How Much Does It Cost to Get a Website Hosted?
Website hosting typically costs between $1.99 and $15/month for most personal sites and small businesses, but the type of hosting you choose — and when you renew — changes that number significantly.
Pricing by Hosting Type
Shared Hosting: $1.99–$10/month
The cheapest option and the right starting point for blogs, portfolios, and small business sites. Your site shares a server with many others, which keeps costs low but limits performance under heavy traffic.
VPS Hosting: $5–$80/month
You get a dedicated slice of a server's resources, isolated from other users. Good for growing sites, online stores, or anyone who's outgrown shared hosting's performance ceiling.
Cloud Hosting: $10–$100+/month
Resources scale automatically with traffic spikes, so you only pay more when you actually need more. Popular for sites with unpredictable or seasonal traffic.
Dedicated Hosting: $80–$500+/month
An entire physical server reserved for you alone. Overkill for most websites, but standard for large-scale applications and high-traffic platforms.
The Renewal Price Trap
Almost every host advertises an introductory price that only applies to your first billing term — often requiring you to prepay 1–3 years upfront. When that term ends, renewal prices commonly jump 2–4x the advertised rate. A plan that looked like $2.95/month can renew at $9.99/month or higher. Always check the renewal price before signing up, not just the headline number.
What's Usually Included (and What Costs Extra)
- Free SSL certificate — standard with nearly every host in 2026. Avoid any provider still charging for this.
- Free domain — often included for the first year only; renews at $10–$20/year after.
- Site migration — free with many hosts, but some charge $100–$200 if you're switching providers.
- Backups — daily backups should be included; some budget hosts charge extra or only offer weekly backups.
How to Get the Best Value
Don't choose based on the lowest introductory price alone. Compare the renewal price, what's actually included, and real performance data. Our active hosting coupons can also knock a meaningful amount off your first term, and our comparison tool lets you see exact pricing for multiple providers side-by-side before you commit.