9 Best Free PHP Hosting Providers (Dec. 2023)

If you’re building custom-coded themes for your WordPress blog, having the best free PHP hosting will help you save money on your project. A free hosting plan that supports the latest PHP version will let you publish your live website without investing any money into your project.

We’ve personally tested and reviewed the best free web hosting providers for their customer support, performance, and hardware. The top free web hosts back their plans with impressive uptime guarantees, free website builder tools, and enough storage space to support a small PHP website.

Check out our favorite paid hosting plans, or skip to the best free website hosting providers.

A2 Hosting is a PHP developer’s dream. This PHP host was one of the first providers to give customers PHP support on shared hosting plans. The web hosting service provides site owners with various hosting options, making it easy to get started with a free site transfer and one-click WordPress installations.

A2 supports a range of PHP versions and gives users access to an intuitive version switcher in cPanel. Its entry-level shared hosting plan, Start Up, features up to 20 times faster speeds than other shared plans, backed by solid-state drives.

A PHP developer will appreciate all the bonus features on their hosting account, including a free SSL certificate, a 99.9% uptime guarantee, and 24/7 live chat, email, and phone support. Upgrading to a higher-level plan will unlock unlimited bandwidth and SSD storage.

Check out our full review of A2 Hosting to see why this hosting company is a performant PHP hosting provider.

In the hosting world, “cheap” is synonymous with “shared.” A shared hosting plan is an excellent choice for new website owners or web applications that don’t require too much storage and bandwidth.

Customers who don’t need the massive resources of dedicated hosting can put their PHP web app online for a fraction of the cost while still getting loads of perks. Some of our favorite shared hosting plans include a free domain name for your first year of service and a free website builder to help you get started.

The following hosts impress us with their hardware, performance, and customer support. After carefully reviewing each host’s capabilities, we think these companies give customers the best web hosting on a budget.

If you’re not convinced about paying for your PHP hosting provider, you still have several free options to choose from. Read on to see our top entirely free PHP hosting picks.

As a PHP developer or a small business, you probably don’t want to spend much money on your hosting platform. Why pay for extra storage and features you don’t need if a free hosting service works for you? We’ve compared some of the best free web hosting providers to bring you this list of services that support PHP at no cost.

7. Infinity Free

Infinity Free is a top hosting provider that supports free PHP and MySQL web applications. We support this hosting platform because it gives customers access to features typically reserved for paid plans, including a free SSL certificate, unlimited websites, and no ads.

We specifically love Infinity Free for these add-ons:

• Choice of a free subdomain from 25 extensions
• 99.9% uptime guarantee
• 5 GB of disk space and 400 MySQL databases

Just looking at some of InfinityFree’s features makes it clear this host outperforms most other free services. Plus, the host demonstrates its commitment to providing hosting access to everyone, regardless of their background or budget.

8. 000webhost

000webhost is an excellent free hosting service for new website owners who want a free, easy-to-use platform to host their websites. Although you don’t get a free email account or round-the-clock customer support, you do get enough disk space and bandwidth to operate a small website.

Some of our favorite features of 000webhost’s free plan include:

• One free FTP account and SQL database
• Cloudflare protected Nameservers
• 300 MB of disk space and 3 GB of bandwidth

This host is ideal for small projects or student developers who are looking for a free platform to run their PHP script. And you can easily upgrade to a shared hosting plan if you run out of storage space.

9. ByetHost

ByetHost has more than 10 years of experience in the web hosting industry and uses that expertise to build hosting packages for 1 million websites worldwide. Its free hosting plans run on custom proprietary software, allowing your site to run on different server clusters simultaneously, giving you performance and speed.

The best ByetHost features include:

• Access to the Softaculous auto-installer
• Easy site management with VistaPanel (ByetHost’s proprietary file manager)
• A free FTP account and free subdomain

Not only does this host support PHP, but it also lets users run MySQL and has free technical support. Website owners will be pleasantly surprised by the level of service and quality of features they get from this no-cost hosting plan.

We’re the first to admit free hosting is often too good to be true. But if you’re happy with having limited disk space and bandwidth, the above hosts will suit your free hosting needs perfectly. And if you run out of resources, you can always upgrade to an inexpensive shared hosting plan from your provider.

PHP is an open-source, server-side scripting language that powers the world’s most popular content management system, WordPress. The language is ideal for creating dynamic page content that displays a different output depending on the user’s action.

For example, a site built on WordPress uses PHP to connect your website to a SQL database. When a visitor searches your website for dessert recipes, the PHP code tells your site to go into the database, retrieve all the brownie and cake recipes you have, and display them for your visitor.

Because the language operates on the server, developers can use it to restrict user access. This requires users to log into your website before viewing content. Facebook is a prime example of a website built using PHP, though it has changed over the years.

Some other useful features of PHP include:

• Adding, moving, and deleting SQL database files
• Storing website cookie data
• Collecting online forms
• Creating, opening, reading, writing, deleting, and closing files on the server
• Encrypting data

PHP is a relatively easy language to learn and has an enormous open-source community. Its compatibility with Windows, Linux, and MacOS servers makes it incredibly versatile too.

PHP web hosting doesn’t refer to a specific hosting plan like WordPress or Reseller hosting. Instead, it’s any type of shared, VPS, cloud, or dedicated server hosting that comes with PHP support.

Since this is one of the most common scripting languages, you have hundreds of options. But as you may have guessed, some PHP hosting services are better than others.

When you’re shopping for a PHP web hosting provider, there are a few features you’ll want to keep an eye out for to make sure you’re choosing the right host.

First, check to see whether your provider offers PHP support for the latest version. Using the latest PHP version (8.2 or higher) will ensure your code runs faster and smoother.

One of the best things about PHP hosting is that you can typically get a high-quality service from a shared hosting plan. A shared hosting plan will come with many enticing features for a low monthly price. Customers usually get a free SSL certificate, a free domain, and ample storage and bandwidth to power small to midsize sites.

If you plan to power a more extensive website, you could opt for a VPS hosting plan to give you more storage and bandwidth. Plus, a VPS will easily handle large databases full of content for your WordPress blog.

A free web hosting plan is enticing for an individual or small business owner on a budget. After all, who wouldn’t want a free website? A free web host from one of our top picks is perfect for website owners who don’t mind sacrificing customization to save money.

Although free web hosting isn’t likely to give you unlimited storage and bandwidth or a free domain name, it should offer enough to power a small personal website or test project.

Still, a shared or VPS hosting plan is a smart choice if your website needs more oomph than a free hosting plan can offer. You can get unlimited bandwidth and storage space on many shared and VPS hosting plans for a low monthly price. And the extra features and security you get are worth paying a few dollars each month.

Whatever type of hosting plan you’re looking for, A2 Hosting is a solid choice no matter the scale. Our reviewer Alexandra Anderson recently took A2 Hosting for a spin, and rated the popular host a 4.7 in the PHP Hosting category out of a perfect score of 5.0. Here’s what Alexandra had to say about A2 Hosting:

With an emphasis on performance and an eye for detail, A2 Hosting largely avoids the typical shortcomings of many web hosts out there. The independently owned company balances high-powered infrastructure and developer tools with equally responsive customer support teams, giving experienced customers a highly optimized hosting experience.

Before signing up for A2 Hosting, it’s a good idea to read through Alexandra‘s full review to learn about all the features A2 Hosting offers. You can also compare it to other web hosts to ensure you’re getting the best deal possible:

• A2 Hosting’s Full Review
• A2 Hosting: 4.7/5.0 vs. Others
• A2 Hosting: $2.99/Mo. vs. Others

If you decide A2 Hosting is the right choice, keep in mind that it takes just minutes to deploy your A2 Hosting server space. And at $2.99 per month, it’s a bargain considering the many great features that come in any A2 Hosting plan.