11 Cheapest Web Hosting Services Of 2024
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Website hosting and upkeep can be costly, but there are plenty of reliable budget-friendly options available as well. In this guide, we’ll feature the best cheap web hosting services in 2024.
Forbes Advisor compared the best web hosting providers and found 11 great options that balance performance with affordability. If budget isn’t an issue, check out our guide to the best web hosting services overall.
- Featured Partners
- Best Cheap Web Hosting Services Of 2024
- MochaHost
- HostGator
- MilesWeb
- GreenGeeks
- Namecheap
- DreamHost
- Bluehost
- Stablehost
- Interserver
- IONOS
- Hostinger
- Featured Partners
- Comparison Of Cheapest Web Hosting Services
- Methodology: How We Select Cheap Web Hosting Services
- What Is Web Hosting?
- How Does Web Hosting Work?
- How To Choose the Best Cheap Web Host
- Premium vs. Affordable Web Hosts
- Watch Out for Changing Terms
- Customer Support
- Ease of Setup
- Server Location
- Free Trials and Money-Back Guarantees
- What Does Web Hosting Cost?
- Promotional vs. Renewal Costs
- How To Reduce Your Hosting Cost
- Paid Hosting Alternative: Consider a Website Builder
- Next Up In Business
Featured Partners
1
BlueHost
Price per month
INR 169 onwards
Features
Affordable hosting plan, free domain name, free CDN
Free trial
30 days
2
IONOS Hosting
Average Uptime
99.9%
Price starts from
INR 82/month ($1)
Features
Free domain, free SSL certificate, daily backups
3
DreamHost
Starting at
INR 216/month ($2.59) with WordPress pre-installed & Free SSL certificate available
Uptime guarantee
100%
Customer service
24/7 support
4
Hostgator
Price starts from
INR 219/month ($2.64/month) onwards
Uptime guarantee
99%
Benefits
Free SSL and domain for 1st year
Best Cheap Web Hosting Services Of 2024
- MochaHost: Best overall
- HostGator: Best for Existing Sites
- MilesWeb: Best for Simple Websites
- GreenGeeks: Best for Peace of Mind
- Namecheap: Best for Hosting Multiple Sites
- DreamHost: Best for WordPress Beginners
- Bluehost: Best for WordPress Hosting
- Stablehost: Best for New Businesses
- Interserver: Best for Unlimited Email Accounts
- IONOS: Best Introductory Pricing
- Hostinger: Best Easy-To-Use Website Builder
Featured Partners
1
BlueHost
Price per month
INR 169 onwards
Features
Affordable hosting plan, free domain name, free CDN
Free trial
30 days
2
IONOS Hosting
Average Uptime
99.9%
Price starts from
INR 82/month ($1)
Features
Free domain, free SSL certificate, daily backups
3
DreamHost
Starting at
INR 216/month ($2.59) with WordPress pre-installed & Free SSL certificate available
Uptime guarantee
100%
Customer service
24/7 support
4
Hostgator
Price starts from
INR 219/month ($2.64/month) onwards
Uptime guarantee
99%
Benefits
Free SSL and domain for 1st year
Comparison Of Cheapest Web Hosting Services
Methodology: How We Select Cheap Web Hosting Services
To find the best cheap web hosting services of 2024, we looked at a variety of factors, including price, features, uptime and customer service. We also compared features such as term length, storage, bandwidth, response time and whether a free domain name is included. After comparing these data points, we looked at real customer reviews to see if experiences live up to marketing hype.
Here’s a quick glance at the various factors we considered in our evaluation:
- Pricing, including pricing for introductory rates and renewal rates
- Key features, such as storage and bandwidth
- Freebies and inclusions, such as a free domain, SSL certificate and business email
- Customer reviews
- Money-back guarantees
- Uptime guarantees
- Number of sites
- Customer support
Most plans should cost a few dollars per month, offer 24/7 support, a money-back guarantee, an uptime guarantee and provide domain names (preferably for free or at a very low cost).
What Is Web Hosting?
Web hosting is a service that provides businesses and individuals with servers to store their website and its related data, such as images, documents, videos and more. Web hosting services provide users with access to their website through the internet. Websites are hosted on computers called servers, which are connected to the internet. The hosting company provides an interface and technical support to manage the server so that users don’t have to worry about any of the technical aspects.
How Does Web Hosting Work?
Hosting works by storing a website’s data on a server that is connected to the internet. When someone visits the website, they can access the data stored on the server. The hosting company’s user-friendly interface and accessible technical support ensure that users are freed from the burden of having to manage any of the server’s complex components.
The hosting company also maintains and updates the server, ensuring that it runs smoothly and efficiently. This helps ensure that the website runs without any issues. Additionally, web hosting companies provide security measures to protect data from malicious attacks, and may also offer additional services such as domain name registration, email hosting and SEO support.
How To Choose the Best Cheap Web Host
Our list of the best cheap web hosting companies focuses on monthly cost, term lengths and overall value. You should keep a few factors in mind when you’re choosing the best host for your website, cheap or otherwise.
Unlimited vs. Unmetered Storage and Bandwidth
Web hosting services seem to shift between unlimited and unmetered in regard to storage and bandwidth, with little explanation. If you read the fine print of the Terms and Conditions from each host, you’ll usually find the answer.
If your storage is unlimited, it often comes with conditions. For example, if you use too many resources on a shared server, as it relates to others on the server, the web host may ask you to remove files from your site.
Unmetered bandwidth usually means that the hosting company isn’t paying much attention to your site visitor numbers, but if it goes above a certain amount, say, 300,000 in a month, the host may ask you to upgrade to a virtual private server (VPS).
Companies Can Change Terms
Even when you find a web host that promises 100% uptime, unlimited storage or INR 80 per month, it can change the terms at any time. It’s a good idea to read any changes a web host makes to its policies to make sure it’s still a good fit for your website needs.
Server Uptime
It’s common to see 99.90% to 100% uptime in web host marketing. What difference does 0.10% make? First, those uptime guarantees don’t apply to scheduled downtime for maintenance. If you notice your site is down, but the web host let you know it was going to happen, it doesn’t count. Unplanned downtime is when hosting companies scramble to get service back up because otherwise, they owe a lot of people free months.
If your website is up only 99.90% of the time, it’s about the equivalent of 44 minutes of downtime per month. Bump that uptime to 99.99% of the time, and you might have four minutes or so of downtime per month.
Does Server Location Matter?
Server location can impact the speed of one’s website for some users. If you have a bakery in Chicago, most of your site visitors are likely to be local, so you would want to choose a host with servers in the central United States. Server location shouldn’t impact search engine optimization (SEO), so it shouldn’t affect your ranking in search engines. Some experts disagree, though, and believe server location can affect rankings.
Inode Limits
If you’re doing your due diligence, you might have noticed the word inodes in a web hosting company’s policies. An inode is a data structure that includes all the attributes of a file. It includes information about a file or directory, such as file name, permissions and time of last change. Sometimes web hosts won’t limit storage, but will limit the number of inodes (HostGator limits inodes to 100,000 for shared plans).
Watch Out for Changing Terms
Be sure to read the fine print of any web hosting company’s terms of service. Many companies will change their terms over time, and some of those changes could have an impact on your website. For example, a company could change its policy on unlimited storage and bandwidth to limit the amount of storage and bandwidth you can use.
Additionally, some companies will change their terms to allow themselves to increase prices after you’ve signed up for service. Be sure to read the terms of service carefully and pay attention to any changes that are made.
Customer Support
When you’re choosing a web hosting company, customer support is an important factor to consider. If you have a problem with your website, you’ll want to be able to contact customer support and get help resolving the issue.
Be sure to read customer reviews of web hosting companies to get an idea of their customer support. You can also test out a company’s customer support by contacting it with a question before you sign up for service.
Make sure the company you choose has customer support that is available 24/7. You never know when you’ll need to contact customer support, and you don’t want to have to wait for a response. Additionally, make sure the company offers multiple ways to contact customer support, such as by phone, email and live chat. This will give you the flexibility to choose the best method for you.
Ease of Setup
When you’re choosing a web hosting company, you’ll want to make sure the company offers easy setup and use. You don’t want to sign up for a company that is difficult to use or set up. Be sure to read customer reviews of web hosting companies to get an idea of their ease of use. You can also test out a company’s control panel to see how easy it is to use.
Server Location
The location of the server can affect the speed and performance of your website. If the server is in a different country than your target audience, it can take longer for your website to load, or your audience may not be able to access your website at all. For these reasons, it’s important to choose a web hosting company with servers located in the same country as your target audience.
Additionally, if you’re targeting a global audience, you’ll want to choose a web hosting company with servers located in multiple countries. This will ensure that your website is accessible to as many people as possible.
Free Trials and Money-Back Guarantees
A free trial can be a great way to test out a web hosting company before you commit to paying for service. Be sure to read the terms of the free trial carefully, as some companies will require you to enter a credit card number.
Additionally, many web hosting companies offer money-back guarantees. This means you can sign up for service and get a refund if you’re not satisfied. Be sure to read the terms of the money-back guarantee carefully, as some companies will only refund your money if you cancel within a certain period of time.
What Does Web Hosting Cost?
When it comes to web hosting, the cost can vary greatly depending on the type of hosting you need. Shared hosting is usually the most affordable option, but it can also be the least reliable. This is because your website will be hosted on a server with other websites, meaning the performance of your website can be impacted by the performance of other websites.
Dedicated hosting is more expensive but offers better performance and reliability. Dedicated hosting means that your website is the only one hosted on a server, so you don’t have to worry about the performance of other websites impacting yours.
Cloud hosting is also an option and can offer more flexibility than dedicated hosting, but it typically costs more than shared or dedicated hosting.
No matter what type of hosting you choose, be sure to compare the features and prices of different web hosting companies before making your decision. This will help you find the best deal for your budget. And remember: Choosing a web hosting company with excellent customer service and reliable servers can be worth the extra cost.
Sample shared hosting introductory pricing
Promotional vs. Renewal Costs
The cost of web hosting can vary depending on the company you choose and the features you need. Most companies offer promotional pricing for new customers. Read the terms of the promotional pricing carefully, as some companies will require you to sign up for a long-term contract to get the promotional price. Compare the promotional price to the company’s regular price to make sure you’re getting a good deal.
Many companies will increase the price of your web hosting when you renew your service. Be sure to compare the renewal price to the promotional price to make sure you’re getting a good deal.
The cost of web hosting can also vary depending on the type of web hosting you choose. Shared web hosting, for example, is typically less expensive than VPS or dedicated web hosting.
How To Reduce Your Hosting Cost
There are a few things you can do to reduce the cost of web hosting.
First, try to sign up for a longer-term contract. Many companies will give you a discount if you sign up for 12 months or more of service.
Second, try to find a company that offers discounts for paying upfront. Many companies will give you a discount if you pay for 12 months or more of service upfront.
Third, you can try to find a company that offers a free trial. This will allow you to test out the company’s service before you commit to paying for it. Finally, you can try to negotiate a lower price with the company. If you’re bringing over multiple websites, the company may be willing to give you a lower price.
Paid Hosting Alternative: Consider a Website Builder
If you only need a basic, one-page sales funnel or website, you may want to consider using a website builder instead of web hosting. Website builders are typically much cheaper than web hosting, and they’re much easier to use.
With a website builder, you typically get everything you need to create and launch your website in one package. This includes a domain name, website templates and hosting.
There are some downsides to using a website builder, however. The most obvious downside is that you won’t have as much control over your website. Additionally, website builders rarely offer the same level of customer support as web hosting companies.
Next Up In Business
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