Thanks to various factors, web hosting providers can now offer more for less. This means more flexibility and choice for consumers like you and me.
Today most shared hosting plans are cheaper than $5 per month. For those who are new or runing simple sites with low resource demands – a cheap shared hosting is an ideal launch point.
Our team at WHSR has tested more than 70 hosting companies and studied the pricing of 1,000 web hosting plans. Here's a quick breakdown on your best choices in low-cost web hosting.
| Web Host | Cheapest Plan | Free Domain |
|---|---|---|
 Hostinger | $1.99/mo | No |
 InterServer | $2.50/mo | No |
 A2 Hosting | $2.99/mo | No |
 GreenGeeks | $2.95/mo | Yes |
 TMD Hosting | $2.95/mo | Yes |
 InMotion Hosting | $2.29/mo | Yes |
 ScalaHosting | $3.95/mo | Yes |
 BlueHost | $2.95/mo | Yes |
 HostPapa | $2.95/mo | Yes |
We will look into each of these cheap hosting providers below.
1. Hostinger
Cheapest plan signup at: $1.99 per month
Hostinger Plans
Hostinger offers a wide variety of hosting solutions, ranging from the advanced with VPS cloud hosting plans to beginners who just want to get started with a cheap shared hosting.
Hostinger's cheapest plan – “Single” is priced at $1.99 per month. At the price of slightly more than a dollar, you get to host 1 website with 30 GB SSD disk space and 100 GB bandwidth – which is adequate for about 10,000 visits monthly.
For higher tier shared hosting – Premium ($2.99 per month ) and Business Plan ($4.99 per month ), you'll get more storage space, bigger site hosting capacity, innovative features like advance cron jobs, GIT access, free Google Adwords credits, unlimited databases, and free dedicated SSL – stuffs that you don't usually get from a budget hosting plan.
Read our full review on Hostinger hosting
Best Cheap Hosting Solution?
As mentioned in my Hostinger review – I think Hostinger is a great choice for those who are looking one-stop cheap hosting solution – in particular newbies who are just starting out.
Hostinger does bring a lot to the table – from fantastic pricing to a wide range of server locations and excellent customer supports. These advantages do come at some sacrifice though – such as the lack of migration assistance and some minor SSL headaches. Of course, you’ll also have to content with plan renewal price hikes, but that’s quite typical with low cost hosting providers.
Pros
- Solid hosting uptime – Uptime > 99.98%
- Reasonable speed performance, server responses in 200ms – 400ms range
- Flexible hosting options – Host with different types of hosting and control panels
- Heavy discount during signup, “Single” plan start at just $1.99 per month
- All shared plans optimized for best WordPress performance (LSCWP)
- Newbie-friendly: Smooth on-boarding process & easy to use hPanel
- Choices of data centers in three continents
- Wide range of payment options including PayPal, Google Pay, and crypto currencies
Cons
- Web hosting prices increase after first term
- Minor headaches with free SSL installation
- Lack of site migration assistance
2. InterServer Hosting
Cheapest plan signup at: $2.50 per month
Interserver Hosting Plans
Self-deemed a easy-to-use cheap hosting provider, InterServer specializes in shared, VPS, dedicated, and co-location hosting solutions.
Interservers offer all-in-one shared hosting at very cheap price – $2.50 per month cheap to be exact. Included in this is rock-solid server performance, unlimited site hosting, LiteSpeed-powered server, free weekly backups, cron jobs support, and excellent in-house technical support.
What I Think of Interserver
I started using InterServer since 2013 and visited the company HQ at Secaucus, New Jersey in 2016. Two things I like the most about InterServer's cheap hosting plan:
- You don't have to subscribe for long term to enjoy Interserver's discounted price – InterServer shared hosting plans is priced at $5 per month for 12 months subscription and $2.50 for 1 months subscription, and
- They allow users to host unlimited domains at their budget plan (most budget plans we discuss in this article allow only one domain per account)
These two factors made InterServer the easy choice when you plan to host multiple (low traffic) websites in one account.
You can learn more in my detail InterServer review here.
Pros
- Rock solid web hosting performance, uptime above 99.98% based on our record
- One year lock-in period only – $5/mo when you signup for a year and renew at $7/mo after
- Technical support 100% done in-house
- Attractive pricing – Host unlimited domains and email accounts
- Free site migration for all new customers
- InterShield Security – Interserver's in-house developed security solution included free in all budget plans
- Company founded and lead by two good friends – Michael Lavrik and John Quaglieri; Over 20 years of proven business track record.
Cons
- Does not provide free domain name (additional cost of $15/year)
- Server location in United States only – the company build and run their own data center in New Jersey.
3. A2 Hosting
Cheapest plan signup at: $2.99 per month
A2 Hosting Plans
A2 Hosting is fast, reliable, and cheap. Their shared hosting comes in three flavors – Lite, Swift, and Turbo.
Lite, the cheapest plan of all, allows users to host 1 website, 5 databases, and 25 email accounts.
You wouldn't know Lite is a budget plan by looking at its features: Full SSD storage, SSH access, Rsync, FTP / FTPS, Git and CVS ready, Node.js and Cron support, and pre-configured for best WordPress performance (using in-house built WP plugin – A2 Optimized). All these for $2.99 a month.
Learn more, read my A2 Hosting full review
Is A2 Hosting Good?
Pros
- Excellent web hosting uptime and speed
- Well optimized for best speed performance including the latest NVMe storage
- Risk free – Anytime money back guarantee
- Entry level plans (Lite) packed with all necessary features to host a business website
- Free website migration for first-time users
- Choice of server locations in North America, Europe, and Asia
- Plenty of room to grow – users get to upgrade their servers to VPS, cloud, and dedicated hosting
- Specialized shared platform for web developers
Cons
- Site migration is chargeable during downgrade
- Turbo plan does not support Ruby / Python
- Web hosting prices increase after first term
4. GreenGeeks
Cheapest plan signup at: $2.95 per month
GreenGeeks Hosting Plans
Founded in 2006 by Trey Gardner, GreenGeeks has benefited from his extensive experience in several large hosting companies. Today, Trey and his experienced core team of professionals have built GreenGeeks into a healthy, stable and competitive company.
The company’s roots lie in North America and has served over 35,000 customers with more than 300,000 websites. As an eco-friendly company, it has dedicated itself to leaving a positive energy footprint and replaces used energy with triple the energy credits that are used.
But that's not all – On top of being environmental friendly, GreenGeeks is also very budget friendly. Their all-in-one, 300% green shared hosting plan costs $2.49 per monthduring signup.
Here's a quick view on their pros and cons – you can also learn more in Timothy's GreenGeeks review.
Our Take on GreenGeeks
Pros
- Environmental friendly – 300% green hosting (industry’s top)
- Excellent hosting speed – rated A and above in all speed test
- More than 15 years of proven business track record
- Free domain name for first year
- Free site migration for new customers
- Well worth the money – $2.49 to host one website with unlimited storage plus easy SSL setup
Cons
- Our test site goes below 99.9% uptime in March / April 2018.
- A non-refundable $15 setup fee is charged during purchase.
- Price increases to $10.95/mo after first term.
5. TMD Hosting
Cheapest plan signup at: $2.95 per month
For first time customers, TMD shared plan starts at $2.95 per month – a 60% price cut from the standard renewal price. The company has been around for over 10 years and has four data centers spread across the United States and an overseas data center in Amsterdam.
We’ve recently were given a free account by TMDHosting so we decided to put the hosting provider to the test. Turn out – the budget host is not bad at all.
Read our full TMD Hosting review
TMD Hosting Pros & Cons
Here's what I like and dislike about TMD Hosting.
Pros
- Great web hosting performance
- Clear guidelines on server limitation
- 60 day money back guarantee
- Additional 7% discount for new signups – use coupon code “WHSR”
- Excellent customer supports
- Selection of six hosting locations – Phoenix, Chicago (US), London (UK), Amsterdam (NL), Singapore, Tokyo (JP), and Sydney (AU)
Cons
- Auto backup feature can be better
- Prices hike after first term
* Note: Use promo code “WHSR” to enjoy an additional 7% discount when you order TMD Hosting.
6. InMotion Hosting
Cheapest hosting package signup at: $2.29 per month
InMotion Hosting Plans
InMotion Hosting is old-school, reliable, features-rich, and affordable.
Their cheapest shared server hosting plan – named “Core”, starts at $2.29 per month. It allows users to host two websites and comes with a free domain, SSH access, PHP 7 support, site backup and restore, full support in Cron and Ruby, 10email addresses. unlimited server bandwidth, as well as hack & malware protection. What's more – if you are a new users, folks at InMotion will help migrate your site for free.
Admittedly, InMotion Hosting does not offer the cheapest price in town, but they are the best hosting provider in overall based on my experience. I use InMotion Hosting personally and have collected years of record in InMotion Hosting uptime and speed test.
To find out more, please check out my full review on InMotion Hosting
Is InMotion Hosting A Good Pick?
Pros
- Solid server performance, uptime >99.95% TTFB ~400ms
- Great product range – upgrade to VPS or dedicated plans in future
- Free domain name for first year
- Free (and auto installed) SSL in all shared plans
- Good live chat and email support
- Free site migration for first time customers
- Entry level plans (Lite and Launch) packed with all necessary features to host a business website
- 90 days money back guarantee (industry's #1)
Cons
- Hosting prices increase during renewal
- Choice of server locations in United States only
- Launch plan costs extra but allow to host 2 websites only – not suitable for users with many websites
7. ScalaHosting
Cheapest hosting package signup at: $3.95 per month
ScalaHosting Plans
Starting at a highly reasonably price of $3.95, $5.95, and $9.95 per month, ScalaHosting has a lot to offer in their low-cost shared hosting plans. Although it keeps true to the low-cost-hosting concept of most hosting providers, elsewhere it is generous. If you’re a newbie to website hosting this is an excellent place to start.
Scala's cheapest plan – Mini, costs $3.95 per month when you signup for 3 years. At this price, ScalaHosting gives all new users unlimited email accounts & databases, free website migration, domain name, and SSL. This alone would make it an extremely strong value-for-money proposition. Also included is a software installer, 7-day cycle of automated backups, and more.
Most importantly, there is a lot of room to grow at ScalaHosting. From their range of shared hosting plans, you can move on to their excellent managed Cloud hosting plans as your website grows. The key differentiator of Scala's VPS plans against others is that they offer users the benefits of using SPanel on Digital Ocean or Amazon AWS cloud infrastructure. This makes for much better cost-effectiveness if you take into consideration that you’re on a managed plan.
To learn more, read my full ScalaHosting review
ScalaHosting – Not that Cheap but Really Good
Some of what I like and dislike about ScalaHosting include:
Pros
- Excellent starting prices with guaranteed 1x CPU power and 50 GB storage
- Free domain name for first year (save ~$15 a year)
- Free SSL certificate for all websites in budget plans
- Automated daily backup and data restoration for 7 days
- Cloud hosting powered by Digital Ocean and Amazon AWS infrastructure
- Full range of hosting solution for upgrade – VPS, Dedicated and Managed WP plan
Cons
- Prices increase after first term – Plans renew at range of $6.95/mo – $13.95/mo
8. BlueHost
Cheapest signup at: $2.95 per month
Bluehost entered the web hosting market in 2003 and has been going strong since then. The Provo, Utah based company is well-recognized today and hosts over two million websites.
Unlike many other companies in today's hosting space, Bluehost does not officially disclose where their servers are hosted. Aside from a likely presence in Utah, little is really known and there are no options to select a location on sign-up.
Support is available via live chat, phone, and a ticketing system. Should you need more specialized assistance, Bluehost also has marketing consultants who can work with you on your needs.
Learn more in my full BlueHost review
BlueHost – Most Popular Cheap Hosting Choice
Pros
- Excellent server performance based on my track record
- Well recognized brands in hosting industry
- Popular choice among bloggers – officially recommended by WordPress.org
- Comprehensive self-help documents and video tutorials
- Great for newbies – Helpful get-started emails when you signup
- Flexibility – Upgrade to VPS and dedicated hosting later
- Newbie-friendly: Smooth on-boarding process
Cons
- Prices jump to $7.99/mo when renewal
- Unlimited hosting limited by other constraints
- Users can only host their sites in United States
9. HostPapa
Cheapest hosting package signup at: $3.95 per month
HostPapa Hosting Plans
HostPapa is founded in 2006 by by Jamie Opalchuk. Headquartered in Ontario, Canada – HostPapa is a popular names in some regions including Australia, Canada, and United States.
HostPapa cheapest hosting plan (named “Starter”) starts at $3.95 a month. For that price, you'll get a free domain, 100GB full SSD storage, and hosting capacity to host two websites and 100 email accounts. Higher-tier “Business” plan comes with better server power and more essential features and costs the same during signup ($3.95 per month); but it is pricier during renewal ($14.99 vs $9.99 per month).
We have been tracking HostPapa cheap web hosting services since mid 2017. You can learn more about my experience in this detail HostPapa review.
Is HostPapa Low Cost Hosting Good?
In brief here's what I like about HostPapa's shared hosting plan –
Pros
- Good server uptime performance, hosting uptime > 99.98%
- Free domain name on signup – Save ~$15 (domain registration fee)
- Reputable company with good business track record (BBB Accredited Business with A+ rating)
- Helpful live chat support based on my experience
- Eco-friendly hosting – Reduce your carbon footprint
Cons
- Lack of options in server locations (host in Canada only)
- Very expensive VPS hosting packages – Not recommended to upgrade
- Expensive renewal fees – Starter Plan costs $9.99/mo after first term, Business Plan costs $14.99/mo after first term, both are 100% – 150% more expensive compare to others
10. FastComet
Cheapest plan signup at: $2.95 per month
FastComet Hosting Plans
FastComet is a rare gem in the hosting world. With a long list of useful features and low price tags – the hosting company is suitable for both newbies and advanced users.
A test site was setup at FastComet in early 2018 and we tracked their server performance for over a year. You can check out the results we got in this detail FastComet review.
FastComet cheapest hosting plan is incredibly low price at signup. FastCloud – their entry plan, costs only $2.95 per month at signup. The plan comes with 15 GB SSD disk space, malware scan and report, free network firewall, SSH access, and daily backup.
FastComet Pros & Cons
Here's what I like and dislike about FastComet in a nutshell.
Pros
- Solid server uptime results based on our tracking
- Choice of 10 server locations
- Generous server resources offer – Lowest plan able to accommodate up to 25,000 visits per month
- Secured hosting environment with auto malware scanning
- Daily backup included in all shared plans
- Excellent live chat support based on my study on hosting company live chat system
- 45 days money back guarantee
Cons
- Broke its price lock guarantee back in 2017
- Only 7 days trial for Cloud Hosting users
- Private DNS not available for FastCloud users
- Lack of caching mechanism for cheaper shared hosting plans
* Note: FastComet have adjusted their pricings multiple times in the past. For best accuracy, please check prices at FastComet.com.
What is Cheap Web Hosting?
A cheap web hosting usually refers to shared hosting that cost less than $5 per month during signup and not more than $10 per month after first term.
Hosting prices have changed drastically over the last 10 – 15 years. In early 2000, a $8.95 per month package with basic features was considered cheap. Then the price dropped to $7.95, then $6.95, $5.95 per month, and then even lower in 2022.
When I first created this cheap hosting guide – I was making a list of hosting deals below $10/month. But that is no longer relevant in today's web hosting market. If you look at some of the lowest-priced offers I hand-picked above – you'll notice that today, some shared server hosting cost less than $3 per month.
What is the “Cheapest Plan” available in market?
The cheapest way to host a website is by hosting it on a free web host. Although relatively rare, there are free web hosting offers like 000Webhost that come with subdomains (ie. mydomain.000webhost.com) that you can use to create and run a website for zero cost.
There are, however, various limitations and risks involved with free hosting – if you can afford to pay , I strongly recommend to you to go with an affordable web hosting provider listed on this page instead.
Generally Speaking, How Much Should I Pay for a Cheap Web Host?
Based on our recent hosting market study, you should expect to pay not more than $7.50 per month for a Cheap Web Host. Table below shows the signup prices for the (first) 50 shared hosting plans we collected in our study. You'll see that most budget hosting deals are well below $3 per month during signup.
| Web Hosting Companies | Entry Plan (Host One Website) | Mid-Plan (Multiple Sites) |
|---|---|---|
| 000Webhost | $0.00 | $1.99 |
| 101Domain | $6.94 | $11.94 |
| 1Bx.Host | $0.02 | $3.35 |
| 2Gbhosting | $0.83 | $3.13 |
| A2Hosting | $2.99 | $5.99 |
| Abelohost | $6.07 | $10.13 |
| Accuwebhosting | $3.99 | $5.99 |
| Activeservers | $0.69 | $1.34 |
| Afrihost | $2.93 | $3.53 |
| Agm Web Hosting | $0.58 | $1.17 |
| Alchosting | $0.00 | $3.99 |
| Alexhost | $0.76 | $2.26 |
| Alfahosting Gmbh | $4.06 | $7.12 |
| All Inkl | $0.00 | $0.00 |
| All Server Solution | $2.50 | $7.90 |
| Altushost B.V. | $5.66 | $9.73 |
| Ambitionhost | $1.24 | $2.12 |
| Aplexhost | $5.95 | $10.95 |
| Aplus | $5.99 | $16.99 |
| Argeweb | $1.01 | $1.01 |
| Arsys Es | $3.07 | $4.09 |
| Artehosting | $2.40 | $11.20 |
| Arzhost | $0.99 | $2.43 |
| Asphostportal | $0.99 | $3.81 |
| Aspnix | $5.00 | $10.00 |
| Asrhost | $3.95 | $7.95 |
| Atozserver | $0.52 | $1.02 |
| Atspace.Com | $0.08 | $2.99 |
| Avalon | $3.94 | $6.62 |
| Awardspace | $0.25 | $4.57 |
| Axarnet | $3.38 | $8.11 |
| Axxess | $2.87 | $3.45 |
| Bacloud | $1.52 | $3.46 |
| Banahosting | $4.46 | $6.26 |
| Bdix Web Hosting | $0.78 | $1.26 |
| Best-Hoster.Ru | $1.11 | $2.23 |
| Beta Host Limited | $1.30 | $2.81 |
| Bhost | $3.04 | $4.26 |
| Bingloft | $1.75 | $1.99 |
| Biz Nf | $0.00 | $4.95 |
| Blacknight | $3.40 | $7.66 |
| Blazing Fast Host | $3.55 | $7.18 |
| Blue Geek Hosting | $0.75 | $1.50 |
| Blue Web | $3.84 | $4.04 |
| Bluesteam | $2.44 | $5.87 |
| Brinkster | $4.99 | $6.99 |
| Brixly Web Solutions | $1.22 | $1.22 |
| Caisc | $0.74 | $2.51 |
| Canspace Solutions | $3.99 | $7.99 |
| Cdmon | $5.11 | $11.25 |
For full data table, please visit our Web Host Pricing Study.
Should I Consider Using A Free Web Host Instead?
Free hosting is generally not suitable for long term use unless you're intending to run a very basic, low traffic volume website. Most websites will require more resources as they grow and it is not likely that free hosting will be able to accommodate that growth.
If you must – here's our list of recommended free web hosting.
How Does Unlimited Storage & Bandwidth Work?
Technically it's impossible for any company to offers unlimited disk storage or unlimited bandwidth to its users. However, no-limit hosting plans are very popular – mainly because it reduces the cost of hosting multiple sites significantly.
Here's how “Unlimited Hosting” works:
Large hosting companies normally own incomprehensible amounts of hosting capacity (bandwidth pipes, computer servers, manpower… etc) that would never be exceeded by a single website. At the same time, most websites need only very few resources to run daily, such as the average corporate website. Seeing that most resources in their servers remain unused, the hosting companies (that offer unlimited hosting) therefore have the ability to just re-sell those unused hosting capacities (aka overselling).
Here are five unlimited hosting providers we recommend.
How does Money-Back Guarantee Work?
Almost every web hosting company includes some kind of money-back guarantee to give users a chance to experience the host first-hand before committing. The time periods for money-back guarantees varies for different companies – some offer just 14 days trial period while some goes all the way to 90 days.
If you ask for your money to be returned a refund during the money-back guarantee period, you should be able to see your full payment returned – though the refund process is not always easy with some web hosting companies.
Criteria for Choosing an Affordable Web Hosting
Cheap price tag matter but there are also a number of factors we consider when selecting a company into our Cheap Web Hosting list. Here are the crucial factors (other than cheap pricing) we look into.
1. Server Performance
A web hosting – regardless of its pricing, should comes with sufficient server resources to keep your site “up” at all times.
A slow and often “down” hosting affects your website user experience and Google rankings badly. This is why we emphasize so much on server uptime and response rate in our hosting reviews. No one should host their sites on a slow and unstable web host.
Some budget hosting companies tend to overload their capacity and host way too many websites in one server and this often lead to slow server response rate and frequent hosting down time.
When searching for a cheap hosting plan – we look for providers that guarantee at least 99.9% hosting uptime and show reliable uptime in our server tests.
Pro Tips:
When you have signed up to a new hosting account, make sure you:
- Track your site uptime with a third party tool like Uptime Robot or Status Cake.
- Test your server response rate (by looking at time-to-first-byte readings) using Webpage Test or Bitcatcha.
If your host performs badly – make sure you ask for a refund and switch to another hosting service.
2. Essential Hosting Features
Cheap or not – your web hosting plan should comes with all the essential features that are needed to run your websites. This includes (but not limited to) basic server maintenance features, email hosting solution, easy installer for popular scripts, latest version of PHP and MySQL, after sales technical support, 99.9% server uptime, good customer support, and reasonable hosting speed.
Some companies – though their plans are cheap – also provide regular server backup, auto malware scanning, and dedicated IP address. These features are nice to have but they are like “bonus”. I can totally understand if budget hosting companies are charging users extra for malware scanning or backup-and-restore feature.
Which Web Hosts Support Free SSL Certificate?
Despite an increasing focus on web security, not all web hosting companies are willing to provide free SSL for customers. This provision can easily be made thanks to non-profits like Let’s Encrypt being willing to provide free SSL certificates.
While users can still install free SSL certificate on their own, the process can be challenging without tools provided by hosting companies. To avoid this problem, you can signup with hosting companies that offer free SSL certificate support like GreenGeeks and A2 Hosting.
3. Options to Upgrade
All companies selected in my Cheap Hosting List offers a wide range of different hosting solutions.
There are different types of hosting services: Shared Server, Virtual Private Server (VPS), Dedicated, and Cloud Hosting. Each of these hosting types come with their advantages and disadvantages.
Shared Hosting
In shared hosting, one’s web site is placed on the same server as many other sites, ranging from a few to hundreds or thousands. Typically, all domains may share a common pool of server resources, such as RAM and the CPU.
Shared hosting offers no root access and has very limited ability to handle high traffic levels or spikes. Also, website performance can be easily affected by other sites on the same server.
VPS Hosting
A virtual private server hosting divides a server into virtual servers, where each websites is like hosted on their own dedicated server, but they’re actually sharing a server with a few different other users.
VPS hosting offers fixed amount of server resources, hence websites hosted on VPS hosting might have trouble handling sudden traffic spikes.
Dedicated Hosting
A dedicated server offers the maximum control over the web server your website is stored on – You exclusively rent an entire server. Your website(s) is the only website stored on the server.
Dedicated servers are very expensive and it’s only recommended to those who need the maximum control and better server performance.
Cloud Hosting
Cloud hosting offers unlimited ability to handle high traffic or traffic spikes. Here’s how it works: A team of servers (called a cloud) work together to host a group of websites. This allows multiple computers to work together to handle high traffic levels or spikes for any particular website.
Many cloud hosting setup do not offers root access (required to change server settings and install some software); expert IT skills needed to manage true cloud servers.
WordPress Hosting?
A WordPress hosting is a web host that accommodate websites that are built with WordPress.
Technically there's no such thing as “WordPress Hosting”. Any web server that support PHP 7.4 (or higher) and MySQL 5.7 (or higher) is capable hosting a WordPress site, as per the official requirement recommendations. Any conventional shared hosting that support one-click WordPress installation and offer WordPress development tools (such as WordPress staging and caching) can be a good host for your WordPress site.
Which Hosting Type is Right for You?
For beginners, it is best to host your new website on a Shared Server Hosting – they are usually the cheapest and easy to maintain. However as your website grows, you might need higher grade server hosting (VPS, Dedicated, Cloud, etc) in future. Hosting your websites with a provider that offer the full range solution will reduce the hassles to upgrade later.
4. Customer Support
To cut operation costs, some cheap hosting companies run on outsourced customer support team and often fail to support their customers swiftly. The slow response times are not always due to a lack of caring. In some cases, cheap hosts simply don’t have enough technical staff members to attend to customers' support requests.
Sadly, there is not much we can do with a hosting company that runs on poor after-sales support.
For newbies who need extra support, it is best to avoid hosting companies with bad support. Talk with the support department before you place your order, ask related technical questions (such as inodes limits, CPU cycles, Ruby on Rails, etc) and judge their quality based on the responses.
Learn more about web hosting customer support in this article.
5. Hidden Fees & Charges
Some cheap web hosting providers have suspicious business practices and unclear terms and conditions.
To avoid cheap hosting companies with questionable pricing policy, you are recommended to read Terms of Services (ToS) and check out genuine hosting reviews before purchase.
One way to quickly learn about a company's ToS is by visiting the host’s ToS page, press Ctrl + F, search for keyword like ‘cancellation’ and ‘refund’ and find out if the company has clear cancellation and refund policy. Some web hosting companies may charge $20 – $30 for domain registration and SSL certificate fees during cancellation – which is acceptable; but anything more than that is a no-go.
What is the Difference Between Website Builder and Web Hosting?
A Website Builder offers one-stop solution to create and host your website without any coding experience. You can just buy a domain name, connect it to the Website Builder platform, pick a ready-made template, and your website is good to go.
However a Website Builder comes with a few disadvantages:
Expensive
Website Builders usually cost 100% – 250% more than traditional shared hosting services. For example, Wix Unlimited – equivalent to Hostinger's Premium Plan, cost $12.50 per month; similar plan at Weebly costs $12 per month.
Limited customization/flexibility
Using a website builder means you’re limited to what the provider has to offer. You might want a certain template for your website but if the website builder doesn’t support it, you’ll have to choose something else.
Dependence on one provider
If the provider closes down, then your site goes down it. Ideally, the website builder that you opt for will remain in the long run. Also some providers do not allow their users to move their websites away.
Data location
When you go for website builders, you won’t have control over the location of the data. It’s up to the providers where they choose to store information. A good web hosting provider, on the other, usually runs their operations from multiple data centers in different locations.
Final Thoughts: Look Beyond the Price Tags
The cheapest hosting deal might not be the best for you. Also, “best” is always a relative term. There is never a fixed solution to one's web hosting needs.
When searching for a cheap hosting, your ultimate goal should be finding the Cheap Web Hosting that is best for your websites. To achieve this goal, you need to understand clearly what you need from your web host.
- What kind of website are you building?
- Do you want something common ?
- Do you need Windows applications?
- Do you need a special version of software (ie. PHP)?
- Does your website need special software?
- How big (or small) can the web traffic volume go?
- What is your 12 (or 24) months budget for the website?
- How much of this money should go into hosting?
If you are totally new:
- Pick a web hosting plan that you can afford for at least 2 years. Your site / blog may not make any money at all, particularly at first, so you want to be sure you don’t have to shut the blog down because of lack of funds.
- You don't need expensive premium web hosting for now. An affordable shared hosting company should be good enough for now. Just remember to check about space limitations and server uptime.
- Right now you should focus on building useful content and growing your community. You should spend more on marketing and content. Get a good newsletter service and start building your email list, start social media marketing ads, get in touch with local bloggers and hire them to promote your blog, etc.
- Ask questions about customer support and if they will help you understand running a website because you are new to blogging.
For Seasoned Bloggers and Webmasters:
- As part of your job now is to make sure your readers can navigate smoothly within your site/blog. You need a very reliable and fast web host.
- You should track your site uptime and response speed with tools like Pingdom and Uptime Robot.
- Monitor your blog memory usage and know your limit – once your blog hits 80% of the allocated memory (this the usual bottleneck you’ll first bump into with shared hosting), then it’s time to consider upgrading to VPS or cloud hosting.
FAQs about Cheap Web Hosting
A “cheap web hosting” usually refers to shared server hosting that cost less than $10 per month. Based on our market study on 500 shared hosting deals, you should expect to pay not more than $7.50 per month when signing up for a cheap shared hosting.
Google, hosting review sites, or web hosting forums are some of the common places where you can find great cheap hosting deals. When searching for a cheap web host, your ultimate focus should be finding the low-cost hosting solution that fits your website. To achieve this goal, you need to understand clearly what you need from your web host.
There are many reasons why some hosting plans are so cheap:
1. Some hosting plans are cheap simply because only few critical features are offered, or
2. Some companies run on outsourced customer support team to cut operation costs (and often fail to support their customers swiftly), or
3. Some companies pack lots of accounts on to one server (overselling), or
4. Some companies have accumulated a very large customer base and achieved economy of scale, or
5. Some companies run their own hardware and data centers – hence lower operation costs in the long term.
The cheapest hosting plan costs $0.90 per month based on our web hosting market study.
Yes if you don't mind your website comes in long subdomain address (ie. mydomain.000webhost.com) $0. Although relatively rare, there are free web hosting offers like 000Webhost that you can use to host a website for zero cost. There are, however, various limitations and risks involved with free hosting – if you can afford to pay $3 – $10 per month, I strongly recommend to you to go with a budget web hosting service instead.
Hostinger shared hosting starts at $0.90 per month – they are the cheapest among top hosting providers. To evaluate Hostinger performance, I host a test site on their platform and publish uptime / speed data I collect here. You can read about my experience in this detailed Hostinger review.
There are four main types of web hosting are shared server, virtual private server (VPS), cloud server, and dedicated server hosting. Each offer varying degrees of performance, reliability, and security.
Providers like Wix and 000Webhost offer free plans. However, many top web hosts also offer trial periods on reasonably-priced shared hosting and we recommend you try both to see the difference.
Wix does indeed offer a limited free plan. However, this free plan comes with many drawbacks including not being able to link your custom domain and enforced Wix ads on your site.
Reseller web hosting is a business model where large hosting companies allow their clients to rent and sell their server infrastructure to end users. GreenGeeks, ScalaHosting, ChemiCloud, and HostPapa are some of the companies that offer reseller hosting plans.
The WordPress CMS itself is free to use and you can also use it for free on WordPress.com (with limitations).
Managed WordPress Hosting – like Kinsta and WP Engine, is where the web host is responsible for technical upkeep of your WordPress hosting plan. It generally covers all updates for related applications and in some cases may include performance optimization.
Hostinger WordPress Hosting costs $1.99 per month and offers 30 GB SSD storage; NameCheap, costs ~$2.07 per month and offers 10 GB SSD storage. Both are cheap and strong choices if you are looking for an affordable WordPress host. You can check out Hostinger WP Hosting plans and pricing here; NameCheap plans and pricing here.
On average, it costs $3.06 per month to host a WordPress website. The number is determined based on the three WordPress Hosting plans recommended in this article. This is inline with findings from in our recent hosting market study (which is based on 1,000+ different hosting offers).
Yes. To evaluate Hostinger performance, I host a test site on their platform and publish uptime / speed Yes. data I collect here. You can read about my experience in this detailed Hostinger review.
WordPress recommend BlueHost, SiteGround, and DreamHost for hosting. You can check out the official hosting recommendation page here.
