There are a few different ways to create a Hedera (HBAR) account. In the early days of Hedera, the only way was to go through the Hedera portal (portal.hedera.com). This is still a viable way to obtain an account and it is mainly used by developers. You will need to go through KYC, and it may take a couple hours to a few days for the verification to go through.
NOTE: The Hedera Portal is mostly for developers. If you are looking to just buy and hold HBAR please skip down to the next section.
Some of the other ways to get an account is to download a third-party wallet like Atomic, Exodus, Wallawallet, Ivy Wallet and many more. You can find an extensive list of wallets (and exchanges, brokers, and OTC desks) at www.hedera.com/guide.
The options I mentioned above work fine, but there is another way that may be more appealing to people which I will describe below.
Creating an Account with MyHbarWallet (No KYC)
In order to create an account using MyHbarWallet, you will need to a) be an account holder or b) know an account holder.
If you are going down the first path, then you will need to download a third-party wallet that will give you access to your private key. Two wallets that will give you access to your private key are Atomic and Exodus. I have created a guide here that will show you how to get a free account and give you access to your private key.
Creating an Account Using an Existing Account
MyHbarWallet is a free and open source project which allow users to access their Hedera account. Here is an excerpt from the home page:
MyHbarWallet is a free, client-side interface helping you interact with Hedera™ Hashgraph. Our easy-to-use, open-source platform allows you to generate keys, create accounts, transfer hbars, and so much more.
First thing you need to do is click the Create New Account.
Next thing is to click Software.
Next select Mnemonic Phrase and hit continue.
Now you should see your mnemonic phrase. This is your password. DO NOT LOSE THIS. I can’t stress enough that this is a very important list of words and if you lose or forget this list, you will lose your account and any hbar or tokens (HTS) within it. Please write this phrase down on paper and store it somewhere safe. You can also select password at the bottom. This is an added measure of security. If you choose this option, you should also keep this in a safe place with you mnemonic phrase. You will still need both.
After this you will need to verify your phrase. You can type the word and tab to the next. Once all the words are in hit Verify.
Now you have a public key. The public key will be used to assign you an Account ID (0.0.XXXXX).
Okay, now before you can continue you will need an Account ID. I’m going to transition over to what this will look like from the point of view from the existing account holder. I’m going to assume that you or someone you know has already logged into MyHbarWallet. If you need an account please follow this guide on how to get a free account from either Atomic or Exodus. The picture below shows you what it would look like when logged into MyHbarWallet. To get to Create Account, go to Tools > Create Account
Once the account holder inputs an initial balance (it can be 0 hbar, but there is a small fee for creating an account. There will need to be a small amount of hbar in this account for this to work) and the public key, they will be prompted to confirm. After they confirm the creation they will be given an Account ID.
Now let’s we switch back to the perspective of creating a new account. The existing account holder has gone through the process of creating an account on their end, and has been assigned a valid Account ID. This will be your new Account ID. It will be in the format of 0.0.XXXXX.
Congratulations🎉 you have created a new account! The sky's the limit to the amount of accounts you can create. Just remember there is a small fee associated each time you that you create a new account. Don’t forget that. you need to go through the entire account creation process over again. You can only have account ID per public key. In the future, there will also be a renewal fee for each account, but that is for another time.