Free hosting for side projects

Most side projects are not killed by technical limits. They are killed by a renewal notice that arrives in a month you did not open the code. Here is how to host one so that never happens. Traxio itself is free for 30 days with no card, then 99p a month.

Start your website free
  • No card to start
  • No setup fee
  • Then £0.99/month

The renewal notice, not the server

There is a specific pattern to how side projects end. You build something over a couple of weekends, deploy it, show a few people, and then life resumes. Six months later a hosting invoice arrives for an amount that would be trivial if you were still working on it and feels absurd for something you have not opened since spring. You cancel. The domain lapses a while later. The thing is gone, and so are the links.

That is not a technical failure, it is an economic one, and it is entirely avoidable by making the running cost small enough that the question never comes up. This is the single most important hosting decision for a side project, and it is almost never the one people optimise for.

How to host something you will neglect

Make the annual cost forgettable

The test is whether you would notice the charge in a month when you were busy. Hosting at £0.99 a month plus a domain comes to roughly £20 a year — below the threshold at which most people audit a subscription.

Keep the domain even if the hosting lapses

The domain is the part with lasting value: it holds every link anyone has ever shared. Hosting can be re-created in ten minutes; a lapsed domain that somebody else registers is gone permanently.

Hosting vs domain names

Keep a copy somewhere that is not the server

A side project's code is usually in version control; its database usually is not. An occasional database export downloaded to your own machine is the difference between a pause and a loss.

Exporting a database

Use subdomains rather than more accounts

Subdomains are included, so several small projects can share one account and one bill. It also keeps everything in one panel rather than four.

Creating a subdomain

Does your project run here at all?

Check the runtime before anything else. PHP, MySQL, Node.js and Python are all available, with several versions of each; Ruby is not, and there is no root access. If your project needs either, a small application platform or a VPS is the right tool. Nothing else on this page matters if the runtime does not match.

Where different side projects belong

Side project types and where each is best hosted
Project Suits shared PHP hosting? Notes
A small PHP tool or utility Yes Database, cron and .htaccess all available. This is the sweet spot.
A WordPress site or plugin demo Yes One-click install; a subdomain per demo works well.
A static site or generator output Yes, though a free static host is also fine Shared hosting wins if you also want a form handler or email on the domain.
A Node.js or Python app Yes Several versions of each, set up in DirectAdmin. Ruby apps aren’t supported.
Anything with websockets or a worker process No Shared hosting has no persistent processes.
A Discord or Telegram bot Usually not Bots generally need a long-running process; cron-driven polling is a poor substitute.

Simple web hosting for £0.99 a month

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.

Start your website free

See every feature Why it costs £0.99

Traxio web hosting

  • 3GB NVMe disk spaceIncluded
  • 100GB bandwidth a monthIncluded
  • DirectAdmin control panelIncluded
  • Free SSL, issued and renewed automaticallyIncluded
  • An email account on your own domainIncluded
  • One-click WordPress and 400+ appsIncluded
  • FTP, SFTP and a browser file managerIncluded
  • A MySQL database with phpMyAdminIncluded
  • PHP 7.4 to 8.3, switchable per domainIncluded
  • Cron jobs and daily offsite backupsIncluded

First 30 days£0.00

Then, per month£0.99

No setup fee. No VAT or card fees added.

Side project questions

Somewhere cheap enough that you never have to justify the cost to yourself, because the commonest way a side project dies is a renewal notice arriving during a month when you had not touched it. For PHP, Node.js or Python projects a small shared account works; for Ruby, or anything needing root access, you need a platform that supports it.
For a PHP application with modest traffic, yes — you get a database, cron, .htaccess and a real domain. Where it stops being suitable is anything needing a persistent process, websockets, a build step on the server, or a runtime other than PHP.
Here, the account is suspended before it is removed, which leaves a window to retrieve your files. The wider lesson applies anywhere: keep a copy off the server and keep the domain registered even if the hosting lapses. The timeline.
As subdomains of one domain, yes — subdomains are included, so several small projects can share an account. Extra top-level domains are a £0.99 one-off add-on each, and each database-driven project may need an extra database (£0.99, one-off).
Almost always, because almost all side projects have almost no traffic. If one takes off, the ceiling is real and you will need to move — but that is a good problem and everything here exports as standard.

Hosting for Developers

The environment in detail, including everything it will not run.

PHP Hosting

Versions, databases, cron and logs.

Testing and Staging

Running throwaway copies on subdomains.

How Much Do You Need?

Sizing something before you commit to it.

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Then £0.99 a month if you decide to stay. No card required to start.

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