A free web hosting service is a web hosting service that is free, usually advertisement-supported.

Free web hosts will usually provide a subdomain (yoursite.example.com) or a directory (www.example.com/~yourname). In contrast, paid web hosts will usually provide a second-level domain along with the hosting (www.yourname.com). Many free hosts do allow use of separately-purchased domains. Rarely, a free host may also operate as a domain name registrar.

Features and limitations

Only a few free web hosts offer basic package for free. Enhanced packages (with more features) are usually available for a cost. This allows users to try the service for an initial trial (see how it performs compared to other hosts), and then upgrade when (and if) needed.

Free hosting may have the following limitations:

• Limitation on the size of each hosted file
• Very small bandwidth per month compared to paid hosting
• Disabling on hotlinking of files
• File type restrictions (for example MP3, MPEG, ZIP etc.)
• Compulsory placement of the Webhosts' Banner or Popup ads into all web pages
• No provided uptime guarantee
• No allowance of custom URLS, such as "http://www.domain.com". It has to be "http://www.provider.com/domain" or "http://domain.provider.com/".

Some free host may provide these extra features:

• A web based control panel
• Free email accounts for the domain or subdomain hosted
• File transfer via FTP
• Scripting languages: PHP, ASP, Perl etc.
• Relational databases such as MySQL
• Scheduled processes, known as cronjobs
• Other features such as guestbooks
• Forums and community resources not typical of paid hosts
• Reward systems which provide extra free products and services
• Have no data limitations offering unlimited space'

Monetizing free webhosting

The majority of the hosting companies use free hosting to introduce their services, and as an entry point to their more expensive offerings. Generally they recoup their costs in one of two ways:

• Advertising - Selling online advertising on the customer sites is generally considered a fair trade - the reasoning is that high traffic sites are more expensive to host, but the additional traffic allows for additional ad impressions therefore covering the cost. For the web master, it can be a good trade if the advertising is of good quality and non-competitive. This is one of the main reasons that businesses do not use free hosting for their website. The majority of free hosting companies use this method.

• Referrals - Using a simple form of viral marketing, these providers rely on the users to spread the offer. The ratio of free to paid accounts is known, and by having each free user refer a number of friends, the hosting provider is able to get enough paid accounts to cover the cost.