Best Cheap Web Hosting Services for 2024 – Reviews & Features
There are many cheap web hosting plans to pick from, but not many offer you reliability and come packed full of extras (like FREE SSL) that can help when setting up a new website.
Can’t wait around? Here’s my pick of the best cheap web hosting services that offer affordable plans with added features you won’t find in many:
- Free SSL Certificate & Free Domain
- Free Daily Backups
- Perfect for beginners & small businesses
- Plans start from $1.99*
- Easy to use interface
- Fast, reliable (100% up time) & secure servers
- Hosting: Shared, VPS, Wordpress, Cloud, Dedicated
- Unmetered Bandwidth
- Free SSL & Domain with Shared Hosting
- Dedicated Servers Available
- 24/7 Support
Like many online software you usually get what you pay for, and that can be the case when looking for the best web hosting too.
Some providers offer low costs and shite services to boot, while others like the ones listed here provide cheap web hosting price plans, which are easy on the wallet and offer a good all-round service.
I’ve narrowed down our range of inexpensive website hosting services to a few reputable companies that have impressed over the years. Let’s find out which ones made the cut and get your website online for cheap using shared hosting.
- DreamHost – cheap price plans for all
- Hostinger – absolute cheapest plan
- HostGator – best for small business with single site
- Bluehost – best all-round web host
- GreenGeeks – cheap Managed WordPress hosting
1. DreamHost – cheap price plans for all
DreamHost have some of the cheapest price plans across all of their hosting services, shared, WordPress, and VPS.
The cheapest way to launch a new website online is via their Shared hosting plans, which start from as low as $2.95 per month when you pay annually, or $2.59/ month when you pay for 3 years in advance.
That’s less than a cup of your favorite barista-style coffee.
If you’re not up for getting tied into year-long contracts or paying the full sum upfront, the DreamHost plans still come in as one of the cheapest. At $4.95 monthly, you don’t get the added benefit of a free domain for a year, but you do get reliable hosting.
That’s great for startups and freelancers looking to cut their business costs while getting all the tools and help needed to build a website.
If you pick the annual plans, you’ll get unmetered bandwidth (something that comes with all of their plans), a Free domain (for a year), a Free SSL certificate, 24/7 support, and unlimited traffic.
If that wasn’t enough, then they throw in some new tools in there for free too:
- Automated WordPress Migrations – for those who are looking to switch their WordPress site to DreamHost from other hosting companies
- WordPress Website Builder – create a new WP site using their selection of professional templates, drag-and-drop editor through their easy to use creation wizard.
Plus, you’ll get a huge 97-day money-back guarantee, letting you try out their services risk-free. If you decide that it’s not for you, you’ll get your money back without any squabbles.
If you’re creating more than one website, then their unlimited plan gives you unlimited websites with the addition of unlimited emails at your domain for $8.95 per month.
Shared hosting is great to get a new site set up and off the ground, but if you need a bit more optimization or performance, then they also have some cheap VPS hosting plans starting at $10/month for 3 year upfront payment or just $15/ month on a month to month basis.
Overall, DreamHost is the cheapest web hosting provider online, offering an above-standard service.
2. Hostinger – absolute cheapest plan
Hostinger is another highly rated hosting provider who offer some of the cheapest hosting plans online.
Without the Hostinger hosting sales, their single site shared hosting plans start from $9.49/month with a $4.99 setup fee, which is over double the cheapest month-to-month DreamHost plan.
For that, you’ll get some of the same features that DreamHost offers, including Free SSL, 24/7 support, Cloudflare protected nameservers, and a 99.9% uptime guarantee.
Unfortunately, you don’t get unlimited bandwidth or unmetered traffic, but you’ll easily be able to upgrade your shared hosting plan if the 100GB bandwidth becomes an issue.
If you’re thinking that Hostinger web hosting plans don’t seem cheap for what you get, wait for it. With their current sale price, you can get a whole month’s hosting for $1.39. Now that’s nearly half of the cheapest DreamHost plan.
The catch is you’ll have to sign up in advance for a 4-year (48-month contract), which equates to just $66.72 ($80.06 with taxes) for 4 years of budget hosting for a single website. Not too shabby.
Is it worth it? If you’re just starting out blogging as a side business and want to save some cash in the long run, then grabbing these kinds of deals are well worth it.
Even at the $80 mark for 4 years (just $20 a year) is a cheap hosting plan which guarantees 99.9% uptime and comes with a free SSL. It’ll get you online quickly, cheaply, and that 100GB bandwidth will give you some room to grow.
If you sign up for their shared hosting and find out it’s for you within the first 30 days; then you can get your money back thanks to their 30-day money-back refund policy.
3. Hostgator – best for small business with single site
Hostgator is another well-known hosting company that offers competitive hosting plans.
Their single website Hatchling plan comes in as their cheapest shared hosting plan, offering impressive features for just $2.75 per month.
You’ll get unmetered bandwidth, unmetered SSD storage, Free SSL, Free Domain (for one year), one-click WordPress installs, 24/7 support, and get to use their custom Website Builder for free.
If you have an existing site hosted elsewhere, you’ll also get free website and domain transfers and MySQL transfers, letting your current site stay up and running and transferring smoothly.
HostGator hosting don’t stop there with the features. You get hosting with a free email address and give you $150 advertising credit for Google Ads (restricted to US & Canada) and $100 for Microsoft advertising. Subject to terms and conditions, of course.
If you need to host more than one website for just a few extra dollars per month, you’ll get everything you get in their basic plan, with the ability to host unlimited websites.
It’s just their Business Plan that adds a free dedicated IP and Free Positive SSL upgrade.
Overall, HostGator packages come filled with extras from the start, which you’ll have to pay for with other service providers. If you’re looking to cut your current hosting costs, their free migration tool certainly comes in handy.
Like Hostinger, you’ll get to try them risk-free with their 45-day money-back guarantee.
4. Bluehost – best all-round web hosting provider
When it comes to cheap shared hosting plans, Bluehost is a familiar name that you’ve probably already heard of if you’ve been doing your research.
Their most basic single site shared hosting plan comes in at $2.95/month on a 36-month contract or $4.95 on a 12-month contract.
Unfortunately, unlike many other hosting providers like DreamHost, Bluehost doesn’t offer a monthly hosting package. Instead, you’re going to have to pay out a whole year or three years’ worth of hosting costs upfront.
This is how Bluehost can afford to give you those comparatively low starting prices.
For those low prices you’ll get:
- 50GB SSD
- Unmetered Bandwidth
- Up to 20 MySQL Databases
- Free Domain (for 1 year)
- up to 25 sub-domains
- Drag & Drop Website Builder
- 24/7 customer support
For a few extra bucks per month, you can unlock unlimited websites, unlimited storage, unlimited databases, and unlimited sub-domains. This gives you the chance to use whatever CMS you like and host more sites still for a cheap price.
Like most companies, you will want to watch out for the renewal prices after your contract ends. These can dramatically rise, and Bluehost’s basic plan goes from $2.95/month to $8.99/month on their 36-month contract.
At that point, it could be good to find a new hosting provider with free migrations thrown in so you can continue to get a good deal on your hosting costs.
When it comes to hosting, it pays to shop around, rarely do you get loyalty prices.
Overall, Bluehost offers some great deals on hosting and buying domains, SEO services, Site Migrations, Content Creation, and Advertising.
Time to see what they can offer you.
5. GreenGeeks – cheap managed WordPress hosting
If you’re looking to setup and run a WordPress website then GreenGeeks and their managed WordPress Hosting plans starting at just $2.49 per month are one to consider.
GreenGeeks servers use 100% renewable energy and are not only fast and secure but also eco-friendly, letting help keep your business cut their carbon emissions and save the planet at the same time.
They are one of the cheapest environmentally friendly hosting companies, but their services come packed to the brim with features.
The Lite plan at $2.49/month for a single site, gives you:
- 50GB SSD
- Unmetered bandwidth
- Free WordPress Install
- Free WordPress Migration (if needed)
- Free SSL Certificate
- Free Backups
- Free Cloudflare CDN
- SP-CLI & SSH Access
- Buil-in Caching
- Unlimited Databases
- Free Domain (for 1 year)
- Automatic WordPress Updates
That’s a whole load of free features for as much as the price of most regular shared hosting plans, let alone one that is managed and allows you SSH Access and updates your CMS for you, automatically keeping your website secure at all times.
GreenGeeks WordPress servers are optimized for use with WordPress CMS, which lets you get the fast page-speed load times you need to get noticed, climb the rankings and get more traffic.
Which cheap hosting is best?
Choosing the right web hosting company isn’t easy. Most offer the same features at comparative prices, and given the advancements in technology, their servers are very reliable.
If you’re after the best cheap web hosting plan on a month-to-month no-contract basis, then DreamHost is your best bet, whether you’re in the UK, Canada, USA, or Australia.
They have a comprehensive list of features at affordable web hosting costs for startups and freelancers. They offer other services, like domain registrar, design, digital marketing, website management, and custom web development for extra prices, of course.
If you’re looking to use the WordPress content management system to build your new website, GreenGeeks offers some impressive features, plus their servers have 100% eco-friendly running costs.
Overall you’re going to need to figure out what you need from your hosting solution and what your projected use and traffic of your website are going to be.
If you’re just starting out and don’t expect a huge amount of traffic, perhaps shell out for Hostinger’s cheapest offer. For those without much technical knowledge, maybe try a cheap Managed Hosting plan instead, where you’ll get the benefits of security updates and most of the tech stuff sorted for you.
For me, DreamHost offers the overall best cheap web hosting service at the best prices.
- Easy to use interface
- Fast, reliable (100% up time) & secure servers
- Hosting: Shared, VPS, Wordpress, Cloud, Dedicated
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