Free Website Hosting for Nonprofits

3 Free Website Hosting Offers for Nonprofit Organizations

After looking into several offers for free or greatly discounted website hosting by several well-known to much smaller-sized hosting companies, I have diluted the options to that of three (all free):

• California-based DreamHost (one of the USA’s larger hosting companies, with about 300 employees)
• New Jersey-based InterServer (about 50 employees)
• Washington State-based MightWeb (about 5 employees).

All three provide similar options and services, free to U.S. nonprofit organizations. The specifics on what each free hosting account offers was provided from each company to DOWW via a questionnaire. However, since we did not go through the process of creating individual accounts to test the overall hosting transfer, site services, and customer service experiences, this review is limited to that of showcasing the hosting service’s offered services as part of their nonprofit hosting program and not to make a final evaluation.

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DreamHost

Website location: https://help.dreamhost.com

Nonprofit program info: https://help.dreamhost.com/hc/en-us/articles/215769478-Non-profit-discount

Pros:

• Good response time (less than 12 hours).
• Big company with mostly positive reviews and ratings.
• Free domain name.
• Good reviews and awards for service.
• 35% off on their other hosting plans if the free Shared Unlimited plan for nonprofits is not robust enough.

Cons:

• Chat support is limited to 5:30AM to 9:30PM (PST)
• Phone support is not free ($9.95 per instance, using a call-back system)
• No cPanel employed (they use their own variation of a control panel)
• A rather pricy dedicated I.P. address option ($59.95/yr).

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InterServer.net

Website location: https://www.interserver.net/

Nonprofit program info: https://www.interserver.net/webhosting/non-profit-hosting.html

Pros:

• Good response time (less than 12 hours).
• They offer 24/7 phone support (considered a premium service these days).
• They employ cPanel for control panel management.
• Good step-by-step instructions offered.

Cons:

• No free domain name (which really isn’t a major issue).
• InterServer is a smaller company than its competitors (e.g.: DreamHost or GoDaddy), with far fewer customer and tech publication reviews that would help establish their credibility.

Caveat:  InterServer requires that a text link be provided at the bottom of the website mentioning “powered by InterServer”. After sending InterSever an email seeking answers to questions, DOWW immediately received marketing emails unrelated to the email I sent the company. Moreover, within 24 hours targeted ads began appearing in internet new content and FB pages.

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MightWeb.net

Website location: https://mightweb.net

Nonprofit program info: https://mightweb.net/sponsorships/

Pros:

• Quick response time (within hours).
• They employ cPanel for control panel management.
• Discounted domain name purchase (though, not free).
• Reasonably priced dedicated IP address ($24/yr).

Cons:

• Very small company.
• (Currently) no phone or chat support. Only ticketed support.
• Storage limited to 5GB (fast SSD).