With the recent explosion of SaaS-based enterprises and AI-driven startups, companies are growing at exponential rates. And since many parent companies operate smaller subsidiaries, IT teams must find ways to keep an organization’s digital presence in order and secure.
This is where subdomains come in handy. Say, for example, a parent company operates three SaaS applications under its larger umbrella. Instead of creating multiple landing pages on its corporate website, it can use subdomains to create new web addresses for each satellite company.
Subdomains are a valuable feature that consumers often overlook. But if you’re thinking of hopping on the subdomain bandwagon, you’ll be better off with a hosting provider that includes this feature for free. After all, who doesn’t like free stuff?
We’ve tested dozens of hosting companies to find the best options with free subdomains for you. Take a look at our favorite budget-friendly and VPS hosting providers for your next project.
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Cheap Hosting with Free Subdomains
When we talk about cheap hosting plans, there’s a 99.99% chance we’re referring to shared hosting. A shared hosting environment means your website is hosted on a server with dozens, or even hundreds, of other websites. This setup is what makes it so affordable.
But just because your hosting plan is cheap, doesn’t mean it doesn’t offer value. The shared web hosting market has a lot of competition, which means hosting providers do what they can to sweeten your plan with add-ons and extra features.
Shared hosting is ideal for websites with less than 10,000 monthly visitors. Think of small blogs and personal websites.
The best shared hosting plans with free subdomains will also include features such as a free domain name, free SSL certificate, and a range of bandwidth options to ensure a perfect fit.
- Best overall value: Nothing at this price comes close feature-for-feature.
- AI builds your site in minutes — no technical skills needed
- Up to 3 websites with free SSL
- Weekly backups and managed WordPress
- 2 business mailboxes free for 1 year
- Get started on Hostinger now.
Sead Fadilpasic
As the shared hosting market has become more saturated, things like unlimited storage, bandwidth, and email accounts have become the norm. Hostinger, however, goes above and beyond the norm by also giving users an unrestricted number of websites, databases, FTP users, subdomains, and parked domains for most plans.
Go to full review »| Money Back Guarantee | Disk Space | Domain Name | Setup Time |
| 30 days | 20 GB SSD | FREE (1 year) | 3 minutes |
2. IONOS.com
- Most affordable option: Pay just $12 at checkout
- 1-click WordPress install gets you online in minutes
- Unlimited websites, storage, and databases
- Daily backups, free SSL, and 24/7 support
- Free professional email included
- Get started on IONOS now.
Christina Lewis
If budget is the main factor on your mind when searching for your next web host, search no more. IONOS has an impressive range of robust web hosting and website building packages for what may be the best price we’ve ever seen in the world of hosting.
Go to full review »| Money Back Guarantee | Disk Space | Domain Name | Setup Time |
| 30 days | 10 GB SSD | FREE (1 year) | 4 minutes |
3. Bluehost.com
- Beginner-friendly setup with free domain for the first year
- AI-powered site setup with 1-click WordPress install
- Free CDN, malware scanning, WAF, and DDoS protection
- Weekly backups + 99.99% uptime SLA
- WordPress.org recommended host since 2005
- Get started on Bluehost now.
Sead Fadilpasic
Bluehost pricing is about as competitive as the industry offers. Sign up for a shared hosting plan for as little as $1.99 per month, and WordPress hosting packages are consistently priced; a VPS plan starts at around $4.69 per month; and the dedicated hosting rates are as little as $144.19 per month.
Go to full review »| Money Back Guarantee | Disk Space | Domain Name | Setup Time |
| 30 days | 10 GB NVMe SSD | FREE (1 year) | 5 minutes |
- Cloud-based NVMe SSD servers across 11 global data centers
- 7 daily backups, free SSL, and Imunify360 WAF protection
- Free cPanel, Softaculous 1-click installs, and website migration
- 45-day money-back guarantee — longer than most hosts
- 24/7/365 support via phone, chat, and tickets
- Get started on HostArmada now.
Christina Lewis
HostArmada boasts 11 cloud-based shared hosting data centers across an impressive global network spanning four continents: North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. Its server redundancy and website optimization features allow customers to run stable and high-performing sites across the globe, all within a simplified hosting environment.
Go to full review »| Money Back Guarantee | Disk Space | Domain Name | Setup Time |
| 45 days | 15 GB NVMe SSD | FREE (1 year) | 3 minutes |
If shared hosting doesn’t offer the bandwidth and storage your site requires, you may be better off with an affordable virtual private server. Many hosts that offer shared hosting give customers access to VPS hosting as the next step in their journeys. Read on to see which VPSes take the cake for the best hosting with free subdomains.
VPS Hosting with Free Subdomains
A virtual private server may sound futuristic, but it’s actually a practical hosting setup used by businesses every day. VPS plans give you more room to grow and more control over your server while still keeping costs reasonable. They cost a bit more than shared hosting, but much less than a dedicated server.
Virtual private servers are ideal for websites with 10,000 to 30,000 monthly visitors. Plus, they are great for websites that plan to grow because they offer instant access to more bandwidth and storage.
A VPS hosting plan will cost you anywhere from $5 to $20 or more, depending on whether you manage your server or have your hosting provider do it for you. If you choose an unmanaged plan, the hosts below make it simple to create subdomains through your cPanel dashboard.
5. IONOS.com
- Lowest entry price for VPS: no hidden fees, unlimited traffic, from $4.00/mo
- NVMe SSD storage, 1 Gbps connection, and 99.99% uptime
- Full root access with Linux or Windows — deploy in minutes
- Personal consultant assigned to every account after signup
- 30-day money-back guarantee and award-winning support
- Get started on IONOS now.
Christina Lewis
For an all-star player in the game of web hosting flexibility, look no further than the low-cost options from IONOS. The company’s vServers are a powerful VPS option that includes dedicated resources and unlimited traffic.
Go to full review »| Disk Space | CPU | RAM | Setup Time |
| 120 GB – 720 GB NVMe | 2 – 12 cores | 4 GB – 24 GB | 6 minutes |
6. Hosting.com
- AMD EPYC processors and NVMe SSD storage on all plans
- Full root access — install tools, containers, and custom stacks
- Choice of Ubuntu, Debian, or AlmaLinux with optional cPanel
- 10 global data centers with free CDN and 99.9% uptime SLA
- 24/7/365 in-house support — no outsourcing, no bots
- Save 5% on all annual plans with code HAP1010
- Get started on hosting.com now.
Christina Lewis
While hosting.com’s turbocharged shared hosting platform gives site owners ample room to grow, the company’s tech prowess is on full display with its portfolio of VPS options. Ranging from unmanaged, bare-metal environments to stress-free, fully managed space, hosting.com is sure to have the perfect option for your expanding online presence.
Go to full review »| Disk Space | CPU | RAM | Setup Time |
| 80 GB – 640 GB NVMe | 2 – 16 cores | 4 GB – 32 GB | 7 minutes |
- $0.01 for the first month using code HOSTINGADV
- Price locked for life, no renewal increases, ever
- Scale instantly by adding slices — each adds 1 CPU, 2 GB RAM, 40 GB SSD
- Linux or Windows with full root access, choice of data center
- 24/7 in-house support from an independently owned provider since 1999
- Get started on InterServer now.
Sead Fadilpasic
InterServer’s on-site datacenter and hands-on involvement with configuring and provisioning virtual private servers give customers a level of flexibility not seen with many other hosting providers. InterServer rations VPS and cloud resources through slices.
Go to full review »| Disk Space | CPU | RAM | Setup Time |
| 40 GB SSD – 1280 GB SSD | 1 – 16 CPUs | 2 – 64 GB | 6 minutes |
With so many hosts, your choice will come down to how much power you need from your hosting plan. Once you decide that, you can narrow down your choice to budget and extra features.
Domain Glossary and Common Terms
Beginning your search for hosting with free subdomains is a challenge if you don’t know the terminology. It’s similar to taking a driver’s ed practice test when you don’t understand the meaning of the letters on your “PRNDL” — or the gear shift if we’re being technical.
Let’s go over some helpful terms so you don’t flop your test.
A web address includes a domain name, a domain extension, and sometimes a subdomain. You see it in your browser’s URL bar, and it tells your computer where to go when you hit “enter.” We’ll walk through a few examples below so you can see how it all fits together.
The domain name is the part of your web address that comes before the domain extension (i.e., the unique part of your web address). Domain names are individual identifiers that tell your computer where to go when you type the name into your web browser.
Domain names are one of the most essential parts of your website because they must be unique and easy to remember. Websites with poorly chosen domain names suffer from lower traffic and fewer return visitors, which you want to avoid at all costs.
The domain extension refers to what comes after the domain name. The most common extensions are .com, .org, and .net, but you can choose from hundreds of other extensions. Some recent extensions rising in popularity include .io and .ai, thanks to the boom in AI-based SaaS applications.
An example of a domain extension is www.HostingAdvice.com, where .com is the extension.
A subdomain is when a web address has a prefix before the domain name to further identify a webpage’s location. This is useful for large websites with multiple sections, such as blogs, documentation centers, and help desks.
Websites often use subdomains in addresses like www.blog.mywebsite.com. In this case, .blog is the subdomain, and .com is the top-level domain. Your domain name sits right in the middle, almost like the filling in a domain sandwich.
What Is a Subdomain? And Why Should I Use One?
As we briefly discussed, a subdomain is part of your website’s domain extension that lives under the larger umbrella of your top-level domain. You can think of a top-level domain as a street and the subdomains as specific house numbers on that street.
Enterprises often have enormous sitemaps with dozens of nested pages. And sometimes, different branches of a company offer separate services. In either case, using a subdomain is an efficient way to break up your website into smaller sections.
See free hosting with subdomains >>
What Is the Domain Name System?
The domain name system, often called the DNS, is like a map of every existing website. It lets users type a web address into their browser without memorizing individual IP addresses. The DNS system knows precisely which website to take you to once you type in the address and hit “enter.”
What Is a Domain Registrar?
A domain registrar is where you purchase and register your domain. GoDaddy and Namecheap are the leading registrars, with more than 94 million registered domains between them.
Like most things in life, domain names aren’t free. Although you can get a free domain name with a hosting plan purchase, that cost is typically recuperated by your host in your monthly plan’s fee. But you’ll be happy to know that most domain names are affordable.
A select few domains sell for astronomical prices, but these are sought after for brand recognition and SEO purposes. The most expensive domain, cars.com, was valued at $872 million.
See cheap domain registrars with hosting >>
Choose Your Subdomain Wisely
As if there aren’t enough challenges when choosing a hosting provider with free subdomains, you actually have to come up with the subdomain itself. Think carefully about how your subdomain will read. Ask yourself:
1. Is this subdomain short and easy to remember?
2. Will this subdomain make sense for years to come?
3. How will this change impact my sitemap?
Once you choose a provider and answer these questions, you’re ready to get domaining. Good luck, and don’t forget to reference your new domain glossary if you get confused.
