"Free Framer hosting" and "self-hosting a Framer site for free" are two different questions, and mixing them up is where a lot of confusion starts.
Framer's own free tier
Framer does offer a free plan, but it comes with real constraints most business sites outgrow fast: a Framer-branded subdomain (not your own domain), the "Made in Framer" badge, and limits on CMS items and traffic. A custom domain alone requires a paid plan. So "free Framer hosting" in practice means "free until you need a domain," which is almost immediately.
What self-hosting actually means here
Self-hosting means the exported output of your Framer site (HTML/CSS/JS, or a Next.js project) lives on infrastructure you control — not Framer's servers at all. Once exported, genuinely free hosting options include:
- Vercel's free tier — generous for a typical marketing site, supports both static and Next.js exports, custom domains included.
- Netlify's free tier — comparable limits, especially strong for pure static HTML.
- Cloudflare Pages — also free at reasonable traffic levels, with Cloudflare's CDN built in.
- GitHub Pages — free, static-only, no serverless functions, fine for a simple site with no forms/dynamic backend needs.
All four support a custom domain on their free tier — the constraint that made Framer's free plan impractical (no custom domain) doesn't apply once you've exported.
The real cost that doesn't disappear
Your domain registration itself (typically $10–15/year) is a cost regardless of which hosting path you take — that's not a Framer-specific expense, every website has it. Beyond that, a self-hosted export genuinely can run at $0/month indefinitely for a typical low-to-moderate traffic site, which is the actual answer to "can I self-host for free": yes, once you're off Framer's hosting entirely, not before.
The one thing to plan for: if your site uses Framer's CMS and you want ongoing content updates without re-exporting, that's a separate consideration — see our guide on what happens to CMS collections after export.