NearlyFreeSpeech.net
Hacker ApprovedRanked 2 of 6 web hosts by recommenders
Cheap pay-as-you-go hosting for static sites and small domains, costing cents to a few dollars a month. Loyal users say it stays out of the way.
Cheap pay-as-you-go hosting for static sites and small domains, costing cents to a few dollars a month. Loyal users say it stays out of the way.
29 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 29
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 9 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Owned for 15 years
Median of the 3 owners who said how long they have had it.
Each square is one year.
Why it carries the badge
- 29 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 9 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Very low cost for small sites
“They have no history of abusing the trust users have placed on them, and service costs virtually nothing.”
Comment from 19 Jul 2026 in “Hardcore IndieWeb: Run your own website 100% independently for only $0.01/day” “Go give NearlyFreeSpeech or some other shared host a few cents every month and you'll be much happier.”
Comment from 22 May 2026 in “Blog ran on Ubuntu 16.04 for 10 years. I migrated it to FreeBSD” “An idle site that receives no hits still costs around $1.50/month with NearlyFreeSpeech.net”
Comment from 15 Nov 2025 in “Magit manuals are available online again” - Comment from 14 Nov 2025 in “Magit manuals are available online again”
- Comment from 22 Nov 2025 in “Personal blogs are back, should niche blogs be next?”
- Comment from 5 Nov 2025 in “I took all my projects off the cloud, saving thousands of dollars”
- Comment from 5 Sep 2026 in “Statichost.eu – European static site hosting”
- Comment from 15 Nov 2025 in “Magit manuals are available online again”
- Comment from 7 Aug 2026 in “99% of My Website Traffic Is Bots”
Long-term users stay loyal for years
“They have no history of abusing the trust users have placed on them, and service costs virtually nothing.”
Comment from 19 Jul 2026 in “Hardcore IndieWeb: Run your own website 100% independently for only $0.01/day” “I've used them exclusively since 2011 and it's been nothing but wonderful”
Comment from 18 Oct 2026 in “Namecheap just seized and disabled all my domains” “Been using them for over a decade and still love them.”
Comment from 18 Mar 2026 in “Have a Fucking Website” - Comment from 18 Oct 2026 in “Namecheap just seized and disabled all my domains”
Good for static files and PHP
“tossing your static files up on a host like NearlyFreeSpeech (or any other cheap/decent host) is the easiest”
Comment from 1 Dec 2025 in “Trifold is a tool to quickly and cheaply host static websites using a CDN” “You have access to php and a database there.”
Comment from 18 Jul 2026 in “Hardcore IndieWeb: Run your own website 100% independently for only $0.01/day” Simple, prepaid, stays out of way
“nearlyfreespeech.net is cheap and stays out of my way.”
Comment from 17 Aug 2026 in “Tell HN: GitHub Is Experiencing Degraded Performance” “I really like their astetic(pre pay, simple, no fluff)”
Comment from 18 Oct 2026 in “Namecheap just seized and disabled all my domains”
Other web hosts people recommend
The four most recommended other web hosts, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Neocities | 34 | 8 | 81% | 12 | — | Approved |
| NearlyFreeSpeech.netThis page | 29 | 0 | 100% | 9 | 15 yrs3 owners | Approved |
| DreamHost web hosting | 16 | 11 | 59% | 7 | 20 yrs10 owners | — |
| Mythic Beasts hosting | 8 | 2 | 80% | 3 | — | — |
| WP Engine | 6 | 12 | 33% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
23 of the 29 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“There's no way to setup automatic payments, which feels important as you have many domains.”
“I've used them exclusively since 2011 and it's been nothing but wonderful”
“I have only used NFSN as a registrar for two decades.”
“I really like their astetic(pre pay, simple, no fluff)”
“If not I'd go with nearlyfreespeech for $2ish per month.”
“nearlyfreespeech.net is cheap and stays out of my way.”
“So far it’s been less than $1”
“they are great if you are technically competent”
“So while it may shield you a bit, if you're moving from namecheap just to avoid PE then that may not be the most obvious choice.”
“I use them on https://www.nearlyfreespeech.net/ and they work well.”
“they are not EIG and I feel confident that were the targets of those two sites”
“They have no history of abusing the trust users have placed on them, and service costs virtually nothing.”
“Nearlyfreespeech is a great service though not a 100% independent as your still relying on them”
“You have access to php and a database there.”
“this looks great, almost exactly what I am looking for”
“Go give NearlyFreeSpeech or some other shared host a few cents every month and you'll be much happier.”
“Been using them for over a decade and still love them.”
“tossing your static files up on a host like NearlyFreeSpeech (or any other cheap/decent host) is the easiest”
“For static website hosting, NearlyFreeSpeech.NET is... well... nearly free.”
“it looks great and is reasonably priced”
“An idle site that receives no hits still costs around $1.50/month with NearlyFreeSpeech.net”
“If you are getting little traffic it costs practically nothing for a static site.”
“You could probably bring that down to 30 cents on nearlyfreespeech.net”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.