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I have been tasked with finding a low budget (translate free) web hosting service for a Facebook group and would like feedback from the professional community as to their experiences with free hosting providers in general, as well as any specific recommendations or evaluations of free (or very inexpensive) providers.

Our specific needs for this project include:

  • PHP 5 Support
  • Mysql 5.0 Support
  • Apache 2
  • Ability to use mod_rewrite in .htaccess files
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11 Answers

up vote 5 down vote accepted

As I self-host all my services, I can't help you much here, but I will throw out this single thought:

"Free" services often "aren't". You're going to pay a price somewhere - either in bandwidth caps, monthly limits, or some other "cost". As long as you're ok with this, I'm sure that many others here will be able to provide some excellent answers.

My father has a saying that's stuck with me throughout life: "You can pay me now, or you can pay me later".

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In this case I'm building and managing the site pro bono so my time is much cheaper than even a small hosting fee. :P – Noah Goodrich Jul 3 '09 at 17:01
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In the UK there are good hosting services to be found costing £50/year (or less). Some offer monthly payment plans from just £3. That's 2 coffees from starbucks and from the good companies this is a 1000x better than any free service I've used. – Dan Jul 3 '09 at 19:54
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+1, My family has a saying too "You get what you pay for; if you pay nothing, you get nothing" – Chris S♦ Aug 17 '10 at 12:40
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up vote 1 down vote

If you give up on free and are looking for a reasonably priced, good provider, check out WestHost (www.westhost.com). They are a LAMP oriented company and their techs actually know what they are talking about. Not as cheap as GoDaddy, but when you do need help at least someone smart answers the phone.

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up vote 1 down vote

I generally find that free stuff costs more than it's worth.

In terms of web hosts specifically, I've never had a good, or even acceptable, experience with any free or nearly free provider.

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up vote 1 down vote

I agree with Eli that " ... free stuff costs more than it's worth."

I recommend DreamHost .. on the order of ~$10/month, no setup if you prepay for a year.

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up vote 1 down vote

You can go VPS way - then it is up to you how you set up your server. I use tektonik.net - their prices start with $15/month.Never had any problems in 4 years.

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+1 for VPS. I've been a happy linode.com customer for over a year now. They're not the cheapest around, but you get the best bang for your buck IMhO and they're incredibly flexible; you can do anything you like with the VPS provided it's legal. – Ehtyar Jul 3 '09 at 22:32
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up vote 1 down vote

I would recommend Host1Free.com as free web hosting. Current I host few websites and runs without any issues

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up vote 0 down vote

altervista.org will offer all of that for free (maybe the website is italian only)

(actually, the mysql database is limited to 240 queries/hour)

or spacesocket, but you need to be an active user in the forums

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http://www.000webhost.com/

I haven't tried it as I have a paid account that I am happy with so far. My friend actually uses it quite extensively for his few blogs, so far works ok.

They also offer a referral program but I didn't link mine here as it may look too spammy.

Hope it helps.

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http://x10hosting.com/

Free No ads PHP/mySQL/ASP.net/python support

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I have several sites at different hosting companies. This allows me to link between them with different IPs/locations for seo purposes. I recommend to use a paid hosting plan if you do serious business. I experienced that pretty much all free plans have some kind of limitations or they just do not perform well.

Today, I only use Php Hosting 4 Free since they allow url_rewriting and they are reliable an fast. WordPress and ModX runs on it. However, they do not allow you your own php.ini file and you have to do some patching to turn register globals off. Retrieving RSS freeds from other servers does not work either. There they want you to upgrade. Their plans are affordable and honest: No overselling (= no unlimited everything b.s.)

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I use 1and1.com . Isn't free but is pretty good for the $4/month fee.

details here -

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