Website Hosting Cost Compared: How Much to Pay for a Web Host

How Much Does It Cost to Host a Website? 

The cost of hosting a website depends mainly on the types of web hosts for which you sign up. Generally, shared hosting is the cheapest but with the lowest server capacity. Dedicated hosting is the most expensive and most powerful; while VPS hosting stands somewhere in between shared and dedicated hosting.

• Shared Web Hosting: Costs $2.51 to $4.63 per month
• VPS Hosting: Costs between $13.41 to $24.89 per month
• Dedicated Hosting: Costs $79.99 – $411.75 per month
• Cloud Hosting: Costs $11.00 – $640.00 per month

If you are searching for the most cost-efficient hosting service, we recommend Hostinger (starting at $1.99/mo) for shared hosting, InMotion Hosting (starting at $14.99/mo) for VPS, ScalaHosting (starting at $29.95/mo) for cloud, and LiquidWeb (starting at $149.25/mo) for dedicated hosting.

However, there are a lot of different hosting options available in the market. And, your cost of hosting a website can vary significantly depending on various factors. In the following sections, we will delve deeper into understanding website hosting costs and help budget your web host spending effectively.

Shared Hosting Cost

Pricing range: $2.51 – $6.52 per month

Shared Hosting plans usually offer the bare minimum you need to start your website.

They come with various essential resources – including CPU time, RAM, storage space, and bandwidth; and a control panel that helps you manage your hosting account. The control panel provides the tools to install various applications, set up SSL, manage your database, create email accounts, and much more.

A free domain name and basic security features (ie. malware scanning, standard backup plan, etc) are also increasingly common to be included with many shared hosting plans.

Examples of Shared Hosting Plans

VPS Hosting Cost

Pricing range: $13.41 – $21.89 per month

With standard VPS plans, you can expect higher server capacity (compared to shared hosting), comprehensive security features, unlimited email hosting accounts, and, occasionally, technical assistance in website maintenance & improvement. You also get root access, one or more dedicated IP addresses, and the ability to quickly scale up your VPS resources.

Since VPS hosting plans are highly configurable, users usually get to choose various Operating Systems. Most web hosts will provide the most popular options like CentOS, Debian, and Ubuntu. However, they will generally allow you to install any OS.

Examples of VPS Hosting Plans

Dedicated Hosting Cost

Pricing range: $79.99 – $411.75 per month

When you opt for a dedicated hosting plan, you're signing up for the pinnacle of web hosting services. With dedicated hosting, you rent an entire server exclusively for your website. This means all of the server's resources, including CPU, RAM, storage, and bandwidth, are entirely yours, providing unmatched website performance and speed.

Moreover, with a dedicated server, you're also granted full control, including root and admin access, allowing you to customize the server's configuration based on your precise needs. Whether you require a unique OS, specific applications, or robust security features, dedicated hosting gives you the freedom to customize all aspects.

Examples of Dedicated Hosting Plans

Cloud Hosting Cost

Pricing range: $11.00 – $640.00 per month

Cloud hosting, a relatively new entrant in the hosting arena, operates across multiple interconnected servers, forming a ‘cloud'. This unique structure allows for unparalleled scalability and ensures maximum uptime, as your website isn't reliant on a single server.

In terms of resources and features, cloud hosting plans generally offer scalable CPU, RAM, storage, and bandwidth, meaning you can adjust these based on your current needs. The pay-as-you-go model is a common billing practice, which means you only pay for the resources you consume.

Examples of Cloud Hosting Plans

Web Hosting Cost Explained

Web Hosting is an important factor for your website because it affects not only the potential performance of your website but also factors into the overall cost. And you’ll pay web hosting fees for however long you own your website.

Be it a personal blog or web store to support your business – as soon as you get your feet wet, that money question is going to hit you: How much should I pay to host my website?

Factors that Influence the Cost of Website Hosting

The cost of web hosting services varies drastically from free to thousands of dollars per month. The key factors that cause such huge price differences are listed below.

Web Hosting Types

The type of hosting that you signup for is the biggest factor that affects your website hosting cost.

There are several types of website hosting available – each catering to different website needs and budgets. The most common types are:

• Shared hosting: Shared hosting is the cheapest option where your website shares a server with many other websites. While shared hosting is a budget-friendly option, your website performance might be affected by other sites on the same server.
• VPS (Virtual Private Server) hosting: VPS hosting splits a server into virtual servers, where each website is hosted on its own dedicated server, but they're still sharing a server with a few others. VPS hosting is relatively pricier than shared hosting but offers better hosting performance and security.
• Dedicated hosting: In the case of dedicated hosting, you will have the entire server to yourself. provides more power and flexibility but also comes with a higher price tag.
• Cloud hosting: Cloud Hosting is a more reliable solution because it uses multiple servers to ensure it stays up and running, even if one server fails. This often makes it a bit more expensive but worth it for websites that can't afford any downtime.

Understanding these hosting types is the first step in choosing the right hosting service for your website and estimating the costs involved.

To learn more, I suggest further reading my other guide: The Four Types of Web Hosting Explained.

Bandwidth

The amount of data transfer between your website and its users can significantly impact costs. More bandwidth means more data can be transferred, necessary for high-traffic or media-rich sites.

Server Storage

This refers to the amount of space allocated to a website for storing its files, including HTML, images, videos, etc. More storage is required for larger websites or those intending to host a lot of media.

Security Features

Certain security features, such as SSL certificates, backups, and firewalls, may add to the cost of your web hosting plan.

Special Support

Some hosting providers charge extra for dedicated or special technical support. This can also add to the hosting cost.

Reducing Your Website Hosting Costs

While web hosting is a necessary expense, there are several strategies you can use to keep your costs under control. Here are some tips:

• Understand Your Needs: Evaluate your website's requirements thoroughly before choosing a hosting plan. Paying for resources that you don't use is a waste of money.
• Look for Discounts and Deals: Many hosting providers offer discounts for first-time users or for paying for several months (or years) in advance.
• Free Features: Some providers bundle in freebies like domain names, SSL certificates, and advertising credits. Utilizing these can save you money.
• Negotiate: If you're a long-term customer or planning to be one, negotiate a better deal with your hosting provider.
• Avoid Unnecessary Upgrades and hidden costs: While it's good to be prepared for growth, unnecessary upgrades can lead to higher costs. Also, be aware of potential hidden costs, such as unreasonable expensive renewal fees, migration fees, and overage charges.

If price is your main concern, we’ve collected our recommendations for the cheapest hosting solutions on a separate list. Please check it out for more cheap hosting deals and discounts.

Our Web Hosting Market Research

WHSR Research has spent a significant amount of resources analyzing over 1,000 web hosting plans. Offering these plans were 317 companies in the shared server hosting segment, with another 309 companies offering VPS, dedicated, or cloud hosting.

Shared hosting plans under review were exclusively entry and the mid-level tier. For the purposes of our analysis, definitions were simplified with entry-level plans supporting a single domain while mid-level plans supported a minimum of 10 (usually 25) domains.

VPS, dedicated, and cloud hosting plans were more complex due to the immense range of services available. We observed plans ranging from nano-sized package servers to high-end ones.

Shared Hosting Pricing Data

Notes:

1. Listed prices are per month, based on 2 or 3-year subscription periods, whichever is lower.
2. For shared hosting, prices will almost always rise across the board on plan renewal.
3. For providers that offer lifetime deals (aka, pay once and get hosted for life), we averaged the hosting prices with a 5-year time range.
4. One area we have yet to look more closely at has been the meteoric rise of bundle plans (ie. Hostinger + Website Builders, Shopify, Webnode, etc), which cost between $2.99 – $79.90 per month. These companies offer a unique perspective on the web hosting market. Drag-and-drop functionality has expanded website building reach to a vast, new customer segment.

VPS Hosting Pricing Data

Notes:

1. Listed prices are per month, based on 2 or 3-year subscription periods, whichever is lower.
2. For shared hosting, prices will almost always rise across the board on plan renewal.
3. For providers that offer lifetime deals (aka, pay once and get hosted for life), we averaged the hosting prices with a 5-year time range.
4. One area we have yet to look more closely at has been the meteoric rise of bundle plans (ie. Hostinger + Website Builders, Shopify, Webnode, etc), which cost between $2.99 – $79.90 per month. These companies offer a unique perspective on the web hosting market. Drag-and-drop functionality has expanded website building reach to a vast, new customer segment.

Observations

Shared hosting is still cheap in 2023

Although energy prices and server hardware prices have inflated a lot post-pandemic, shared hosting prices have not changed much overall. This situation is likely due to hosting providers trying to remain competitive by not passing on the increased costs of energy and server hardware to their customers. 

Not only that shared hosting is cheap – but many of them also come with excellent server performance and great features.

Entry-level shared hosting plans averaged $2.51 per month on sign-up. Mid-tier shared hosting prices stepped up significantly, averaging $4.63 per month.

For entry-level shared plans users are usually allowed to host just one website. For mid-tier plans, most companies allow users to host unlimited domains.

VPS and cloud hosting prices are on the rise

The market price of web hosting has generally been stable for many years. However, that's been slowly changing post-pandemic. We note more VPS and cloud hosting providers increasing prices across the board.

One significant driver of cost has been the constant price hikes by cPanel, a major partner of almost all web hosting companies. These price hikes are now practically on an annual basis and hit VPS users the hardest.

However, other factors, such as data center rental and global power price hikes, no doubt factor into the spate of price hikes as we've also noted cloud service providers like Digital Ocean, Cloudways, as well as TMD Hosting also recently announced price hikes.

VPS hosting prices vary a lot

Based on our study – At the low end of the scale, some VPS plans such as that from Argeweb and HostNamaste can start from as low as $0.83 per month. At the high end of the scale, the price of VPS hosting may stretch all the way up to the $400 price tag.

Shared hosting signup discounts are like a honeymoon

The web hosting business is incredibly competitive, and many hosting providers often fight for market share in new customers. Price is one of the features they may opt to fight with.

This means that they will often have fantastic buy-in offers for new customers. If you are not paying attention and get taken in by these fantastic offers, you may end up paying a premium in fees when it comes time to renew your hosting plan.

Take for example the case of the cheapest hosting plan that SiteGround offers. New customers are offered a buy-in at only $10.69 but the plan renews at an eye-watering $39.99.

Still, it is important to realize that signing up with a provider that offers significantly lower sign-up pricing offers users a ‘honeymoon period’ during which they have the opportunity to thoroughly evaluate the services provided before making a definitive long-term choice.

Final Thought: Cost is Only One of the Factors

Aside from planning and creating the website, consideration also needs to be put into other factors such as longer-term content development, marketing, eCommerce fees (if applicable), and so on. And of course, the domain name that will point to the website sitting on the web hosting space.

Once you factor in all of these additional components of the business, then you will have a more realistic idea of the true cost of building a website.

Frequently Asked Questions