statistics plus access to raw data logs. Free virtual domain hosting. |
| MSN Home Pages | 12 | /dir/you | popup | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Update - They cancelled this service. Plan to increase to 30MB free web space soon. Provide a guest book and counter. FrontPage supported only for publishing. |
| MyFamily | 5 | login | banner | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | Easily share news, photos, recipes, calendar events, family history and more. Plus you can add reviews, polls, chat and build your family tree. Perfect for family web sites and for people new to web page design. MyFamily Mail offers voice, fax, and email in one account. |
| NetColony | 25 | /dir/you | banner | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | They provide a guest book and message board. |
| NBCi | no limit | /you | adframe | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | NBCi cancelled their service and are shutting down. They are recommending users go to Homestead (see their listing above). |
 NetFirms |
25 | subdomain | banner | No | Yes | No | Yes | No | Instant activation. Fast servers. Full CGI-BIN, Perl, and SSI support. Free online support, catch-all email. Free virtual domain hosting. Upgrade to banner-free hosting for just $5/month. |
| TerraShare | 50 | subdomain | banner | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | As of May 31, 2001 TerraShare announced that they are closing their service. |
| TopCities.com | 150 | subdomain | popup or banner | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | Guestbook and discussion board scripts provided. |
| Tripod | 11 | /you | popup | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Provide a CGI and JavaScript library including counters, search, and web polling scripts. |
| Virtual Avenue | 50 | subdomain | popup or banner | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Free virtual domain hosting of .com, .net, and .org only. SSI support. |
| Web Host Me | 20 | subdomain | popup or banner | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Web Host Me is currently not taking new signups as they are already at capacity. Free virtual domain hosting. |
| Yahoo! Geocities | 15 | /you | adsquare | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Huge collection of add-ons including guestbooks, discussion forums, counters, stock quotes, Yahoo! search, news headlines, games, animations, and more. |