Free Shared Web Hosting: Offers Galore

Over the past couple of months, providers on LES have generously offered free shared hosting plans for the LES community. The goal or objective behind is simple: they want to give back to the community and help those who can benefit from these offers.

In the below section I have compiled the list of offers by Four providers who have posted such offers since March 2020. Relevant details such as location, bandwidth, number of websites, disk space, are also included. This information is already available in the forums. However, wouldn't it be cool if it was available in a single page? I wanted to keep it simple, and while a more comprehensive tabulation like the one mentioned in this post might make sense for some, I opted for brevity and simplicity. With this thought, let us dive into these offers.

Presenting the offers Together

Notes:

1. DA stands for Direct Admin control panel
2. Free shared hosting plans by Hostingcubes are available for a period of one year at 7 different locations. Visit the offer page by @Lee - for further details
3. Requirements for Free Shared Hosting by Khan Web: "All you would need to do is join Discord Channel & send a PM to user @AK_KWH, mentioning your discord username"

The Obvious and Not-So-Obvious

There are several reasons to question the rationale behind such offers. For example, why would anybody offer a service for free? Then there is the suspicion that the providers might use the sign-ups as an opportunity to up-sell services. That may be true in some cases, but more than one provider in the above list has mentioned that these offers rarely result in paying customers. In the words of @seriesn from Nexusbytes,

"Usually if you are not paying for your project, you don't take it seriously logic applies here..... I guess it also depends because a lot of these use cases are for personal projects that never take off, or people just abandon them." - @seriesn

Risk of abuse by Users

The intention of this post is not to delve upon the pro's and cons of free shared web hosting. But I thought of mentioning that the providers can often face abuses from users and those looking to exploit the gratis service. This discussion from the forums, based on experiences of Lee with Hostingcubes, offers an interesting perspective.

Free service during beta testing

Some providers can offer free accounts for a limited period when they are launching new products or services. A recent example is Hello Internet /@hello, who offered free CPanel hosting in Germany. In exchange, they sought feedback, testing from the users. A provider may choose to continue offering the 'free' service to the beta testers beyond the testing period. 

Summing it all up

The act of offering a service for free does not limit itself to shared hosting on this forum. Some users have posted their offers for a 'free' use of VPS. But I thought of limiting this post to shared web hosting offers. One reason was focus. The other reason is more personal: I have benefited over the past years from free web hosting services. This prompted me to compile the offers and write this post that would provide a handy resource the LES community.

The details in the table are compiled from the offer posts. In some cases, I have used the details by checking with the providers, or from my own account. In case of any updates, errors, or additions, do leave your feedback in the comments section below.

Links to free shared web hosting offers by providers:

I have included them in the table above but for ready reference, here they are, in no particular order:

1. Tetahost https://talk.lowendspirit.com/discussion/1047
2. Nexusbytes: https://talk.lowendspirit.com/discussion/850/free-shared-hosting-servedez
3. Khan Web Hosting: https://talk.lowendspirit.com/discussion/772/free-directadmin-nvme-shared-hosting
4. Hostingcubes: https://talk.lowendspirit.com/discussion/636/lab-rats-required-to-test-new-free-hosting-service/p1