Greatest low-cost webhosting

Disclosure: This content is endorsed by the reader. So if you click on some of our links we may receive a commission.

When starting a new website there is no need to pay a fortune on web hosting. There are many inexpensive solutions to choose from on the market.

Small websites, personal blogs, and other newer websites can definitely get away with a cheap web hosting plan.

However, with thousands of web hosting providers available, finding the best option for your website can be a daunting task.

Fortunately, you don't have to search through thousands of plans. There are really only a dozen or two dozen reputable web hosts to consider. That list gets even smaller when you're looking for a cheap web hosting plan. For those of you on a tight budget, these are my top tips:

The top 6 options for cheap web hosting

  1. Hostinger
  2. iPage
  3. Bluehost
  4. A2 hosting
  5. Go Daddy
  6. HostGator

How to choose the best cheap web hosting for you

Web hosting can be complicated, especially if this is your first time looking for a host. To simplify the buying process, I have identified and explained the most important factors that need to be assessed when shopping. To find the best cheap web hosting plan for your website, consider the following elements:

Terms of contract

Many web hosts seem cheap at first, but you need to analyze your contract terms to really get a feel for the cost.

To get the lowest possible interest rate, you will likely have to commit to a two, three, or even four year plan. These contracts are usually paid for in full in advance. A host advertising price of $ 3 per month could even cost you over $ 100 today.

Some hosts offer low prices but then charge you extras that should be included for free (like SSL certificates).

Always check your renewal rates too. In the web hosting industry, it is common for hosting plans to skyrocket upon renewal. Promotional pricing may cost $ 2.75 per month, but is automatically renewed at approximately $ 10.95 per month. So your rate could triple or quadruple (which may not be as cheap anymore).

performance

When looking for rock-bottom prices you can't expect to have the best performing website in the world. In a way, you get what you pay for.

With that in mind, you should definitely consider your website's uptime rates and the speed at which pages load.

It can be difficult to weigh your website's performance metrics against your budget. If it's a small personal website, microblog, or just a fun side project, performance doesn't matter. However, if you are using the website for business purposes, it is worth paying a little extra to make sure the website is performing well. Otherwise, poor performance can result in lost sales.

You should still be able to find a cheap hosting plan that offers decent site performance. Just don't expect the best at such a low price.

Traffic

Traffic and speed go hand in hand. If you have a lot of traffic, it can slow down your website's performance on a cheap plan.

The cheapest web hosting deals are shared (more on this shortly). With shared hosting, you share server resources with other websites. If these websites have spikes in traffic, it can also affect the performance of your website.

Any cheap plan should be able to accommodate up to 10,000 monthly visitors. There are even some options for more than 25,000 visitors per month. However, once you start getting into the ~ 50,000 range, it may be time to upgrade to a better plan (not in the "cheap" category).

Customer service

The day will come when you need assistance from your web host. Your website might be down or you might need help with a migration. Whatever the reason, you want to make sure the host is there to solve your problems when this happens.

What will you do when your traffic increases and you need to upgrade to a new plan? Will your host be there to guide you through this process and provide a seamless transition?

These are the questions to ask yourself.

Features included

What Comes With Your Web Hosting Plan?

In most cases, plans should include more than just hosting. Some providers offer a free domain name, free SSL certificate, free migrations, one-click WordPress installations, unlimited subdomains, domain privacy and protection, free backups, and much more.

You can even find some hosts that offer perks like free marketing credits or free access to Microsoft Office 365.

These extras shouldn't necessarily be a deal breaker, especially if you're not taking advantage of the features. However, avoid hosts that don't cover the basics and force you to pay extras for add-ons that should be standard.

The different types of cheap web hosting

The term “cheap” is obviously subjective. A student starting a personal blog as a side project or hobby has a different definition of cheap than a small business owner trying to generate sales online.

Even so, cheap web hosting can be broken down into the following five categories. I'll give you more information on each one below.

Shared hosting

Shared web hosting is always the cheapest option. These entry-level plans host multiple websites on a single server.

You benefit from low rates, but your site does not have dedicated server resources. Other sites on your server could consume server resources and cause your site to crash. Your host can even limit your bandwidth and slow your site down if you get traffic spikes.

While shared hosting isn't a top priority, it's the best option for the vast majority of new websites. If you want something cheap, there is no need to look beyond common plans.

VPS hosting

VPS hosting (Virtual Private Server) is a step above shared hosting.

It's a little more expensive, but your website's performance will improve dramatically. You continue to share servers with other websites. However, your site has its own dedicated resources on a virtual server.

For those of you expecting tons of traffic out of the gate, you might consider jumping straight into a VPS plan. Alternatively, cheap VPS hosting is great for websites that have outgrown a common plan.

WordPress hosting

WordPress hosting can come in all different shapes and sizes. There are shared WordPress hosting plans, WordPress VPS plans, fully managed WordPress hosting, and much more.

As the name suggests, this is obviously made for WordPress websites.

If you want benefits like one-click WordPress installs, automatic WordPress updates, free WordPress backups, and other similar features, this is a top option. The price can be pretty much comparable to shared hosting or a little higher (depending on the provider).

Cloud hosting

Cloud hosting is relatively new. But this type of web hosting has been rapidly gaining popularity in the hosting world. It can best be described as a hybrid version of VPS hosting, but it's cheaper.

So if you are budget conscious and evaluating VPS plans, cloud hosting is likely to be cheaper.

Cloud plans are great for those of you who want to scale your server resources as needed. This way you can take into account traffic peaks.

Many cloud providers only charge you for the server resources that you actually use. This can be difficult to budget for, but it's a great way to save money and make sure you don't overpay for resources that are never used.

Special hosting

Dedicated servers come first in the world of web hosting. In short, they are not cheap.

You have your own server that you can do whatever you want with. It is designed for developers and businesses that want to customize their hosting environment at the server level. Dedicated hosting gives your website the best possible performance.

All of this comes at a price, however, so 99% of people reading this guide should stay away from dedicated servers.

# 1 – Hostinger Review – Best Web Hosting Plan Under $ 1

Hostinger is one of the most reputable names in the world of web hosting. Their hosting services are simple, straightforward, and best of all – cheap.

You can get plans for just $ 0.99 per month.

If you are looking for the cheapest tariff from a reputable provider, you have come to the right place at Hostinger. It's worth noting that you need to get a 48 month contract to get this rock bottom price.

This plan is really only for beginners and new websites. For those of you who want fewer restrictions, Hostinger has two other joint plans starting at $ 2.89 and $ 3.99, respectively – both of which are still very affordable.

Notable highlights of Hostinger's web hosting plans include:

  • Easy to set up
  • Easy site migrations
  • Optimized for WordPress (with one-click installations)
  • Tailor-made
  • User-friendly control panel
  • Cloudflare protected name servers
  • Github integration
  • 99.9% availability guarantee
  • Unlimited bandwidth (with selected plans)
  • Free domain name (with select plans)

A 30-day money-back guarantee applies to all Hostinger web hosting offers. If for any reason you are unhappy, simply contact the support team for a full refund.

# 2 – iPage Review – Best Cheap Web Hosting Features

iPage is a web hosting provider and site builder that come together in a single package. If you're starting a new website from scratch and looking for a bargain, this is your first choice.

Hosting plans start at $ 1.99 per month on a 36 month contract.

Even with such a low adoption rate, the plan is full of features. Here's a quick rundown of what comes with your subscription:

  • Free domain registration
  • Free email address
  • Free SSL Certificate
  • Free website builder
  • Free domain transfers
  • Free WordPress Tools
  • Free SiteLock security scans
  • Google Ads credit of $ 100
  • $ 100 Bing Ad Credits
  • Unlimited number of domains
  • Thousands of free templates
  • 24/7 phone and live chat support

iPage is even optimized for ecommerce websites, making it a popular choice for online stores for beginners. The plans are backed by a 30-day money-back guarantee. So you have a month to try iPage risk-free.

# 3 – Bluehost Review – The Best Value In Web Hosting

Bluehost is one of the most popular providers in the web hosting industry. They supply more than 2 million locations worldwide.

Bluehost shared hosting plans start at $ 3.95 per month. While this entry-level price is a bit higher compared to other options on our list, Bluehost is arguably the best host on the market today.

Personally, I'd rather pay a few extra dollars a month for quality. If you fall into the same category, Bluehost is perfect for you. This is also my first choice for anyone starting a new website from scratch. With Bluehost, you can easily bundle your web hosting with a single provider domain registration.

Other features and benefits of Bluehost are:

  • 24/7 customer support
  • Free domain name for one year
  • Recommended by WordPress since 2005
  • Automatic WordPress installations and automatic WordPress updates
  • Free SSL Certificate
  • Bandwidth not measured

Bluehost is also built to scale. As your website gets more traffic and requires additional requirements, this hosting provider will make it easier for you to grow.

All Bluehost web hosting plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee. So you can try it out with no risk.

# 4 – A2 Hosting Review – The Best in Customer Service

A2 hosting is synonymous with speed. With turbo servers, more resources, and extra performance, they offer some of the fastest page load times in the hosting industry.

A2 joint plans start at $ 2.99 per month. However, you will need to upgrade to a higher level if you want to take advantage of the fastest speeds.

While everyone is talking about the speed of A2 hosting, the customer service and support that strikes me the most stands out. All plans have features and benefits such as:

  • Free and easy site migrations
  • 24/7/365 guru support
  • Free automatic backups
  • 99.9% availability guarantee
  • Optimized for WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, OpenCart and Magento
  • Free SSL Certificate

If you're starting a new site from scratch, A2 Hosting also has site creation tools. For those of you who have hosted an existing site with another provider, A2's expert site migration team will handle the transfer for you.

Like most of the providers on our list, A2 Hosting has a 30-day money-back guarantee.

# 5 – GoDaddy Review – The Best Cheap VPS Hosting

Most people recognize GoDaddy for their domain registration services and provocative marketing campaigns. But they also play a big role in web hosting.

For those of you who have outgrown your common plan, GoDaddy offers affordable VPS hosting from just $ 4.99 per month.

This rate is closer in price to most shared hosting plans than comparable third party VPS plans. It's worth noting that GoDaddy's self-managed VPS plans aren't really intended for beginners. These plans are aimed at developers, designers, and system administrators who want complete control over their hosting environment.

All VPS plans include:

  • Root access to configure your server requirements at the operating system level
  • Monitoring and notification alarms for server and performance (CPU, RAM, memory)
  • Extended DDoS protection and free SSL certificate
  • Easy to scale and increase RAM, CPU and storage
  • Ability to choose your data center
  • Automated weekly backups
  • Ability to create unlimited hosting accounts
  • Optional cPanel / WHM + installation
  • Unlimited traffic with a 99.9% availability guarantee

If you're a beginner starting a new website from scratch, look elsewhere. But tech-savvy people with hosting experience can definitely benefit from GoDaddy's affordable VPS plans.

# 6 – HostGator Review – The Best Cheap Cloud Hosting

As mentioned earlier, cloud hosting is an inexpensive alternative to VPS hosting. So if your website has too much traffic for a shared plan, but you don't want to spend a fortune upgrading to a VPS, HostGator has affordable cloud plans to choose from.

From just $ 4.95 per month, you won't find a better deal with such a reputable provider.

Some notable highlights of HostGator's cloud plans include:

  • Up to 2x faster and 4x more resources than common plans
  • Free domain registration
  • Free SSL Certificate
  • Scale your resources on demand without migrations, downtime or reboots
  • Easy setup with a powerful dashboard to manage your website
  • Integrated caching
  • Data mirroring
  • Automated failover (to avoid downtime)

At such a low price, you can even consider a HostGator cloud plan if you're starting a new website from scratch. It's the perfect combination of performance and value.

Summary

If you are looking for cheap web hosting, choosing a common plan from one of the recommended providers in the list above is your best option. These start at just $ 0.99 per month.

Some of you may be looking for something more than an entry-level option. If you fall into this category, there are some inexpensive VPS and cloud plans to consider as well.

As long as you follow the buying guide resources and tips outlined in this guide, you will have no problem finding what you need.

COMMENTS