# How to host a website without a domain > You do not need to buy a domain to put a site online. Here is what a free subdomain gives you, what it costs you, and when to upgrade. Source: https://cwp.sg/guides/how-to-host-a-website/without-a-domain/ Author: Ben Johnson Last verified: 2026-09-21 **In short:** - Your free CWP subdomain is a live, public website address, not a temporary test link. - Email sent from your free subdomain will be blocked by most providers, so you cannot use it for business mail. - Shared subdomains get blocked by filters, making your site unreliable for anything professional or commercial. - You can keep your subdomain as a redirect when you buy your own domain, so old links still work. You do not need to buy a domain to put a site online. Every free hosting account on CWP includes a subdomain that works as a real address. This page explains what a subdomain is, what it cannot do, and what happens when you later buy your own domain. ## What a subdomain actually is A domain is a name you rent, like `your-name.com`. A subdomain is a prefix added to the front of an existing domain. On CWP free hosting your site gets an address like `your-account.cwpfree.com`. The `your-account` part is the subdomain and `cwpfree.com` is the domain it lives under. The full address works everywhere a normal domain does. Anyone with an internet connection can type it into a browser and reach your site. Search engines index it. You can share it in emails, on social media, or on printed materials. It is not a temporary test link — it is a live URL. The difference is that you do not own the `cwpfree.com` part. Someone else does. That matters for a few things below. Before you go further, it helps to understand [what a host does](/guides/how-to-host-a-website/what-is-web-hosting/). The subdomain is the address, but the hosting account is where your files actually live. ## The reputation problem Free hosting suffixes get abused. People use them for spam landing pages, phishing forms, and junk ads. Because the same suffix is shared by thousands of accounts, some corporate firewalls, email spam filters, and school networks block the entire suffix. Your site is clean, but it shares an address with strangers who are not. This matters most if you plan to send people to your site through email newsletters or take payments. A blocked address loses visitors. For a personal hobby site or a test project this is usually fine. For anything business-related it is risky. ## You cannot have email on it Outbound email is blocked on CWP free hosting. That means you cannot send mail from `@your-account.cwpfree.com` — not through the server and not through a separate email service pointing to that address. You can receive mail on a free provider like Gmail, but the sending side will not work. If you need email on your domain, you must buy your own domain and use a paid hosting account or a dedicated email service. ## Moving to your own domain later When you do buy a domain, you can [point a domain to your host](/guides/how-to-host-a-website/point-a-domain-to-your-host/) and serve the same site on your new address. You will then have two active addresses: your subdomain and your new domain. The subdomain still works. You can keep it online as a redirect so anyone who visits the old address gets forwarded to the new one. Redirects prevent broken links. If you shared your subdomain on a forum or printed it on a flyer, those links keep working. Setting up a redirect requires changing the site files or using a server rule — something the CWP control panel supports. If you ever check whether your new domain is resolving correctly, you can use the [DNS propagation checker](/tools/dns-propagation-checker/) to see which servers have picked it up. A common error during this step is the [DNS probe finished NXDOMAIN](/errors/dns-probe-finished-nxdomain/) message, which means your new domain is not yet pointing to the right server. That is normal during propagation and usually resolves within a few hours. ## What you can build with a subdomain A subdomain is fine for many things. Personal blogs, portfolios, project showcases, and test sites all work well. You can install WordPress, Joomla, or other software through Softaculous with one click. The site loads over HTTPS automatically. You get 1 GB of storage and 30,000 files, which is enough for a small site with images and text. The main limits are reputation and email. If your site is for friends and family, those limits do not matter. If you are building something for customers, buy a domain when you can. ## When to buy a domain Buy a domain when you want to control the full address. A domain costs a small yearly fee from a registrar. Once you own it, you can move it between hosts. You can set up email on it. You can build a brand around it. The subdomain stays online as a redirect, so nobody loses their way. The decision is simple. If you need a site today and have no domain, use the subdomain. If you need email or a clean address for a business, buy a domain. You can start with the subdomain and switch later without losing anything. --- Content Website Platform (cwp.sg) operates the free hosting it writes about; see https://cwp.sg/about/ for the methodology and the commercial disclosure.