Writer: Laura Bernheim
Editor: Lillian Castro
Reviewer: Christina Lewis
Although the flashy, low-cost monthly prices are no doubt appealing to site owners, ranking the best web hosts by annual cost offers a much more realistic picture of what you will spend to create, launch, and host your website.
Estimating how much to pay for web hosting can be a tricky endeavor. Most providers advertise cheap, tantalizing rates for 30 days of service. However, that rate is usually only available if you commit to — and pay for — three years of service. You may think you’re getting a bargain, only to find out another company can host your site for much cheaper in the long run.
We’re here to cut through the marketing gimmicks to tell you exactly what you can expect to pay when you sign up for one year of hosting. We put each host’s basic shared hosting plan into our cart and followed the checkout process, keeping an eye out for any taxes, setup fees, and shifting rates so that web hosting prices don’t seem like such a moving target.
1. IONOS — $12.00/Year
IONOS offers one of the best web hosting deals I’ve seen. You can sign up for its Plus plan for just $1 a month for 12 months. With a price like that, you’d assume the plan comes with bare-bones features and subpar support, but quite the contrary. The Plus plan is the second-best plan from IONOS, only beaten by the Ultimate plan, which is made for large websites and costs significantly more.
My research into IONOS’ shared hosting plans shows that the Plus plan gives you just as many unlimited features as Hostinger’s base-level shared hosting plan for roughly a third of the cost. Here’s a deeper look at the Plus plan’s rates:
- One-month plan: $8.00 (Essential Plan)
- 12-month plan: $12.00 ($1.00 per month)
IONOS.com
Monthly Starting Price $1.00
- $1/month for 12 months
- No hidden fees, pay just $12 at checkout
- Easy setup and 24/7 expert support
- FREE domain or transfer, plus FREE SSL certificate
- Unlimited storage and databases with most plans
- Get started on IONOS now.
If budget is the main factor on your mind when searching for your next web host, search no more. IONOS has an impressive range of robust web hosting and website building packages for what may be the best price we’ve ever seen in the world of hosting. Go to full review »
| Money Back Guarantee | Disk Space | Domain Name | Setup Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 days | 10 GB – Unlimited | FREE (1 year) | 4 minutes |
Here’s the deal, though, this ultra-low rate only applies to your first year of service. After you renew, you’ll have to pay $12.00 a month to keep the Plus plan. But don’t worry — if that’s not in your budget, IONOS has plenty of other low-cost hosting plans to choose from.
2. Bluehost — $23.88/Year
When a hosting company is as successful and as well-liked as Bluehost, you would assume it costs an arm and a leg. However, this web host offers a pretty sweet introductory discount to bring its pricing down for your first year. Your renewal cost may be a bit more expensive, but it’s worth it. Bluehost is truly one of the best full-service hosts in the industry, and the features of the company’s basic shared hosting plan offer a glimpse at what you can expect with Bluehost’s managed WordPress, professional design, and other premium services.
- One-month plan: Bluehost no longer offers a one-month plan
- 12-month plan: $23.88 ($1.99 per month)
- 36-month plan: $178.20 ($4.95 per month)
Bluehost.com
Monthly Starting Price $1.99
- Cheap shared hosting from a trusted provider
- Ideal for hosting a WordPress website
- FREE Weebly website builder and Cloudflare CDN
- Unlimited traffic and 24/7 live chat support
- Get 75% off today with our Bluehost coupon
- Get started on Bluehost now.
Bluehost pricing is about as competitive as the industry offers. Sign up for a shared hosting plan for as little as $1.99 per month, and WordPress hosting packages are consistently priced; a VPS plan starts at around $46.99 per month; and the dedicated hosting rates are as little as $141.19 per month. Go to full review »
| Money Back Guarantee | Disk Space | Domain Name | Setup Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 days | 10 GB SSD – 100 GB SSD | FREE (1 year) | 5 minutes |
Bluehost is a slightly better deal for long-term hosting plans compared with competitors, but the annual plan is where the real savings are. The company ranks in the top 20 of the largest web hosting companies and powers more than 2 million websites across the internet. We appreciate the company’s recently upgraded SSD storage, unlimited resources, and included perks; you can learn more about them in our review above.
3. InterServer — $30.00/Year
Affordable month-to-month web hosting is nearly impossible to find. Because the short-term plans are the least profitable for a hosting company, most providers increase their prices and setup fees to make the offering worthwhile — but not InterServer. Instead, the company only charges $2.50 for your first month and offers six-month plans, as well. Take a closer look at InterServers pricing, and you’ll notice it stays consistent no matter which plan you select.
- One-month plan: $2.50 (plus $32.00 domain registration)
- Six-month plan: $15.00 ($2.50 per month plus FREE domain registration)
- 12-month plan: $30.00 ($2.50 per month plus FREE domain registration)
- 24-month plan: $60.00 ($2.50 per month plus FREE domain registration)
InterServer.net
Monthly Starting Price $2.50
- $0.01 first month (coupon code HOSTINGADV)
- $2.50/month after. No contracts or increases
- Unlimited storage space, data transfers, and email
- Register or transfer domains for less than $10
- 99.9% uptime and price-lock guarantee
- Get started on InterServer now.
It’s hard to argue with a shared hosting plan that includes unlimited storage, bandwidth, websites, and email — but shared hosting is a crowded industry that turns on name recognition, reputation, and bargain-basement prices. InterServer outperforms some of our higher-rated hosts, but we understand that many first-time site owners are laser-focused on finding the lowest costs. Go to full review »
| Money Back Guarantee | Disk Space | Domain Name | Setup Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 days | Unlimited SSD | New or Transfer | 4 minutes |
InterServer has updated its pricing strategy in recent years and opted for a more straightforward approach. No matter which hosting contract you choose, your monthly rate isn’t going to change. Customers who stick around will never see a price increase for the life of your account.
4. Hostinger — $32.29/Year
Already one of our favorite cheap web hosting providers, Hostinger provides some utterly absurd discounts as you extend the duration of time you want hosting.
Hostinger offers ridiculously low prices compared to competitors, with the one-, two-, and four-year plans offering great discounts. Even better, the company doesn’t try to sneak other items into your cart while you check out: The price for hosting is the price you’ll pay.
Sure, you’re limited to just one website and email address on Hostinger’s base plan, but the LiteSpeed cache, free domain registration, and accelerated WordPress environments show the company isn’t cutting corners with these too-good-to-be-true prices:
- One-month plan: $11.99 (plus $4.99 setup fee and $9.99 domain registration)
- 12-month plan: $32.29 ($2.69 per month, plus FREE domain registration)
- 24-month plan: $64.58 ($2.69 per month plus FREE domain registration)
- 48-month plan: $129.17 ($2.69 per month plus FREE domain registration)
Hostinger.com
Monthly Starting Price $2.69
- Unlimited everything, from storage to databases
- FREE site builder & WP performance upgrades
- FREE daily or weekly backups
- Custom control panel and auto-installation scripts
- SSH access & unlimited FREE SSL certificates
- Get started on Hostinger now.
As the shared hosting market becomes increasingly saturated, unlimited storage, bandwidth, and email accounts have become surprisingly average. Hostinger, however, extends the routine, expected metrics to greater lengths — the number of websites, databases, FTP users, subdomains, and parked domains are all unrestricted for most customers. Go to full review »
| Money Back Guarantee | Disk Space | Domain Name | Setup Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 days | 25 GB SSD – 100 GB NVMe | FREE (1 year) | 3 minutes |
The bootstrapped, employee-owned hosting provider got its start in 2004 and still provides impressive services across a variety of plans. Hostinger, which boasts 29 million global customers, sees roughly 15,000 new clients sign up each day — the equivalent of one new customer every five seconds.
Tip: Check back on Hostinger often, as the company regularly puts its entry-level shared hosting plans on sale for less than $1 per month.
5. HostGator — $31.08/Year
Although HostGator got its start in Florida, the company moved its headquarters to Houston, Texas, in 2006 — introducing a new wrinkle for our list of web hosting annual costs. You see, the company’s presence in the Lone Star State means that customers must pay sales tax on its web hosting services. Even though sales tax is typically reserved only for tangible products, Texas is one of just eight states that tax web hosting services and data processing. Thankfully, though, the impact on your overall price tag is fairly small.
- One-month plan: $7.17 (plus $12.99 domain registration)
- 12-month plan: $31.08 ($2.59 per month plus FREE domain registration)
- 36-month plan: $82.44 ($2.29 per month plus FREE domain registration)
HostGator.com
Monthly Starting Price $2.29
- Host up to unlimited websites on a single plan
- FREE SSL certificate included on all plans
- Unlimited bandwidth & email addresses
- 1-click WordPress installs & FREE blog tools
- Get 77% OFF by buying 36 months upfront
- Get started on HostGator now.
HostGator is a great compromise between performance and price. The company offers unlimited emails, MySQL databases, disk space, and bandwidth, plus one-click installs of popular open-source projects, in addition to a 99. Go to full review »
| Money Back Guarantee | Disk Space | Domain Name | Setup Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 days | 10 GB SSD – 40 GB SSD | FREE (1 year) | 4 minutes |
Although HostGator is among the slightly more expensive options on our list for one year or less of web hosting, your comparative savings grow significantly in the company’s two- and three-year plans. We love HostGator’s technology stack and custom-built website builder, but potential customers have to watch out for deceptive upselling at checkout. Although we appreciate the security and automatic backups, along with the other options for SEO tools, Microsoft Office 365, and upgraded SSL certificate, we don’t think they should be snuck into customers’ shopping carts.
6. GreenGeeks — $35.40/Year
Following a fairly static pricing structure and adding a rather expensive one-month plan, GreenGeeks offers comparable hosting services with the added perk of environmentally friendly technologies.
According to the Web Neutral Project, the internet accounts for roughly 10% of the world’s electricity consumption and produces about as much CO2 emissions as the aviation industry. GreenGeeks returns three times as much renewable energy to the grid as it consumes, in addition to deploying energy-efficient hardware in state-of-the-art data centers. Its pricing for the one-, 24- and 36-month plans does not include the cost of domain registration, which is only free on a one-year plan.
- One-month plan: $12.95 (plus $15.00 setup fee and $24.95 domain registration)
- 12-month plan: $35.40 ($2.95 per month plus FREE domain registration)
- 24-month plan: $310.80 ($12.95 per month plus FREE domain registration)
- 36-month plan: $466.20 ($12.95 per month plus FREE domain registration)
GreenGeeks.com
Monthly Starting Price $2.95
- Unlimited and scalable computing resources with RAID-10 storage
- Proactive server monitoring and real-time security
- 1-click installations of 150+ apps
- Unlimited domains & email accounts
- 24/7 support via phone, chat, and email
- Get started on GreenGeeks now.
Perfect for small business owners, bloggers, or web developers, GreenGeeks offers an impressive blend of features that appeal to all types of site owners. More experienced customers will appreciate the unlimited domain names, SSD RAID-10 storage, and unmetered data transfers, along with nightly backups and built-in caching programs. Go to full review »
| Money Back Guarantee | Disk Space | Domain Name | Setup Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 days | 50 GB SSD – Unlimited SSD | FREE (1 year) | 4 minutes |
Unsurprisingly topping our list for the best green web hosting, GreenGeeks is more than just a pretty, eco-friendly face. The company’s servers are equipped with LiteSpeed and MariaDB, so are highly optimized to produce page loads up to 50 times faster. One of the first hosts to adopt PHP 7, GreenGeeks also boasts a free content delivery network, HTTP/3 compatibility, and a custom-built caching solution.
7. HostArmada — $35.85/Year
My experience reviewing hosts has shown me that most providers reserve premium hardware for higher-priced packages, but not HostArmada. A relative newcomer to the hosting game, HostArmada delivers nothing but speed with its cheap hosting plans. It offers a range of shared packages to choose from, each powered by blazing-fast NVMe SSD drives. It also gives customers the choice of four payment plans, including:
- One-month plan: $12.95 (plus $11.99 domain registration)
- 12-month plan: $35.85 ($2.99 per month plus FREE domain registration)
- 24-month plan: $65.70 ($2.74 per month plus FREE domain registration)
- 36-month plan: $89.55 ($2.49 per month plus FREE domain registration)
HostArmada.com
Monthly Starting Price $2.49
- FREE cPanel integration and Softaculous apps
- Auto daily backups and web application firewall
- Reliable and redundant cloud servers
- FREE SSL encryption and website migration
- 99.99% uptime guarantee
- Get started on HostArmada now.
HostArmada boasts 11 cloud-based shared hosting data centers across its global network, which spans four continents: Europe, the U. S. Go to full review »
| Money Back Guarantee | Disk Space | Domain Name | Setup Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 45 days | 15 GB SSD – 40 GB SSD | FREE (1 year) | 3 minutes |
HostArmada delivers some seriously good discounts on its long-term hosting plans. New customers save up to 75% on web hosting when purchasing longer contracts. If you plan to get comfortable with your new web host, you can save the most by buying the 36-month plan.
8. SiteGround — $35.88/Year
As we cross the $35-per-year threshold, we start seeing a few more recognizable names and trustworthy hosting brands. SiteGround perfectly blends advanced custom technologies with low costs and high levels of customer support. We adore this host’s unique approach to service; in addition to guaranteeing a response in seconds, SiteGround even aims to make its price structure simple and straightforward for potential customers.
- One-month plan: $24.99 (plus FREE domain registration)
- 12-month plan: $35.88 ($2.99 per month plus FREE domain registration)
- 24-month plan: $179.76 ($7.49 per month plus FREE domain registration)
SiteGround.com
Monthly Starting Price $2.99
- FREE website transfer service to get started
- 99.9% uptime guarantee and unlimited traffic
- User-friendly WordPress installation
- 24/7 support featuring custom systems
- 4 caching options plus staging and Git
- Get started on SiteGround now.
Providing hosting with the perfect balance of technological innovation and superior customer support, SiteGround offers a range of affordable hosting services to meet your needs. In addition to the expected cheap web hosting perks — a free website builder and unlimited bandwidth — the company specializes in custom-built tools to deliver strong and positive user experiences. Go to full review »
| Money Back Guarantee | Disk Space | Domain Name | Setup Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 days | 10 GB SSD – 40 GB SSD | FREE (1 Year) | 6 minutes |
As you can see, SiteGround doesn’t charge a different monthly rate depending on how long you sign up for hosting. We really appreciate the company’s pricing approach, as well as a checkout process that very clearly lays out expected costs, possible options for upgrades, and even the renewal rates for your selected product (which, admittedly, are a little high).
9. InMotion Hosting — $33.48/Year
Offering the fewest options when it comes to the duration of your hosting plan, InMotion Hosting is also among the higher-priced hosts to make our list. That being said, the company’s 100% satisfaction guarantee and always-available customer support pair perfectly with its blazing fast and highly reliable servers. We still give InMotion two resounding thumbs up.
- One-month plan: $15.99 (plus $23.00 domain registration)
- 12-month plan: $33.48 ($2.79 per month plus FREE domain registration)
- 24-month plan: $76.56 ($3.19 per month plus FREE domain registration)
- 36-month plan: $114.84 ($3.19 per month plus FREE domain registration)
InMotionHosting.com
Monthly Starting Price $2.29
- FREE BoldGrid site builder and templates
- FREE website, domain, and cPanel migrations
- SSD storage makes your site load up to 20x faster
- Security suite includes SSL and hack protection
- Unlimited bandwidth and email accounts
- Get started on InMotion now.
InMotion Hosting offers an excellent business-class shared hosting plan — with a price tag lower than several other budget hosts. For the IT crowd in the audience, you’ll appreciate SSH access, as well as support for PHP, Ruby, Perl, Python, WP-CLI, and other popular languages. Go to full review »
| Money Back Guarantee | Disk Space | Domain Name | Setup Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 90 days | 100 GB SSD – Unlimited SSD | FREE (1 year) | 5 minutes |
We particularly appreciate the pricing sweet spots InMotion hits when it comes to WordPress hosting costs and managed services at the VPS and other advanced service levels. The company is a hit with developers with SSH access and up-to-date support for PHP, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Ruby, Perl, and Python — while also appealing to beginners with its one-of-a-kind Bold Grid site builder for WordPress, pre-installed content management systems, and incredible 90-day money-back guarantee.
10. A2 Hosting — $59.88/Year
Considering the bounce rate of a website grows by more than 30% as page load time increases from one second to three seconds, you want to make sure your site is on the fastest servers and network available. That’s why the leaders of A2 Hosting have crafted the company around pure performance, with its specially configured Turbo Servers offering page load times up to 20 times faster than competitors.
- One-month plan: $11.99 (plus $11.99 domain registration)
- 12-month plan: $59.88 ($4.99 per month plus $11.99 domain registration)
- 24-month plan: $143.76 ($5.99 per month plus $11.99 domain registration)
- 36-month plan: $107.64 ($2.99 per month plus $11.99 domain registration)
A2Hosting.com
Monthly Starting Price $1.99
- FREE Cloudflare CDN and SSD speed boost
- Optimized caching and 1-click installs
- Unlimited email, domains, and databases
- Advanced security and FREE HackScan
- 24/7 support via phone, chat & tickets
- Get started on A2 Hosting now.
There are plenty of excellent cPanel shared hosting providers out there, so what sets A2 Hosting apart from the rest. Not only does the company offer a ton of features, but it has custom-built its packages for enhanced performance, speed, and security — putting your priorities above pricing. Go to full review »
| Money Back Guarantee | Disk Space | Domain Name | Setup Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 days | 10 GB SSD – Unlimited SSD | New or Transfer | 4 minutes |
The Michigan-based hosting provider is one of the few to offer a reasonably priced one-month plan without crippling setup fees and is extremely transparent about the renewal rates once your initial term expires. For more experienced developers, A2 Hosting supports a ton of modern programming languages, frameworks, and databases.
11. HostPapa — $59.40/Year
As an independently owned and operated hosting provider, HostPapa treats its customers like family. The company promises instantaneous replies to phone and chat support requests, and will respond to online tickets in less than 10 minutes. HostPapa’s servers are equipped with blazing-fast SSDs and use modern CloudLinux and cPanel, and the company offers one-on-one training and onboarding to help you get started.
- One-month plan: $12.99 (plus $16.99 domain registration)
- 12-month plan: $59.40 ($4.95 per month plus $16.99 domain registration)
- 24-month plan: $94.80 ($3.95 per month plus $16.99 domain registration)
- 36-month plan: $106.20 ($2.95 per month plus $16.99 domain registration)
HostPapa.com
Monthly Starting Price $2.95
- FREE drag-and-drop HostPapa website builder
- Host unlimited WordPress sites on one account
- 24/7 support via phone, email, and live chat
- FREE domain registration and email accounts
- 99.9% uptime guarantee and unlimited bandwidth
- Get started on HostPapa now.
Where HostPapa shines is with shared hosting, which offers affordable and feature-rich plans geared toward helping both website and small business owners grow their online presence. HostPapa wants to be more than just a web host, according to CEO Jamie Opalchuck, who told us that the company aims to be a 1-stop shop for small businesses looking for a seamless and simple experience to help them grow. Go to full review »
| Money Back Guarantee | Disk Space | Domain Name | Setup Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 days | 100 GB SSD – Unlimited SSD | FREE (1 year) | 5 minutes |
New customers will have to pay a somewhat hefty price, however, for all these perks — plus be on the lookout for the $40 of additional products the company adds to their shopping cart during checkout. That being said, you and 500,000 other customers get to enjoy the performance boosts of low-density servers and unlimited bandwidth, storage, email addresses, databases, and tons of other resources.
Do I Have to Pay for Website Hosting?
Why pay for web hosting if you don’t have to? Sure, there are technically free web hosting services out there with varying reliability and reputations, but you won’t experience the same breadth of features, performance, or security that comes standard with the plans we’ve listed here.
Trustworthy free web hosting typically comes in the form of trials for platforms like Wix, Weebly, and WordPress.com, which offer scaled-back versions of their design tools on the company’s own subdomains.
We understand cost-conscientious consumers will naturally want to do some comparison shopping, and price usually dominates that decision-making process. However, a host’s branding, content, and features are still tremendously important, with research showing that convenience increasingly drives buying decisions.
For those who value quality over sheer savings, perhaps the better question is, what is the cheapest way to host a website? Lucky for you, we’ve tested, reviewed, and ranked the best cheap web hosting providers and can vouch for their upgraded technologies and customer support.
Can I Host My Own Website?
Again… there’s a difference between the right answer and the recommended answer. Yes, you can technically host your own website from home — we even wrote a step-by-step guide on how to do it.
As you can imagine, there are a lot of reasons why you may want to take on such an adventure, such as having complete control over your environment, the learning experience, and not receiving hosting invoices anymore.
However, setting up and running your own server is a fairly technical endeavor that requires a lot of persistence and maintenance to keep your machine up to the latest standards for security and performance.
Are you comfortable with all the inner workings of a server? You may need to be if you’d like to host your own website.
To us, there is far more risk than reward associated with hosting your own website. A novel experiment, perhaps, but not the right setup for any sort of professional or business presence online. If you want administrative experience, consider looking into reseller hosting. You’ll receive a larger portion of server resources that you can use to host your website and those of others.
How Much Is Web Hosting Monthly? Other Pricing Tips to Consider
We included the various monthly rates of the top hosts’ basic shared hosting plans to give you a general sense of how much web hosting should cost each month. Take a look at other hosting plans, though, and you’ll find the gamut of hosting prices:
- Shared hosting, which we’ve focused on in this article, typically costs between $2 and $10 per month depending on the type of resources you need, how many websites you want to host, and whether you’ll be running an eCommerce store.
- Cloud hosting and VPS hosting prices can fluctuate pretty dramatically; depending on the cloud provider, your bill could even change each month. You can find a few better deals out there, but you can generally expect to pay $20 to $50 per month.
- Dedicated server hosting is definitely the most expensive option, but also the one that grants you the most computing firepower. Reserving an entire server for yourself costs at least $75 per month and often much more.
This list doesn’t, however, take into account added expenses like a premium WordPress theme, extra security or performance enhancements, or integrations with productivity and collaboration services like G Suite or Microsoft Office 365. Basic website domains cost anything from free (for the first year) to upward of $15 dollars each year.
Whether you sign up for a month, a year, or a decade, the vast majority of hosts will increase your rates dramatically after that first period. Think of those introductory rates your cable or internet company charges, then how jolting it feels to open that next bill. The jump in your hosting expenses may only be slight, but some companies even double or triple your rate.
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