Including the parts where they win. Most hosting comparisons are affiliate-funded lists that rank whoever pays most — this one has no affiliate links and names the cases where you should pick someone else.
Before the table, the thing worth understanding about this market: almost every “best free web hosting 2026” article you will read is affiliate content. The ranking reflects commission rates, not quality. That is not a conspiracy, it is just how the niche is monetised — and it means the ordering of those lists carries very little information.
This page has no affiliate links and nobody pays us for placement. It also names, specifically, the situations where a competitor is the better answer. If that costs us a few signups from people we would have disappointed anyway, that is a good trade.
| Traxio | InfinityFree | WordPress.com free | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ongoing cost | Free 30 days, then £0.99/mo | Free | Free |
| Control panel | Full DirectAdmin | Custom panel | None (hosted platform) |
| Adverts on your site | Never | No | Yes, on the free plan |
| Use your own domain | Yes (bring your own) | Supported | Paid upgrade |
| Plugins / themes | Unrestricted | Unrestricted | Restricted on the free plan |
| PHP version choice | 7.4–8.3, per domain | Fixed (PHP 8.4) | Not applicable |
| Databases | MySQL with phpMyAdmin (1 included) | MySQL | Not applicable |
| Email on your domain | 1 account included | Not available | Paid upgrade |
| Cron jobs | Yes | Not available | Not applicable |
| Backups | Daily and automatic, plus self-service | Limited | Export only |
| Support | Help centre and AI help desk, with a person on escalation | Community forum | Community forums |
| Uptime guarantee (SLA) | None | None | None on the free plan |
Competitor details change without notice — check their current terms before deciding. This table reflects our understanding at the time of writing (checked October 2026) and is not a substitute for reading their documentation. 000webhost, which used to appear here, has closed.
These are sincere recommendations, not reverse psychology.
Your budget is genuinely zero and must stay there. It gives you PHP and MySQL for nothing, indefinitely, without advertising on your pages. For a learning project, a test site or something with no commercial stakes, that is a real offer and 99p a month is a real barrier if you do not have it. Our guide to the best free hosting options covers which free host suits which kind of site.
You want to write and never think about software. They handle updates, security, scaling and backups entirely. The free tier carries their advertising and restricts plugins, but if publishing matters more to you than owning the platform, that is a reasonable trade.
Your site is static and you are comfortable with Git. Their free tiers are more generous than ours, deployment is automatic on push, and the CDN is better. No PHP, no MySQL, no email on your domain — but if you do not need those, they are the better tool.
The site earns money, or downtime costs you money. You get a real support desk with a response commitment, and meaningful resource headroom. At 99p we cannot offer either of those, and pretending otherwise would not serve you.
The case for Traxio is narrow and specific, so here it is plainly.
You get a professional control panel. Free hosts cannot license DirectAdmin or cPanel per account under an ad-funded model, so they build their own — and those panels almost always lack DNS editing, cron, PHP version switching and proper backups. Those are the tools that let you fix your own problems instead of waiting for someone else to.
The limits are published. 3GB and 100GB a month, stated on the pricing page rather than in a fair-use clause. You can work out before signing up whether it fits.
The price does not move. £0.99 is the renewal rate, not an introductory one. The industry norm — £1.99 for three years then £8.99 — is the practice we are most deliberately not copying.
Leaving is straightforward. DirectAdmin generates a standard backup most other DirectAdmin hosts restore directly, and a domain registered through Traxio can be transferred to any other registrar, so nothing of yours is held here.
That is the whole pitch. It suits people who want to run a small site properly on their own domain for about the cost of a coffee per year, and who would rather read a knowledge base than wait on a ticket queue.
One plan with everything included. Your first 30 days are free with no card required, then it’s £0.99 a month if you choose to continue — with no setup fee and no price rise at renewal.
The hosting is self-managed through DirectAdmin, with a large knowledge base and an AI help desk that escalates to a person when needed. That’s how the price stays this low.
Traxio web hosting
First 30 days£0.00
Then, per month£0.99
No setup fee. No VAT or card fees added.
Comparing one provider in detail? We have fair, sourced comparisons with InfinityFree, ByetHost, WordPress.com, Forumotion, ProBoards and Create A Forum.
Then £0.99 a month if you decide to stay. No card required to start.
Start your website freeComparing the models rather than the providers? This page compares named hosts. For the underlying question — how free hosting is funded and what that costs you — see free hosting versus paid hosting.
