Free wordpress hosting with Google cloud 2023
Hi everyone, today am going to show you step-by-step how to host and create a free WordPress website on the Google cloud platform.
If you are just starting out or interested in becoming a blogger but have limited resources, this is the right article to get started.
This is the first in a series of free hosting tutorials I will share with you in the coming days. So stick around for even more advanced setups in my subsequent posts.
Later, we will explore other free wordPress hosting providers and compare their features such as the basic cloud control panel capabilities.
This method is only suitable for small websites with light traffic. As your website gains more traffic and grows, you will have to pay a little bit more or choose a cost-effective shared hosting. Probably by that time, you might have started making some earnings.
We'll follow the free tier guidelines to ensure we remain within the 'free forever' threshold, so we don't need to pay anything at the end of the month while using google's reliable infrastructure. With this said, let's get started.
Step one: create an account.
Go to the Google cloud platform website and click to get started to sign in with your Gmail account if you already have one; otherwise, quickly signup for one here and customize it with an email signature.
On the account information page put in the information that best suits your organization. In this case, am choosing Ghana as my country of residence and personal project as my organizational need.
Accept the terms and conditions and click continue.
- In other to access the full features of the cloud console, you will need to link your credit card. Enter your billing address and card details to continue. A credit card can be acquired by visiting the nearest bank.
Step Two: Install WordPress
After clicking on start my free trial, you will end up at the Google cloud console home page. The system automatically creates a new "My first project" project for you.
This is to help you organize your work on the platform. While in the project, a notification bar appears just below the URL column.
You can see you've been offered 300 credits to explore Google cloud products over the next 90 days.
Although we are trying to use the free tier, it wouldn't spoil your chances to get the credit and explore all the Google cloud platform features. So go ahead and activate the offer.
To get our WordPress up and running, go to the navigation menu on the upper left-hand corner and select marketplace
In the search bar, type WordPress Certified by Bitnami and hit enter.
Scroll down to select WordPress certified by Bitnami and Automattic. This package is straightforward to install. It comes pre-loaded with a whole bunch of scripts that are essential to effectively run a typical WordPress website.
- Click on a launch to deploy the package on a compute engine. When prompted to enable APIs, simply click on the allow button and wait while everything activates.
Step three: Deploy and configure Virtual Machine (VM instance )
On the vertical machine deployment page, do the following:
Change the default deployment name or keep it as it is.
For zone, choose one of these three
Oregon: us-west1
Iowa: us-central1
South Carolina: us-east1
I recommend you do a little research to see which of these three regions is closest to you and which will give your audience the lowest latency for a better experience.
For Machine type, you are allowed to select E2 for the Series and e2-micro (2 vCPU, 1 GB memory) as the machine type.
- For boot Disk type, select standard persistent disc. For the disk size, choose between 10 to 30. Anything more than this you will have to pay for it.
These selections are crucial because the free tier offered by the Google cloud platform is particular in which region you deploy your virtual machine and the machine type.
- Ensure both http traffic and https traffic options are checked. This will allow internet traffic to reach your virtual machine, which essentially is your WordPress website.
- Finally, accept the terms of service and deploy. Just sit back, so the deployment process completes; this will take some time.
Step four: After Deployment
If you see a page like this, congratulations, you've successfully deployed your first WordPress website.
The information on the right side contains your IP Address and WordPress admin login details. Copy these details to a safe place.
You should click on the clickable IP address to see your website and confirm if the network rules are working.
Go ahead and log into your WordPress admin dashboard.
Step five: create a Static IP Address.
As you can see, we are able to access the website via the IP address. But that's not what we want. We want people to come to our website using our custom domain. I want to use my domain hubvirals.com instead of the IP 34.145.125.173.
In order to point your domain name to the IP address, you will need to make it static. This means the IP address will not change even if you restart the virtual machine or WordPress.
To do that, go back to the cloud console and click on the navigation menu in the upper left-hand corner. Scroll down to VPC Network and select external IP addresses
- Of the two listed items, one is internal, while the other is external IP. Scroll the bottom bar to the right and click on reserve in the same column with the external IP.
- Give it a name and click reserve. That's it; you've created a static IP address that will never change. Now you can link your domain to this website.
Step Six: DNS configuration
I have already configured my domain nameservers with Cloudflare; hence the following configurations will be done there.
This process should be similar if you are doing it with your domain registrar. I will highly recommend you submit your domain to Cloudflare if you want to get the free SSL certificate and enjoy the security features the platform offers.
To learn how you can submit your domain to Cloudflare, check my other post.
Login to your Cloudflare account and navigate to DNS. There you can create or edit an A record appointing to your server IP address and click save.
- Wait for about 10 minutes and try accessing the WordPress website via your domain.
As you can see, my connection is working perfectly. Now let’s resolve the SSL issue.
Step seven: free SSL install
via Cloudflare
on your dashboard, navigate to select the SSL/TLS
via plugin
Go back to your WordPress admin dashboard. From the left drop-down menu, select plugin, then add New.
In the search bar, type really simple SSL and hit enter.
Click on install and activate.
I think with this, you should be able to start your blog in no time. Checkout my other posts ment to help you achieve your blogging goals and create a name for yourself.
Other free Wordpress hosting services
1. 000WebHost:
This is a feature-rich free web hosting provider that offers free storage and bandwidth to its users.
It also provides automated installations of WordPress, as well as an easy to use control panel for managing your website. Moreover, it has no ads and offers a 99% uptime guarantee along with 24/7 customer support.
Pros:
Free subdomain and domain name registration
free hosting service with unlimited disk space and storage.
Automatic installation of WordPress and plugins.
Easy to set up and use.
Provides access to numerous themes and templates to customize your site.
24/7 customer support via email or live chat.
Cons:
Limited customization options.
No control over security settings or backups.
Outdated server technology which can lead to slow loading times.
Not suitable for sites with high traffic or large databases.
Limited support and troubleshooting options.
Can be prone to downtime due to its shared hosting environment.
2. InfinityFree:
This free hosting provider is another good option if you’re looking for reliable and free web hosting services. It comes with unlimited disk space, bandwidth, databases and email accounts along with free Let's Encrypt SSL certificates for security.
In addition, this provider offers powerful features such as Softaculous auto-installer for quick setup and CloudFlare CDN integration
Pros:
It offers free hosting that is reliable and secure.
It provides a user-friendly interface, which makes it easy to use for beginners.
There are no hidden fees or additional costs associated with the service, making it an affordable option for those on a budget.
Users have access to hundreds of pre-installed themes and plugins, giving them more customization options when creating their website.
The service also provides unlimited disk space and bandwidth as well as daily backups to ensure your data is safe and secure at all times.
They also offer 24/7 customer support in case you need help with any issues related to your site.
Cons:
They offer limited features and customization options compared to other paid hosting services.
Users are not able to access certain plugins or themes due to the free hosting plan.
The service does not provide any advanced security features such as SSL encryption or malware scanning, making it vulnerable to malicious attacks.
There may be some downtime with the server if there is a large influx of traffic, which can affect website performance.
The customer support is not always available and the response times can sometimes be slow.
It is difficult to move your website away from InfinityFree if you decide to switch hosting providers in the future.
3. AwardSpace:
This free web hosting service provider has a rather generous offering for its free WordPress hosting services with up to 5GB of storage, unlimited traffic and MySQL databases.
It also provides an intuitive control panel as well as a variety of security features such as backups and anti-malware protection.
Pros:
AwardSpace offers a wide range of features including MySQL database, FTP, and webmail access.
It also supports PHP, HTML, and JavaScript coding languages.
The user interface is easy to use, so users can quickly get up and running with their site.
AwardSpace has an uptime guarantee of 99%.
This hosting provider offers 24/7 customer support with helpful tutorials for beginners.
Cons:
AwardSpace does not offer unlimited storage or bandwidth for its free plan.
The customer service team is not always responsive.
There is no one-click WordPress installer, so you need to download and install the software yourself.
The free plan does not include SSL certification or CDN integration which can be useful for larger sites.
4. Freehostia:
This free wordpress hosting platform provides you with a domain name and 500MB of space while allowing up to 25,000 monthly visitors.
Furthermore, it comes with a drag & drop builder, custom PHP configuration and Softaculous auto-installer for quick setup of your WordPress site.
Pros:
Low cost - the basic plan is completely free!
One-click WordPress installation makes setting up your site quick and easy.
Excellent customer support, with live chat available in five languages.
Unlimited disk space and bandwidth lets you host any size website without worrying about storage limits.
Cons:
Limited control over your site - you can't set up custom domains, configure email accounts, or access the FTP.
Freehostia only offers shared hosting plans, meaning your website will be hosted alongside other websites on the same server. This could lead to slower loading times and reduced security as there are more people accessing the resources.
No backup system in place so you'll need to make sure you're regularly backing up your data yourself.
5. x10Hosting:
x10Hosting is a free wordpress hosting provider offering unlimited disk space and bandwidth along with a free domain name. It also provides a variety of features such as Softaculous auto-installer, daily backups and unlimited email accounts.
Furthermore, it provides 24/7 customer support and a 99% uptime guarantee. Overall, these are some of the best free WordPress hosting services out there that provide great features while being cost-effective.
So depending on your needs and preferences you can choose the one that suits you best.
Pros:
Easy Setup
There isn’t much else that beats free when it comes to web hosting services. Other than the initial setup fee, x10Hosting’s pricing is very reasonable.
Support Team - The support team at x10Hosting is extremely helpful and knowledgeable, meaning that any issues you have can be addressed quickly and efficiently.
Cons:
Limited Storage Space - One of the key drawbacks to using x10Hosting is that it offers limited storage space for free. If your website requires more storage than what is offered with this service, then you may need to look into a different hosting provider.
Lack of Customization Options - With x10Hosting, there are limited customization options available.
This means that if you require any specific features or functionality for your website, then you will likely have to look elsewhere for a web host provider that can accommodate these needs. it also doesnt come with free website builder
Slow Load Times - Unfortunately, the free version of x10Hosting can be quite slow when loading websites.
6. Byet Host:
This is one of the most reliable free WordPress hosting services out there that comes with unlimited disk space, data transfer and MySQL databases.
Their free services include a variety of features such as Softaculous auto-installer, daily backups and uptime monitoring. In addition, it comes with 24/7 customer support and a 99.9% uptime guarantee.
Pros:
Free WordPress hosting with many features like one-click installation, webmail access, and more.
Reliable servers that are designed to handle large traffic loads without any lags or downtime.
Easy to use control panel that allows you to manage all aspects of your website quickly and easily.
Comprehensive customer support via email and live chat for fast resolutions to any queries or issues you may have.
Offers several add-ons such as SSL certificates and Domain Privacy Protection for an extra layer of security.
Cons:
Limited storage space compared to some other free hosting services which can be restrictive for larger websites.
No upgrades available without a paid subscription.
Limited technical support, with only email and live chat being offered as options for getting help.
Some features require additional payment to use, such as SSL certificates and Domain Privacy Protection.
No guarantee of uptime or page loading speeds like you would get with a paid hosting service provider.
7. FreeHostingNoAds:
If you’re looking for an ad-free WordPress hosting service then this provider could be your best bet.
It offers up to 2GB storage and 25GB unlimited bandwidth along with automatic installation of WordPress as well as other popular scripts like phpBB, ZenPhoto etc. Moreover, it has no ads and provides 24/7 customer support.
Pros:
1. It provides free WordPress hosting services with unlimited storage and bandwidth, so users can easily set up their websites without worrying about running out of storage space.
2. It offers a wide range of reliable customer support services, including live chat, email, and phone support. This allows users to quickly get help if they have any queries or issues.
3. The platform utilizes an intuitive control panel which gives users complete control over their websites and makes it easy for them to manage the necessary settings and configurations.
4. It is highly secure and ensures that the user’s data is protected from any malicious activity or cyber-attacks by using advanced security measures.
5. It is incredibly affordable, with plans starting at just $2 per month.
Cons:
The free plan has limited features and capabilities and does not include some essential features such as custom domain name, DNS management and SSL certification.
There are no advanced tools or plugins available for users to use on the platform, so more experienced webmasters may find it difficult to customize their websites according to their needs.
The platform does not offer any scaling options for users looking to upgrade their hosting plan in the future if their website experiences a surge in traffic or resource requirements.
Since it is a hosted platform, users are limited to the features and capabilities that the provider offers and cannot install any third-party applications.
FreeHostingNoAds does not offer domain name registration services, so users will have to purchase their own domain in order to get started with their website.
8. GoogieHost:
Last but not least on this list is GoogieHost which provides unlimited storage, monthly traffic and MySQL databases. It also comes with a free domain name as well as Softaculous auto-installer for easy setup of your website.
Moreover, it provides 24/7 customer support and a 99.9% uptime guarantee. Overall, these are some of the best free WordPress hosting services out there that provide great features while being cost-effective. So depending on your needs and preferences you can choose the one that suits you best.
Pros:
GoogieHost provides unlimited disk space and bandwidth, which makes it an ideal choice for those who need to host large websites.
The control panel is easy to use and provides an intuitive interface that even novice users can manage their websites with ease.
The company also offers one-click installation of various WordPress themes, plugins, and other tools, eliminating the time-consuming task of manual setup.
GoogieHost also includes several security measures such as firewalls, malware scanning, and DDoS protection, to help keep your website secure.
Cons:
GoogieHost does not provide access to the latest WordPress versions, so users may need to manually update their websites for new features.
The site does not offer access to any customer support beyond a knowledgebase with FAQs, making it difficult for beginners or those who may run into technical issues.
The free hosting plan is quite basic and limited in terms of features and customization options that are available with more expensive plans from other providers.
Free vs. Paid Hosting which is better?
When it comes to hosting websites, there is no single answer that fits all requirements. Both free and paid hosting services have their own set of pros and cons.
It ultimately depends on the website's needs as well as budget when deciding which one to go for.
Free WordPress Hosting Services are a great option if you are just starting out with your website or if you want to test a few features before committing to a paid plan.
These services generally come with limited features, but they should be more than enough for basic WordPress websites.
However, they also come with certain drawbacks such as limited storage space and bandwidth, along with fewer customization options than what you would get from paid services.
Paid WordPress Hosting Services, on the other hand, offer more features such as unlimited storage space and bandwidth, higher levels of customization for your website, access to premium plugins and themes, better customer support, and much more.
These services come at a cost though, but they are worth it if you want to take advantage of all the features they offer.
The decision between free vs. paid WordPress hosting ultimately depends on your own needs and budget.
For those who are starting out with their websites or just want to test out some features before committing to a plan, free hosting services are a great option.
For those who need more advanced features and better performance from their websites however, paid hosting services should be considered instead. Ultimately it is up to you to decide which one is the right choice for you.
