When the business of providing web hosting allows individuals and companies to avail of opportunities to make their websites accessible to all is free, it becomes more competitive. In the sea of a variety of Australian web hosting service providers, it becomes difficult to choose someone who is reliable and suitable to work with.

Finding decent web hosting for Australia can be quite trick, luckily there people that do the reviewing and comparisons for us, so we can just choose the best web host from their top 10.

Who doesn’t love free web hosting? The internet is full of free web hosting service providers who provide storage space for websites and make them accessible via the world wide web. These free web hosting providers service almost anyone from newbies with their first websites, amateur web designers wanting to check out a different web hosting service, as well as seasoned professional website developers looking to launch yet another new project.

So, what to look for in a free web hosting service provider? and what is hosting anyway?

The general answers are:

  • Unlimited disk space
  • Free, fast and unlimited bandwidth
  • Numerous E-mail accounts
  • Access to free domain hosting with at least one domain included
  • Free website developers
  • Availability of SQL databases
  • Auto installers and
  • Instant account activation, with no fees, because its free

With the competition so vast and intense, it is absolutely essential to choose a web host, who is reliable, fast and provides hassle free quality services. So here’s a lowdown on the best web hosting services which are free and popular.

  1. 000webhost.com: This name almost always makes it to the top of the list of web hosting service providers. This web hosting service provider has a lot positive features and hosts several million users worldwide. They support small and medium projects and are considered pioneers in the web hosting world. Some of their services include, limitless disk space and bandwidth, a 99% uptime guarantee, a one click auto web installer and free website developers. Some of their other great features are:
  • 100 GB bandwidth
  • 1500 MB disk space
  • Unlimited domains and free sub-domains
  • 5 email accounts

There are some exciting e-commerce ventures in the offing, that’s the latest buzz from the R&D team.

  1. Weebly.com: This is a popular website builder and a host to reckon with because of their modern, optimal features which enable an almost seamless online experience. Their free web hosting service is a platform showcasing a cloud-based hosting infrastructure which renders the data centre unnecessary. Their website designs and development services boast of easy and modern templates which are among the best in the industry. Some of their features are:
  • 500 MB storage space
  • Unlimited bandwidth
  • Domain space is limited to being a sub-domain of weebly.com

The drawbacks are that they do not provide e-mail accounts or e-commerce facilities.

  1. Awardspace: This host service provider, has several years of experience in free web hosting. They have a free plan to allow novices and amateurs to test their products and services. If clients are interested, they are sure to come back. Awardspace is ad-free. Some of their features are:
  • 1 GB storage space
  • 1 e-mail account with a spam filter.
  • A 5 GB bandwidth
  • They host 1domain which includes 3 subdomains as well.

The drawbacks are that they don’t have a website developer, though it has to be said that they do have a wordpress and joomla installer. Also, they do not provide for e-commerce sites.

  1. Wix.com: A very popular choice for people from across the world, people wishing to host any business imaginable on the worldwide web. It has a variety of efficient websites, provides secure hosting, customised domains, SEO tools and e-mail marketing. Some of the features are:
  • 500MB storage space
  • Limited 1 sub-domain space of Wix.com
  • 500MB bandwidth
  • Website builder and designers with drag and drop options, lots of trendy templates and apps and a good editing feature too.

E-mail accounts, domain space and e-commerce options are available only in the non- free pay plans.

Now onto some service providers who have e-commerce options available too. The few names that crop up immediately are

  1. Freehostia.com: Freehostia offers free cloud hosting. It is very fast when compared to the traditional shared hosting setups. It comes ad-free. Some of the top features include:
  • 250MB storage space
  • 5 domains
  • 6GB bandwidth for every month
  • E-commerce installations are available
  • Free website developers with a one click installation facility.

The 250MB is too small and includes only one database which cannot exceed 10MB in size. Activation is not instant and there are mixed reviews on their 24/7 customer support.

  1. x10Hosting.com: They are considered among the top free web hosting service providers for good reasons. X10Hosting is known for providing their clients a secure, stable and high performing platform with latest versions of MySQL and PHP. Some of their distinguishing features are:
  • Unlimited storage
  • 1 parked domain and 2 sub-domains
  • E-commerce options are available with quick 1click installation features
  • Unlimited bandwidth
  • 3 free email accounts
  • Website developers are available with a great number of template options.

However, some of the drawbacks from clients include difficulty in getting additional space, a laidback customer support and general database issues.

The above mentioned service providers represent free hosting, but any upgradation and additional feature spells payment as per convenient plan packages. Therefore, website owners and online commerce businesses should consider opting for an affordable full- featured web hosting service provider. And such companies include names like ideahost.com, ehost.com, ipage.com and the like.