Cloud Hosting Cost: 13 Best Plans Compared (March 2024)

The efficiency of most organizational cloud hosting costs can be optimized by not buying more server hardware and platform services than required by your production apps and web traffic. This article compares the cloud hosting cost for small businesses, entrepreneurs, NGOs, and individual publishers. Most enterprise companies already run natively on public cloud plans.

Web hosting companies first sold mainly shared, dedicated, and reseller plans until virtualization was adopted. These datacenter-based companies then expanded to include VPS, VM, and container virtualization products targeting customers with high traffic requirements. The advantages of managed cloud products are best realized by using PaaS/IaaS for development. Let’s dive into the best hosts below.

Kamatera offers a virtual machine (VM) platform that lets developers choose the exact configuration of hardware and software tools for every project. Servers scale from one to 32 vCPU allocations with options to add up to 128 gigabytes of RAM and one TB SSD storage on accounts.

Kamatera allows website and cloud-native software developers to get started with costs as low as $4 per month for a single vCPU allocation — that price is pretty tough to beat. Project managers and DevOps engineers can select the OS from a large collection of Linux distros, Windows servers, BSD, and NAS options.

IONOS cloud servers are based on Intel hardware with VMware virtualization and SAN SSD storage. The $4 per month plan (XS) only includes 512 MB of RAM with one vCPU and 30 gigabytes of SSD storage. For $5 per month (S), you can upgrade to one gigabyte of RAM and build most websites affordably.

If you need more resources, you can scale in real time with virtual hardware through an integrated control panel environment that includes platform statistics for domains. IONOS is a great choice for microservice developers who are using APIs with JSON, Node.js, and GraphQL.

DreamHost cloud servers are VMs with similar functionality to Google Compute Engine and network storage that operates like AWS S3. The cloud platform is built with OpenStack. You can start with one vCPU, one gigabyte of RAM, and 100 gigabytes of SSD storage for the price of only $4.50 per month at maximum.

DreamHost lets developers run most Linux, Windows, and BSD operating systems. This platform is recommended for teams that need command line access to servers using Git and other DevOps tools. DreamHost plans provide more storage capacity at a complete total price.

Cloudways is a unique solution that allows developers to run VMs under a fully managed cloud framework on DigitalOcean, AWS, and Google Cloud hardware. The pricing for one vCPU with one gigabyte of RAM, 25 gigabytes of SSD storage, and one terabyte of bandwidth monthly is $12 on DigitalOcean plans, though you can purchase a cheaper standard plan for $8.25 monthly.

If you need public cloud hardware, the cost of the smallest plan at Cloudways on AWS is $38.56 per month. That plan guarantees two vCPU, two gigabytes of RAM, 20 gigabytes of SSD storage, and two-terabyte bandwidth allocations. The price for a similar VM plan on GCP is $7.45 per month.

Hostwinds operates a cloud VPS platform with multiple operating systems that install full-stack solutions down to the application level. Hostwinds makes it easy to install WordPress, Drupal, and other CMS applications with the OS, MySQL, and PHP choices you require.

The cheapest Hostwinds cloud server plan has one vCPU, one gigabyte RAM, 30 gigabytes SSD storage, and one terabyte bandwidth for a monthly starting price of $4.99. VPS plans are deployed through templates with available options including Linux, Windows, BSD, and TrueNAS distributions for developers.

HostArmada brands all of its shared, WordPress, reseller, and dedicated CPU hosting plans as cloud solutions. HostArmada has adopted the tactic of offering business owners and developers more hardware resources and managed web server optimization with NGINX.

The Web Shuttle plan at HostArmada includes a cloud VPS account with two vCPUs, two gigabytes of RAM, 50 gigabytes of SSD storage, and two terabytes of monthly bandwidth. The cost is $29.95 per month for unlimited websites. Development teams can enjoy the ease of server configuration with industry-leading cPanel.

Bluehost is another option for cPanel on cloud VPS plans with the cheapest option priced at $31.99 per month. With that, you receive two vCPUs, two gigabytes of RAM, 120 gigabytes of SSD storage, and unmetered bandwidth allocations. Bluehost is a great option to give popular WordPress sites more power.

WordPress, Drupal, and other open-source CMS software solutions will run faster on Bluehost VPS plans with greater resource allocation than shared hosting. Another nice option for boutique agencies and design teams is the ability to manage multiple VPS plans together.

InMotion Hosting has recently launched a new managed WordPress platform on cloud servers which is fine-tuned for CMS performance. Platform-i is available starting at $7.50 per month for plans with one vCPU, one gigabyte of RAM, 30 gigabytes of SSD storage, and one terabyte of monthly bandwidth.

Each Platform-i plan at InMotion Hosting includes a number of dedicated PHP workers with auto-scaling capacity to more efficiently manage large volumes of simultaneous user requests on the web server hardware. You also receive pre-configured Redis caching for WordPress.

Hostinger offers a generous configuration of two vCPUs, three gigabytes of RAM, 200 gigabytes of NVMe SSD storage, and support for 300 websites on its $8.99 per month introductory cloud server plans. The platform includes tools for managed WordPress development and a new low-code site builder option.

Hostinger delivers a fully managed cloud platform for multisite web publishing. Other options include a free domain name registration, hardened platform security tools, a free CDN, and a dedicated IP address. Hostinger also provides free SSL certificates for every domain you add.

InterServer has a suite of cloud VPS options available that include Linux, Windows, and large storage-optimized plans. The VPS plans are available at $6 per month with a base configuration of one vCPU, two gigabytes of RAM, 30 gigabytes of SSD storage, and two terabytes of monthly bandwidth.

InterServer provides VPS plans with multiple virtualization frameworks: KVM, OpenVZ, Virtuozzo, and Hyper-V hypervisors are supported. You can save costs by choosing between cPanel, Plesk, and DirectAdmin for system administration with one-click app installation.

The Liquid Web platform includes dedicated cloud servers with managed and bare metal options, as well as private cloud and Studio accounts. Its cloud VPS plans start at $5 per month for one vCPU, one gigabyte of RAM, 30 gigabytes of SSD storage, and one terabyte of monthly bandwidth.

Liquid Web operates a second, more advanced VPS line with AMD EPYC servers and 10 gigabytes per second network transfer speeds. VPS plans on this platform are fully managed at $20 per month, whereas the cloud VPS plans at $5 per month are unmanaged. Cloud Studio is a middle option at $15 per month.

AccuWebHosting offers Personal, Business, and Enterprise cloud hosting plans that function to support unlimited website publishing requirements. The company also operates a cloud VPS platform with one vCPU, one gigabyte of RAM, 20 gigabytes of SSD storage, and 700 megabytes of bandwidth for $8 per month.

The Personal cloud plans cost $6.49 per month with cPanel, LiteSpeed servers, and LSCache. These plans include cPanel administration of the hardware, email, SSL certificates, and domains. For die-hard Windows fans, AccuWebHosting specializes in cloud hosting solutions for Windows servers.

The GoDaddy VPS platform starts with one vCPU, two gigabytes of RAM, and 40 gigabytes of NVMe SSD storage for $8.99 per month. These plans include support for your choice of control panel with integrated nightly backups taken in stored snapshots. Datacenter support in the US, EU, and Singapore.

Many people register domain names with GoDaddy for reliable long-term solutions and industry-leading performance. Its VPS plan requires a three-year upfront commitment to secure the 40% discount over the listed price of $14.99 per month.

A cloud computing service can be compared to a dedicated server, in which a VPS hosting plan or VM is providing the same resources at a lower price by running with isolation on multitenant hardware. Use a cloud resource guide to differentiate between services and calculate the best available rates for monthly, annual, and tri-annual cloud computing costs.

Cloud hosting can include elastic scalability to go beyond what a single dedicated server can manage in production for the largest websites and mobile applications. Due to the difference in wholesale and retail pricing, you should review Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, and Azure Cloud options carefully. Developers need to subscribe to access the latest database and DevOps tools.

The total cloud cost for resources should be compared to the price of a dedicated server and to the cost of operating a private cloud locally for reference. Users of public cloud services require elastic scalability through AWS EC2 or automated Kubernetes servers across multiple datacenters.

Cloud computing can also be used to build desktop replacement services for work groups or development. The total cloud service cost depends on the hardware configuration and managed cloud resources available. A quick guide to cloud pricing is offered in the table below:

Starting costs of popular cloud hosts:

• Kamatera — Starting at $4 per month
• IONOS — Starting at $4 per month
• DreamHost — Starting at $4.50 per month
• Amazon Web Services — Starting at $3.50 per month
• Google Cloud Platform — Starting at $0.017 per hour
• Microsoft Azure — Starting at $5.08 per month

It is important to compare cloud hosting platforms to the price of hardware at public cloud hyperscale datacenter companies. On services like Microsoft Azure, the price of resources in a datacenter is determined by whether you use pay-as-you-go, subscription, or spot billing.

Amazon Lightsail is industry-leading for VPS plans with a $0.50 per month edge over the cheapest cloud hosting costs at IaaS/PaaS providers. This allows retail web hosts like Kamatera and IONOS only a small margin to compete with companies like GoDaddy using AWS hardware.

This depends on the type of web hosting you’re considering. Cloud hosting is a subtype of web hosting; in terms of pricing, it typically sits in the middle.

The pricing of $3.50 per month for a VPS plan at AWS guarantees two vCPUs, 512 MB of RAM, and 20 gigabytes of SSD storage configuration in a single datacenter. A one-gigabyte RAM configuration is $5 per month for Linux servers and $12 per month for Windows. IONOS and Kamatera pricing is competitive in this area.

Web hosting running IaaS/PaaS solutions either operate their own datacenters or rely on multicloud networking through other hyperscale datacenter companies. AWS, GCP, and Azure lead the market for hardware resources by operating hyperscale facilities, but they’re not always cheaper. You also need to consider the web server hardware and network speeds provided.

According to the data collected for research, Kamatera currently has the cheapest starting cost at $4 per month for a cloud server with one vCPU, one gigabyte of RAM, and 20 gigabytes of SSD storage. With IONOS plans, you only get 512 MB of RAM for $4 per month, so Kamatera wins here.

Google Cloud has the advantage of pay-as-you-go billing at hourly rates. But business planning requires publishers to factor in the cost of cloud storage vs. a dedicated server. A cloud server with elasticity will increase the overall cloud server cost with reserved instances. Shared hosting can be a viable means to reduce cloud computing costs in small business organizations.

Make sure you know the difference between cloud hosting, web hosting, and shared hosting service requirements before signing up, or have a professional audit done to see how you can optimize IT resource spending. Small businesses need enterprise tools at low rates.

The main advantage of a cloud provider is not only saving money on the costs of a cloud service. Businesses are signing up to access IaaS/PaaS tools for custom software development and app design. Companies like A2 Hosting that maintain their own datacenters may not be able to compete with Google cloud storage and cloud costs for Amazon S3 resources operating at hyperscale.

WordPress hosting and shared hosting do not require the development complexity of database plans on Google Cloud, Oracle Cloud, Azure, and AWS. The requirements of Cloud SQL are part of most managed cloud hosting plan offers. For the best cloud hosting costs, use a fully managed platform instead of employing your own datacenter engineers for security.

AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud pricing for storage and managed database features set the standard for cloud service provider companies at hyperscale. A cloud hosting service is vital for high-traffic websites where you can use the total cost of hardware, storage, and server stack resources to differentiate the tech options that you need and find the best web hosting deals.