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| $/mo intro ▲ | Host | Best for | Type | Sites | Storage | Perks | Renews at |
|---|
How we rank. "Cheapest to start" sorts by the intro price billed annually, what most sites show you. "Cheapest over 2 years" is the honest number: year one at the intro price plus year two at the renewal price, averaged to a monthly figure. That's where hosts with a huge renewal jump (marked in orange or red) fall down the list, the renewal-trap hall of shame includes IONOS (×12), SiteGround (×6) and GreenGeeks (×4.7). Filter to No renewal trap to see only the flat-rate honest hosts (InterServer, Contabo, the managed and cloud hosts), or Free domain for the ones bundling a year's domain. There are even free static hosts (Cloudflare Pages, GitHub Pages, Netlify, Vercel) if you only need a fast site, no database. Prices are indicative USD, checked periodically, confirm both figures on the host's site.
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Common questions
Why is my hosting renewal so much more expensive?
Hosts advertise a low intro rate for your first term to win the signup, then renew at the standard price, often 2-4× higher. The intro price is a hook, not the ongoing cost.
What's the real cost of cheap web hosting?
Average year one (intro) with year two (renewal). A host at $2.99 that renews at $17.99 really costs about $10.49/mo over two years, far more than one renewing at $7.99.
Which host is cheapest long term?
Sort by true 2-year cost, not intro. Hosts with a small intro-to-renewal gap (Namecheap, DreamHost) usually win long term even if another looks cheaper on day one.
Can I avoid the renewal increase?
Lock in the longest term at the intro rate (often up to 4 years) to delay the jump, or migrate to a fresh intro elsewhere. Flat-rate hosts like Cloudways and Kinsta never jump.