Here are ten free sources for web hosting out there today.

100webspace.com – Here you get 100 MB of web page, 3000 MB of bandwidth and a lot of extra features like MySQL databases, SSL, SpamAssassin, POP3 and web e-mail and much more.  It also allows for FTP or FrontPage access too.

Frihost.com – This free web host is offering you 250 MB of disk space and 10 GB of bandwidth per month.  It is hosted on a Unix OS, with access to MySQL, cron jobs, raw logs, backups and more.

HelioHost.org – Your monthly bandwidth will be limited to 2500 here, and 250 MB of disk space.  However, they do offer Ruby on Rails, Fantastico, and both MySQL and PostgreSQL databases.

000webhost.com – Looking at this free hosting alternative, we see 250 MB of disk space, and 100 GB of bandwidth.  You also get tools like cPanel, and access to password protected files, custom error pages, and phpMyAdmin.

110MB.com – An old one, but a good one, 110MB offers you 5000 MB of disk space and 300 GB of monthly bandwidth.  Also here to love is the fact they have no forced ads, they allow you to use your own ads, support PHP and FTP.

WebHero.com – Supporting the scripting languages of PHP, Perl and Python, WebHero also gives you 100MB of disk space and 500 MB of bandwidth, which are pretty reasonable for a free web hosting provider.

1ASPHost.com – I have one ASP host on the list, and their name ironically is 1ASPHost. Bandwidth here is set at 1,000 MB per month and you get 100 MB of disk space.  Some of the features included are MS Access, WAP, no file size limit, and online zipping and unzipping of files.

FreeHostia.com – Bandwidth at Free Hostia is set to 5,000 MB and disk space is at 250 MB.  You get stats, instant activation, e-mail, and access to install counters, message boards, polls and more.

FreeServers.com – A new favorite of mine, Free Servers offers a reliable free web hosting plan.  You do have ads on your web site, however you get 50 MB of disk space and a nice upgrade path just in case you outgrow their free solution.

GoFreeServe.com – Offering 300 MB of free disk space and 10 GB of bandwidth, they also allow for PHP scripting, e-mail access, and cPanel.  Worth a shot.

There you have it, ten quality free web hosts to choose from if you are looking to learn a little more about web hosting and how it works.  If you have any reviews of these services or you have another favorite, be sure to leave them in the comments.  Would love to hear who you think the best free web host really is.

Free Hosting – Two free web site elders that might someday share the same fate as Geocities are still around.  Both Angelfire and Tripod are still around.  Here are a few more to choose from:

• 50Megs.com – Offers users 50 MB of disk space to host their files.
• Bravenet.com – Also offers 50 MB of disk space and 1.5 GB of bandwidth.
• 110MB.com – You get 110 MB of disk space with them (who would have guessed?) and 10 GB of bandwidth for free.

Specialized Hosting – For those people wanting to host their own blog, you might look into wordpress.com and their free blog hosting service.  If you want to get started with a forum, check out freeforums.org.

Shared Hosting – For those people moving from Geocities to another location, it might also be time to look into shared hosting plans.  There are many low-cost web hosting plans out there to choose from, and they will give you much more disk space, bandwidth and resources to work with.

One more place to check out for free hosting suggestions would be TheFreeSite.com.  Hey have a lot of suggestions when it comes to free web site hosting.

Have a free favorite host you would like to plug?  Leave a comment!

BONUS! Here are a few other Geocities alternatives:

• Jimdo has a special deal for Geocities users!
• Lunarpages has a special coupon to use too!

If you find any more, let me know!

Be sure to catch the rest of our Geocities Tribute on Podcast 186 of the Web Hosting Show!

Offering 5GB of space for free, this service sounds terrific.  4Shared also comes with a built in search engine, so you can browse around to see the other content people are uploading.

How long are the files hosted there?  Your free account and all your files will be removed from 4Shared only if you do not log in the account for 30 days.

Here are the most popular types of files that may be shared:

• document file (doc, txt, pdf, rtf, xls)
• music file (mp3, ogg, wav, mid)
• video file (avi, mpg, mpeg)
• image file (jpg, gif, bmp, png)
• zip file (zip, rar, arj)
• any other types

If you like the free service, then you can also upload to the paid versions too.  A one year membership will remove some of the limits.  So if you out-grow the free version, the paid version is always there to give you a few more perks.

SendSpace.com – Unlimited uploads and unlimited downloads.  The file size limit with SendSpace is up to 300MB too.

MediaFire.com – This service provides up to 100MB file size per upload, and unlimited storage.  A “pro” account will also get you a few more perks if you want to pay for it.

iFile.it – With one of the simplest interfaces, just browse, upload and cross your fingers.

MegaUpload.com – Another popular alternative is MegaUpload, unfortunately you might be looking for an alternative to it pretty soon.  Hate to give you an alternative to an alternative.

SaveFile.com – With a limit of 100MB per file in size, the most enticing thing about this hosting solution would be the fact that it isn’t used by many – so speeds should be pretty good.

TransferBigFiles.com – Oh, if only the rest of the internet was this obvious.

KeepMyFile.com – Bad web site design, with a limit of 60MB per file and 300MB max.  The advantage here is they say you can upload 30 files at once.

Badongo.com – With unlimited limits, and being free to use – have to say this alternative sounds like gold.

YourFileLink.com – Free video and file hosting is what they promise, and with the highest limit thus far on file size (5GB), you may want to go ahead and take advantage of this domain while it is still around.

UploadPedia.com – Oh, I get it – like Wikipedia, but you host stuff on it.  So it isn’t like Wikipedia at all…

Know of another free file host that deserves to be an alternative to Rapidshare?  Share your suggestions with us, and I might be able to come up with a list of at least ten more free file hosting alternatives to enjoy.

110MB.com

With 110MB Hosting you get 5GB of free no-ads hosting to setup shop.    So where is the catch?  They seem to get all of their income from upgrades and other related services.   You also get PHP 5, 300 GB of Bandwidth and MySQL 5.

AgilityHoster.com

Agility Hoster looks to use the free hosting account they provide as a gateway into other services too.  On the free plan, you get 2 addon domains, 5GB of bandwidth, and 200MB of disk space.

DotEasy.com

When looking for free web hosts out there, doteasy was the only one that stuck out as a name I had heard before.  The free plan they provide will give you 1GB of bandwidth, 100MB of storage and up to 10 e-mail accounts.

FreeHostia.com

I hate to say it, but Freehostia is probably one of the cheesier looking out of the bunch.  They do provide 250 MB of storage, 5 GB of monthly bandwidth and hosting for 2 domains.

HostWQ.net

HostWQ.net calls themselves the ultimate source for free and premium web site hosting.  Do they deliver?  Well for free you can get up to 300 MB of disk space and 10 GB of bandwidth a month.  Very promising, to say the least.

Are you a free web hosts or do you know of a free web host that can do any better?  Drop me an e-mail at mitch@mitchkeeler.com or leave a comment and let me know.

You receive 25GB for Photos/Music/Videos and 5GB for other files.  You can also play your music, watch your video and edit your documents from any location.  Signing up for the free version will also give you a 14 day trial of the desktop client they have which promises to make transferring data from one PC to the other a simple task.

Need to access your files on the go?  They have the ability to get to your files via your phone or PDA.  You can also e-mail your files without worrying about file size limits.  One more nice feature of the free service is you can publish your files on the Web from Humyo.  The only thing you have to live with would be the Humyo logo in the bottom corner.

Paid users of Humyo can also:

• File transfers to and from your space protected with 256-bit SSL encryption
• Allow colleagues to edit stored documents and upload files to shared folders.

Paid customers also get access to 100GB of disk space, and 100GB more can be added at any time for an additional $99.99 per year.  The regular price for paid users is $59.99 for the first year then $79.99 per year after that.

Free photo or image web hosts come a dime a dozen these days.  EchoPic.com is another provider that gives you another choice to your image sharing.

They provide image and photo sharing services that make life easy when you need to upload and share files on your web site, blog or social network profile.

You can either upload or enter the image URL and “grab it” to host on EchoPic’s services.  All in all EchoPic isn’t doing anything really different but they are providing a quality free image hosting solution and when it comes down to it – what more could you ask for from your free hosting solution?

File Dropper

What is the upload limit? Right now it is 5GB. According to the about us page, the goal of File Dropper as to create a fresh alternative to sites like MegaUpload and RapidShare. They do not wish to reel in users and make them wait for annoying countdown times. (Insert Yippee Here!) They do not hide their download links and they will not aggressively place ads all over the place.

As long as the file is still being downloaded, they will never take your files down. Now if a file is uploaded once, downloaded once and then not touched again for six months then you might see them taking it down to make more room for other material. That is totally understandable. Also, it goes without saying that copyrighted or illegal material is not allowed and will be removed.

How are they going to make money? That might be the next question you were curious about. Well, you can do the free file hosting as much as you want and that is open to anybody. If you sign up though you get a few more perks.

• 99 Cents Plan – 5GB File Size, Direct Linking for Images, Share Files with Others
• Silver Plan – 10GB File Size, Direct Linking for Images, Share Files with Others
• Gold Plan – 25GB File Size, Direct Linking for Images, Share Files with Others

There is also a Free Trial plan that will let you test out the back end to see if you really want to pay to get a little more bang for your buck. All in all File Dropper seems to be doing everything right. Go give FileDropper.com a visit and let them know that the Web Hosting Show sent you there.

1. FilesTube.com – This resource might be my favorite of all the file hosting search options out there. All you need to do is type in what you are looking for, select the file type from the drop down box, and you are taken to tons of results. The sort by size feature also helps a lot in sorting the bigger files from the smaller ones you may not be concerned with (or visa versa).

2. Rapidshare1.com – Not as pretty as FilesTube.com, but it does get the job done when it comes to searching for a file or document from Rapidshare.com. Just wish they had a bit more description per result. They do link you to both the page the link came from and the actual Rapidshare download link.

3. Shareminer.com – This site uses the long and customized Google search string to search though and try to find what you want. Not as successful as the other two options, because since this Google search string has been in the wild a while it looks as if people have found a way to spam it.

4. FilesBot.com – Promising to be a “file storage search engine” it does a good job at filtering out the bad stuff while still delivering pretty good results. Type what you are looking for in the search box, and then find the links. Simple user interface.

5. MegaDownload.net – The last one on our list today features a pretty interface, and does a better job than most at making the search for information readable.

Are there more? Yes, but many of them are using the Google search string trick – so not really worthy for the list. If you think you know of one better than the ones on the list though, be sure to leave a comment or drop me an e-mail to let me know.

BONUS! – 4 More Ways to Search Rapidshare, Megaupload and More!

Here are the features of the free hosting plan:

100MB storage
1000MB/month bandwidth
1 hosted domain (or a myy.name subdomain)
10 FTP accounts
5 MySQL databases
100 e-mail accounts

Nothing to sneeze at when the price tag reads “Free!”. They also promise no ads, no hidden fees and instant activation. So if you are in the hunt for a new free hosting solution you might want to give myy.name a visit.

With Xdrive Desktop Lite, you can easily upload files and folders right from your hard drive, desktop, USB device or removable storage drive directly into your Xdrive web storage space.

This new lightweight application is using Adobe’s new AIR technology to deliver a program that should work on either Windows or Apple machines.

In the future releases they are promising:

• Configuration and controls for the Xdrive AutoCopy feature
• Synchronize between local files and those stored in your Xdrive account: Made a change to a local file? Xdrive Desktop Lite will automatically upload the new version to your Xdrive account so you always have the latest version available from anywhere you have an internet connection.
• In addition to a wide range of enhancements to the Xdrive Desktop Lite client, the Adobe AIR platform will allow us to present virtually all of the desktop functionality in a robust web application.

If you pupued the idea before, give Xdrive.com another shot if for no other reason than to just test out this new Xdrive Desktop Lite product.

To create a new drop, you just…

1. Navigate yourself to the web site, drop.io
2. Name the drop, drop.io/yourname
3. Password protect it, if you wish to keep it private
4. Set how long you want to keep it active (1 month to 1 year)
5. Setup permissions for other users to view only, view and add content or view, add & delete content

Then you are done! You can also add to each drop via the web, e-mail, a phone or via their special widget. This is a really unique service that you should keep in mind next time you want to send files to your business partners or friends. It takes the traditional free file hosting, stands it on its head and does something different.

I like drop.io.

To grab you free space, you must have a Hotmail or Live address, then login to the SkyDrive web site.

The file size limit per file you upload is 50MB so that still gives you a lot of room to work with. Internet Explorer users can install an upload tool to make working with the service a little easier. You will be able to upload right from the browser. For us Firefox users, we will just have to hope somebody develops an extension that will do the same.

For Microsoft, here is what I need to use this service on a day to day basis:

• Give me a upload/download tool that is not just for Internet Explorer
• Drop the plug for all the other “Live” services at the top

Go give SkyDrive a test drive for yourself at skydrive.live.com.

In their pitch from the front page, that do make it sound worth looking into deeper for sure:

Webnode brings you a brand new innovative way of creating and editing advanced websites by just using a web browser. The system is very easy to use and is fully interactive. Real-time fast editing as you see it in the browser. By using Drag-and-Drop from the toolbar you can add new content such as polls, forums, articles, catalogues, widgets such as PayPal and much more.

Here are only a few of the many features they provide:

• Real Time Editing
• Drag and Drop Technology
• Gadgets and Widgets
• 40+ Design Templates
• Polls, FAQ’s, RSS, and Webmail

So where is the catch? I have yet to find one yet – but to monitize the service, I can bet they will be adding down the road higher disk space and bandwidth limits for a fee or other services to get you to fork over your cash. If your low on cash and want to build yourself a simple/yet pretty web site, Webnode is worth checking into.

Best Free Image or Graphic Host?

Winner! Photobucket – This service isn’t just for the MySpace crowd anymore. Although that is still a main audience of theirs, there is no doubt that Photobucket is gaining major ground when it comes to free image hosting. I would consider it an alternative to Flickr, would you?

Runners up: Flickr, Zooomr, & ImageShack

Best Free File Host?

Winner! Box.net – There are tons of file hosts out there, so what makes Box.net the best? They have the most respectable name in my opinion, and they have been around a while so I do trust them as well. They also have the easiest upgrade path if you want to move beyond your free file hosting space.

Runners up: Megaupload, Rapidshare, & MediaFire

Best Free Video Host?

Winner! YouTube – Google’s powerhouse video sharing service has left just about all the others in the dust. Just like Google is looked at in the search engine world, when it comes to free video hosting or sharing it is hard to compete with YouTube.

Runners up: Revver, Dailymotion, & Veoh

Who are your picks for these categories? If you feel like your favorite was overlooked be sure to let me know about it by leaving a comment or dropping me an e-mail.

All you have to do to get started is register for your free account, upload your content and then you can gain access to these files anywhere you have an Internet connection. You can avoid the hassle and trouble of running out of disk space on your hard drive – and eliminate the external storage devices.

You can stop worrying about your files being lost because of computer issues such as it kicking the bucket or being infected by something nasty. The ability to access any file at anytime, anywhere is also a perk that can not be overlooked.

Some of their insight on the technology they are using is pretty interesting too. ADrive operates using industry-leading enterprise level data storage, networking and server technology to safely store and access your files.

They promise in the future to have bigger plans with more than 50GB – that will also come with a price tag. A desktop client and file sharing is also “in the works”. One future feature that looks promising is the personalized snapshots. They promise to retrieve older versions of your files using snapshot technology. You’ll be able to schedule your own snapshots to backup and protect your stored data.

With some of their most recent upgrades and changes though it is hard to find somebody else that matches up.

Even Tech Crunch is starting to stand up and take notice of them. This is what they had to say after DivShare’s recent additions and changes.

Honestly it is really hard to find out your way in the jungle. But if you are a heavy user or are only interested in hosting and controlling sharing options you might want to consider a one-Stop shop like DivShare that has been here a for few months. They are starting to release today a series of innovations that will make the service more unique and attractive.

You can upload photos, images, documents, movies, music and more. Each thing has it’s own special player too – which is a nice addition. The web site is a little slow right now – probably because of the mention on Tech Crunch.

With the DivShare Direct service you can also now have customized, embeddable players for video, audio and sideshows. So if your looking for branding options, there they are. The lowest upgrade option you have is for 5 GB of space and 50 GB of traffic for just $4.95 a month.

All in all I would say DivShare is setting the bar a little higher for the other free file hosts to get up to. So then the question is – is DivShare really the web host, redefined?

Freewebs.com – Free Web Site Hosting

Freewebs.com if probably my top choice for people looking for free web hosting. It is what Angelfire and Geocities were many years ago. They actually also offer much more than these previous titans ever did. You get 40MB of disk space with their free option and 500Mb of bandwidth. That might not be enough to launch the next great Web 2.0 application but it is big enough to do a web site for your friends and family to enjoy.

One thing I was really surprised to see was that they allow you to point a domain name at your account too. So your not stuck with the freeweb.com/myname domain path. If you want to upgrade instead of moving to a traditional web host there are options to do that too.

Sign up for Freewebs.com!

WordPress.com – Free Blog Hosting

Now what are you to do if you need a place to write about your current passion? There are a million and one different blogging services out there, but the most impressive of the bunch is WordPress.com. You get stats, pretty themes, and almost everything you’d get when installing WordPress on a standard hosting account.

Upgrades (if your ready to move past the free service) works on credits. Each credit costs $1 and then the services you wish to upgrade cost a certain number of credits. For example, the 1GB space upgrade is 20 credits for a year. You can also put your own domain on the blog too.

Sign up for WordPress.com!

So lets go back to that whole “the best things in life are free” saying. If I were to rewrite that old phrase now, it might be worth saying, “The best free things are the ones you can upgrade later on if and when needed”. For some reason though I don’t think that would look as great on a coffee cup.

Who ever said nothing good has come out of AOL? Xdrive is a service I’ve known about for some time – but never really gave a fair look at it till now. It is yet another of a long lists of free hosting options for your files.

You do have a desktop client which is handy, and hopefully does not get in the way. In most cases I want the complete package. I want hosting, an easy way to get my files to the hosting and I want it to be pretty reliable as well. Xdrive is able to deliver in all of those camps.

Is Xdrive Easy to Use?

Xdrive Desktop (the desktop application) integrates into your Windows Explorer so you can easily drag and drop files and folders directly to your Xdrive account hassle-free.

How can you access the files you have uploaded? You can do it via your PC – as this service almost acts as a networked drive off of your machine. You can also do it from a number of wireless devices or even from the Web.

Is there a window for upgrading too? Sure. If you like the service and need more storage, you can get 50GB for $9.95 a month.

All in all Xdrive is an excellent free hosting service that hasn’t gotten its proper day in the sun more than likely because of its connections with AOL.

Related Podcast Link: Listen to Episode 119!

There are more and more free file hosts out there each and every day it seems. Yet another name to add to that ever growing list is File123.com. File123.com is going after the “hey I just need some extra space to host a few files” business. They are also looking to aim more towards the professionals out there, but I am sure they wouldn’t mind the business from a few novice folks as well.

Why should you sign up with them? Here are some perks:

• Get organized, end paper clutter and gain extra space in your home, garage or office.
• Protect against natural disaster, robbery and computer crashes with our easy and secure storage system.
• Store photos, music, videos, personal and business documents and more!
• Easily network, share and exchange documents with friends, family or co-workers.
• You have nothing to risk with our no cost, risk free trial.

Bottom line is this. Sign up right now and get 1GB of space for free. Enjoy the service and want your disk space limit bumped up? You can get 10GB of backup space for as low as $4.95 a month. File123.com gives you yet another great option for your file hosting needs.

Backing up is hard to do – no wait, that was breaking up. Backing up is not that hard to do but for some reason we still do not like to take the time to do it. That is where cheap Online solutions come into play. One of those solutions out there for you right now is Allmydata.com.

Here is a little more information about the company and team from their about us web page.

Allmydata was created for all of us who have lost important information due to disk crashes, viruses or even a mere computer replacement. Allmydata was created for all of us who have given up on backing up our computers due to the cost and complexity of current backup solutions: external drives, tape drives and complicated online solutions.

Allmydata promises you “unlimited online storage and backup” but what is the price? All you have to pay is $4.99 a month. That’s a pretty good deal in my book. They also offer a Windows only desktop application to make your backing up a little easier to do as well. Overall it looks like a great way for anybody to keep their important files backed up just in case the worst might happen.

When it comes to hosting these days, you really have to pick up a more interesting business model if you want to succeed out there. For folks wanting to start a business – but might not have the capital to put up for advertising and marketing just yet – life can be tuff.

I got an e-mail the other day from Stanley, a Web Hosting Show listener and the guy in charge of All or Nothing hosting. He wanted me to pass the word along to all of you that he would be happy to host free clients, artists, designers, programmers, coders, who are in desperate need for hosting and end up stuck with craptastic free solutions.

What does All or Nothing provide that the crappy hosts might not? He promised e-mail, control panels, MySQL databases, PHP support, ect. Sounds like a good deal for free right? Well I have to ask the million dollar question after this point – where is the catch?

It is ad supported hosting. You live with them making a buck on your web pages – and you get free hosting that is better than your average free web host out there. Not too bad. Also if you can stay active in their forums then you might be able to ditch the ads all together. So that is a nice alternative to have as well.

So if your wallet is empty and you want to setup a new web site, give the folks at All or Nothing Hosting a call and be sure to let them know that it was the Web Hosting Show that sent you there.

When it comes to free hosting, OneDump hopes to have all of your bases covered. They deliver audio, text and image hosting for free.

The service, like many of the ones that came beore it, is very straight forward and simple to understand and use. A part of me would like to say they have an army of midgets in Singapore doing all the hard labor but they just would not be true.

So what are the rules of the OneDump service? You are permitted to upload upto 10 files at once, with each not exceeding 5 MB. It also supports these file formats:

jpg, jpeg, gif, png, bmp, tif, tiff, swf, txt, wmv, mp3, doc

You can use the service without feeling the need to register, but if you do sign up you can keep track of your uploads, view statistics of each file, add and edit captions to your uploaded data, create folders, and more. With the Quick Send feature you can also e-mail files into the service as well. This is a pretty neat addition that you do not see other free file hosts doing that often. As long as you follow the terms of service, they say there is no limit to the free files you can host here.

All in all, I would say they stack up with some of the best out there – they just need a good user base to get them going strong.

They have a lot to deliver, now they just need the audience to make all their hard work worth it.

They want to be the place you take all your digital photos to.

Now why should they get that honor? Well storing a backup of all your photos Online is a smart thing to do. What if something happens to your computer? Where will all those photos of Uncle Fred riding the unicycle go?

They will be gone for good.

Past the backup aspect of all of this though, they also give you the standard tagging feature that you see everywhere else as well. You can also make nice looking galleries with the templates they provide you and they say that “photo blogging” is a breeze.

So, for the most part, you can see they are doing everything that everybody else is doing. Nothing really sets them apart – but if you are looking for an alternative, Zoto.com might be the place you want your photos to call home.

+ Check Out the Podcast This Was From! Listen to the Web Hosting Show, Podcast 85!

Web publishing tools provider Freewebs.com announced last week it has completed a series of advancements in its application offerings.

The move continues Freewebs’ progression from a provider of simple and easy site-building tools, to offering a broad platform upon which site and content creators can gain global visibility and traffic.

I have to say I really enjoy the new look and feel of Freewebs.com. The entire Web site just has a much cleaner and easier to manage interface.

Some additional features include the ability to add YouTube video in a single click without leaving the Freewebs page, a simplified site design and convenient import tools that enable users to centralize their online presence without having to recreate content like email contacts, blog entries and profiles from other Web sites.

All and all a very nice experience.

+ Check Out the Podcast This Was From! Listen to the Web Hosting Show, Podcast 85!