If you are just starting up an e-commerce business website, want to put out your own blog, or want to run a micro-business, you don’t want the cost and hassle of running your own web servers. Fortunately, you can get your new website hosted for very little money or even for free. 

Hosting plans include website builders, email accounts with the same domain name as the website, storage space for web pages, documents, and media files, and security certificates.

Setting up a website and getting it hosted can be very easy but there are many hosting companies out there and each has several hosting plans. Reading through all the website hosting options will take a very long time, so we have done all of the legwork for you. This hosting review is a roundup of the best cheap web hosting plans. Reducing your search for a web hosting service to just these recommended cheap hosting providers will save you a lot of time.

Why you need cheap web hosting

Don’t opt for the first web hosting company that you see in search engine results pages. Some web hosting companies spend a lot of money on advertising and tricks to get themselves to the top of search results. They go to this great expense because they want to win customers who don’t bother to compare prices. So, just by picking the first web hosting plan that you find, you could be paying over the odds.

Website hosting is an overhead. Successful business owners know that reducing costs is the best way to reduce your prices and make your business more competitive. If you are a small business or a startup, you need to use every advantage you can get in order to compete with the big players. Squeezing costs and reducing your prices gives you a competitive advantage.

Prioritizing cheap web hosting isn’t a matter of being miserly – it will simplify your business by removing all of the infrastructure management tasks and all of the related costs. Web hosting companies save you a lot of time and money and cheap web hosting saves you even more money.

Check out our roundup of the Best Web Hosting Providers for Small Businesses

When you need cheap web hosting

The need to look for a cheap web hosting solution is most obviously needed by those starting up a new e-commerce enterprise, or when existing businesses add on new websites. However, companies that already operate websites and run their own web servers should also consider switching to cheap web hosting.

Web hosting plans are a long-running form of “software as a service” (SaaS) — an infrastructure strategy that many big businesses utilize. It includes all of the services, software, storage space, hardware, and a support team needed to run a website. With cloud-based services, the rest of the IT industry is starting to catch up with web hosting services.

How to choose a cheap web hosting plan

Before starting your search for web hosting plans, write down a checklist of what you need to be included. Then, when you start to examine the hosting plans and hosting features of each web hosting company, run through your checklist and exclude any service that doesn’t include all of your requirements.

Do you need email accounts with your website’s domain name? Should you expect unlimited domains, unlimited bandwidth, unlimited email accounts, or unlimited storage? Are you looking for WordPress hosting? Do you need a service that includes a web application firewall (or even just a regular firewall)?

If you don’t list your minimum requirement before starting your search, you might overlook some essential web hosting services when you read through the cheap web hosting plans and sign up for a system that doesn’t meet all of your needs.

One important offer to look for in a hosting plan is a money-back guarantee. You can’t expect to be able to cancel your plan and get all of your money back after you have been using it for a while. However, if you find that your chosen hosting plan doesn’t have an essential web hosting service that you forgot to put on your shortlist, the ability to change your mind and cancel your order is a big help. Also, a money-back guarantee is a good sign that a web hosting company is confident that new customers will be happy with the service.

What do these website hosting terms mean?

You are going to encounter a lot of jargon when you read through descriptions of each hosting plan. If you are new to IT, you will need to know what those terms mean. Here is a list of the most important terms that are frequently used when describing hosting plans.

• CDN: Content distribution network; hosts files at several data centers around the world to speed up delivery. Rarely included in cheap web hosting plans.
• Cloudflare: A provider of DDoS protection, which many web hosting providers offer as a paid add-on to a hosting package.
• Cloud hosting: This means that the website is stored on a remote server accessible from the web. All website hosting providers implement cloud hosting.
• CMS: Content management system; an environment that enables web pages to be developed and organized. It usually includes an editor and an image management library. Examples include WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla.
• cPanel: A front end for web site management, which is a control panel. Enables website owners to organize the site without needing to go down to the operating system. Runs on Linux hosts.
• DDoS protection: Prevents a distributed denial-of-service attack (DDoS). DDoS attacks are automated and common. They will make your site temporarily unavailable.
• Dedicated server: A dedicated server is a leased web hosting service where the customer gets control of an entire server. This gives the customer access to the operating system and the duty of installing and maintaining all software on it.
• Domain: The address of a website. This is the part that end in .com, .co.uk, or .ca, for example mysite.com. Some hosting packages include a free domain name.
• FTP: The File Transfer Protocol. You will upload and download files to your site with FTP. FTP can also be used to deliver files to site visitors. All cheap web hosting plans should include FTP.
• HTML: The Hypertext Markup Language; all web pages are delivered in HTML.
• HTTP: The Hypertext Transfer Protocol; the standard that all web browsers and web servers use to communicate with each other. HTTP is not secure and so you should use HTTPS instead.
• HTTPS: The Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure; a secure version of HTTP in which all transfers are encrypted. Requires an SSL certificate.
• Linux: The operating system of the host. Your own computer does not need to have the same operating system as the web host that you choose.
• Managed hosting: The customer leases a dedicated server but pays a fee to the web hosting provider to perform all installation and software maintenance tasks.
• MySQL: A database system that includes a user-friendly front end.
• PHP: A scripting language frequently used to generate web pages.
• Plesk: A web hosting front-end control panel that runs on Linux or Windows servers. Provides all of the administrative operations that a website owner needs.
• Shared plan: A shared hosting plan puts several customers on the same server. Each customer is allocated a separate segment of disk space and it isn’t possible for one user to get access to the disk space of another. This is a good option for cheap web hosting but it can have slow load times.
• SSD: Solid-state drive; reliable disk storage medium.
• SSL certificate: A security feature needed to get an HTTPS website. Most web hosting plans include a free SSL certificate.
• Subdomain: The first part of a domain name before the first dot. For example, “www” in www.mysite.com is a subdomain. Can create shortcuts to deep directories, seeming to create new site names from one single domain.
• Uptime: The period that a website is live and accessible from around the world.
• VPS hosting: Virtual private server; a segment of disk space and server resources on a cloud server that makes it seem as though you have exclusive access to your own server.

Now you understand the terminology, it is time to start looking for a cheap web hosting plan.

The best cheap web hosting plans

Not everyone has the same requirements from a website hosting service, so it isn’t possible to decide on the best cheap web hosting plan that is suitable for all. Therefore, we have put together a list of the top cheap web hosting plans. By looking through the web hosting services on this list, you will be able to find a web hosting provider and a cheap web hosting plan that suits you best.

1. Bluehost
2. Hostinger
3. GoDaddy
4. A2 Hosting
5. iPage
6. Blogger.com (Google)

You can read more about each of these website hosting packages in the following sections.

Bluehost

Bluehost currently hosts 2 million websites. It offers a shared hosting plan, a VPS hosting package, and a dedicated server hosting account. Each hosting plan has several web hosting service levels. The company offers a special range of WordPress hosting plans and has an eCommerce plan that includes the WooCommerce CMS software. Sites that don’t use either of these CMS packages can get set up quickly with an automated installer and manage their sites with the cPanel control panel. All plans include a free domain name and a free SSL certificate. The dedicated server customers get a support team to help manage their websites.

Pros

• Unlimited bandwidth with higher web hosting service levels
• Unlimited SSD storage space with higher web hosting service levels
• Unlimited subdomains with higher web hosting service levels
• Free SSL certificate
• 24/7 customer support
• WordPress hosting
• Cloudflare CDN available as a paid addon
• 30-day money-back guarantee

Cons

• You must pay upfront for three years’ service for cheapest web hosting prices
• Email accounts are a paid addon
• Doesn’t publish an uptime guarantee
• Free domain names are only free for the first year

See the full review of Bluehost here.

Hostinger

Hostinger is an employee-owned web hosting company and it has been offering hosting plans since 2004. The very low price of its starter plan makes it the best cheap hosting option for those with very little money.

The web hosting provider offers four plans, all of which include a free SSL certificate. The entry-level plan, called Single Web Hosting is just for one website. IT includes one email account and imposes limits on storage space and bandwidth. The other three hosting plans all include unlimited email accounts, unlimited bandwidth, unlimited storage space, and host an unlimited number of websites. Those three higher hosting plans also include a free domain name and daily backups.

Pros

• Unlimited bandwidth on all higher plans
• Unlimited Email Accounts (except for the Single Web Hosting plan)
• Unlimited storage space on higher plans
• Proprietary control panel
• Free SSL certificate
• Cloudflare CDN paid option
• 99.9% uptime guarantee
• 30-day money-back guarantee
• 24/7 customer support

Cons

• No free website builder
• WordPress costs extra

See the full review of Hostinger here.

GoDaddy

GoDaddy is mainly a domain name supplier. It offers website hosting as an addon to those buying domain names and it also offers hosting plans for those who already have a domain name. GoDaddy isn’t the cheapest web host around but is it the best web hosting service for attracting first time eCommerce entrepreneurs because it dominates the domain name market and it includes a free website builder. The proprietary control panel is very easy to use and the system includes templates, wizards, and video guides to make creating a website easy.

Pros

• Free domain name with every plan
• WordPress hosting plan available
• Shared hosting plan available
• Dedicated server plan available
• VPS hosting plan available
• 24/7 customer support
• Choice of Linux or Windows Servers
• Uptime guarantee of 99.9%

Cons

• Complicated range of hosting options
• The sales website can lead you into a plan without a detailed explanation
• Cancellation window is only 48 hours

See the full review of GoDaddy here.

A2 Hosting

A2 Hosting offers shared hosting, VPS hosting, and dedicated server hosting plans. The web hosting provider includes unlimited SSD storage space (except for the Startup plan), a free SSL certificate, and unlimited email accounts. A2 Hosting includes the cPanel control panel, Cloudflare CDN, and DDoS protection for free with all of its shared hosting plans and gives unmanaged and managed options for its VPS and dedicated server plans. The best cheap hosting options offered by A2 Hosting are those available with the shared hosting plans, which also include a free website builder.

Pros

• Unlimited SSD storage space (except for on the starter plan)
• Unlimited email accounts
• High speeds and unlimited bandwidth
• Free website builder
• Free SSL certificate
• WordPress hosting option
• Drupal and Joomla hosting options
• Anytime money-back guarantee
• 99.9% uptime guarantee
• 24/7 customer support

Cons

• Complicated menu of hosting options

See the full review of A2 Hosting here.

iPage

The iPage website hosting service includes a free domain name, a free SSL certificate, a free website builder, and a free unlimited email accounts for all of its web hosting plans. The low price of this web hosting service makes it the provider of some of the cheapest plans in the industry.

Extras included with a web hosting plan from iPage include security features, such as regular SiteLock scans. The hosting plans of iPage are a web hosting plan, a WordPress hosting plan, a VPS hosting plan, and a dedicated server hosting plan. The cheapest plan is the web hosting option, which is a shared plan.

Pros

• Unlimited disk space
• Unlimited email accounts
• MySQL databases
• Free domain name
• Free website builder
• Free SEO analytical tools
• Easy-to-use control panel
• 30-day money-back guarantee
• 24/7 phone and chat customer support

Cons

• The WordPress hosting plan is more expensive than a web hosting plan

See the full review of iPage here.

Blogger.com (Google)

Bloggers can get free cloud hosting from Google at the Blogger.com platform. If you don’t intend to run a business from your website and just want to publish information, you don’t need to run your own website. The Blogger.com platform includes all hosting features and it is free. Rather than giving you access to a website storage space through a control panel, this service is a CMS, similar to WordPress. 

Blogging doesn’t require much storage space, so issues such as the price or availability of space to each user in Blogger.com isn’t really relevant. As a Google product, there isn’t any human customer support, but there is an extensive knowledge base and tips and advice from thousands of sites around the web. Blogger.com gives you a free domain name, but it is actually a subdomain of the blogger.com domain name.

Pros

• Easy-to-use interface
• Free website builder with templates and wizards
• Proprietary CMS
• Free domain name as a blogger.com subdomain
• Completely free to use

Cons

• No email accounts
• No human support team
• No control panel

The best of the rest

This hosting review focuses on the five best cheap hosting plans available plus one free hosting option from Google. If you find that none of these hosting solutions suit you, you could look into these other website hosting services that nearly made it onto our list:

• HostGator
• SiteGround
• InMotion Hosting
• HostPapa
• 123 Reg