The Best Free Web Hosting Sites for Amateur Webmasters

When I refer to as “amateur webmaster”, it means that you are new in web design and development - no knowledge in scripting language and databases but know how to copy and paste ready-made javascript codes, and have little knowledge or already expert in HTML programming and expert in web development tools like frontpage and dream weaver. I have here reviews of some free web hosting services where you can post your website. I have already use most of them when I was only a bigginer in web development.

1. FreeWebs.com ( www.freewebs.com ) - This is my most recommended. Why? Because it doesn’t have forced advertisement and pop-ups unlike other free web hosting services. It is very easy to sign-up in Freewebs.com, just give your email address and agree to the terms and conditons. My last sign-up in freewebs.com does not require me to confirm my application through email. Freewebs has two options for those who will use it, an option for those who don’t know HTML and those who do. Freewebs has, of course, offers for upgrade to a premium user where you are require to pay for the hosting, but you may opt not to upgrade because you dont need it. Freewebs free hosting package has the following limitations; a) users can only upload 50 files , 1 file at a time b) 50 MB diskspace and 500MB bandwidth.

2. Redrival.com ( www.redrival.com ) - Like Freewebs.com, Redrival.com doesn’t have force advertisement on the webpage BUT, sometimes, has a pop-up advertisement. But having pop-up ad is not a big deal because most of the internet browsers today already has pop-up blockers. Redrival’s file manager allows the users to upload 3 files at a time. The index file must be name “welcome.shtml” instead of “index.html”.

3. Geocities.com ( www.geocities.com) - A free web hosting service of Yahoo! and the most popular. Your yahoo email account is also your geocities’ account. It has an easy to use file manager where a user can upload multiple files at a time. Geocities.com has a forced advertisement in the right side of the webpage.

4. Netfirms.com ( www.netfirms.com ) - Another popular free web hosting service. I had never tried this free web host before but I can see its clients many times when I browse the internet. Its force advertisement occupy almost 1/3 of the webpage and severely affects the loading time of the webpage. It has also pop-up advertisements. Maybe the good thing about this free web host is that, it is realiable.

5. Topcities.com ( www.topcities.com ) - This is the first ever free web hosting service that I’d tried. It has a relatively large diskspace and bandwidth allowance. It has also advertisements but you have the freedom to choose which one, the banner on the webpage or a pop-up ad.

That’s only 5 out of so many available free web hosting services in the internet. You have the freedom to explore but I strongly suggest that you first try any of these five.