Free hosting means forced ads, slow speeds, and security gaps
You get a subdomain (yoursite.wordpress.com) not your own .co.uk address
No plugins allowed on WordPress.com’s free tier
Free hosting hurts your Google rankings
Budget hosting at £3-10/month is far better for business websites
Most small business owners know the challenge of launching a website on a tight budget. When you discover that WordPress itself costs nothing, the obvious next question is whether you can host it for free too.
The short answer is yes, but the real answer is more complicated.
Free WordPress hosting exists, and you can build a website without paying for server space.
However, the limitations can hurt your website’s performance, security, and professional image. For a business trying to attract customers, these trade-offs often cost more in the long run than paying a few pounds per month for proper hosting.
This article breaks down exactly what free WordPress hosting offers, where it falls short, and when affordable paid alternatives make more sense for your business.
Table of Contents
What Is Free WordPress Hosting?
Free WordPress hosting sounds brilliant on paper. You get a website without paying for server space.
But there’s always a catch, and understanding the different types of free hosting helps you see what you’re actually getting.
WordPress.com Free Tier vs Free Third-Party Hosts
Two main options exist for hosting WordPress at no cost.
The first is WordPress.com’s free tier, a managed service run by Automattic. You create an account, pick a theme, and start publishing. Everything happens on their servers, and they handle all the technical bits.
The second option involves third-party free hosting providers like 000webhost, InfinityFree, or x10Hosting.
These services give you server space to install WordPress yourself. They make their money through advertising on your site and by encouraging upgrades to paid plans once you outgrow the free tier.
Both approaches have merits for certain situations, but neither offers what a business website truly needs.
The Benefits of Free WordPress Hosting
Free hosting does have its place. If you’re testing an idea or learning how WordPress works, paying nothing upfront makes perfect sense.
You can experiment with themes and content without any risk.
The setup process is usually quick and straightforward, particularly with WordPress.com where everything is ready within minutes. For personal blogs with no commercial intent, free hosting provides enough functionality to publish and share your writing.
Free hosting also works well for prototyping. Before investing in a proper business website, you might want to sketch out your ideas, test different layouts, or simply get comfortable with how WordPress works.
Doing this on a free platform means you can make mistakes without wasting money.
The Limitations You Need to Understand
Here’s where things get tricky. Free hosting comes with strings attached, and some of these limitations can seriously damage a business website’s effectiveness.
Branding and Domain Restrictions
On WordPress.com’s free tier, your website address looks like yoursite.wordpress.com rather than yoursite.co.uk. This subdomain immediately signals to visitors that you haven’t invested in a proper web presence.
For a business trying to build credibility, this matters more than you might think. Would you trust a plumber or accountant whose website address includes “wordpress.com”?
Free hosts also display advertisements on your site that you cannot control or remove. These ads generate revenue for the hosting company, not you. Worse, they might promote competitors or display content that doesn’t align with your brand. Some free hosts add their own branding to your site footer.
Storage, Speed and Performance Issues
Free hosting typically offers minimal storage space, often between 500MB and 1GB. This sounds reasonable until you start adding images. A dozen photographs from a smartphone can eat through half that allowance. Video content is essentially impossible.
Performance suffers because you share server resources with thousands of other websites. When those servers get busy, your site slows down. Free hosts rarely offer uptime guarantees, meaning your website might go offline without warning. Visitors who encounter a slow or unavailable site don’t wait around. They leave and find a competitor instead.
How to Speed Up Your WordPress Site
Security and Backup Gaps
Security is where free hosting most often cuts corners. You might get a shared SSL certificate rather than one specific to your domain. Web application firewalls are rare. Malware scanning is minimal or non-existent.
Backup systems on free plans are equally unreliable. If something goes wrong, you might lose your entire website with no way to recover it. For a business, this represents a serious risk that many owners don’t consider until disaster strikes.
3 Simple Ways to Protect Your WordPress Website
Plugin and Theme Restrictions
WordPress.com’s free tier does not allow custom plugins.
This single limitation removes access to contact forms, SEO tools, e-commerce functionality, advanced galleries, and hundreds of other features that make WordPress so flexible.
You’re stuck with whatever built-in features WordPress.com provides.
Theme options are similarly restricted. You cannot upload custom themes or access the full WordPress theme library. The designs available on free plans are limited, and customisation options are basic. CSS editing requires a paid upgrade.
Third-party free hosts often allow plugin installation, but server limitations mean many plugins won’t work properly. Caching plugins might conflict with the hosting environment. Security plugins might be blocked.
The freedom to install plugins doesn’t guarantee they’ll function as intended.
Why Free Hosting Hurts Your SEO
Search engines care about speed, security, and user experience. Free hosting often fails on all three fronts, which directly impacts your ability to attract visitors from Google.
Page speed is a confirmed ranking factor. Slow-loading websites rank lower than fast ones. Free hosting, with its overcrowded servers and limited resources, rarely delivers the loading times that search engines prefer.
Your competitors on proper hosting have an immediate advantage before you’ve written a single word of content.
SSL certificates affect rankings, Google has explicitly stated that HTTPS is a ranking signal. While some free hosts offer basic SSL, configuration problems are common.
A site showing security warnings in browsers loses both rankings and visitor trust.
Without access to SEO plugins like Yoast or Rank Math, you cannot optimise your pages properly.
You cannot easily add structured data, manage sitemaps effectively, or control how your pages appear in search results. These technical elements matter for visibility, and free hosting locks you out of them entirely.
When Free WordPress Hosting Makes Sense
Despite everything above, there are situations where free hosting is perfectly acceptable.
Personal hobby blogs with no commercial purpose work fine on free hosting. If you want to write about your interests without worrying about professional image or search rankings, WordPress.com’s free tier does the job.
Learning WordPress before building a real site is another valid use case. Spending time understanding how themes, posts, and pages work costs nothing on a free platform. Once you’re comfortable, you can migrate to proper hosting with the knowledge you need to make it work.
Short-term projects that don’t require SEO or professional branding suit free hosting too. Testing concepts, creating temporary event pages, or building demonstration sites can all happen without spending money.
Better Alternatives
If you need a professional website that attracts customers and represents your business properly, budget shared hosting gives you everything free hosting lacks at a price most businesses can afford.
For £3-10 per month, you get your own domain name, a proper SSL certificate, more storage space, better performance, and actual customer support when things go wrong. You can install any plugins you need, choose from thousands of themes, and optimise your site for search engines.
UK-based servers mean faster loading times for British visitors, and data protection compliance is simpler when your hosting company operates under UK regulations. Providers like Starter packages from Krystal, 20i, or JESD-E all fall into this price range and offer solid performance for small business websites.
As your business grows, you can always upgrade to managed WordPress hosting later. But for most sole traders and small businesses starting out, budget shared hosting does everything you need without the limitations that make free hosting unsuitable for business use.
Making the Right Choice
The hosting decision comes down to what your website needs to achieve. A business website exists to attract customers, build credibility, and generate enquiries or sales.
Free hosting actively works against all three goals.
Budget shared hosting at £3-10 per month removes every limitation that holds free hosting back. For less than the cost of a couple of takeaway coffees each month, you get a professional foundation for your online presence.
Consider what your website needs to do, then choose accordingly.
For most UK small businesses, investing in proper hosting from day one saves frustration, protects your professional image, and gives your site the best chance of appearing in search results where your customers are looking.
Frequently Asked Questions
WordPress.com offers a free tier, but it comes with significant restrictions. You get a subdomain (yoursite.wordpress.com) rather than your own domain name, ads appear on your site that you cannot control, and you cannot install plugins or custom themes. Storage is limited to 1GB. While technically free, these limitations make it unsuitable for most business websites.
WordPress.org is free software you download and install on your own hosting. You have complete control over plugins, themes, and customisation. WordPress.com is a managed service where hosting is included, but you trade control for convenience. The free WordPress.com tier is particularly restrictive, while WordPress.org with budget hosting offers full flexibility for a few pounds per month.
Technically yes, but it’s not recommended. Free hosting creates a poor first impression through subdomain addresses and forced advertising. Performance and security limitations hurt both user experience and search rankings. Budget hosting at £3-10 per month removes these problems and presents a far more professional image to potential customers.
Free hosting providers make money through advertising displayed on your website, by collecting data, or by encouraging upgrades to paid plans. They limit resources and features on free tiers specifically to push users toward paid options. The servers cost money to run, so the revenue comes from somewhere, usually at your expense through ads or restrictions.
Yes, free hosting typically hurts your SEO. Slow loading speeds, shared SSL certificates, subdomain addresses, and inability to install SEO plugins all work against you. Google prefers fast, secure websites with custom domains. Free hosting rarely delivers the technical performance that search engines reward with good rankings.
On WordPress.com’s free tier, you cannot install any plugins. This blocks access to SEO tools, contact forms, security plugins, and e-commerce functionality. Third-party free hosts usually allow plugin installation, but server limitations mean many plugins won’t work properly. Budget paid hosting removes these restrictions entirely.
Free hosting typically offers minimal security features. Shared SSL certificates, no web application firewalls, and unreliable backup systems create real risks. For a business handling customer enquiries or processing any kind of data, these security gaps are concerning. Paid hosting at any price point generally includes better security measures and proper backup systems.
Read more: How to Choose the Right Website Hosting Plan
Budget shared hosting starts around £3-10 per month from UK providers. This includes a custom domain name, SSL certificate, adequate storage, and proper customer support. That’s less than most people spend on coffee each month, and it removes all the limitations that make free hosting unsuitable for business websites.
Time is the biggest hidden cost. Troubleshooting performance issues, working around limitations, and eventually migrating to proper hosting all take hours you could spend on your business. Some free hosts also charge for essentials like removing their ads or getting customer support. The initial savings rarely justify the long-term hassle and frustration.