Web Hosting for Students: Free & Discounted Plans

These days, anyone can start a website.

But that doesn’t always mean it’s cheap or easy.

Almost every student has an Instagram account. A few have YouTube channels. But if you really want to be a real interneter (new word) you've gotta have a website.

Right now you're like this:

student reading tiny red book

But pretty soon you'll be like this:

genius student with smart website

You probably want to create site and therefore need hosting for one of a few reasons:

There are many reasons, all the matters is you get it done easily and don't get sucked into some weird spam in the corners of the internet.

So you're sold on building the site, but strapped for cash?

We hear ya – we were students once.

Luckily there are a number of companies that offer free or discounted web hosting for students. 

We'll cut to the chase: got $2 a month? Get SiteGround student hosting.

It's super high-quality hosting, their support is great, and when you graduate the pricing is very competitive.

Don't have the money? Try a free host (see below) but be very careful with spam and quality issues.

Discounted Web Hosting For Students (Better than Free!)

Unlike free web hosting, discounted web hosting for students offers competitive packages at extremely low prices.

That means students can get top-tier hosting packages that professional sites run on at a fraction of the normal prices.

In our opinion, it's better to go with a high quality discounted hosting for students, rather than free hosting. Trust us, we've been there.

 

Take Siteground for example, which is considered one of the best web hosting services worldwide. They offer a discounted rate for students at $1.99/month, which is 80% off of their regular $9.99/month rate.

These are the sorts of packages that you can host your site on long term, and not just for the time you are in school.

If you plan on scaling your website, we recommend taking advantage of one of the discounts offered by premium hosting services for the time you are studying. After graduation, you can easily transition to their normal packages.

Check out the following discounted web hosting packages for students below:

$1.99/mo hosting for students, an 80% discount.

What You Get

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Premium student bundle for $4.95/mo, a discount of 67%.

What You Get

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Students get 50% off any plan.

What You Get

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Students get 50% off any plan.

What You Get

Requirements

Free Web Hosting for Students

It’s easy to see why the promise of free web hosting may be appealing to cash-strapped students. But as always, these words of wisdom apply: you get what you pay for. In the case of free web hosting for students, the services likely aren’t robust enough for you to launch a business and may not be the best bang for your buck after you graduate and need to start paying normal rates. Furthermore, some companies require that you submit a video and following the hosting company on social media in order to receive free hosting. 

But if something is free, what is there to lose?

The main issue we see with free web hosting services is their limited capability. Most free web hosting platforms do not offer simple and often crucial features. Free web hosting for students often does not include one-click auto installers, software scripts, SMTP email, DNS settings, root directory access, or other common features that even the cheapest hosting plan might have. Furthermore your site may have incredibly limited bandwidth and disk space, mandatory ads, security vulnerabilities, and no customer support services. Not to mention, up time and loading speeds are generally poor. These are not platforms that you will want to build a long term business on, so we don’t recommend them if you plan to scale your website.

However free web hosting can be a great option for a few different objectives. If you are simply looking to test some content or software scripts out before purchasing a more robust plan, free web hosting for students may make sense. Free web hosting could also be an option if you want to test a bunch of different AdWords campaigns before launching a site. For these objectives free web hosting platforms may be a good option because they off contract-free accounts that you can terminate any time with no hassle.

But despite the equal cost (or lack thereof), not all free web hosting services for students are created equal. Some packages are simply far better than others. Here are the details on a few of the best free web hosting options for students: 
Free web hosting for students through graduation.

What You Get

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One year of free web hosting for students.

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Sadly Gwiddle is shutting down Nov 1, 2018.

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Enroll while you are a student and you can renew at the same rates for life. Plans from $25/year.

What You Get for $50/year

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Don't forget – Free Domain Name for Students from Namecheap

Namecheap is awesome – way better than GoDaddy for domains.

What's even more awesome is their Namecheap for Education initiative – get a FREE domain name if you're a student right here: https://nc.me/

And even better, they're also throwing in either GitHub Pages or Exposure photo stories to get your website locked and loaded.

namecheap education

We love Namecheap – they're a good bunch. And while Namecheap hosting doesn't have a student program specifically, their cheapest hosting is just as good as free, at just over $1 a month (Stellar plan) when you buy an annual subscription. 

 

Other Options: Cheap Hosting

If you don't want to go with a student-discount web host, you can still find cheap hosting companies that give you a great deal even without the student discount. Check out this cheap VPS hosting list to find one that's within your budget.

Conclusion: Web Hosting for Students

If I were you, I would go for a deeply discounted paid host.

The free stuff is fine, but it's just not going to be as good. There aren't many businesses out there trying to give away free stuff to students, as nice as that would be.

PLUS, get a good host now and the transition after graduation seamless and worry-free, and your site can scale with you.

For those who are simply looking for a no-strings and cost-free way to experiment, free web hosting might be worth considering. Even though free is free, we recommend that you opt for a quality free hosting service and avoid spammy and incredibly limited ones. 

Bottom line: got $2 a month? Get SiteGround student hosting.

Don't have the money? Try a free host but be very careful with spam and quality issues.

Hey, if your site takes off and you get an awesome job, you can look forward to doing this all day:

woman going beast mode on computer

One day.

 

 

Last Updated on January 11, 2021 by Joe