Insights
Can a small business website be hosted for free?
How a small business website can be hosted for free on Cloudflare, what the free plan includes and its limits, why it suits fast static sites, and how to get there.
Yes. A small business website built as static pages, finished pages with no database behind them, can be hosted on Cloudflare's free plan. Cloudflare says "requests to static assets are free and unlimited", and the free plan's limits comfortably cover a typical small business website. Most traditional hosting costs £20 to £40 a month.
What you pay for hosting today
UK price guides put typical website hosting at £20 to £40 a month, according to Get You Online. Over a year, that is £240 to £480 for somewhere to keep the site.
That money pays for a server that builds each page every time someone visits, usually from a database, with add-ons running on top. That's also what makes many small business sites slow.
Why static sites can be hosted for free
A static site is built once. Each page is a finished file, ready to send. There is no database to query and no code to run for each visitor, so serving it costs the host almost nothing.
Cloudflare's documentation is clear: "Requests to static assets are free and unlimited." The pages are served from Cloudflare's network around the world, close to each visitor, which also makes them fast.
What the free plan's limits mean
The free plan's limits allow up to 20,000 files per site, each up to 25 MiB. A typical small business website has a few hundred files, including its photos. Features that run code, such as a contact form, have their own allowance of 100,000 requests a day.
If a site ever outgrew the free plan, or Cloudflare changed it, the paid plan is an option. That's a decision for you, not something that happens without warning.
In your name, not ours
Free hosting is only worth having if you own it. The hosting account should be in your business's name, your domain should stay registered to you, and the site should be able to move to another host at any time.
Free hosting with our rebuild
Our website rebuild includes free hosting for life on Cloudflare's free plan, within its usage limits, in your own name. Your domain stays yours. Or, if you prefer, we upload the site to your current host. The rebuild keeps your brand, can make it look better, and keeps every page Google knows at the same address. It is £1k all inclusive for up to 20 pages.
[See the website rebuild](/website-rebuild/), or [request a call back](/website-rebuild/#callback).
Frequently asked questions
Is Cloudflare hosting really free?
For static sites, yes. Cloudflare says requests to static assets are free and unlimited. Features that run code have a free allowance of 100,000 requests a day.
Is free hosting slower than paid hosting?
Not for a static site. Cloudflare serves the pages from its network close to each visitor, which is usually faster than a single shared server.
Can I move my website later?
Yes. A static site is a set of files, so it can move to almost any host. Your domain stays registered to you.
Do I need technical knowledge to keep it running?
No. Once it is set up, there is nothing to patch or update. Changes to pages can be made without touching the hosting.