There is no 000webhost left to review: it is closed. Hostinger, the company that ran it, stopped new signups on July 8, 2024 and shut the free hosting platform down on October 14, 2024, after 17 years. Unless you moved to a Hostinger plan or saved a backup, plan on rebuilding. The 000webhost.com domain now forwards to a Hostinger offer page.
Key takeaways
- Status: closed. No new accounts since July 8, 2024. Platform shut down October 14, 2024 (Hostinger).
- Owner: Hostinger, a private hosting company founded as Hosting Media in Kaunas, Lithuania in 2004.
- Your old site: if you did not move to a Hostinger plan or download a backup before the shutdown, plan on rebuilding it.
- Where to go: Hostinger’s paid plans (Hostinger emailed former users a discount), or a free static host if your site is simple.
What happened, in one sentence
Hostinger retired its free brand, saying customer needs had shifted toward feature-rich hosting, and offered 000webhost users a discount on paid Hostinger plans instead (Hostinger blog).
Timeline
| Date | Event | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 2004 | Hosting Media founded in Kaunas, Lithuania. It later becomes Hostinger. | Hostinger About |
| 2007 | 000webhost.com launches as a free hosting service from the same company. | Hostinger About |
| 2017 | More than 17 million unique users on almost a million databases, per Hostinger. | Hostinger blog |
| July 8, 2024 | 000webhost stops accepting new users. Closure announced. | Hostinger blog |
| October 14, 2024 | Full platform shutdown. | Hostinger blog |
| September 24, 2026 | 000webhost.com returns a 301 redirect to a Hostinger offer page. | WTH check of the redirect |
Who owns 000webhost now?
Hostinger. It always did, in practice: the free brand came from the same team that bootstrapped Hosting Media, the company that grew into Hostinger. Hostinger is still private and headquartered in Vilnius. See our Hostinger company hub for its current plans, prices and ownership record.
I had a site on 000webhost. What should I do now?
Start with the honest part. The platform has been offline since October 2024. Hostinger’s closure post gave users two routes: pick a Hostinger plan, or download their website backups. If you did neither, we found no public promise that your files still exist.
Here is the order we would work in:
- Check your own machine and email. Old FTP downloads, WordPress export files, or a copy on a laptop are your best bet.
- Ask Hostinger support. Hostinger ran the platform. It may not be able to recover anything, but it is the only party that could.
- Pull what you can from public web archives. Archived copies of a page can help you rebuild text and layout, though not databases or logins.
- Rebuild on a real host. If you are rebuilding anyway, pick a host you can stay on.
Where should former 000webhost users host now?
It depends on what your site does.
- You want the easiest move. Go to Hostinger. 000webhost.com redirects to its offer page for former users, and Hostinger said every 000webhost user would get a special discount by email. Discounts on long terms usually mean a higher price at renewal, so check the renewal line before you pay.
- Your site is plain HTML, CSS and JavaScript. GitHub Pages hosts static sites from a public repository on a free GitHub account, and it supports custom domains (GitHub Docs). It will not run PHP or WordPress.
- You need WordPress and still want to pay nothing. Read our best free web hosting guide first. Free PHP hosting tends to come with the same limits that made 000webhost frustrating: ads, sleep periods, and no uptime promise.
- You run a business site. Skip free hosting. Compare entry plans in our best web hosting list.
What was 000webhost known for?
Zero cost, and a lot of people’s first website. Hostinger says the service answered over a million unique queries per minute at peak times in 2017. To keep that free, sites went into a daily one-hour “sleep” period (users could pick the hour) when they were not publicly reachable (Hostinger blog). That trade-off defined it: fine for a school project, risky for anything that earned money.
FAQ
Is 000webhost still working?
No. It stopped taking new users on July 8, 2024 and shut down on October 14, 2024. Visiting 000webhost.com now takes you to a Hostinger offer page.
Can I recover my 000webhost website?
Only if a copy exists somewhere, or you moved to a Hostinger plan before the shutdown. Check your own backups first, then contact Hostinger support. Public web archives can help you rebuild page text but not your database.
Is 000webhost the same as Hostinger?
Yes, in ownership. 000webhost was a free brand run by Hostinger, which started life as Hosting Media in 2004.
What is the best free replacement for 000webhost?
For static sites, GitHub Pages is free and supports custom domains. For WordPress, see our free hosting guide, and expect limits.
Why did 000webhost shut down?
Hostinger said customer needs had shifted toward feature-rich hosting, so it closed the free brand and pointed users to its paid plans with a discount.
Sources
- Hostinger blog: Free hosting provider 000webhost closes
- Hostinger blog: 000webhost story
- Hostinger blog: Reaching a million databases
- About Hostinger
- Hostinger offer page for 000webhost users
- HostScore news report on the closure
- GitHub Docs: What is GitHub Pages?
Related
- Hostinger company hub
- Best free web hosting
- Best web hosting
- Web hosting mergers and acquisitions
Update log
- : Rewrote and fact-checked the page: the first full update since 2023.
- : Prices and facts checked against the cited sources, read September 24, 2026.
