7 Best Hosting Providers and Website Builders with a Free Domain (2023)

Domain name costs can vary from registrars to domain extensions you choose. But the average remains between $10 and $20 per year. Remember that the renewal price per domain extension will often be much higher.

Different types of domains include:

• Original Top Level Domain (TLD): com, net, org.
• Country Code Top Level Domain (ccTLD): in, ca, or de.
• New Top-Level Domains: club, blog, audio.

You have two options to get hosting with a free domain:

1. Best web hosting companies offering one-year domain registration for free
2. Choose an all-in-one solution: easiest website builder + free hosting + a free domain

Note: You will not get reliable hosting services for free. You can use free website hosting providers or plans if you want to experience high downtime, deadly slow response times, and poor search engine rankings.

7 Providers Offering Free Domain Names with their Plans

1. Bluehost – Best for WordPress Sites
2. Hostinger – Best for Overall Hosting Features
3. iPage – Cheapest Unlimited Hosting Provider
4. Hostgator – Best for Parked Domains
5. Squarespace – Best for Sophisticated Design Templates
6. Zyro – Best for Fastest Speed
7. Wix – Best for Flexible Pricing Plans

Best Web Hosting Services with a Free Domain Name Extension

We have the four best web hosting sites with free domains. 

Note: We have only considered shared and WordPress hosting types. Most hosting services provide free domain names with annual plans for new customers. If you aren't satisfied with a host, you can transfer your domain name and should again pay for it with a new registrar. According to ICANN rules for domain registrars, you cannot transfer the domain for the first 60 days.

1. Bluehost

Best WordPress-Recommended Hosting Provider with a Free Domain

Bluehost is one of the most familiar web hosts with free domain perks. It's recommended by WordPress as one of the top WP hosting providers for small business owners. The reason is obvious—they provide an auto-installer, automatic updates, and technical support.

Bluehost's plans are cost-effective for hosting your first website. It provides a free domain name with various extensions, unmetered bandwidth, and fully customizable themes.

Key Features

• Free domain for 1 year: On their annual plans, both shared hosting and WordPress hosting include a free custom domain name for one year. You can choose a domain name with the extensions com, online, site, website, space, tech, store, blog, net, org, info, co, us, biz, club, and co.uk. 
• Domain manager: Bluehost's domain manager feature allows you to track, transfer, update, and purchase domains easily. On the basic plan, you will receive space only for a single primary domain, 5 parked domains, and 25 subdomains. However, you can add unlimited domains and subdomains with the Pro, Choice Plus, or Business plans. 
• Free SSL certificate and Cloudflare CDN: You will find Cloudflare enabled with your WordPress hosting for better performance and faster loading speed. Further, get a free SSL (powered by Let’s Encrypt) installed with all domains and subdomains on the Plus, Choice Plus, and Pro plans. This helps protect customer-sensitive information. 
• Unmetered bandwidth and SSD storage: Bluehost provides unmetered bandwidth, which is great if you have a high-traffic or data-heavy site. However, the space isn't infinite, and they have a strict policy to prevent one user from excessive disk space usage. The Solid State Drive (SSD) provides blazing-fast speed, which is good for quick website loading and SEO. 
• Diverse theme options: Bluehost's marketplace lets you design the site with fully customizable themes and easy-to-install plugins to improve the functionality of your website. 

Pricing

Bluehost provides a free custom domain name with its WordPress and shared web hosting services. 

On WordPress hosting, you will find four pricing plans:

• Basic – $4.95 per month
• Plus – $7.45 per month
• Choice Plus – $7.45 per month
• Pro – $18.95 per month

On shared web hosting, get a free domain with all the plans as mentioned below:

• Basic – $2.95 per month
• Plus – $5.45 per month
• Choice Plus – $5.45 per month
• Pro – $13.95 per month

Domain Add-ons:

• Domain privacy: $0.99 per month

The standard domain renewal price depends on the extensions. However, it ranges from $19.99 to $21.99 for the most popular TLDs: com, org, biz, info, and net.

Pros

• Cheap website hosting plans
• Easy domain management from a single dashboard
• Auto WordPress installation and updates on WordPress hosting
• SSD storage and unmetered bandwidth

Cons

• There is no free domain privacy.

2. Hostinger

The Cheapest Hosting with a Free Domain Extension as a Bonus

Whether you choose WordPress or shared web hosting, Hostinger helps you establish yourself online at the best value. 

The free domain name comes with multiple TLDs and country-specific TLDs, which you can renew at an affordable price for the second year. Besides, Hostinger provides free web hosting services through their collaboration with 000webhost. 

Check out the other features to grasp the benefits of hosting your website with Hostinger.

Key Features

• Free web hosting with Hostinger: With this plan, you get a free WordPress installation, 99% uptime, 3 GB of bandwidth, 1 database, and 300 MB of disk space for a website. However, free hosting allows only 300 visits a month. 
• Free custom domain name: A domain name worth $9.99 is free on Hostinger's WordPress and shared web hosting – yearly and multi-yearly plans. They provide a variety of extensions such as com, net, tech, xyz, shop, online, link, live, space, website, click, fun, etc. 
• Unlimited free SSL: The plans also allow installing SSL certificates on all domains. For example, if you have migrated multiple sites to Hostinger, you will get a free SSL installed on all of them. It's cost-effective, SEO-friendly, and gives you peace of mind from attackers by preventing eavesdropping and protecting the sensitive information of website visitors. 
• Top features for security: Besides free unlimited SSL, Hostinger offers you in-house web application firewalls, anti-DDoS protection, Cloudflare-protected name servers, and automatic WordPress updates for top-level security. You will also get daily automated backups and WordPress staging tools on advance plans of both shared and WordPress hosting.
• Free professional emails: Look professional with 100 free custom domain-specific email addresses. For each email, you will get a storage of 1 GB to manage accounts, create autoresponders, and create forwarders. Further, you can log in to the friendly webmail interface separately so that you don't have to move back and forth to your Hostinger dashboard.
• User-friendly control panel: Hostinger provides an easy-to-use customized control panel (hPanel) to handle all your websites and domains from a single dashboard. You can easily access the features of cPanel, such as the file manager, databases, FTP accounts, and emails. If you go for shared web hosting, it takes you just one click to install the content management system (CMS) of your choice. 
• High performance: Want a high-performing website to supercharge your business? Hostinger provides features like full SSD storage, a Litespeed web server, a Litespeed cache plugin, a high-end infrastructure, and unlimited bandwidth.

Pricing

If you are a student or want to test the website, Hostinger's free web hosting is the best choice. 

Free Hosting with Hostinger 

WordPress hosting with free domain names and emails:

• WordPress Starter – $2.79 per month 
• Business WordPress – $3.99 per month
• WordPress Pro – $11.59 per month

Shared web hosting plans with a free domain and email:

• Premium Web Hosting – $2.79 per month
• Business Web Hosting – $3.99 per month

The cost of renewing a domain name ranges from $9.99 for an “in” extension to $74.99 for a “host” extension. 

Note: You must activate the domain within 96 hours of registration to legally own the domain name.

Pros

• Free web hosting provider
• Up to 100 parked domains in shared hosting, starting from the second plan
• Up to 300 parked domains in WordPress hosting (from the second plan)
• Unlimited professional email from the second-tier plans with a separate webmail login option
• Free website migration
• Simple hPanel (custom control panel) for easy website management
• Truly affordable services
• No hefty domain renewals

Cons

• The basic plan doesn't contain a free domain name
• Live chat support is hard to find

3. iPage

Almost an Unlimited Hosting Service Provider, Including a Free Domain

iPage has been supporting more than 1 million websites worldwide since it was founded in 1998. 

They provide reliable servers with 99.9% uptime, quick 24/7 customer support, and a 30-day money-back guarantee to win their clients' trust. 

The free iPage website builder in a web hosting plan (Go Plan) is a huge win for new websites.

Key Features

• Free custom domain for one year: Whether WordPress or a simple shared web hosting plan, iPage provides you with a free domain name for one year. The available domain extensions include com, net, tech, space, online, website, store, site, club, us, biz, info, me, co, and org.  
• Free standard email address: Whether you want autoresponders or email forwarding services from your custom email addresses, iPage has no limit. You can create unlimited email addresses with each domain linked to iPage. It lets you look professional and save costs on hosting and managing emails from a different provider.
• Free website builder: Don't like the technical aspects of WordPress? You can choose iPage's affordable shared hosting plan and use the free iPage website builder. You answer a couple of questions, and its intelligent technology sets your mobile-friendly websites. The free iPage builder that comes with Go Plan allows you to build a website in 6 pages. Further, you get pre-built templates, layouts, and 550k images to design the website of your choice in no time.
• Unlimited websites:  iPage allows you to connect as many domains as you want. You can migrate or build your sites from scratch with complete peace of mind.
• No limits on disk space: iPage offers unlimited disk space on the shared hosting plan. That means you have enough room to start and thrive your business without worrying about server space limits.   

Pricing

iPage has a free domain name option with its web hosting (shared hosting) and WordPress hosting plans. 

The web hosting package has only one plan – the Go Plan – which costs:

• $1.99 per month – 36 months
• $2.49 per month – 24 months
• $2.99 per month – 12 months

This plan lets you choose between a WordPress or iPage website builder. 

The WordPress hosting plan includes two packages without discounts. It does not matter whether you purchase a 1-year, 2-year, or 3-year plan.

• WP Starter – $3.75 per month
• WP Essential – $6.95 per month

The renewal price of a domain varies from one domain extension to another. For example, a “.com” domain renewal costs $19.99 annually.

Domain add-ons:

• Domain Privacy + Protection – $9.99 per year

Pros

• Many unlimited features
• Simple pricing plan structure (just one plan for shared web hosting and two for WordPress hosting)
• Cheapest among all
• Fast and 24/7 customer support
• Modern and Intuitive dashboard

Cons

• Hefty domain privacy and protection pricing compared to other providers
• Automatic backup and Sitelock as add-on services

4. Hostgator

Best Hosting Provider with a Free Domain and Unlimited Parked Domains

Hostgator powers 2 million+ websites worldwide and provides reliable web hosting services of all kinds. 

Harness the security and power of managed WordPress or shared web hosting with a free domain name, 99.9% uptime, 24/7/365 customer support, and cPanel access. 

Key Features

• Free domain for one year: Hostgator offers a free one-year domain on its yearly shared and WordPress hosting plans. It's available only for first-time users. The available TLDs are com, online, site, store, website, tech, space, host, info, biz, org, me, co, club, and net. 
• Unlimited Parked Domains: Baby and Business shared hosting plans allow an unlimited number of add-on/parked domains. If you are into selling domain names, this hosting provider is the best for you.
• Free SSL certificate: Increase customer trust, improve search engine ranking, and protect your site from data breaches with a free SSL certificate from Hostgator. All the plans provide you with a free SSL certificate for your website. 
• One-click WordPress installs: If WordPress is your preferred option to design and manage your website, you'll love the easy one-click install on shared hosting. On WordPress hosting, you get WordPress already installed.
• Unmetered bandwidth: Have a thriving business? Hostgator offers unmetered bandwidth, which means you are not charged based on your data transmission rate. Yet, it has some limits, and you must obey the terms of service to allow them to provide equal benefits to everyone on a shared server. 
• Free domain transfer: Hostgator provides free domain transfer to new customers. Some criteria for domain transfer include – (1) it must have passed the first 60 days of registration, (2) it must be a valid domain and registered with a reliable registrar, and (3) it must be unlocked. There are some more criteria you need to check before transferring your domains to Hostgator. 

Pricing

You will find the following pricing packages with Hostgator’s WordPress hosting plan:

• Starter Plan – $5.95 per month
• Standard plan – $7.95 per month
• Business Plan – $9.95 per month

On the other hand, the shared hosting plan will cost you the following:

• Hatchling Plan – $2.75 per month
• Baby Plan – $3.50 per month
• Business Plan – $5.25 per month

Keep in mind that if you take the free domain for the first year and want to transfer the domain afterward, you need to pay a domain service fee of $17.99 (non-refundable).

The renewal price of domains ranges from $15 to $45 based on your chosen extension.

Pros 

• Baby and Business plans allow unlimited parked domains
• 1-Click CMS install, including WordPress
• The free professional email included  
• cPanel access

Cons

• 5 out 6 plans limit the number of sites  
• Repetitive Upselling

The Easiest Website Builders + Free Web Hosting + a Free Domain

You can take advantage of website builders to get free hosting and domains. Plus, website builders let you build without hiring developers. Some of the pros are:

• Pre-built and easy-to-customize templates
• Drag and drop editors
• eCommerce integrations
• Little maintenance
• Integrated analytics and marketing tools

Let’s explore the best website builders with free hosting and domains.

5. Squarespace

Sophisticated Site Design, Besides Free Hosting and Domain Perks

Squarespace is your best bet if you want a professional look, extensive design features with built-in templates, and an easy drag-and-drop website builder. 

It started in 2003, intending to make beautiful designs accessible to everyone. And now, Squarespace is helping millions of website owners boost their online positioning.

Key Features

• Free custom domain name on an annual plan: Squarespace offers free domain registration with each of its annual plans. Further, you can add unlimited domains to Squarespace hosting and manage all your sites from a single place. They have 200+ domain extensions available for purchase. However, only the domain suffixes that cost up to $20 are eligible for free registration.
• Fully-managed cloud hosting: You will get free fully managed cloud hosting for storing and managing your websites with Squarespace. Also, they provide 99.9% uptime, which means your site will be running most of the time.
• High-end security: Squarespace offers top-level security to protect your website data from vulnerabilities. Some of the security measures include; free and auto SSL installation, DoS protection for Denial of Service attacks, and two-factor authentication. Additionally, you can prevent suspicious login activities by checking through a login activity panel, and you can hide and lock specific pages.
• Extensive design features: Squarespace helps you stand out from the crowd with its beautifully designed templates for any business. You can customize the pre-built free templates by integrating a calendar, gallery, blog, store, or anything else that serves your purpose. Use custom color palettes or Google fonts, pick images from the library, or even upload photos from your phone.
• Great blogging tools: If you want to create a blogging business website, improve your writing skills, or build a portfolio, Squarespace will help you with their excellent blogging tools. Add multiple contributors to your blog, integrate commenting systems for building a reader tribe, lock premium content with a password, or even add a search bar to help visitors easily find content on your site. Further, you can thrive as a blogger with tools and features to schedule a blog post, host a podcast, or start building your email list.
• eCommerce integration: You can sell physical or digital products and professional services with the eCommerce functionalities of Squarespace. Further, you can earn more money by selling digital content like ebooks with direct and customized email download links or by selling membership services. They have all the features to manage inventory, upload product lists and categories, and manage orders. 

Pricing

Squarespace provides a custom free domain with its annual plans. However, if you want to begin with a monthly plan, you will have a free domain with Squarespace's branding (example: yoursite.squarespace.com). 

You can find the pricing plans as explained below:

• Personal – $16 per month
• Business – $23 per month
• Basic Commerce – $27 per month
• Advanced Commerce – $49 per month

The free custom domain on the annual plans provides free SSL and WHOIS privacy. Also, renewing the domain will cost the same as registering directly with them—no hidden or hefty renewal fees.

Additionally, Squarespace offers a free domain transfer service, yet you need to extend the registration period at the regular domain registration price. And if you are willing to purchase more domains, you can do so at the cost of between $20 and $70 per year, along with some taxes.

Pros

• Extensive template library with mobile-friendly designs
• Excellent Blogging features ( multi-author, scheduling option, commenting, etc.)
• Quick live chat support
• Multiple helpful tools for website owners (scheduling, social media widgets, pop-ups, push notifications, etc.)

Cons

• Website editor can be simpler for users (e.g., easy navigation while editing)
• Not for complex websites with hundreds or thousands of pages

6. Zyro

The Fastest Website Builder with Free Hosting and Domains

Zyro offers a 78% discount on building a website, and it is paired with a free custom domain name for one year. 

It is the brainchild of Hostinger and has been serving 250,000 small business owners with their cheapest website-building plans. 

Key Features

• Free one-year domain registration: If you own a small local business or start an online venture, Zyro offers you free domain registration for one year on their annual plans. You can use the domain name generator and choose the TLDs of your choice. The available domain extensions are the same as Hostinger. 
• Free and fast cloud server: Zyro provides free web hosting. You will get a 99.9% uptime, the site optimized for lightning-fast speed, and scalable infrastructure to grow your business without hassle. The set-up is automated and comes with the website builder, which shortens the time to take your business live.
• Drag-and-drop website builder with professional templates: Zyro's drag-and-drop website builder allows you to build your website from scratch or go for one of their easily customizable templates. Whether you want to build a landing page, a portfolio, a resume, a blog, a restaurant, a community, or even an eCommerce store, Zyro has a pre-built template for you.
• Trusted domain registrar and affordable renewal rates: You can rely on the renewal rates, which are quite affordable, and there are no hidden fees. Further, Hostinger is one of the best domain registrars (ICANN-accredited and legit provider) that keeps your website data secure while remaining transparent.
• Sell online at the cheapest price: Notably, Zyro offers the cheapest pricing plan to build, manage, and scale an online store. It provides enough eCommerce functionalities for rapid store launches, easy shipping, managing your customer relationship with the CRM, and tracking and reporting your progress. 

Pricing

Zyro has two plans:

• Website – $2.59 per month – Best for personal websites or blogs or a portfolio site
• Business – $3.59 per month – Best for an eCommerce store

The domain renewal price might vary as per your TLD choice. However, the standard renewal price for a “com” extension is $13.99 per year. 

Pros

• Fast-performing websites
• AI tools are handy for launching the website quickly
• Easy domain purchase through the dashboard
• You can build the site first and pay later to publish
• Free image library to include to use on your site

Cons

• Limited customization elements
• Domain privacy protection service is a bit expensive

7. Wix

Free Domain and Hosting Included. The Most Flexible Pricing Plans

Wix is the only free website builder on our list with powerful infrastructure and a smooth drag-and-drop builder to create your first website without hassle on a Wix domain. 

And if you want to look more professional, go for one of their premium plans. They provide a free custom domain and more design freedom to build the website of your dreams. Moreover, you can save on the overall cost of hosting your website with the Wix website builder.

Key Features

• Free one-year domain voucher: You receive a free one-year domain registration voucher from Wix on your first purchase. It's valid for 60 days after purchase and requires you to add your credit card details. Some of the most common domain suffixes include com, net, org, online, xyz, info, biz, live, blog, club, fitness, etc. And some country-code domain extensions include de, com.au, co.uk, at, in, ca, etc. 
• Business name generator: Wix makes the domain selection process easy with its business name generator. The last help get business name ideas, which you can then register in a domain name generator.
• Customizable website templates and easy website editor: Wix is popularly known for its 900+ free and customizable website templates. All you need is to choose one template, add elements, and move them to the ideal place with the drag-and-drop editor.
• Free and secure web hosting: Get free and powerful web hosting totally free with Wix website builder. The basic Wix builder allows you to create your site with its branding and your subdomain (example: amazingsite.wixsite.com).
• Extensive eCommerce features: Wix's Business and eCommerce plans provide a free custom domain name and a wide range of features to run an online store. They offer tools and features for online payments, point of sale, omnichannel sales, analytics, reports, and event creation.

Pricing

Building a site is free on Wix. You will get a free subdomain, hosting, and a Wix page builder to start your online business. 

However, if you want to scale your business, improve your authority, and remove Wix's branding and advertisements, you should choose the premium plans. 

Website Plans

Wix has three types of packages, depending on your business needs.

• Website Plans:
  • Connect Domain – $4.50 per month
  • Combo – $8.50 per month
  • Unlimited – $12.50 per month
  • VIP – $24.50 per month

Business and eCommerce Plans

• The Business and eCommerce Plans have three packages:
  • Business Basic – $17 per month
  • Business Unlimited – $25 per month
  • Business VIP – $35 per month
• And the Enterprise plan if you want a custom package for your growing business.

Pros

• Free domain 
• Free hosting
• Free plan
• Business name generator
• Professional design templates
• Custom email address 
• Integration with SEO and Marketing tools

Cons

• The free plan contains Wix Ads
• You need to recreate the design from scratch if the template is changed. Wix templates are not interchangeable.

Best Hosting Providers with a Free Domain FAQ

The Best Hosting Services or Website Builders With Free Domains

While choosing a hosting provider with a free domain, you must consider whether the domain you want is free and the renewal price is affordable. Also, see if they provide SSL certificates, professional email addresses, and add-on domains. 

Further, you can check the domain transfer policy, hosting speed, and uptime.

Based on our in-depth research, we have found the following 5 providers best for hosting with a free domain:

In case you are interested in diving deeper into the hosting topic, you can read the following articles:

• 8 Best Unlimited Web Hosting Plans for 2022
• 7 Best Cheap WordPress Hosting Services in India
• Domain Registration vs. Web Hosting: Differences and FAQ
• 8 Fastest Web Hosting Services of 2022 (With High-Speed Servers)
• The Absolute Best Website & Domain Hosting Services in 2022

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