What is 000WebHost?

000WebHost are a FREE web hosting company, powered by Hostinger. They offer web hosting at no cost with a 99% uptime guarantee. As you can imagine, this peaked my interest and I had to find out more! After all, is there such thing as truly free web hosting?

Zero cost website hosting with PHP, MySQL, cPanel & no ads!

Visit 000WebHost.com (£0.00/Month)

The skeptic in me wanted to find out what ACTUAL customers thought of 000WebHost. Given that they’re a free web hosting provider, I figured the reviews might be pretty poor. However, I was pleasantly surprised! On TrustPilot, they had an excellent rating of 81% and 4.5 star reviews.

I dug a little deeper to find out what things people liked (or didn’t like) about 000WebHost. The general consensus was that people were happy it was free, as well as receiving good customer support. They liked the features that were on offer given it’s free hosting. Those that didn’t approve of 000WebHost reported features not working or uploads failing.

There’s going to be mixed reviews for most web hosts as it’s all down to personal experience. However, things seem positive so far and I was eager to learn more. Given the guarantee an uptime of 99%, I wanted to test out some of 000WebHost’s servers by signing up to their free plan.

000WebHost Server Speed & Uptime

As they are a free web hosting provider, 000WebHost don’t guarantee that your site will be available 24/7/365. They do guarantee an uptime of 99% though. The nice thing about this free host is that they publicly display their server status. This includes information about which servers are online and offline, and their overall uptime results.

According to their statistics, they achieved the following across the last 30 days:

• 99.329% (30 days)
• 98.890% (7 days)
• 99.922% (24 hours)

You can see some of the main culprits over the last week which seem to cause issues. The 000WebHost DB only achieved 91.679% uptime in the last 7 days – ouch! But, let’s remind ourselves of the overall picture and the fact that they are free.

I signed up to 000WebHost to see how my own site would get on. I monitored it for 30 days to get a fair and broad perspective on their server performance. My total uptime just peaked their guarantee with an overall 99.91% uptime.

I won’t lie, this was disappointing, but at the same time a relief that they kept to their own uptime guarantee. I guess when you’re getting something for nothing you can’t expect everything. Some paid for web hosting that I’ve experienced has similar uptime results, so I can’t really complain that much!

Visit 000WebHost.com (£0.00/Month)

000WebHost Features

000WebHost surprisingly have quite a few features given that they are free to use. Whilst a lot of these features come standard with most web hosts, it’s nice to see they’re still being offered when you’re not paying a penny.

Some of the main features that 000WebHost boast about on their website include:

3GB Bandwidth
300 MB SSD Storage
2 Websites
Free SSL
1 Database

It’s quite easy to see why so many people rate them so highly! I’m not saying that 000WebHost will set you up for your whole web hosting lifetime, but they’re certainly a good start. If you’ve never used web hosting before, I would recommend them to start your journey. They offer powerful features that other web hosts charge for, and those other hosts don’t necessarily offer much more!

As well as the above, free 000WebHost plans also include:

• Your own ads: If you want to make money from your website, you can use your own adverts. 000WebHost don’t restrict their customers by only have their adverts displayed. So if you think you can cash in on this, it’s certainly worth a go.
• Multiple websites: You can host up to 2 websites on a free 000WebHost account. Some paid hosting only allow you to host 1 website so I’d say this is extremely generous!
• Instant Activation: Nobody likes to wait around, especially when it means getting your website online. This free web host won’t make you wait. Once you’ve signed up for an account it will be instantly activated.
• cPanel: 000WebHost use the latest cPanel for their control panel. cPanel is incredibly easy to use and pretty much the industry standard when it comes to dashboards. This includes 1-click installs for the likes of WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla.

000WebHost Customer Support

000WebHost have a range of ways to get in contact. Their support services are quite broad given they’re a free web host. First up is their FAQs and knowledgebase which is very extensive. You can search for specific articles or browse the categories listed.

000WebHost have a community forum for people to discuss issues, advice, etc. The forum isn’t that user-friendly as there aren’t sub-forums to browse through. However, everything does have a category so you can browse by category if you can’t find what you’re looking for.

If you’re looking to create a WordPress website with 000WebHost, they have a really handy step-by-step guide. If you’ve never used WordPress before, this guide is a great tool to get you started. This is a really nice added touch considering their services are free!

Now, if you actually want to contact or speak to someone from 000WebHost, I’m afraid you might be at a loss. Their contact page directs you back to their forum where you can report bugs and get help from the moderators. There’s a postal address available, but that’s not much use if you have any immediate queries!

000WebHost are a free web hosting provider; we must remind ourselves of this every now and then. They do have social media pages, namely Facebook and Twitter. Their Twitter page does have some interaction between 000WebHost and their customers. However, a lot of the tweets from the web host suggest to go to their forums where someone will be able to help.

000WebHost Pros and Cons

There are some really mixed reviews surrounding 000WebHost. I include myself in this because I do feel conflicted at times. Most of what 000WebHost offer for FREE is really good, and it’s hard to complain when you’re getting something for nothing. However, I wonder if there are better free web hosting alternatives out there.

I’ve taken some time to weigh up the pros and cons that 000WebHost has to offer. After signing up to their free web hosting services, I’m able to make a judgement based on my own experience in the hope this may help you to decide whether this host is right for you.

Pros

Security: 000WebHost confirm that their servers are protected with firewalls. They also claim that their servers are DDoS protected and incorporate regular updates. For a free service, this is fantastic news to know your website will be secure.

Features: Considering you’re not paying a single penny for their services, 000WebHost offer some fantastic features. They provide enough storage and disk space for a small website, along with access to cPanel and softaculous.

Ease of Use: 000WebHost is a really simple and easy to use platform. Whether you’re uploading files or creating databases, the whole tool is incredibly easy to get on with, even for beginners.

Cons

Customer Support: It’s disappointing that there’s no customer support. Yes, there are forums where moderators can respond to queries, but there’s no direct support through telephone or live chat. However, we must remember that this is a FREE service, so what do you expect.

Uptime: I wasn’t particularly impressed with 000WebHost’s uptime. It petered around the 99.3% mark which doesn’t give me much confidence. The history of their uptime also rings alarm bells.

000WebHost Pricing

At this point I should explain something. 000WebHost offer FREE web hosting (of course, we know that), but they also offer premium services too. What most people don’t realise is their paid hosting is actually through Hostinger. When you see the prices on 000WebHost, these are Hostinger pricing plans.

Let’s take a look at some of the more in-depth features each plan has to offer.

Free:

• 1 Website
• 300 MB SSD Storage
• Free SSL for 000WebHost Subdomains
• Limited Bandwidth (3 GB)
• 1 Database

Single:

• 1 Website
• 50 GB SSD Storage
• 100 GB Bandwidth
• Unlimited Free SSL
• Weekly Backups
• 1 Email Account
• Website builder
• 2 Databases

Premium:

• 100 Websites
• 100 GB SSD Storage
• Unlimited Bandwidth
• Free Domain (£8.99 value)
• Unlimited Free SSL
• Weekly Backups
• Free Email
• Website builder
• Unlimited Database

Do I Recommend 000WebHost?

If you are just starting out and are on a budget, YES I do recommend 000WebHost. Their web hosting is free and they offer quite a lot considering this fact. You’ll get access to the popular cPanel, 1-click WordPress install, 99% uptime guarantee, and 300 MB SSD storage to work with.

Whilst this may not keep you going for very long, it’s a great option for small websites or blogs. Even if you’re making it big time with your own website, you may consider using 000WebHost as a testing platform for other features you’re looking to implement.

Here’s a quick summary of 000WebHost:

Plenty of features on their FREE plan
A vast knowledgebase and guides/tutorials (if you’ve never used WordPress, there’s a great step-by-step guide)
Reasonable server response times (given this is free hosting, response times weren’t awful)
Positive reviews from customers and users worldwide (their TrustPilot reviews are mostly excellent)

No live chat or ticket support system
Uptime wasn’t up to par with other free web hosts