You can put a website online without entering payment details: choose a free plan that does not ask for a card at sign-up, point a domain you own at it, let the free SSL certificate issue, and upload the site. The only part that is not free is the domain name — domains are registered, not hosted, and no registrar gives them away.
Here is the whole process, and the two places people usually get caught.
Step 1: Pick a plan that does not ask for a card
This is the step that decides everything else. A sign-up form that requires payment details is a trial, and a trial converts. A free plan does not need a card because there is nothing to charge.
Before signing up, check three numbers: storage, monthly traffic, and whether your own domain is allowed. If a plan will not tell you those, it is not a plan yet.
Step 2: Get a domain — the one thing worth paying for
A domain is the one thing in a free setup that is never free, and it is the single best purchase you can make around a free plan. Building on yoursite.provider.com feels like saving money, but every visitor, every link and every search ranking you accumulate belongs to that provider’s domain. Moving later means starting over.
Two routes:
- Register one now and point it at the hosting during setup.
- Use one you already own by changing its DNS records to the host’s name servers.
DNS changes are not instant. Allow a few hours before assuming something is broken; propagation delay looks exactly like a misconfiguration.
Step 3: Let SSL issue before you test
A free SSL certificate is standard on any host worth using, and it is issued automatically once the domain resolves to the server. The order matters: the certificate cannot be issued until DNS points at the host, so if you test right after changing DNS you will see a certificate warning that fixes itself shortly afterwards.
Once it is live, force HTTPS. A site reachable on both http:// and https:// is two addresses in the eyes of a search engine, and browsers will mark the insecure one.
Step 4: Put the site there
Three ways, depending on what you are building:
- Upload files. For a hand-built HTML site, copy the files into the web root. Nothing else is required.
- Install WordPress. Fine on a small plan, but budget for it: WordPress plus a theme and a few plugins uses a real share of a 500 MB allowance before you publish a word.
- Start from a builder. Useful when you want a first direction rather than a blank page. The Hostna website builder produces a starting layout you then host normally.
What people get wrong
Uploading images straight from a phone
A modern phone photo is several megabytes. Ten of them is a big share of a 500 MB plan, and they will make the page slow on mobile even if the storage holds. Resize to the width the page actually displays and export as WebP or compressed JPEG. This single habit is the difference between a free plan that works and one that fills up in a month.
Skipping the domain to save money
Covered above, and worth repeating because it is the only irreversible decision in this list. Everything else can be changed later at no cost.
Assuming free means unsupervised
Backups, updates and passwords are still yours to manage. A free plan gives you a place to run a site; it does not give you someone watching it.
What happens when the site grows?
You upgrade in the same account. Because the domain is yours and the site is already on the provider’s platform, the change is a plan change rather than a migration: the address stays the same, the links keep working, and nothing has to be rebuilt.
That is the practical reason to prefer a small free plan with printed limits over one whose limits live in the terms — the upgrade path exists and costs nothing but the plan difference. The step-by-step version for a static site is on the HTML website page.
The short version
- Choose a free plan with published limits and no card at sign-up.
- Buy a domain. It is a small yearly amount and it is the part you keep.
- Point DNS at the host and wait for SSL to issue.
- Upload, install or build — and compress your images.
- Upgrade when the site starts doing a job, not before.
Start with the free plan — no payment details, no expiry date — or read why a free plan with no stated limit is not a real thing before comparing offers elsewhere.
This article was written with AI assistance for the Hostna Journal and edited before publication. Tell us if anything here is wrong.