Web Hosting for Students: Is it Possible to Find?

Published: December 7, 2022 / Article by: Siarhei Kulich

Today anyone can make a website. Whether you want to write a blog, start your own business, or have an online portfolio, your website can only bring benefits. This also complies with students. Students everywhere try to get notices, and being online is a big step forward. But we all know how important it is for students to save money, so finding affordable web hosting is significant. 

There are many affordable options out there for students on a budget. Many web hosting providers offer students discounts, so choosing the right one takes some work. Luckily, we have done deep research, listed the best web hostings for students, and answered some of your most common questions. To save you time and leave the stress somewhere behind – let’s choose the right web hosting according to your requirements.

What is Web Hosting for Students?

Web hosting for students is a type of hosting that is student-oriented. Students can use their websites for classes, projects, blogging, hobby, and education; they need safe and reliable web hosting to meet all their needs.

If students decide to take students discounts for making websites, they may have to pay a higher price once they graduate from their institution. There are also some restrictions on the type of projects as well as sites that can be hosted on these discounts. 

What is Difference with Free Web Hosting

With so many free web hostings, should a student choose those that offer discounts? Some of the main reasons for not choosing a free web hosting:

  • lack of customer support
  • limited emails
  • limited bandwidth
  • ads (probably the most annoying part of free web hosting)
  • shared branding
  • paid upgrades for most of the features

The best thing is that when you choose a paid web hosting plan, you don’t have to spend much money on it. With so many student discounts out there, you will easily find one that is within your budget and meets all your needs.

How to Choose the Best Web Hosting for Students?

All web hosts offer excellent plans and have their own benefits. So, choosing the best one that will meet all your requirements as a student can take time and effort. Below, you will find a list of qualities of the web hosting providers that you need to look for.

  • Price – Saving money is vital for students as their usually tight budget is their main constraint. That is why free web hosting providers seem the most popular among students. But keep in mind that free versions usually offer only some basic plans. If you want to build something more serious, consider choosing a discounted plan.
  • 24/7 customer support – Having non-stop support is important for anyone, not just students. If you run into any kind of trouble, it is always good to have someone there to help you immediately. So, always look for a web hosting provider that offers 24/ customer support.
  • Easy-to-use installation process – An easy-to-use installation process will simplify building and managing your website. If you plan to use WordPress or any other content management system, having a one-click installation will save you time and stress.
  • Uptime performance – Using a percentage of the time, uptime measures the system’s reliability and availability. Before choosing your next web hosting for students, make sure to check their uptime guarantee. You should look for at least 99% uptime. You probably don’t want to have a website no one can see.

List of the Best Web Hostings for Students

1. The best free – InterServer

Not totally free, but InterServer offers one-year free membership for students. If you sign up using your student email with .edu at the end, you will get one year for free. You can contact the company directly if you don’t own a student email address.

After one year, the renewal costs students $4 per month. For other users, the cost is $2.50 from the beginning.

With your student account, you will get a pretty generous package:

  • unlimited storage
  • unlimited transfer
  • unlimited websites
  • unlimited emails
  • free backup
  • free SSL certificate

Other features you will get include:

  • free migration services
  • 50% server capacity
  • global content cashing
  • SitePad website builder

2. The best cheap – Namecheap

Namecheap is reliable web hosting and domain registration provider. Some of the main reasons for choosing this web hosting for students may be the free domain for the first year and cheap monthly plans.

Namecheap offers an easy-to-use one-click installation of a content management system (WordPress) or forums. 

Shared Stellar hosting, for example, is the best choice you can make. It costs $1.44 per month for the first year. After that, the renewal costs $2.88 per month.

With Stellar hosting, you will get the following:

  • Three websites
  • 20GB disk space
  • free domain
  • free SSL certificate
  • unmetered bandwidth 
  • 30-day money-back guarantee
  • supports multiple languages (Python, Perl, Ruby, and many more)

Namecheap also offers many free and paid tools for building a website. 

3. The best with student discount – InMotion Hosting

InMotion offers the best discounts for students, according to our research. You need to provide your valid student ID or your .edu email address. As a result, you will get a shared hosting (read what does it mean) account with a 50% discount.

The shared Power plan for students costs $4.16 per month for the first 12 months or $4.99 per month for the first six months. The best thing is that they do not charge more as long as you are a student. 

With a shared Power plan, you will get the following:

  • free domain
  • up to 50 websites
  • free SSL certificate
  • unmetered bandwidth
  • automatic backups
  • 50 email addresses
  • supports multiple languages (including Python, PHP, Perl, and many more)
  • one-click installer for 400 applications

4. The best cloud web hosting for students – Google Cloud

There are only three options for students if we talk about cloud web hosting: Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, and Amazon AWS. All of them have generous student packages.

After deep research, we recommend Google Cloud as the best cloud web hosting for students. Moreover, it is an excellent resource for students, as it is free for educational institutions. 

The Student Plan is free. Apart from it, all students get $50 in credits to use with any Google Cloud product. 

Some of the things you will get with a free Student Plan:

  • 5 GB storage and 28 front-end instances hours per day
  • unlimited access to Qwiklabs
  • practice building cloud software  
  • unlimited access to Google Workspace certification discounts

5. The best overall – Bluehost

With many great features and affordable plans, we choose Bluehost as the overall best web hosting provider for students. Their shared hosting packages are budget-friendly with low expenses. 

Some of the things you will get:

  • free domain name
  • unlimited bandwidth, email storage and disk space
  • cPanel and auto-installers
  • help getting started
  • cheap monthly plans
  • great portfolio building tools
  • 24/7 support via live chat, phone, and email
  • anytime money-back guarantee

The best thing for you as a student is an easy-to-use, powerful, Linux-based that works with any PC (Windows, Linux, or Mac). In addition, you will get one click-installer and up to 70 free tools. 

Final Thoughts

Choosing web hosting for students can be tricky. In our guide, you saw some of the best providers for students, from zero-dollar plans to those that charge a few dollars per month for a quality plan. 

We have helped you make your final decision. You will make a good decision whatever plan or provider you opt for. Find the best one for your needs.

About Siarhei Kulich
Co-founder and CTO of HRank.com - a hosting uptime monitoring website. Siarhei has more than 20 years experience in web developing and web hosting.
Connect: Website, LinkedIn
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