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Free Web Hosting With cPanel in 2024: Is It Worth It?

Is Free Web Hosting With cPanel Worth It?

Is hosting with cPanel for free something you should consider? Well, “free” is almost always good; however, it is not always worth the trouble. Let me explain:

If you want to run a hobby website and do not expect much from it, free web hosting may work well for you.

However, if your website is your main source of revenue, but you are working with a tight budget, you are better off investing in a cheap web hosting plan.

Below, we share the best web few free hosting providers that offer cPanel as well as the best free web free hosting provider that offer cPanel.

Quick Summary

  • Free web hosting with cPanel suits hobby websites but may not be ideal for revenue-generating sites.
  • The article lists top cPanel providers like Hostinger, HostSS.com, Hostpapa, Bluehost, InMotion Hosting, and iPage.
  • cPanel simplifies web hosting but requires a paid license for hosting providers and server administrators.

Top Web Hosting Providers That Provide Free cPanel Access

Hostinger

Hostinger Homepage

Hostinger is one of the top-ranking web providers out there. It is an employee-owned internet domain registration and web hosting company.

Since its establishment in 2004, Hostinger has managed to build an international user base that is spread out across 39 countries.

Pros
  • Hostinger comes with simple instructions on how to set everything up in a few clicks.
  • Installing WordPress is easier with Hostinger as it offers a one-click WordPress install.
  • Hostinger’s chat support is available round-the-clock, 365 days a year.
  • Hostinger has an easy-to-use control panel, making it ideal for individuals with little to no experience in web development.
Cons
  • No Free Domain
  • Limited Features with the Cheapest Plan

Features

Hostinger offers many features, including:

  • Easy to Set Up
  • WordPress Support
  • 24/7 Chat Support
  • User-Friendly Control Panel

Hosting Type Offered

  • Cloud Hosting
  • Shared Hosting
  • VPS Hosting
  • WordPress Hosting
  • Managed WordPress Hosting.

Price Range

Hostinger’s hosting plans range from $0.99 to $29.95 per month.

Uptime

Hostinger strives to maintain 99.74% uptime for your website.

Uptime

Support Score

It offers support via:

  • Email
  • Phone
  • Support Tickets
  • Live Chat (only available for registered users)

Disk Space

Hostinger’s hosting plans: Single Shared Hosting, Premium Shared Hosting, and Business Shared Hosting, offer 50 GB, 100 GB, and 200 GB SSD storage, respectively.

Average Load Time

Hostinger delivers an average page loading time of 307 milliseconds.

Data center locations

Hostinger has data centers in:

  • South America (Brazil)
  • Asia (India and Singapore)
  • North America (the United States of America)
  • Europe (Lithuania, Netherlands, and the United Kingdom)

Hostinger is a reliable hosting company that offers many perks at a reasonable price. It is perfect for individuals who want to get their websites online without hassle.

 

HostSS.com

HostSS Homepage

HostSS.com is a costless hosting provider that offers free cPanel.

Pros
  • com automatically makes monthly backup copies of your website to protect you from potential data loss.
  • com comes with a PHP selector that allows you to select the specific PHP version you need.
  • com comes with Webmail, allowing you to you access your email accounts from any web browser.
Cons
  • You only get two email accounts with free cPanel hosting.
  • No Ticket and Live Chat for free web hosting with cPanel.

Features

HostSS.com offers many features, including:

  • Monthly Backups
  • Multi PHP Versions
  • Webmail

Hosting Type Offered

HostSS.com offers Costless hosting, Premium Hosting, VPS, and Dedicated Servers.

Price Range

$0.00/month

Cost

Uptime

HostSS.com strives to maintain 99.97% uptime for your website.

Support Score

There is no data on how users have ranked HostSS.com’s support; however, the provider offers support via:

  • Live Chat
  • Open Ticket
  • Knowledge Base

Disk Space

HostSS.com has three hosting plans: Free1, Free2, and Free 3.

Free 1 offers 500MB SSD storage, Free2 offers 1GB SSD storage, and Free 3 Offers 1.5GB SSD storage.

Average Load Time

There is no information on how fast HostSS.com loads. However, since it is an SSD-hosted site, it is expected to load 67 percent faster than its HDD counterparts.

Data centers

  • There is no information on where HostSS.com data centers are located.

HostSS.com offers zero-cost website hosting with monthly backups, multiple PHP versions, and Webmail, making it ideal for individuals on a limited budget.

 

Hostpapa

hostpapa homepage

Founded in 2006, Hostpapa is a reliable web hosting company that offers free cPanel, cloud services, and hosting solutions.

The Canadian-based company provides round-the-clock customer support, has a wider selection of domain TLDs, and offers a 3-day money-back guarantee.

Pros
  • Hostpapa’s uptime is guaranteed to never drop below 99 percent
  • Hostpapa has designed its user interface to be as user-friendly as possible
  • Hostpapa replies to tickets in less than 10 minutes and is consistent on their live chat
Cons
  • High Renewal Fees
  • Slow Support (If you submit a customer support ticket, you will get a reply in 30 minutes)

Features

  • 9% Uptime Guarantee
  • User Friendly
  • Excellent Support

Hosting Type Offered

Hostpapa offers Shared Hosting, Reseller Hosting, and VPS Hosting.

Price Range

HostPapa Pricing

Hostpapa’s hosting plans range from $3.95 to $20 per month.

Uptime

Hostpapa strives to maintain 99.99% uptime for your website.

Support Score

Hostpapa has a 4.8 support score. It offers support via:

  • Phone
  • Live Chat
  • Support Tickets
  • Knowledge Base

Disk Space

Hostpapa has four hosting plans: Start, Plus, Pro, and Ultra. Start offers offer 10 GB SSD, while Plus offers 100 GB SSD.

Pro and Ultra offer Unlimited SSD storage.

Average Load Time

Hostpapa delivers a page loading time of 565 milliseconds.

Data centers

  • Canada (Toronto)
  • US (Chicago, Los Angeles)
  • Asia (India, Singapore, and Hong Kong)
  • Europe (UK, Spain, France, and Germany)

With a user-friendly user interface, excellent support, and a 99.9% uptime guarantee, Hostpapa is perfect for resellers, web designers, and small businesses.

 

Bluehost

Bluehost Homepage

Bluehost is one of the top web providers in the world.

Since its establishment in 2003, Bluehost has been offering various hosting plans, and it currently powers more than 2 million websites in the world, which is not surprising since they provide 24/7 support, reliable uptime, and amazing speed.

Pros
  • Bluehost has security features to hide personal information, prevent malware attacks, and protect you from spam.
  • Bluehost offers 24/7 support. This is great for individuals who prefer being talked through problems.
  • Bluehost rarely goes down.
  • Bluehost is an official WordPress – recommended hosting provider.
Cons
  • High Renewal Rates

Features

  • Great Security
  • Excellent Support
  • Reliable Uptime
  • Automatic WordPress Installation

Hosting Type Offered

Bluehost offers Shared Hosting, Dedicated Hosting, WooCommerce Hosting, VPS Hosting, and Managed WordPress Hosting.

Price Range

Bluehost plans range from $3.95 to $125 per month.

Uptime

Bluehost maintains a 99.96% for your website.

Bluehost Uptime

Support Score

Bluehost has a 4.7 support score.

The company offers support via:

  • Phone
  • Live Chat
  • Knowledge Base

Disk Space

Bluehost’s shared hosting plan offers 10 to 100 GB SSD storage

Average Load Time

With a load time score of 153 milliseconds, Bluehost is one of the fastest hosting providers out there.

Data centers

  • US (Utah)
  • India (Mumbai)
  • Europe (London)
  • China (Hong Kong and Shanghai)

Bluehost is a WordPress-recommended hosting provider, making it a good option for individuals who want to build their websites with WordPress.

 

InMotion Hosting

Inmotion Homepage
InMotion Hosting is a Los Angeles-based web host that provides cPanel access and offers many no-cost features, from free SSL certificates to a drag-and-drop free website builder.

Pros
  • InMotion Hosting offers US-based support. This means higher quality customer care.
  • InMotion Hosting offers multiple communication channels, including phone, email, skype, live chat, and a ticket system.
  • InMotion Hosting has never had a major outage. It has a guaranteed 9% uptime.
  • All InMotion Hosting servers are supported by NVMe SSD drives instead of HDD drives.
Cons
  • It Is a bit Slow
  • No Free Backups
  • Some Advanced Features are missing

Features

  • US-based Support
  • Multiple Communication Channels
  • Great Performance
  • NVMe SSD Drives for all Servers

Hosting Type Offered

InMotion offers Shared Hosting, Reseller Hosting, WordPress Hosting, VPS Hosting, and Cloud Hosting.

Price Range

InMotion hosting plans range from $3.99 to $7.49 per month.

inMotion Price Range

Uptime                      

InMotion provides customers with a 99.97% uptime guarantee.

Support

You can reach an agent via:

  • Email
  • Skype
  • Phone
  • Live Chat
  • Ticketing System

Disk Space                

InMotion Hosting’s shared hosting plan offers between 100 GB and Unlimited  NVMe SSD storage.

Average Load Time

InMotion has an average load time of 311 milliseconds.

Data centers

  • Virginia (Ashburn)
  • California (Los Angeles)

InMotion Hosting offers NVMe SSD storage, which delivers the fastest response times and the highest throughput. It is perfect for individuals with business websites.

 

iPage

iPage Homepage

iPage is one of the most preferred web hosting providers by small businesses, affiliate marketers, and bloggers with limited budgets.

It offers a specialized vDeck control panel, gives customers a free, custom-built cPanel, and gives customers more control over the features they can access.

Pros
  • iPage has scalable plans that allow you to upgrade to other packages or add more resources if you want to expand.
  • All iPage plans offer extra features for free.
  • iPage is designed with beginners in mind. It has many features that make it easy for first-time users to navigate.
Cons
  • Poor Backups
  • Poor Performance
  • Aggressive Upsells
  • High Prices at Renewal

Features

  • Scalable Plans
  • Free Extra Features
  • Beginner-Friendly

Hosting Type Offered

iPage offers WordPress Hosting, Shared Hosting, VPS Hosting, and Dedicated Servers.

Price Range

iPage’s hosting plans range from $1.99 to $191.99 per month.

Uptime

iPage provides customers with a 99.99% uptime guarantee.

Server Uptime    

Support

You can reach an agent via:

  • Phone
  • Email
  • Live Chat

Disk Space                

iPage’s Go Plan offers unlimited disk space.

Average Load Time

iPage’s full load time is 2.7 seconds. This is poor performance compared to other hosting providers.

Data centers

  • iPage has two data centers in Burlington, Massachusetts.

iPage offers crucial features needed to get your website online with no hassle. It is great for personal websites, small businesses, and blogs.

 

What Is cPanel?

cPanel is a web hosting control panel software that provides a GUI (Graphical User Interface) and automation tools that simplify the web hosting process for website owners and end-users.

Cpanel Homepage

cPanel allows hosting and server administration through your web browser.

Although cPanel is limited to managing one hosting account, it allows you to manage the entire server.

Apart from the GUI, cPanel hosting provides API-based access and a command line interface that allows developers, web hosting companies, and third-party software vendors to automate system administration activities.

The activities could range from. software installation, to integration, maintenance, data and performance management, security management, and more.

cPanel also supports installation on RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux), CloudLinux OS, CentOS, and Ubuntu servers.

Is cPanel Free?

Although this article is about costless cPanel hosting, the browser-based control panel is not free. To be more precise, cPanel is free for most web hosting customers but not for web hosts.

It is mandatory for hosting providers and server administrators who want to use cPanel to purchase a software license that costs between $15 and $45 per month.

Cpanel Requirements

If you are operating a cloud hosting or VPS (Virtual Private Server) environment on Google Cloud, for instance, you will likely need to purchase a software license.

Best Free Hosting With cPanel

Even though we do not advocate for Costless hosting because of the lack of security, non-existent support, and unreliable service there are a few cases where free web hosting is good.

For example, Costless hosting is often a decent but temporary option for website owners who want their websites to go up quickly or test concepts without spending money into a hosting plan.

A person can try building their own websites with cPanel for free and see if they like building websites themselves without spending any money.

When looking for free cPanel web hosting, be wary of fakes..

There are hundreds of free web hosting providers that rank at the top of search engines, but their main intention is to capitalize on the reliability that cPanel offers without offering cPanel itself.

GigaRocket

GigaRocket Homepage

If you are looking for free web hosting with cPanel, GigaRocket incorporates all the features and resources to cater to your needs.

With GigaRocket, you get full cPanel support to operate and manage your website. You can also design your website in a trice with the website builder and get your website up and running quickly.

Pros
  • GigaRocket offers Costless hosting with MySQL, PHP, and SSL.
  • GigaRocket provides server space to users who participate in the company’s community forums.
Cons
  • Outdated Website
  • Too Many Restrictions
  • Unresponsive Customer Support

Features

  • Free Hosting
  • Free Server Space

Hosting Type Offered

unlimited bandwidth for Hosting via cPanel

Price Range

The core product is 100 percent free.

Free Hosting

Uptime

GigaRocket promises a 99.95% Uptime.

Support

Its customer support reported to be not reliable and limited to a ticket system.

Disk Space

GigaRocket’s free cpanel hosting services package offers 5000 MB of disk space.

Average Load Time

GigaRocket’s load time speed is 1.6 seconds. It has performance-enhancing features such as Cloudflare CDN that help it achieve fast loading speeds.

cloudflare

Data centers

  • GigaRocket data centers are located in Kirkland, Washington, United States.

Despite being free, GigaRocket offers users a range of services. GigaRocket is perfect for students and individuals working with limited hosting budgets.

 

FreeUpload.net

freeupload.net Homepage

FreeUpload.net offers a great deal when it comes to free cPanel hosting. All its hosting plans come with cPanel, making hosting easy for users.

Additionally, setting up unlimited mysql databases, emails, domains, and FTP is convenient, and you get amazing features for a free service.

Pros
  • net offers unlimited free web hosting with MySQL, PHP, and SSL.
  • net offers costless hosting with no ads or annoying messages.
  • Automatic updates for WordPress are enabled on FreeUpload.net.
Cons
  • No Free Domain Name

Features

  • Unlimited Hosting
  • No Ads
  • Automatic WordPress Updates

Hosting Type Offered

FreeUpload.net offers Shared Hosting, VPS Hosting, WordPress Hosting, and Cloud Plans.

Price Range

$0.00/month

Uptime

FreeUpload.net has a 99.99% uptime.

Support Score

FreeUpload.net has a 3.4 support score on Trustpilot. You can reach its support team via:

Customer Support

  • Live Chat
  • Helpdesk

Disk Space

FreeUpload.net has a free VPS hosting plan that offers 2GB RAM.

Average Load Time

FreeUpload.net loads in 25 milliseconds and takes 5 minutes to startup.

Data centers

  • FreeUpload.net has data centers in Germany.

FreeUpload.net offers unlimited hosting, allowing users to host unlimited numbers of files on their site servers. It is ideal for individuals that host high amounts of media.

 

xHosti.com

xHosti.com Homepage

xHosti.com offers free cPanel hosting

Pros
  • com is a free domain name provider
  • com offers round-the-clock technical support.
  • com issues free SSL certificates instantly online
Cons
  • You need permission to access files from cPanel, which can be time-consuming.

Features

  • Free Domain Name
  • Excellent Support
  • Free SSL Certificate

Hosting Type Offered

xHosti.com offers WordPress Hosting, Shared Hosting, VPS, and cPanel Hosting.

Price Range

xHosti.com Price

xHosti.com hosts websites at $0.00 per month.

Uptime

xHosti.com promises 100% uptime.

Support Score

xHosti.com offers support via:

  • FAQ
  • Phone
  • Live Chat
  • Video Tutorials
  • Ticketing System

Disk Space

xHosti.com has free VPS hosting plans that offer between  20 GB SSD and 160 GB SSD.

Average Load Time

xHosti.com takes 10.3 seconds to load. It is optimized to offer excellent performance for your web applications and deliver up to 16 times faster.

Data centers

  • xHosti.com has multiple data center locations; however, there is no information on where these locations are.

xHosti.com offers free shared, VPS, WordPress, and free cpanel hosting. It is ideal for individuals that are learning the ropes and businesses that are starting out.

 

000WebHost

000Webhost Homepage

000Webhost offers free web hosting accounts with cPanel control panel. Its cPanel has a simple interface from which you can handle all aspects of web administration.

Pros
  • 000Webhost has developed a custom control panel that has all the essential tools in one place.
  • 000Webhost is regularly monitored and updated to have the latest MySQL and PHP versions.
  • 000Webhost provides rock-solid reliability with a 99.9% uptime guarantee.
Cons
  • Document Upload Limits
  • Expels Websites without Giving Notice
  • Security Issues (000Webhost has been hacked before)

Features

  • Custom Control Panel
  • Latest Technologies
  • Rock Solid Reliability

Hosting Type Offered

000Webhost offers Shared Hosting, VPS Hosting, and WordPress Hosting.

Price Range

000Webhost offers Free Webb Hosting at $0.00 per month, Single Shared Hosting at $1.99 per month, Premium Shared Hosting at $2.99 per month, and Business Shared Hosting at $3.99 per month.

Uptime

000Webhost promises a 99.9% uptime.

Uptime-99

Support Score

If you have a problem, there is no dedicated customer support available. This is understandable since support staffs require salaries — something that Costless hosting cannot efficiently cover.

However, you can still ask questions on the company’s different forums, including:

  • Email
  • Help Desk
  • Live Support
  • Contact Form

Disk Space    

000Website’s premium shared hosting plan offers 100 GB SSD storage

Average Load Time

000Webhost has an average load time of 2 seconds. Its servers are optimized to process requests at the lowest possible timeframes, reaching blazing speeds.

Data centers

  • 000Webhost is based out of Lithuania; however, the servers are located in various places in the United States.

000Webhost provides free web hosting with MySQL, PHP, and cPanel. It is a great starting point for small and medium projects.

 

FreeHosting.com

FreeHosting.com Homepage

FreeHosting.com helps more than 15,000 customers serve over 9 million visitors daily. Aside from offering Costless hosting plans, FreeHosting.com also offers free domain registration, one-time paid upgrades for customers who are not ready to invest in a paid hosting account, and a website builder with over 170 templates.

Pros
  • com keeps your website free of ads, banners, links, and tracking codes.
  • With FeeHosting.com, your website can serve as many visitors as possible throughout the day.
  • com is free for the entire lifetime of your domain.
Cons
  • Support can be Slow and Sometimes Inaccessible
  • Free does not mean Free Forever (you will still have to pay $12.95 for costless hosting services)

Features

  • Ads-Free
  • Unlimited Visitors
  • Free Forever

Hosting Type Offered

FreeHosting.com only offers Shared Hosting.

Price Range

FreeHosting.com is a free hosting platform, but its shared hosting package costs $7.99 per month.

Uptime                      

FreeHosting.com offers a 97.58% uptime for customers.

Support Score

FreeHosting.com has poor customer support. Its ticketing system reported to be unresponsive, its knowledge base is limited, and it has no active user community.

Poor Customer Support

Disk Space                

FreeHosting.com has a Costless hosting plan that offers 10GB of disk space.

Average Load Time

FreeHosting.com can load a fully built WordPress website in less than 2.5 seconds.

Data centers       

  • FreeHosting.com has data centers in Germany and France.

FreeHosting.com is free for life. It, however, does not provide a reliable hosting environment, making it perfect for learning purposes.

 

Is cPanel Free?

Although this article is about free cPanel hosting, the browser-based control panel is not free. To be more precise, cPanel is free for most web hosting customers but not for web hosts.

It is mandatory for providers and server administrators who want to use cPanel to purchase a software license that costs between $15 and $45 per month. You can check our list of the best cPanel hosting services around with additional pricing info.

For instance, if you are operating a cloud hosting or VPS (Virtual Private Server) environment on Google Cloud, you will likely need to purchase a software license.

Pros And Cons Of Free cPanel Website Hosting Services

When it comes to free web providers, the cons outweigh the pros.

The only advantage of free web hosting is that it is free (you do not pay a dime for the service).

This may be ideal if you are getting started, but you are almost always better off with a paid hosting plan, and there are plenty of cheap ones out there..

There are quite a lot of cons to Costless hosting.

Performance is poor compared to paid hosting, website and user security are not guaranteed, do not expect round-the-clock customer support (if there is any), and should anything go wrong, you will have to figure things out on your own.

All things considered, if you can, avoid free web hosting and spend just a few dollars on a free web hosting service instead.

FAQs About Free cPanel Hosting

Is Free Website Hosting Safe?

Free website hosting is safe; however, less attention is paid to support and stability.

As such, you cannot assume that a free web hosting company will back up your customer data or keep your customer data secure, so you need to take extra steps to save and protect user data.

Own Security

This does not mean that free website hosting companies are unreliable; it’s just that with paid hosting, you are assured of reliability, stability, and support.

While free website hosting is perfect for hobby websites, if you depend on your website for revenue, it must have its own paid hosting service.

Not only does a paid hosting service offer extra protections for your site, but it also offers secure web servers and a concise domain name, and your website visitors will not be bombarded by the host’s ads.

Is Free Website Hosting Good?

Free website hosting is good and bad, but mostly bad.

Even though it is free, there are serious downsides to it, such as most websites are not properly secured, you have limited server access, and should anything go wrong, you are left to handle damage control on your own.

Take it from us; you are better off choosing a cheap web provider than opting for free website hosting.

Nonetheless, this is your decision to make, and free website hosting can be ideal for certain situations, like new website owners who want to test the waters before partnering with a free web host.

How Is Free Web Hosting Different From Paid Hosting?

The main differences between free and paid hosting are the server resources offered and the price.

Free web hosting costs you nothing (as the name suggests); however, it comes with less CPU power, less security, and limited storage.

What Free Web Hosting Comes With

On the other hand, paid hosting offers more storage space, better performance, and more security features.

Why Do Web Hosting Companies Offer Free Hosting?

Web hosting companies offer free hosting as a marketing tool.

Since free hosting is a marketing tool, a web hosting company can change the terms and conditions as often as they wish, and since there is no monetary compensation, downtimes may occur more frequently as service level agreements (SLA) do not exist.

Moreover, free hosting comes with quite a few limitations. Features such as traffic uptime guarantees, backup provisions, server space, and site speed are often curtailed.

However, if you cannot do without these features but are working with a limited budget, you can get them from a cheap web hosting provider.

Remember that free hosting only exists because it allows web hosting companies to upsell paid hosting plans to those who may need more provisions.

Is Google Web Hosting Free?

Google web hosting is not free; in fact, it falls more on the expensive side.

Google Cloud

As a site owner, you can expect to pay around $49 per month for Google’s most basic cloud server, which comes with 8 gigabytes (GB) of memory and two vCPUs (Virtual Central Procession Units).

What Is Shared Web Hosting?

Shared web hosting allows you to operate your website on a server that hosts multiple sites.

Stay Away From Free Web Hosting (If You Can)

Finding reliable and free web hosting can be quite a task, and these providers are usually riddled with various problems.

However, Hostinger is the right choice for everyone that wants a high-quality website but still wants to save money. It is beginner-friendly, offers a free migration service, and performs well.

In case you want to upgrade your experience, it offers great plans at very low prices.

If you are looking for the best free web hosting provider and want to create great websites on a budget, then look no further and try Hostinger today.

Our #1 Recommendation: Hostinger

Hostinger Logo
  • Editor's Choice
Overall Rating:

Load Time

Support

Disk space

Security

Pricing

Key Features:
  • Dedicated IP on every plan
  • Affordable plans to get started
  • Flexible plans
  • Beginner friendly
  • Free migration service
  • 30-day money-back guarantee
  • 24/7 multi-lingual live chat support
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Article by

Matt Diggity

Matt is the founder of Diggity Marketing, LeadSpring, The Search Initiative, The Affiliate Lab, and the Chiang Mai SEO Conference. He actually does SEO too.

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