15 Best: Web Hosting for Students & Teachers (2020) - Free & Paid

Whether you’re learning how to code, want to communicate with students online, or need to build your professional online presence, web hosting for students and teachers offer an affordable and flexible path online. Even better, many web hosts offer discounted or free services to those in education.

Back in my day (cue wavering old-person voice), back-to-school shopping meant Trapper Keeper binders and Lisa Frank folders. As the number of computer science classes and online education opportunities are on the rise, however, a web hosting plan now often makes the supplies list.

The nuances of various web hosting plans can be difficult for non-technical people to understand, but we’ve compiled a list of the best options that balance storage, speed, security, and support with the tight budgets of students and teachers. Read on for our recommendations, or click on the links below to skip ahead:

Best Overall | Free Site Builders | Free Web Hosts | Free Domains | Moodle Hosts

Just as you wouldn’t write a paper off the cuff or teach a class without a lesson plan, starting a web hosting account requires a bit of research. Although you can find hosting plans that bill monthly, most lock you in for a full year — and bill up front. To help mitigate costs and support education, however, many hosts offer special discounts to educators and pupils.

SiteGround, for instance, caters to both students and teachers with heavily discounted — and sometimes free — services, including 24/7 support, daily backups, and upgraded performance through a content delivery network.

Most hosting providers only require a new customer sign up with their .edu email address to access the discounted rates, but you might need to verify your status with a phone call or email. For more information about SiteGround, along with the other best-value hosts we recommend, check out our views below:

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Personal and professional websites are easier than ever to obtain. Although many hosting plans come with super-simple site builders for free to help customers get online quickly, two of the leading platforms will handle hosting and drag-and-drop design for free.

The user-friendly platforms supply users with customizable templates and design tools that teachers can adjust to best communicate with students, and parents. Students can quickly create professional portfolios to show prospective employers, as well. If you’re OK with putting your site on a subdomain (think yourname.wix.com or yourname.weebly.com), then explore these free and low-cost options:

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We get it — with the cost of college textbooks rising more than four times the rate of inflation over the past 10 years, there’s not much left to spend on additional supplies. We tend to encourage new or aspiring site owners to seek out “almost-free” hosting from more reputable providers that offer more in terms of value and security, instead of sometimes-suspicious free hosting. Fortunately, some of our favorite hosts offer education discounts that allow students to have the best of both worlds.

Free for Students

Save your money for pizza or beer (er, we mean for tutors and writing utensils). Finding a hosting home for your website doesn’t mean you need to take on more roommates to help split the rent. These two hosts offer massive discounts to students — but don’t sacrifice the number or quality of features.

InterServer provides one year of free hosting to students who sign up using their .edu email address. The already affordable host is among the industry’s most flexible, too — all plans are billed on a month-to-month basis, so you won’t be locked into any long-term contracts.

AccuWebHosting does offer free student hosting, but the company requires a few too many hoops to jump through (social media follows and a two-minute video). Instead, we recommend taking advantage of AccuWebHosting’s already low prices and well-rounded services.

Learn more about the perks these two particularly student-friendly hosting providers offer customers by reading our full reviews of their regular shared hosting services:

Free for Teachers

Whether you plan to teach an online course or you’re looking for an online home for supplementary resources, many hosting providers would like to help. What’s more, these two companies will enable you to pass discounts onto your students so that no one has to worry about the added expense.

SiteGround gives teachers a free shared hosting account (minus the domain name) and will create a custom sign-up page for students to take advantage of the same deal. The masters of customer support will take care of technical details and let you focus on your class.

InMotion Hosting supports educators with cost-free shared hosting, along with discounts on both virtual and dedicated servers. In addition to scores of one-click installation scripts, InMotion Hosting comes with easy access to the BoldGrid site builder for WordPress.

With two of the best hosting providers in the industry clamoring to help you teach the next generation, you can feel safe exploring these online options. Dig down into the nitty-gritty details of the two companies by reading through our reviews below. Be sure to click on the links to get the full picture.

For the cash-strapped student or teacher, domain name registrations are actually some of the easiest savings to unlock. Most hosting plans come with one year of a free domain, which typically costs around $10 or $15. Buyer beware, however — these registration fees renew every year.

If you do some digging around, however, you should be able to uncover a few hidden gems. For additional savings, keep an eye out for hosts that include free domain privacy protection. Otherwise, a small number of hosting providers cover the costs of domain registrations and renewal fees for the life of your account — perfect for new teachers looking to work on their online classroom for the length of their career, as well as students who will need a portfolio or online résumé to show prospective employers. Here are some of those options:

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Hosting for your online classroom doesn’t necessarily mean much without a learning management system. Platforms like Moodle help teachers organize and manage students in a collaborative online environment. With nearly 30% of students taking an online course, easy software installations are a must-have for most educators and those they’re teaching.

Particularly with Moodle, performance is key. The hosts reviewed later in this section offer a premium balance between speedy page loads and affordability. Even better, a couple of these hosting providers offer special programs for students and teachers:

A2 Hosting features more than 15 eLearning software options on SSD-powered hard drives that can be supercharged by upgrading to the company’s Turbo servers, which boast up to 20-times faster speed.

InMotion Hosting gives teachers a free SSD shared hosting account and enables them to offer 50% discounts to their students. A true industry veteran, InMotion is known for extremely helpful customer support.

To learn more about A2 and InMotion’s hosting features — or to explore an extremely cost-effective alternative in iPage — read through our in-depth reviews below:

See other top Moodle hosts »

Phew — that was a lot of cramming. Think you’re ready for the test?

Regardless of which side of the desk or lectern you’re on, web hosting deals abound for those in the education world. Whether your website will house learning materials or interactive projects, we’re confident that your soon-to-be new website will make your learning life easier. As you’re choosing which plan to get started with, look closely at features like design templates, discussion forums, and easy software installations.

Be prepared to spend a few days or weeks getting your site set up and ready, but those who exhibit patience and a studious approach will be ready to graduate to more and more complex web projects in no time. Happy hosting!