Free web hosting in Sri Lanka (2026)
Editorial review: 19 September 2026 · Data/pricing verified: 27 August 2026 · By: Alston Antony
Free web hosting is real and some of it is genuinely good - but which option is right depends entirely on what your site is made of. For a static site (portfolio, CV, simple brochure) Cloudflare Pages is the best free option for a Sri Lankan audience, because it is ad-free and served from Cloudflare's Colombo edge. For anything needing PHP and MySQL, such as WordPress, InfinityFree is the best-established free host still operating. For a no-technical-setup site, the free tiers of WordPress.com or Wix work, with their branding on your pages. Free hosting is the wrong choice for anything that takes payments, holds customer data, or that a business depends on being online.
What free web hosting actually is
Free hosting is server space and bandwidth given away at no charge. The obvious question is who pays for it, and there are only four honest answers - which is also the fastest way to work out what a given free host will do to you:
- You are the advertising inventory. The host places its own ads or branding on your pages. This is how most free website-builder tiers work.
- You are a sales funnel. The free tier is deliberately constrained so that any site that starts succeeding has to upgrade. Most traditional free hosts operate this way, and it is a perfectly reasonable bargain as long as you know it is the bargain.
- You are a rounding error. Static files are cheap to serve at the scale Cloudflare, GitHub and Netlify operate at, and a free tier buys them developer goodwill. This is the best version of free, and it is why the static hosts come first on this page.
- Nobody is paying for it, yet. The service is running on investor money or goodwill and will eventually be shut down or paywalled. This is the category 000webhost turned out to be in.
When free hosting is the right call
Free hosting is not a compromise in these cases - it is the correct answer:
- You are learning. Understanding DNS, file uploads, databases and SSL by doing it, with nothing at stake. Paying for hosting to learn hosting is money wasted.
- A personal portfolio, CV site or student project. Low traffic, no transactions, and nobody's livelihood attached to it.
- Documentation, a fan page, a community site. Static content that rarely changes and does not need to sell anything.
- Testing an idea before committing. Put the concept up, see whether anyone cares, then pay for hosting once the answer is yes.
- A site that is genuinely static. If your site is HTML, CSS, images and a bit of JavaScript, the static free tiers are not a downgrade from paid shared hosting - for a Sri Lankan audience they are usually faster than it.
When free hosting costs more than it saves
The cost of free hosting is never the hosting. It is the hour you spend explaining to a customer why the site was down, or the order that did not arrive.
- Any site that takes money. No uptime commitment and no support path is not a foundation for a shop. Sri Lankan payment gateways also assess whether the site is a legitimate operating business - see payment gateways.
- Any site a business depends on. If a customer cannot find your address or phone number because the free host is down, the saving is theoretical and the loss is not.
- Anything holding personal data. Contact-form submissions and customer records deserve infrastructure with a support desk and a backup guarantee behind them.
- Anything you intend to rank. Frequent downtime and slow responses work against you, and a free subdomain carries none of the authority a real domain accrues. See does server location matter.
- Anything you cannot afford to lose. Free services get discontinued with limited notice. Whatever you use, keep your own copy.
Static hosting free tiers - the best free option in 2026
This category is missing from nearly every "free web hosting Sri Lanka" article, which is odd, because it is the one where free actually works properly. These platforms host static sites: no PHP, no MySQL, no control panel. In exchange you get no advertising, no forced branding, a real global CDN, free SSL, custom domain support and no expiry date.
The catch is the obvious one - your site has to be static. That rules out a standard WordPress install. It does not rule out a portfolio, a CV, a brochure site, documentation, or a site built with a static generator or a front-end framework.
| Platform | What it hosts | Free tier limits | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cloudflare Pages | Static sites and front-end frameworks, served from Cloudflare's own global network - including its Colombo edge. | Generous free build and bandwidth allowances; check the current plan page for the exact numbers. | The closest thing to a free lunch for a Sri Lankan audience: content is served from an edge inside the country rather than from a server in the US. |
| Netlify | Static sites and serverless functions, deployed straight from a Git repository. | Free tier with monthly bandwidth and build-minute caps. | The most beginner-friendly of the static hosts. Drag a folder onto the dashboard and it is live. |
| Vercel | Static and framework-rendered sites, strongest with Next.js. | Hobby tier is free for non-commercial use - read that restriction before using it for a business site. | The non-commercial clause on the free tier is the detail that catches Sri Lankan freelancers putting client sites on it. |
| GitHub Pages | Static sites published directly from a GitHub repository. | Soft limits on site size and monthly bandwidth; not intended for commercial-scale traffic. | Free with no time limit and no ads. Ideal for a portfolio, a CV site or documentation. |
| Firebase Hosting | Static and single-page app hosting on Google's infrastructure, with a free Spark tier. | Fixed monthly storage and transfer allowance on the free tier. | Worth it mainly if you are already using other Firebase services. |
Unverified Exact free-tier allowances are not reproduced here with figures, because none of these platforms has a record in this site's central fact store yet and every one of them has revised its limits at least once. Read the current plan page before you build against a specific number.
Traditional free PHP and MySQL hosts
This is what most people mean by "free web hosting": a control panel, PHP, a MySQL database and a script installer, so you can run WordPress or a similar CMS at no cost. It works, within limits that are tighter than the marketing suggests - typically small storage, a daily hit cap, no email, and no support commitment.
| Host | What you get | What to watch |
|---|---|---|
| InfinityFree | Free cPanel-style hosting with PHP, MySQL, free subdomains, SSL and a Softaculous-style installer. | No email hosting on the free plan, and daily hit limits apply. The best-established free PHP host currently operating. |
| ByetHost | PHP and MySQL hosting with a control panel, subdomains and a site builder. Same operator family as InfinityFree. | The free tier is aimed at people comfortable editing files themselves; support is community-led. |
| AwardSpace | Free plan with a small amount of storage and bandwidth, PHP, MySQL and email on a limited number of sites. | The free tier is deliberately small and the paid upsell is the point of it. Read the current limits on their plan page. |
| Freehostia | Long-running free Linux, PHP and MySQL hosting with no forced ads and a Let's Encrypt certificate. | Small resource allocations. Performance claims circulating about this host are unsourced - treat any specific uptime or response-time figure you read as unverified. |
| FreeHosting.com | Free plan with fixed storage and monthly bandwidth, one website, and no forced advertising. | One site per account, and you bring your own domain - the free plan is not paired with a free domain. |
| FreeWebHostingArea | Free PHP and MySQL hosting with a relatively generous disk allowance. | Accounts can be removed for inactivity, and the acceptable-use rules are stricter than most. Read them before uploading anything you care about. |
| HyperPHP | Free PHP, MySQL and email hosting with a control panel and script installer. | A small operator. Confirm it is actively trading and take your own backups before you rely on it. |
Deliberately no storage, bandwidth or uptime figures are quoted for these hosts. Free-tier limits change without announcement, they are the numbers most often copied stale between articles, and several of the figures circulating for these providers trace back to no source at all. Read the provider's own current page.
Free tiers of website builders
Not hosting you control, but a working website at zero cost with no technical setup. The trade is always the same: their subdomain, their branding, and no way to take the site elsewhere intact.
| Platform | Free tier | What to watch |
|---|---|---|
| WordPress.com | Free plan on a yourname.wordpress.com subdomain, fully managed. | Shows WordPress.com advertising, cannot install plugins or themes on the free tier, and is not the same thing as self-hosted WordPress. |
| Wix | Free plan with the full drag-and-drop editor on a wixsite.com subdomain. | Wix branding and ads on every page, no custom domain, and you cannot export the site to another host later. |
| Weebly | Free plan with a site builder on a weebly.com subdomain. | Weebly branding, and the platform has had less development investment than its rivals since the Square acquisition. |
| GoDaddy Website Builder | Free tier of GoDaddy's builder, on a GoDaddy subdomain. | Effectively an extended trial. The free tier is limited enough that most users upgrade or leave. |
| Squarespace | A free trial rather than a free plan. | Trial only - the site goes offline when it ends unless you subscribe. Check the current trial length on their site; it has changed more than once. |
Full comparison of these platforms on their paid tiers, with the Sri Lanka-specific payment and portability caveats, is on website builders.
Cloud free tiers - useful, but not "free hosting"
AWS, Google Cloud, Azure and Oracle Cloud all advertise free tiers, and Sri Lankan hosting articles routinely list them as free hosting with "unlimited storage and bandwidth". That description is wrong in a way that can generate a real bill.
- AWS replaced its old twelve-month free allowances on 15 July 2025 with a credit model: new accounts get up to USD 200 in credits that expire, alongside an "always free" list of services with fixed monthly caps. Accounts created before that date keep the older terms. Nothing about it is unlimited.
- Google Cloud offers a time-limited trial credit plus an "Always Free" tier with specific, small per-service monthly limits.
- The real risk is the credit card. These platforms require one at signup and bill you automatically when you exceed the free allowance. Free hosts simply stop working when you hit a limit; cloud platforms keep working and invoice you. For a Sri Lankan account holder that bill arrives in USD on a card that may also be carrying a foreign-transaction fee.
These are excellent platforms for learning cloud infrastructure. They are a poor way to host a small Sri Lankan business website, because the amount of configuration required to run a WordPress site safely on raw cloud infrastructure costs far more in your time than a shared hosting plan costs in money.
Providers that are gone, or were never free
These names appear on Sri Lankan free-hosting lists and should not. If you find an article recommending them as current free hosting, it has not been checked in years:
| Name | Status |
|---|---|
| 000webhost | Shut down. Stopped accepting new users in July 2024 and closed permanently on 14 October 2024. Its owner, Hostinger, directed users to its paid plans; people without their own backups lost their data. |
| SiteGround | No free plan, and never has had one. Claims circulating about free SiteGround hosting with ten domains and 200 email addresses are fabricated. It is a good paid host - see the ranked comparison. |
| Bluehost, HostGator | Paid only. Both run low introductory rates on long prepaid terms, which is not the same thing as free. Both are US companies owned by Newfold Digital, not Sri Lankan ones. |
| DreamHost | Paid, with a nonprofit programme. DreamHost offers free or discounted hosting to registered US 501(c)(3) nonprofits. That is not a general free plan, and Sri Lankan organisations will not normally qualify. |
| Hostinger | Paid only since it closed 000webhost. Its cheapest advertised rate requires a long prepaid commitment and renews higher - see the intro vs renewal tracker. |
What it costs to stop being free
The honest framing of free hosting is that it is a stage, not a destination. It is worth knowing what the next stage costs before you invest weeks of work into a free account.
Entry international shared hosting advertises from around USD 2.99 per month - on a 48-month prepaid term, renewing at USD 10.99 per month (checked 2026-08-27). Compare the renewal figure rather than the advertised one; that gap is the single most common way Sri Lankan buyers get caught. Local hosts bill in LKR, which removes the international-card problem entirely. Full LKR ranges by hosting type are on web hosting cost in Sri Lanka, and the ranked provider comparison is on best web hosting in Sri Lanka.
Moving off a free host is not difficult, and it is the same process as any migration: export the files and database, upload them to the new host, and repoint DNS. The walkthrough is on how to move a website to another host, and most paid hosts will do the migration for you free when you sign up.
Not sure whether your project belongs on free hosting or not? Ask me - free, and no lead is sold to anyone. Or work through how much hosting you need and how to choose web hosting yourself.
Free web hosting in Sri Lanka - frequently asked questions
What is the best free web hosting in Sri Lanka?
It depends on what the site is built from. For a static site - a portfolio, a CV, a brochure with no database - Cloudflare Pages is the strongest option, because it is free with no ads and serves from Cloudflare's Colombo edge, so it is genuinely fast for Sri Lankan visitors. For a site that needs PHP and MySQL, such as WordPress, InfinityFree is the best-established free host currently operating. For someone who wants a website without touching any technical setup, the free tiers of WordPress.com or Wix will do it, at the cost of their branding on your pages and no custom domain.
Is 000webhost still available?
No. 000webhost closed permanently on 14 October 2024. Its owner, Hostinger, stopped accepting new users in July 2024 and shut the platform down that October; users who had not taken their own backups lost their data, and the domain now redirects to Hostinger. Any article still recommending 000webhost as a current free host in Sri Lanka has not been updated since before that shutdown - which is a useful test to apply to the rest of that article's advice.
Can I use a .lk domain with free hosting?
Technically yes - a .lk name points at any host's nameservers, and free hosts that support custom domains will accept it. But think about what you are doing: a .lk registration costs LKR 5,000 per year direct from LK Domain Registry (checked 2026-08-29), so you are already paying real money for the address while putting the actual business on infrastructure with no support and no uptime commitment. Many free tiers do not allow custom domains at all. If the domain matters enough to buy, the hosting usually matters enough to buy too.
Is free web hosting safe?
It is safe in the sense that the mainstream free hosts are not trying to steal from you. It is unsafe in the sense that you generally get no meaningful backup guarantee, no support commitment when something breaks, and no contractual uptime. The real risk is not malice but disappearance - free services get discontinued, and 000webhost is the proof. Whatever you use, keep your own backup of the site files and database somewhere that is not the free host.
Can I run an online store on free hosting?
You should not. A store handles customer data and payment redirects, needs to be up when someone wants to buy, and needs to load fast enough that they do not leave. Free hosting gives you no uptime commitment and no support path, and in Sri Lanka you will also need to satisfy a payment gateway that your site is a legitimate operating business. Check the gateway eligibility requirements before you build anything, then budget for paid hosting.
Do free hosts put ads on my website?
Some do and some do not, and it is worth checking specifically. Most of the traditional free PHP hosts listed here no longer inject advertising. The free tiers of website builders such as WordPress.com and Wix do display their own branding or ads on your pages, and that is the main way they pay for the free tier. Static hosts like Cloudflare Pages, Netlify and GitHub Pages show nothing at all.
How much does it cost to move from free hosting to paid?
Less than people expect. Entry international shared hosting starts around USD 2.99 per month advertised, though that rate requires a 48-month prepaid term and renews at USD 10.99 per month (checked 2026-08-27). Compare the renewal figure, not the advertised one. Local Sri Lankan hosts bill in LKR, which removes the international-card problem entirely.
What is bandwidth on a hosting plan?
The total volume of data transferred between your site and its visitors over a billing period, measured in gigabytes per month - not in gigabits per second, which is a measure of connection speed and a common confusion in hosting articles. A text-and-images brochure site uses very little. Video, large downloads and high traffic use a lot, and it is usually the first free-tier limit you hit.
Sources
- Hostinger - 000webhost closure announcement — 000webhost stopped accepting new users in July 2024 and shut down permanently on 14 October 2024 (checked 19 Sept 2026)
- AWS - Free Tier — Credit-based model since 15 July 2025: new accounts receive up to USD 200 in credits that expire, plus an 'always free' list with fixed monthly caps. Not unlimited storage or bandwidth. (checked 19 Sept 2026)
- Google Cloud - Free Program — A time-limited trial credit plus an 'Always Free' tier with specific per-service monthly limits (checked 19 Sept 2026)
- LK Domain Registry - .lk tariff — Economy top-level LKR 5,000 per year (checked 29 Aug 2026)
- Hostinger - pricing — Premium USD 2.99 intro / USD 10.99 renewal per month (checked 27 Aug 2026)