My partner currently has a very simple site hosted with 000webhost.com. It isn't a big traffic site, it's a local building business and it does the job. It does however drive me crazy with how restricted the online webpage builder is and I would love to try Wordpress to create something a bit more visually interesting that can incorporate a blog. Problem is, I don't want to pay for hosting while I just want to try wordpress out and get to grips with it. Don't judge me but I've spent more time attempting to install wordpress this last week than I want to admit and have gotten nowhere. This isn't a good sign. In your opinion, is it worth it to pay for hosting to I can get a nice one click install, or is the fact that I'm not hugely technically minded mean I'll have it installed but won't have a clue and be wasting my money? Might be worth mentioning I also want the current site to run as it is until at some point in the future when I am happy with the wordpress design and content. I have another account with a free hosting site that I was planning on using as I currently have no clue to how this web builder 000webhost one saves pages/directories or what have you. Saw a few old posts on the services bit here looking to pay someone to install wordpress for them pretty cheaply which is another idea. Any thoughts/suggestions?
In your case, if you want to get familiar with wordpress before you buy domain and webspace, you can install it in your local machine. 1. If you use mac, a video tutorial how to install wordpress in mac 2. Install wordpress in windows. What i would do is, if you plan to blog for a quite long time, get your domain and a host because you won't be worried that your account will get suspended plus, these sites sometimes very slow, or database maintenance. Of course you don't want to waste your time and work for this. I have tried those free sites, in the beginning they are working fine, wait until a few months
My initial thought to you is that free hosting sucks. It serves a purpose for some for a while, but you are expressing a desire to do something a little more grown up so it is time for you to graduate. You can get cheap hosting at a lot of companies, with c-panel, and Wordpress one click install (from what I have seen) for around $10 a month. It shouldn't take you hours to install Wordpress..it should take you about 5 minutes I know what you are saying and what you are doing..I see it all of the time...you don't want to commit yourself just in case you don't like it..well, excuse my expression but that is a crappy way to go about anything. You either want to learn it and build something nice, or you don't. If you half ass it, you will learn half assed methods, and create half assed stuff and never see what is truly possible with the platform. $10 a month is not a lot of money for the freedom of hosting your own site and if you are going to run Wordpress, I suggest NOT using a free host anyway as i am sure there are some limitations that are not desirable to building your site the way that you want to. The good thing about Wordpress is that there are tons of help articles, blogs, and forum members that know the platform and can help you with anything you run into, so you don't have to figure everything out by yourself. I suggest to roll up your sleeves, get yourself a cheap hosting account someplace reliable, get your installation done and start learning. There is a learning curve, but not so much that a novice can't self publish relatively easy.
Don't use free hosting. If you are serious about the site then show it. Payed hosting is 100x better than free hosting. The best Host I would recommend if HostGator. They also offer 1 click install scripts which will immediately provide you with WordPress like you asked
Yes, I would also recommend HostGator There are many free and cheap wordpress themes to make your site great.