Does Google Have Web Hosting for Free?

Mixi December 17, 2021 | 09:56

Google is well-known for being the most popular search engine. Everyone uses Google for many purposes. How about Google Website Hosting?

Google Web Hosting. Photo: KnowInsiders

The newest of the major providers, Google Cloud Platform’s pricing model is more straightforward than competitors. The web host certainly isn’t the cheapest, but we appreciate the familiar interfaces and streamlined approach to hosting.

What is Google Website Hosting?

Google’s web hosting is a part of the Google Cloud Platform, which is a service offered by Google that provides cloud hosting and tools for developers and small businesses. The product that’s mostly used for hosting websites is Computing Engine. It’s cloud VPS hosting that you need to manage yourself. Though technically you can use Compute Engine for hosting other stuff, website hosting is what is usually associated with it.

Is Google’s Web Hosting Free?

In short – no. It’s not free. However, you can get $300 free credits if you’re a new customer.

You can use those credits for 12 months. If 12 months pass, the credits expire. After you use up your $300 credits in the first month, they won’t be valid for the next 11 months. And if you’re an existing customer, you can’t use the $300 free credits’ promo. After you spend the credits, the bills can stack up pretty quickly. There’s a free Tier with limitations too.

Be careful when using the Free Tier. Read all of their usage policies. If you do not meet their Free Tier criteria, you’ll be billed for your server usage. It may come as a surprise if you don’t know how the Free Tier works.

How Much Does A Google Website Hosting Cost?

The pricing of GCP Cloud Compute is billed per second of usage. Depending on what kind of virtual machine you order, the pricing may vary. A server with 3.75GB of RAM and 1 vCPU is $24.2725 per month. Disk space is extra, at $0.040 per GB/month.

There are different plans and pricing for other products at GCP that are closely related to website hosting. Calculating your average monthly pricing can be difficult if you’re a beginner. Considering all the different plans and products they offer, it’s sometimes difficult to calculate and estimate your budget.

Why I Need Hosting Services?

The number one reason why you get a hosting service is if you want your website to be online.

Otherwise, people shop around because they want to move to one that is cheaper (with free add-ons) and perhaps more reliable.

For others still, it is about paying for what you use, and so you shop for packages that suit you.

It can also be about a matter of scaling; some providers work better with small to medium-sized businesses while others cater to global corporations.

Web Hosting Costs Explained

Every hosting provider out there has their own extensive list of pricing plans which may seem a little overwhelming at first.

In short, shared web hosting tends to be the cheapest type (ranging between $2.49 and $15 per month), and dedicated hosting on the more costly side between $80-$730 per month.

We know that there are many variables at play when it comes to the cost of web hosting so this guide is there to help you know:

* Which type of hosting you’ll need

* How much this type of hosting will cost

* The cheapest providers out there

* Extra costs you may come across

Differences Between Google Drive and Google Website Hosting

Photo: Canh Me

Google Drive and the Google Cloud Platform are two completely different products. With Google Drive, you can host your personnel files and photos and share them with other people. With GPC you can host websites, run apps, spin up virtual machines, host databases, and more. The main similarity between the two products is that they are both a Google product.

If you get web hosting from Google or Copahost, you can use Nextcloud. It’s a self-hosted alternative to Google Drive. You’ll be hosting your data and you’ll get all of Google Drive’s features on your server.

There are workarounds where you can use Google Drive to host a static website. It’s in no way an ideal solution and it’s not what Google Drive was intended for.

How to Choose the Right Hosting

Web hosting ranking is formed on the basis of several technical characteristics of providers. Connection Speed depends on the following criteria:

* The quality of the hoster’s equipment and its scope. – The number of processor cores is estimated. Servers with a processor of at least 4 cores will adequately cope with modern tasks for a website with high traffic. Some hosters use 1-core processors, while at least 3 cores are required for normal task processing. Since 3-core processors are not released, the best option is 4 or more cores.

* The amount of RAM. It should be at least 4 GB. – The size and type of hard disk drive (HDD). Bandwidth is an important criterion for a hard drive. There are 2 types of HDDs: SATA and SAS. Choose a hosting that uses a SAS server drive. Its bandwidth is up to 12 Gbps as compared to 6 Gbps from SATA.

* If it is required to use modern technologies when creating a website, the server must have modern software and the ability to update it:

* Server location.

* Number of sites on one disk; and

* Decent server bandwidth.

The bandwidth of a good server should be up to 12 Gbps, and the server response time should be no more than 0.2 seconds.

Uptime is the time of continuous server availability. It should be 100%. Even 99% means that the site is not available 3 days a year. Consequently, during this time, you are losing customers. You can check your indicator rating using UptimeRobot, but it can be used only for a working site. Most hosting service providers guarantee at least 99.9% uptime.

* Server stability – The higher this indicator, the more likely the site will load at the same speed at any time.

* Customer feedback and hosting ranking. – This is the most informative criterion. If you see a lot of negative reviews and low customer ratings, it is better to refuse from such a hoster.

Additionally, pay attention to the operating system the service runs on. Some of them require a special paid license for the service provider.

How many Types of virtual web hosting?

* UNIX/Linux-hosting: runs on a UNIX or Linux operating system.

Most ISPs use this type of operating system as many of them are free. But, the disadvantage is the lack of control by software developers over hosting service providers.

* Windows-hosting: functions on a server that runs on Windows Server 2016, 2008 R2, or 2012.

Hosting providers require a paid SPLA to use a Windows Server. In this case, the software that is supplied to customers must be licensed. When checking the web hosting ranking, pay attention to the company’s licenses

Comparing Google’s Cloud Hosting with Copahost

Photo: Viettel IDC

As a comparison, we’ll use Google’s and Copahost’s cheapest VPS offers.

At Copahost, you can get a VPS with 1GB of RAM, 1 vCPU and 20GB Disk Space for €3,59 per month. As opposed to Google’s $24+ per month pricing for their cheapest server. All of Copahost’s plans include a basic server management package, whereas Google’s plans don’t.

Google Web Hosting

Site owners can expect to pay roughly $50 per month for Google’s most basic cloud server, which comes with 2 vCPUs and 8GB of memory.

As a highly configurable cloud service, Google bills customers by the gigabyte of storage used. Last we checked, customers will spend $0.040 per month for standard disk space, $0.170 for high-speed SSD storage, and up to $0.340 for regionally optimized SSD space.

TechRepublic published a great breakdown of Google’s pricing when compared with AWS, which showed the former was cheaper by 15 to 41% a few years ago. Prices fluctuate pretty widely, so be sure to do your research when you’re ready to sign up.

All in all, Google fares pretty well when it comes to the war on price and performance among the big cloud providers — though it might not seem like it after learning about the cheaper alternatives above.

Are Google Domains Used for Website Hosting?

Not directly. Google Domains is only a domain registrar. You can buy a domain from Google Domains and get web hosting from any other provider. The pricing for .com domains at Google Domains is $12 per year. At Copahost, domain registrations are cheap. If you get a .com domain at Copahost, the pricing is $9 per year. You can also get it for free under certain conditions.

You don’t have to use Google Domains to use their website hosting (Compute Engine).