We started from scratch to find the most affordable web hosting. After building new websites for each provider, we spent weeks testing their performance, contacting customer service, and comparing prices and values. Hostinger was the most affordable web hosting. It is user-friendly, reliable, and offers great customer support. The monthly cost for one year of shared hosting starts at $3.49 month.

The Best Web Hosting Deals for the Most

Hostinger

Best for the Most

You want to get great performance and lots of features on a budget. Hostinger offers everything you need to build your website. It also provides solid site speed and an easy onboarding process at the most affordable rates. Hosting your website with Hostinger is a great way to save money.

Are you looking for the best way to create a website? Hostinger is the best. Hostinger is a host who pays attention to value and doesn’t charge a high price. This is what we mean.

It is extremely affordable, but it does not sacrifice any important features. Hosting er’s entry-level plan includes everything you need to launch your first or next website. Hostinger’s entry-level plan costs $1.99 per month and offers more features than other, more expensive hosting providers. This is our top choice because it offers the best combination of value, ease of use, and performance.

When it makes sense to go with cheap web hosting

Your online presence is built on web hosting.

You need a home for your blog, website, or ecommerce store if you want to start a new one.

There are many hosting options available. These options range from very cheap to hundreds of Dollars per month.

Shared hosting is a great option for starting new websites as it tends to be quite affordable.

When you first venture into web hosting, it is important to keep your costs down.

Once your site is gaining traction and drawing a lot of visitors, you can start to worry about more powerful options.

It is important to get started without spending too much. You may be amazed at the performance of some cheap web hosting options. This allows you to save money and not have to upgrade every time your site becomes popular.

#1 – Hostinger — Best Cheap Web Hosting for Most

Hostinger

Best for the Most

You want to get great performance and lots of features on a budget. Hostinger offers everything you need to build your website. It also provides solid site speed and an easy onboarding process at the most affordable rates. Hosting your website with Hostinger is a great way to save money.

Overall Score: 3.9/5

Hostinger offers cheap, reliable, and fast hosting. It’s a great web host, and you’ll get tons of value for your money. It is our top choice because it offers the best combination of affordability and performance.

Here are the six categories in which Hostinger ranks:

1. 5.5% up-front cost
2. Renewal rates = 5/5
3. 4.5% of the Onboarding Process
4. Website speed = 4/5
5. Customer Support = 2.67/5
6. Server uptime = 1/5

Hosting for as low as $3.49 per Month – This is less than one Starbucks latte per month. Hostinger offers exceptional value at a great price.

You get everything you need except for a domain. You will need to purchase a domain name separately. Hostinger or one of our top recommendations for domain registrars are good options.

Hostinger will charge $8.99/per year and $5/year for domain security. Protecting a domain name that you register with personal information (phone number and full name) is highly recommended. It masks your contact information in the WHOIS domain registration databases. It’s not necessary if you are registering as an individual business. Your business information is already publicly available.

All costs including domain name registration and protection for the first 12 months are only $49.87. Everything you need to get started is available for less than $50

The entry-level plan includes:

• One website

• One email address

• SSL Certificate Free

• Installation of WordPress in one click

• 24/7 customer support

You can choose a monthly plan if you don’t feel comfortable paying upfront for a whole year.

If you are thinking about monthly billing, Hostinger charges a $4.99 setup fee on month-to-month plans. The monthly rate jumps up to $9.49. This could be a good option for short-term projects. It’s cheaper to pay at least one year in advance.

Hostinger offers top benefits at a fraction of what most web hosts charge and keeps actual costs transparent. Hostinger’s clear predictability is great news for both you and your budget, especially if you are just starting.

Hostinger Renewal Rates 5/5: Hostinger offers the lowest renewal prices of all hosts that we tested. After your first year, you’ll only pay $5.99 per month (with 12 months in advance).

This means that your second-year hosting costs only $71.88. This is a great deal, as it’s less expensive than some of the other providers listed on this page.

Hostinger’s promo rates are twice as expensive, but the low initial costs mean they can offer the lowest price in both the short- and long term.

Hostinger is the right choice if you are looking for hosting that will not put you out of business with high renewal fees. Hostinger offers affordable and reliable pricing throughout the life of your account.

Onboarding Process 4/5: Hostinger’s checkout and onboarding process were easy for beginners, with clear instructions all the way. Even if you have never created a website before, you won’t be left wondering what the next step is.

It’s refreshingly easy in the otherwise complex world of web hosting. Once you have selected your plan and reviewed your options, you will be greeted by a welcome message.

Click “Start Now” to choose a theme, and begin a guided website creation process. There are many high-quality themes to choose from, but don’t waste too much time. You can always change the theme later.

Remember that functionality and layout are more important than look and feel.

Hostinger is easy to get started, just like all other things.

After clicking the button, you will be taken to your hosting dashboard. Here you can view all your plugins and manage your email. You can also add or remove domain names.

You can install WordPress in a matter of minutes and set up a theme. Basic configurations are also completed.

Hostinger will make sure that your site is functional and complete when you are done. Hostinger will guide you through the entire process. It’s almost impossible not to have a website by the time you’re done. These three steps make it easy and quick to get a website up and running in no time.

The unexpected setup fee for monthly plans costs them a point. The onboarding process itself is quite simple.

Website Speed 4/5 – Now you might be asking, “What about site speeds?” Is Hostinger fast?”

Instead of relying on third-party data, we conducted a one-month site speed test. For 30 days, we set up a demo website with a new WordPress install. We monitored the server response time at 1-minute intervals.

Our site was pinged more than 43,000 times over those 30 days to verify the server’s response speed.

We came up with a few conclusions as we analyzed the data.

• Hostinger’s average response time was 670 milliseconds–anything under a second is great

• Hostinger performed better than average among all hosts we tested at 745 ms

• We’d occasionally see spikes up to two seconds of response time. This is normal for shared hosting environments and nothing to be alarmed about

Hostinger is not the fastest host we tested but it is faster than average. Hostinger’s speeds are comparable with more expensive hosts. So why spend more for the same performance?

Given Hostinger’s rock-bottom pricing, you get exceptional speed.

Customer Support 2.67/5: Hostinger’s customer service team was contacted on three occasions to get an initial look at their customer support.

We reached out to their live chat to ask questions about security, setting up an email address for the domain, and speed. We waited for over 30 minutes before we received any reply.

Yes, we got good responses. But most providers only respond in five minutes.

Hostinger’s low customer service score is mainly due to slow response times. Hostinger support is generally willing and able to assist, but it may take a while before you get the answers to your questions.

Hostinger’s Server Uptime 1/5 – This is where Hostinger fell apart and struggled. Hostinger claims online that their uptime is 99.9%. Our research proves the contrary.

They maintained a 99.68% Uptime over 30 days. This is the lowest percentage of any other web host and had a total downtime over 2 hours 22 minutes and 22 seconds.

This is a lot of downtimes, and it’s even more if you have to wait for downtime for over 30 minutes. Hostinger was ranked only one of five in this category.

Imagine how many opportunities and visitors are lost due to prolonged downtime.

The site was also affected by 58 incidents, all of them connection timeouts. This is a very worrying result in a short time.

This is a much higher number of downtime incidents than any other provider.

Connection timeouts occur when your website attempts to access more resources than the server has available. This is a common issue with shared web hosting and can cause your browser to not be able to load the site.

High numbers of incidents are likely to indicate that either one site is hogging resources on the server or that there are too many sites.

Hostinger might not be able to allocate resources on shared servers effectively decreasing the value of cheap hosting.

Hostinger is still the best choice for web hosting because of its incredible pricing and website speed. This keeps visitors from leaving your site (as long you don’t experience server downtime), and easy website setup.

Hostinger is the cheapest hosting provider in year one and has the lowest renewal rates.

#2 – DreamHost – The Cheapest Month-to-Month Web Hosting

DreamHost

Monthly Plans at the Cheapest Prices

Are you worried about committing for a long time? DreamHost offers the best monthly payment options available on the market, with the lowest prices. Paid plans start from $4.95 per Month for one website with unlimited traffic, and there is no contract. All plans include a free SSL certificate as well as WordPress pre-installed.

Overall Score: 3.7/5

DreamHost’s no-contract monthly plans are the most affordable. The best pricing is available without taking on long-term commitments.

DreamHost is the perfect choice for those who don’t want a commitment of more than a year.

Here are the results of DreamHost in each category.

1. 5/5 for the up-front cost
2. Renewal rates = 4/5
3. 2.5% Onboarding Process
4. Website speed = 2/5
5. Customer Support = 3.3/5
6. Server uptime: 5/5

Dreamhost – 5/5 Upfront Costs – Dreamhost is the perfect choice if you are looking for huge discounts without any commitment, long-term contracts, or other unexpected fees.

There are two plans available.

Monthly plans start at $4.95 per month for hosting and $7.99 per year for domains. This will cost you $12.94 in total. It’s $4.95 for each subsequent month. After that, the price rises to $7.99 per month (more details below).

Monthly plans are risk-free and have no contracts. They also offer the lowest cost for web hosting.

You can also choose to pay $35.40 for a complete year, which is only $2.95 per month. This includes a domain name as well as the option to secure your personal information online with domain protection.

Both plans include:

• WordPress comes pre-installed so you don’t need to worry about how to install it

• If you are moving to WordPress from another host, we offer free WordPress migrations

• Privacy of your domain name is free (most companies charge an additional fee for this).

• Drag-and-drop WordPress website builders

• Support via live chat, ticketing, or phone

• Free SSL Certificate

Renewal rates 4/5 – It is common for renewal rates to be twice or three times the original promotional pricing. Providers know how difficult it can be to move from one host to the next, especially after your site has been hosted there for a long time.

Hosting companies know this and raise their renewal rates to make it more affordable. They also know that many people will be able to bear the higher prices to keep their hosts.

Dreamhost keeps the monthly plan affordable when you renew. For the first three months, the monthly plan costs $4.95 per month.

Your price goes up to $7.99 per month once your fourth billing period begins. This is a 61.4% increase but still the lowest renewal pricing increase on this list. DreamHost remains one of the most affordable and cheap hosting options.

2.5% – The checkout process was a confusing one with upsells that felt a bit pushy.

We mean that the provider includes these services automatically, even though you don’t need them. You can uncheck those boxes before you submit your payment and complete your order.

They include:

• DreamShield Protection is $3 per month. It scans your site periodically to check its reputation, and identify malicious code, outdated software, and other issues.
• DreamHost email for $1.67/month per mailbox.

The checkout process was otherwise smooth.

We received an email with four logins after we completed checkout. There was no explanation of what the logins were or why they were different. This could have been confusing if you didn’t know each one.

Here are some things you can expect.

• 1st email – Account approval notification. This contains usernames and passwords to your file transfer protocol account (FTP).

• 2nd email – DreamHost secure file transfer protocol (SFTP), username, and password (without any explanation why)

• Third email – A successful WordPress installation on your website. Eight hyperlinks are included in the email, including a login for your site, instructions for creating your website using WP website builder, DreamHost Academy, and support.

Another problem we encountered was the lack of guidance after installing WordPress. For example, how do you connect your domain to your account? Or how do you set up email if your plan includes it?

The pre-installed 15 plugins and 14 themes are completely unnecessary. The site’s speed can be affected by having too many plugins or themes installed by Dreamhost. This can be a problem for beginners and creates more work when you have to remove them.

Website Speed 2/5 – Although DreamHost does have some limitations in terms of speed, it is not the slowest.

With an average response time of 813ms, DreamHost was ranked second in our speed test over 30 days. Although it is slower than other web hosts, it still offers decent speed for a low price.

DreamHost is the best choice if the price is your main focus. It’s affordable and provides great value for what you pay each month. However, you can find other providers that offer more speed and are a bit more expensive.

Notice how there are spikes in the response time, which can reach two seconds. This is a good result, but we are only looking at daily averages.

The stretch in late May that you can see with the spikes suggests that our site took a lot longer to load. Some visitors might have had load times that were close to four seconds. This is when most visitors will bounce if you don’t load your site by then.

Consider if your visitors expected your site to load quickly. They may think that something is wrong if it takes longer than one to three seconds.

3.33/5 Customer Support – We had slow interactions with DreamHost representatives in our first and second encounters. The first rep was too salesy and did not provide any assistance.

We were told by them that we would need to upgrade to a paid security program and that that would be enough to protect the website. This is false.

The second interaction was extremely helpful and thorough. We wanted to know how to set up email accounts, but the plan that we discussed earlier doesn’t cover email. They walked us through how you can upgrade and set it up.

The evening saw our third interaction, concerning how to speed up loading speeds for our site.

We were connected immediately to a representative. After greeting us, they checked the website speed and told us it was fine.

They wanted to know if there were any questions. We explained that we are just starting and wanted more advice on optimizing before we get started.

They directed us to a support article about WordPress optimization. We were invited to contact them again if we have any questions or experience slow loading.

DreamHost Server Uptime 5/5 DreamHost offers a winning combination: 100% uptime, the best monthly pricing, and the best service. Many providers claim 99.99% uptime, but they fall short of the numbers. Our research revealed that DreamHost exceeded our expectations.

All providers had an average downtime of 26 minutes and 44 seconds. Dreamhost dominated the competition, with a tiny total downtime of just 49 seconds.

Most providers don’t guarantee 100% availability. And Dreamhost never did. The screenshot shows that they rarely had to be unavailable for our site. This means that they maintain their servers with a high level of accuracy.

The only issue was the HTTP 500 Internal Server Error, which is a generic term for server-side errors. It only lasted for 49 seconds. That was it.

DreamHost received a perfect 5/5 rating on server uptime.

These data show that even with DreamHost’s affordable shared hosting, it is possible to provide uninterrupted access for your visitors to your website.

#3 – Hostinggator — Get Paid to Promote Your New Website

HostGator

Best for Ad Credits

HostGator offers shared web hosting at a bargain price with an above-average site speed, uptime performance, and $250 in Google or Microsoft advertising credits. This allows you to drive traffic. HostGator pays you to market and launch your new website!

Overall Score: 3.6/5

HostGator offers a fantastic promotion to all newcomers who build a website on their platform. Get free Google Ads credits worth $150, and Microsoft Advertising credits worth $100

It doesn’t matter which plan you choose. Advertise your website and get paid.

HostGator has the third-lowest upfront cost option. This means you can get incredible value for a relatively low price.

Here’s what they scored on our scorecard.

1. 4.5% up-front cost
2. Renewal rates = 3/5
3. Onboarding Process = 3.5%
4. Website speed = 4/5
5. Customer Support = 3.67/5
6. Server uptime is 4/5

HostGator Upfront Cost 4/5 This company’s best feature? Their plans are transparent and upfront, so there are no hidden fees.

The initial out-of-pocket expense for hosting is $3.95 per month for 12 months. This equals $47.40 for the first year. This includes a domain name. If you require domain protection, it costs $14.95/per year. This benefit protects you from hackers and spammers online. We recommend that you always have it.

This brings the initial price of your first year to $62.35.

However, when you add in the cost of ad credits, they pay you $187.65–which is quite a bargain.

Start your new website for a profit

You can still find customers and visitors even as a beginner.

You get:

• One year domain registration free
• Install WordPress in one click
• HostGator Website Builder Free
• 45-day money-back guarantee
• Emails are free
• Positive SSL Upgrade Free

Renewal rates 3/5 – Recent research has shown that HostGator renewal pricing remains the most affordable on our list. HostGator is the best choice if you are looking for web hosting with low risk and high rewards.

The renewal fee is $8.95 per month for 12 months. This will equal $107.40 for the second year.

HostGator is one of the most affordable web hosting providers, and even though it charges more than twice the monthly price for renewals, they still manage to keep it affordable.

They are a great choice for anyone who wants to feel that they aren’t taking advantage of them because of their low prices and generous money-back guarantee.

3.5% of the Onboarding Process – There were many upsells in the initial checkout process that was designed to make you feel you needed them.

There are five total upsells. Two of these were already checked. These are not necessary, so you can uncheck them all.

We felt that the UI was modern and clean with a simple checkout process.

It was great that you can immediately go into the setup wizard after you have checked out. This eliminates a lot of the guesswork and you don’t need to wonder what’s next.

A helpful WordPress tutorial explains how to use the WordPress dashboard.

The instructions for installing WordPress stop once you’ve done that. You don’t need to connect your domain to WordPress. There are no obvious instructions.

Although we did receive an email later about the issue, we believe it should be made clearer (especially for beginners).

Website Speed 4/5 – HostGator invested in its own data centers to ensure that visitors can access your site quickly, regardless of where they are located.

Cloudflare can be used to create a Content Delivery Network (CDN) for any Hostgator plan. This allows your website’s data to be always available to visitors all over the globe.

HostGator has its global CDN, which has been repeatedly proven to be one of the most efficient networks in the sector. You can choose which one you prefer. We have not tested speeds to see which one is the fastest.

Customer Support 3.67/5 HostGator ranked right at the top of the customer support group. All three interactions were immediately connected to a representative.

The first time we spoke with them, however, we were incredibly salesy when they said, “What security features are you offering to keep my site secure?” The rep then referred us to another security expert after we asked about the free options.

Our primary thought was “Why wouldn’t they know what they can do with the plan we already have?”

It was almost as if we didn’t want to spend money. We felt like we were wasting our time.

The second interaction was a bit later in the afternoon and was very helpful. “Can you show me how to set up an account for my domain email?”

The interaction was excellent because they gave step-by-step directions on where to go and what clicks to do.

The last interaction was average. We chatted more later that evening and asked them “How can I make my website load as fast as possible?” They gave some advice but we felt they could have done more.

Hostgator offers 99.99% uptime, as advertised.

After a month of testing, uptime was 99.99%. There were only 5 minutes and 42 seconds of total downtime. Five incidents were identified that made the site unavailable.

HostGator was unable to connect to the site due to a connection refused error. This is usually an issue with the user trying the site. We then saw three HTTP 400 errors from the internal server. This is a bad request response which indicates that the server can’t or won’t process it. The last error was unknown.

You can also see that the longest period of downtime was 2 minutes and 24 seconds. Even though there was some downtime, it was very minimal. This is a good sign for a shared hosting plan from a cheap web host.

HostGator offers incredible availability and reliable service at a fraction of the cost of other providers.

#4 – WebsiteGround — The Best Way to Get the Extra Support You Want

SiteGround

Best for Extra Support

Have you ever built a website? No problem. SiteGround offers everything you need to launch a website in just a few hours.

Overall Score: 3.6/5

Many hosting companies promise the moon but they don’t always keep their word.

Not SiteGround. They provide one-on-one support to all customers and are available via phone or live chat.

SiteGround’s customer service team is made up of real people who can answer customers’ questions 24/7 in more than 10 languages. This gives them an edge over other hosting companies that rely on bots and do not have the resources to hire human staff to speak with customers.

We had a pleasant experience dealing with customer service.

Here are their results in the testing categories.

1. 3/5 for the up-front cost
2. Renewal rates = 1/5
3. Onboarding = 5/5
4. Website speed = 4/5
5. Customer Support = 5/5
6. Server uptime: 5/5

SiteGround’s up-front cost is 3/5. SiteGround is our most expensive choice for web hosting. This is the main reason why the overall score is so low.

You pay $3.99 per month for 12 months. This is equivalent to $47.88 per year of hosting.

It does not include domain names. It costs $17.95 per year if you require one. You can also add domain protection for $12/per year.

For your first year, the upfront cost is $77.83

The cheapest plan offers a wide range of features and benefits, including hands-on support.

• 10GB of storage space is plenty for new websites.
• Daily backups for in the event of an emergency
• Unlimited email accounts
• Free content delivery network (CDN).
• WordPress core and plugin updates automatically
• Free SSL Certificate

Renewal rates 1/5 – You get the same high-quality service and benefits when it is time to renew. It’s now $14.99 per month for 12 months. That comes out to $179.88 for the 2nd year of hosting. This is a 276% price increase.

It is certainly more expensive than other providers, especially if your goal is to cut down on web hosting costs and budget. SiteGround’s reliability and other benefits are, according to our experience, well worth the cost.

SiteGround’s Onboarding Process 5/5 – SiteGround has the best checkout/onboarding experience of all the companies on this list.

We received an email from the welcome team after we signed up. It detailed everything that we needed (and how to do it) to get started.

The onboarding portal was also very simple and clear.

Once you have chosen the domain, it is easy to choose between creating a new website or migrating an old one.

We were building a new site from scratch, just like many others. When we clicked that option, another screen appeared asking us to select our preferred site builder.

It’s very simple. SiteGround also makes it easy to create new web stores. SiteGround has clearly labeled and separated the WordPress + WooCommerce option.

Once you have completed the widget, you will be notified by it that your domain must be connected to the backend. Instructions are provided on how to do this.

You can also find a complete step-by-step checklist on your dashboard that will help you prepare for your website launch.

Overall, this experience was very satisfying. It’s easy to use and extremely user-friendly. Your website can be completed in less than two minutes with Woocommerce and WordPress installation.

Website Speed 4/5 Slow websites can be a problem for everyone. Website speed is crucial for SEO, conversions, and the user experience.

SiteGround’s results were the fastest in our tests of 30 days.

They respond in an average of 616 milliseconds. Your website will load almost immediately when someone visits it from Google or another search engine.

SiteGround may not be the fastest, but it is close.

SiteGround Customer Support 5/5 – SiteGround offers the best customer service across all platforms.

For every request, we were connected immediately with a representative. The longest interaction took eight minutes. Reps went beyond sending us support articles and gave us step–by–step instructions.

They were not trying to sell anything to us, and they were friendly and helpful every single time we spoke with them.

The last interaction regarding site speed was very impressive. They provided many resources and were very encouraging. They were not apathetic or made us feel silly for asking questions.

Server Uptime 5/5 SiteGround is the top-ranked server provider on this list. Tests of their availability revealed a shocking statistic: only two seconds of downtime in 30 days.

These two seconds were caused by an isolated incident (an unidentified error).

This level of reliability will make your life much easier, as you won’t have to worry about unsatisfied visitors or losing money due to downtime.

You can make your website accessible 100% of the time using SiteGround servers. Plus, you get the benefit of their amazing support and super-fast speed.

#5 – GreenGeeks – The Cheapest Web Hosting Available

GreenGeeks

Fastest Cheap Web Hosting

You can get blazing-fast site speeds (the fastest of all the hosts we tested), great customer support, and reliable uptime at a very affordable monthly price. GreenGeeks offers the best value for money and the fastest loading times while also giving back to the planet.

Overall Score: 3.4 of 5

GreenGeeks is the best choice if you are looking for raw speed at a reasonable price.

We were stunned by the GreenGeeks’ dominance in many categories during our 30-day test.

They don’t boast site speed like other providers. GreenGeeks is a great choice for a cheap web host as they can do many other things well, in addition to being lightning fast.

Let’s take a look at how GreenGeeks scored on our scorecard. 

1. 4.5% up-front cost
2. Renewal rates = 3/5
3. 2.5% Onboarding Process
4. Website speed = 5/5
5. Support for Customers = 4/5
6. Server uptime is 4/5

GreenGeeks’ upfront pricing is in the middle of other companies. It’s not the most expensive, but it’s still affordable. 

You will need to pay $4.95 per month for 12 months. This is $59.40 per annum.

This includes a domain name. Domain protection will cost $9.95. This brings the first-year hosting price down to $69.35.

GreenGeeks is in the middle of pricing. This gives you the best web host on the market, and it’s also the most affordable. 

GreenGeeks can help you beat your competitors on Google rankings and offer a better website experience than most people who use cheap web hosting plans.

The standard plan comprises:

• Free domain name
• Unlimited email accounts
• Nightly backups
• Free SSL Certificate
• Free content delivery network (CDN).
• Zero-day vulnerability fixes
• Installation of WordPress in one click
• Support is available 24/7/365 via live chat, phone, or ticket

Renewal Rates: 3/5 – For 12 months, renewals cost $10.95 per month. This totals $131.40 to host your second year. After discount pricing ends, this is a 121% price increase.

It’s the fourth most expensive option for renewal rates.

Most hosts increase the price of their hosting by only 90 to 120% when they renew. Some hosts have higher prices. Keep that in mind.

Onboarding Process 2/5: We were immediately told that there is a $29.95 setup fee for the monthly plans. This information is not found anywhere else on GreenGeeks. They lost a point because we didn’t expect this.

Although the checkout UI is dated, it’s easy to use.

We were informed that we might get a call or an email to verify the account after we signed up. This was something we didn’t expect. We don’t understand why they told us that we didn’t have to do anything to verify our account.

Once we were logged in, it was very simple and easy for beginners.

We liked the fact that you can select which plugins you want to be pre-installed rather than manually deleting them. The setup wizard by GreenGeeks was very easy.

However, there was no information about what to do once WordPress had been installed. This point was also removed.

It’s an easy onboarding process that anyone new to web hosting should be able to follow. We were surprised at the monthly setup fee and lack of clarity on the next steps, so we gave GreenGeeks a score of 3.

Website Speed 5/5 – The average response time of over 30 days was the fastest among all seven hosting providers.

It takes an average of less than half a second for your website’s respond to visitors’ requests. This is twice the speed of other hosts that we tested.

Top-of-the-line performance for shared hosting plans This is because you share a server with many other websites. This can lead to slow response times and more expensive plans to achieve this speed.

GreenGeeks is fast even on their worst days. They are quicker than other people on their best days.

This is great because it doesn’t require you to install any plugins to speed up your website. This means that you can provide great website experiences for visitors without any additional effort.

GreenGeeks Customer Support 4/5 – This is another area where GreenGeeks stands out.

We received excellent customer support from representatives who went beyond just sending us to a support page.

They were patient and helped us understand everything. They were also the only hosting provider that did not try to sell us security features to protect our site. That was very pleasant.

Two of the interactions were instant. The last interaction took only a few seconds. They’re super fast.

We had to point out that we felt a little rushed during our last interaction when we asked “How can I make my website load as quickly ?”–?” We were also advised to speak to our developer rather than offer any assistance. They ignored our request to have one and closed the chat.

GreenGeeks received a four-out-of-five customer support score for this reason.

Server Uptime 4/5: GreenGeeks’ uptime testing revealed almost 100% availability of websites hosted on their servers.

Over thirty days, the servers were down for statistically insignificant amounts of 2 minutes and 6 seconds.

At this time, we only experienced three incidents. Two connection timeouts occurred (the server took too long to respond) and one HTTP 500 error. This means that the server encountered an unexpected condition that prevented it from fulfilling the request.

It was just 1 minute 38 seconds that the longest period of downtime, which is quite remarkable.

GreenGeeks shines in this area, adding even more ingredients to their recipe for success.

You get the best possible website hosting service. GreenGeeks are worth the upfront and ongoing costs.

#6 – Bluehost — The Best Affordable Web Hosting for WordPress

Bluehost

Best for WordPress

Bluehost is among only three hosting providers that WordPress recommends. Each plan includes 24/7 customer support, one-click WordPress installation, automatic WordPress upgrades, hands-off plugin updating, custom-designed control panels, a CDN, and a domain free for the first year.

Overall Score: 2.8/5

Bluehost is a host we highly recommend for WordPress sites. It’s one among three hosts that are officially recommended by WordPress developers.

After our testing, here’s how Bluehost compares:

1. The up-front cost = 3/5
2. Renewal rates = 3/5
3. Onboarding Process = 3.5%
4. Website speed = 1/5
5. Customer Support = 3/5
6. Server uptime is 4/5

Bluehost’s Upfront Cost is 3/5 – Bluehost comes in second place on our list and it is also one of the most affordable options for those on a budget.

The upfront cost is $4.95/month or $59.40 per year.

You will receive a domain name for free, which can save you $17.99 to $29.99 per annum. Domain privacy protection protects your data on the internet. This can be added for $11.88/year. Your total annual cost is $71.28

The starter plan includes:

• One website
• 50 GB SSD storage space
• One year free domain
• Free content delivery network (CDN).
• SSL Certificate Free

Bluehost is a great choice for beginners. Bluehost offers many helpful features such as a website builder and one-click installation of plugins. They also offer 24/7 support. Bluehost is a solid choice for WordPress site builders.

It’s not the most expensive, but it earns a three out of five on our pricing scale.

Bluehost’s Renewal Rates are 3/5 – Bluehost is in the middle of all renewal rates.

You’ll be charged $9.99 per month for 12 months to renew your hosting account. This is $119.88 for the second year.

This is a 102% increase over the original promotional pricing. Despite this price increase, you still get features and benefits that you won’t find elsewhere for this price.

Bluehost’s Onboarding Process 3/5: Bluehost’s checkout process can be simple.

Bluehost’s weakest point was the number of upsells that were pre-selected.

CodeGuard Basic was $2.99/month and SiteLock Security was also $2.99/month.

The rest of the process was simple.

This guide will walk you through the steps of setting up your website from beginning to end. The guide was easy to follow for beginners, and you can skip the wizard if your site is more advanced.

There were no instructions for connecting your domain name. Bluehost has lost yet another point. It’s important to remember that connecting your domain name is what makes your website appear on the internet.

You don’t want to spend time searching for the information you need as a beginner.

Website Speed 1/5 – Bluehost failed badly in our site speed tests. The load time took a miserable 1107 minutes over 30 days.

We also saw an average load time of eight seconds at one point. This is one of only two web hosting providers that we tested for website performance.

Search engine rankings and visitor experience are heavily influenced by site speed.

It’s not the fastest site possible, but it does provide automatic WordPress installation and core updates. Your site will always run the best version of WordPress.

These automatic updates are crucial for keeping your website secure, even if you’re not there to manually update it. This allows you to get every bit of speed from your website.

Bluehost might still be a good option for you depending on what your needs are. For example, a simple blog might not experience any slowdowns. It all depends on your goals for your website.

Bluehost Customer Support 3/5 – Our experience with Bluehost’s customer support was excellent. We were connected immediately with a representative and they responded quickly.

The first interaction was salesy and pushy when we asked about security improvements.

Bluehost representatives simply copied and pasted features into chat without explaining them to us. This was very inefficient.

We were also not happy with the fact that the rep claimed that their security features are inadequate and that plugins don’t work (which is false).

Fast forward to our second interaction, when we asked for assistance setting up email. It was great, fast, easy, and friendly.

The last one was however frustrating. We asked the rep how to make my site load faster. The rep gave us lots of information that we didn’t need. They took a long time to answer our questions and none of the information helped us find a solution.

Bluehost support is very inconsistent, but it’s relatively quick compared to other options.

Server Uptime 3/5 – Every host claims to have an unbeatable uptime. It’s a common refrain. However, numbers speak louder than words. Our research revealed more concrete results.

BlueHost had an uptime of 99.95% which is quite impressive. Their servers went down for 20 minutes and 28 seconds total downtime in the last 30 days. The longest downtime was for 10 minutes and 4 seconds.

Seven incidents caused the site’s inaccessibility. These were mostly connection timeouts that caused the server to take too long to respond.

There were two SSL errors. The browser could not verify the SSL certificate, and the browser displayed a warning page that the page was unsafe to visit. This is a serious problem. It can scare visitors and cause them to form a negative opinion about your URL. This is worse than being down for any reason. Bluehost is a provider you should be aware of.

Bluehost boasts 99.9% uptime, and they deliver. This can vary with shared hosting. So be aware that your uptime can fluctuate and some months may be better than others. Bluehost offers good reliability, average pricing, and excellent support.

#7 – Hosting — Best Sites That Focus on Europe and Asia

A2 Hosting

International Audiences: Best

A2 Hosting’s data center locations in Europe and Asia will provide excellent visitor experiences for visitors from outside the US. They also offer solid customer support and low renewal rates, which is a significant advantage over other options.

Overall Score: 2.2 of 5

A2 Hosting has a reputation for being very fast. This is not always the case.

We found that A2’s greatest asset was its data centers, which they have set up all over the globe, particularly in Europe and Asia. This makes them one of the most trusted web hosts for websites that cater to Asian and European visitors.

Having said that, A2 Hosting was slow in our tests.

To be transparent and 100% transparent, our testing was done for the U.S. data center, not their data centers in Amsterdam or Singapore. You can view testing for these data centers here.

In a moment, we’ll show all of the U.S. data. What we discovered was surprising, despite all of our testing and research. It was hard to believe at first.

Below is a breakdown of how A2 performed with speed testing, and six other major categories that we investigated.

1. Cost of upfront = 1/5
2. Renewal rates = 3/5
3. 1. Onboarding Process = 5%
4. Website speed = 2/5
5. Customer Support = 3.67/5
6. Server uptime = 3/5

Upfront Cost 1/5: For the most expensive host upfront, you would expect excellent service and performance. We don’t believe that this is the case.

Your first year costs $6.99 per month, which is $83.88. A domain is not included. However, you can purchase one from A2 for $14.95/per year.

Domain protection is an extra $9.95/year to protect your private information.

If you add hosting, domain registration, and domain protection for one year, your upfront costs will total $108.78.

This will give you:

• Unlimited email accounts
• Support by phone, email, or live chat
• Free SSL Certificate
• Uptime guarantee
• A built-in website builder

If you are unhappy with the performance of your website, they will refund your money within 24 hours. This unique offering is unheard of in web hosting. A2 also offers a money-back guarantee if you are unhappy with your site’s performance.

Renewal Rates 3/5: Renewal pricing starts at $8.99/month for 12 months. This is $107.88 total for your second-year hosting.

We liked the fact that A2 had the lowest rate increase for renewal of our list – just 29% less than the promotional rate.

However, their upfront costs are so high that they score only a 3rd place on renewal costs.

1.5% Onboarding Process – This was our worst experience with the onboarding and checkout of all the providers that we evaluated.

The checkout pages can be overwhelming with so much information packed into such a small space. You will be tempted to upgrade your SSL certificate by the upsells.

A2 also charges an extra fee if you use their page builder. This is something that everyone else offers free of charge. You could also use external page builders for free.

You don’t get any instructions once you have created your account. We received an email with several login credentials, but that was it.

It’s up to you to figure it out yourself, which is disappointing for an expensive host.

Website Speed 2/5 A2 Hosting boasts fast website speeds. It’s right there on their homepage. Their cheapest web hosting plan is however not as fast.

Your website should load in under two seconds. If it takes more than three seconds, visitors will click the back button.

During our 30-day testing, we discovered that A2 responds in just a little over one second on average.

This is without plugins or media. This will most likely not be the norm.

A2 Hosting offers a content delivery system (CDN) to help combat slower speeds.

Cloudflare CDN is included with the cheapest plan. This helps increase site speed and performance by caching your content.

The CDN stores and displays a snapshot rather than loading your website from scratch every time.

A2 is so proud of its fast web services that they were expected to be the best in our testing. However, this was not the case. We didn’t think we would need to upgrade to A2 Turbo Boost, which they claim will make your site 20x faster.

Customer Support 3.67/5 A2 scored in the middle of customer support.

It took us a while to get to know each other. But for the second and third interactions, we were able to connect immediately.

Initial responses are usually quick. It can take a while for you to receive an answer.

Although none of the reps were particularly friendly, they weren’t terrible either. It was just average. The rep was not very helpful and salesy in the first interaction.

Although they did a good job, our overall experience was not very impressive–with the possible exception of the second interaction.

We asked: “Can you show me how to set up an account for my domain email?”

Excellent customer service rep. She went above and beyond to provide step-by-step instructions and screenshots.

A2’s support was not a great experience, but it wasn’t terrible.

Server Uptime 3/5 A2 Hosting achieved a 99.96% server uptime during our testing. There was a total of 15 minutes and 41 seconds of downtime in the test period. This is compared to the average of 30 days.

The site was unavailable due to only two events. The first was a 41-second connection timeout (the server is taking too long to respond) and the second was a 15-minute internal HTTP 500 server error.

Even though it is only two incidents in total, 15 minutes without access to your website is not ideal.

Consider how visitors feel when they are unable to find the information they need. This makes visitors question their internet connection or even ask “Is it working fine?” 15 minutes is too long for traffic to be a problem.

But, thankfully, that was it for downtime. A2 performed decently in terms of overall uptime, despite the 15 minutes of interminable downtime.

They don’t stand out in any category, but A2 Host demonstrated that they are generally average or better all-around.

Methodology to Choose the Best Cheap Web Hosting

It takes a lot of time to determine who gets the cut. To compile all data necessary for our recommendations, it takes a whole month and a team.

We went through a rigorous testing process for each host we evaluated:

1. We created a new account with the web host
2. We started from scratch and went through the entire onboarding process.
3. Installing WordPress allowed us to create a brand-new website.
4. We used the same WordPress theme and settings across all web hosts.
5. We then monitored site speed, uptime, and availability for a whole month
6. To see how helpful they were, we submitted three support tickets to each web host.

After running all of our tests, we gave them a rating on a scale from one to five in six categories. We then combined all the ratings and weighted them based on their importance as a cheap web host. These are the rating categories and their weights.

1. Additional Costs (25%)
2. Renewal cost (20%)
3. Website Speed (10%)
4. High Server Uptime (10%)
5. Customer Support (20%)
6. Onboarding Process (15%)

This is cheap web hosting, so we heavily considered the price. We also know that many people who are looking for cheap hosting may be new to the web or not very experienced. We also considered customer support and, to a lesser degree, onboarding.

Our web host investigators not only double- or triple-check all data we share with you, but also go through the same process as you do once you make a decision. They communicate, click, call, and go through the same steps. 

Promotional Pricing (Upfront Charges)

It’s all about keeping your costs low when you get a web host. This is why 25% of our list has the highest upfront cost.

We found that all providers we looked at had a monthly promotional charge of less than $7 per calendar month. The pricing of all providers can appear very similar at first glance.

However, in practice, hosting costs can range from $35 to $85. This is a wide range.

You should first look at the price of any add-ons or other features that you might need but are not included in your hosting plan. This includes domain name privacy, email accounts, and additional security.

Our research revealed that many cheap plans do not include all or some of these items. This keeps promotional costs lower than what you will end up paying.

While a certain option may be the most affordable, remember to account for these additional costs when comparing prices between different providers.

Hosting companies will often charge $8.99/per year to register a domain name and $5/year to protect the domain with their introductory plans.

We have compiled the total cost of the first year to make things easier for you. This includes:

• Hosting costs for the entry-level plan.

• If domain names are not included in the price, they will be charged to your account.

• Cost of domain privacy and protection

This is the total out-of-pocket cost for hosting for one year.

We then gave each host a rating on the following scale:

• 5 points for $50 or Less
• 4 points for $51-$65
• 3 points for $66-$80
• 2 points for $81-$95
• 1 point = $96 more

The hosting providers that we evaluated had a fairly even distribution. Two of the hosting providers scored less than $50 and one received a score of four for being between $51-$655.

Three of the four remaining providers scored three points, while one received one because it was more than $96.

Renewal pricing (Paying over the long term)

Let’s suppose you receive a great promo price. Your first year has been a success. You forget all about hosting as time passes. …. You look at your credit card bill, and suddenly you see a 137% increase in your hosting bill.

This happens all the time. This is one of the most common complaints about hosting.

We also gave renewals a second rating, which is 20% of our overall score for finding a cheap host.

Your second-year rates will increase regardless of which host you choose. Some go up by as much as 50%, while others can rise as high as 137%.

If you aren’t sure how renewal pricing works, you could end up paying twice the original price.

After the expiration of promotional pricing, we calculated the renewal costs for the second hosting year. We then ranked each host based on the percentage increase in hosting costs from year 1 and year 2.

• 5 points for $75 and less

• 4 points for $76-$105

• 3 points for $106- $135

• 2 points for $136- $165

• 1 point = $166 or more

You can choose to renew your domain name or privacy, but these costs are not included in the grading system.

Let’s take a look at some real examples.

The lowest renewal difference at the moment is $36, which ranges from $35.88 per year for your first year to $71.88 for the second.

The difference in renewal for the host with the highest number of hosts goes up by $96, from $83.88 the first year to $179.88 the second.

You may think you are only paying $50-60 per year. But, when you look again, you will see that you have to pay $200/year for all add-ons, renewal pricing, and other fees. Pay attention to the renewal price.

One trick that will help you keep your costs low is this: Choose the longest possible subscription length when you sign up. Hosts will often offer discounts and promotional rates if you buy three years of hosting.

We don’t assume everyone can do this. Our ratings only consider second-year renewals. If you want to reduce your total spending and can afford it, this is the best way.

24/7/365 Support

Support is available 24/7/365, no matter if you have never set up a website before or have hundreds of websites. It is 20% of the overall importance of selecting a provider.

How can you tell if the information you are reading about provider customer support is accurate?

Can they answer your questions in less than 30 seconds? Will they be able to solve the problem that costs money and visitors?

We decided to evaluate the quality of customer service by testing it ourselves.

To gauge the response time of each host on the list, we reached out to them via live chat three times.

• Mornings, between 8 and 9 a.m. PST

• Afternoon, between noon and 1 p.m. CST

• Evenings, between 7 and 8 p.m. PST

We decided to stick to live chat support because some providers don’t offer phone service and we wanted to be transparent.

We then took screen grabs from all conversations and recorded how each interaction felt.

The support interview process began by asking these three questions to each provider’s support staff.

• Which security features are available to make my site safer?

• Could you please guide me through the process of setting up my email account on my domain

• How can I speed up my website’s loading?

We scored each host in five areas of outstanding support after our conversations.

1. Provided advice/support without feeling salesy or pushing unnecessary paid products
2. Chat ended in under 15 minutes
3. I was given advice, but not just a link to a support article.
4. The initial response took less than 5 minutes
5. The rep was friendly and eager to help us.

They received one point for every factor if they did well. They did not receive points if they did poorly. We added up all the points to get a total score for customer service quality.

Our list includes providers that outsource customer support. This means their representatives don’t work for them as part of their internal team. This can cause frustrating service experiences and may result in them not being able to help you solve the problem.

Another trend that we observed is that providers often upsell customers when they call to help them before they try to solve their problems.

Many others have gone above and beyond to help us.

You can test the quality of support and response times by taking advantage of the money-back guarantee.

Register for an account and pay the initial fees. Then, get to know their customer service team to find out if your experience matches our research.

Even if you don’t expect to reach them for anything, it doesn’t matter because you never know what might happen.

Page Loading Speed

Site speed is key to increasing traffic, revenue, and exposure.

It was hard to discern the difference in performance, we thought. We were mistaken, it turned out.

We received completely different results depending on the speed of our hosts.

Here are the results of our tests on hosts.

We first created identical websites with the default WordPress theme 2021.

We then deleted all plugins, media files pages, comments, themes, and menus so that each site we tested was identical.

Your site will contain more data, media, and content. Your results may vary. This is important to remember.

We made it our top priority to create a transparent environment for testing. We stripped every site.

They are only different because of the host behind the scenes. 

We then entered the URLs into fresh ping which monitors uptime, average loading times, and other metrics at one-minute intervals.   

We gathered the average load times for each site over 30 days (May 7, 2021, to June 6, 2021) and compared them. We then assigned each site a score using the grading scale.

Five is the highest score.

• 5 points for less than 550 ms

• 4 points for 551-675 ms

• 3 points for 676-800 ms

• 2 points for 801 – 925 ms

• 1 point for 926 or more

Only one provider received a five-star rating in our tests. Three providers received a four-star grade with excellent average response times. Two of the five scored below average, with a grade score of two out of five. One was slow and got just one point.

Sites that claimed they were the fastest didn’t come close. Below is an image of the speed test that was performed by a provider who promotes their fast speeds.

These are important points to remember if you’re on a shared hosting plan.

These are normal for shared hosting plans. You share the same hosting server as other websites with shared hosting. This is how web hosts can keep their prices so low. It also means that your site’s speed can be affected if there is a spike in traffic to another site.

There are no worries about occasional spikes.

These charts have a few things to be aware of.

First, you need a provider that can handle traffic spikes for up to 3 seconds. Even if the server is slow, it will still work fast. The host above experienced traffic spikes that lasted between five and 23 seconds, which is quite bad. This is confirmed by the graph’s top response time of 23217 milliseconds.

You also want to have low average response times. We recommend that you keep your average response time to 630 milliseconds. The response time of the host mentioned above was almost one second. This is much slower than the other hosts we tested.

Ideal web hosts keep spikes under two to three seconds. They should average between 500 and 1 second.

This will allow you to move at the speed you desire.

These benchmarks are the best for web hosts that offer all of the speed you require.

An easy and clear onboarding experience

After you have done your research and chosen a provider to work with, it’s time to get everything set up.

This area is particularly important for novice users. This is 15% of your overall weighted score when setting up website hosting.

This should feel easy. Our experience with several providers was great when we set up our sites. We followed the steps and felt confident as we went. We felt confident and, most importantly, that any beginner could do it.

Once you have chosen your plan, you can choose your domain and then review the information you are presented on the welcome screen.

Click the button “Set up Site” to begin your very easy onboarding process.

As you can see, the process of selecting a host is easy. You can either create a new site or move an existing one to this host.

If you are creating a brand new website, as we did in our test, the next step is to select the platform on which it will be built. You have the option of choosing from WordPress, WooCommerce, or Weebly.

It’s easy to point and click, with no need for any code or messages.

It is simple to onboard and our reviewers rated it as the best of all the providers.

Some things are more complicated than others.

If you don’t know what’s happening, the whole process can become very confusing. It doesn’t appear that they have done much to simplify the process.

This is the first screen that appears after you have purchased it. There is no way to know where you should go next. What is the first step? How do I create my new website? Is it possible to install WordPress?

We had no idea.

We received an email with login credentials and a dashboard which didn’t help at all.

This was exactly what a web host should not do. This is a disastrous onboarding process.

Imagine yourself sitting at your computer with excitement running through your veins. Then, you see the screen above or similar. You are now forced to chat or call support as you don’t know what to do next. There’s no guide for creating your website.

Server uptime

Hosts claim they are reliable. 99% this, 99.9% that.

They’re all great, right?

It’s not.

Test websites were created on each host’s entry-level plan. We then installed the default WordPress theme 2021 on each site exactly as we did for speed testing.

All menus, media files, and comments were deleted. Each site was also given a free SSL. This is vital for uptime as it informs visitors and the server that your site has been secured.

It is not an option anymore. It’s a requirement for every site, even those that don’t sell merchandise or take payments. We included it in our research because we believe it is important.

We then entered each URL into Freshping to monitor uptime at a one-minute interval.

After 30 days of collecting data, we reviewed it and gave each host a score based on our grading system.

• 5 points for less than 1 minute of downtime

• 4 points for 1-15 minutes of downtime

• 3 points for the downtime of 15-30 minutes

• 2 points for every 30 to 45 minutes of unproductive time

• 1 point for every 45 minutes of downtime

The grade is determined by the amount of downtime experienced by the provider.

As you can see, there were only 5 minutes and 42 seconds of downtime for the entire 30-day period. This is a remarkable score.

These are the key points to remember:

• Which host has the lowest downtime?

• What causes downtime? Security issues, scheduled maintenance, browser-side or server-side problems.

• How long each instance of downtime can last

Let’s take a closer look at the causes of downtime to help you better understand their meaning. Scheduled maintenance refers to when your web host performs security checks on the server and optimizes its performance.

This can lead to security problems that they have not addressed or are now facing. It is safer to block all access to that server’s websites, to ensure data security.

They often experience server problems like disconnections and requests that the server cannot handle. Your website can experience downtime due to this.

Browser-side issues can be caused either by outdated software or the updates that you must make to allow the website to function properly.

In most cases, particularly when it comes to shared hosting environments, there are scheduled downtimes for maintenance. However, some providers manage this very well and have downtimes of less than 50 seconds per 30 days.

To ease your concerns about poor performance, some providers offer uptime guarantees.

In other words, for each hour that your site is down, you can get 5% back on the month’s fees. The compensation for excessive downtime can vary from one provider to the next.

Many events do not qualify for the 99.9% guarantee. These include scheduled maintenance and network outages. Connection timeouts are when your server doesn’t deliver a website within the time limit. It could be slow internet connections. You might find the data you need too far away from where you live.

Downtime is inevitable. Too much downtime can cost you revenue, damage your reputation and reduce your ability to attract real traffic.

However, most cheap hosting providers are reliable. However, uptime can vary from month-to-month, especially if you have a shared hosting plan.

We found that all of the low-cost hosting providers had a minimum uptime of 99%.

That’s incredible.

You can choose to go with the host that we tested, but be aware of fluctuations in the host you select.

Although it may seem difficult at first, the benefits of knowing your website is always up and running are well worth the effort.

Hostinger

Best for the Most

You want to get great performance and lots of features on a budget. Hostinger offers everything you need to build your website. It also provides solid site speed and easy onboarding for the best rates. Hosting your website with Hostinger is a great way to save money.

Summary

It can be difficult to find affordable web hosting that meets your needs. We hope this post helps you to make the right choice.

We recommend that you take time to write down your requirements. Next, you can make an informed decision based on your priorities and needs.

If you are still stuck, Host or DreamHost would be our top recommendations for cheap web hosting. Both are safe options that will allow you to get started quickly for very little. If they don’t meet all your criteria, you can still use this post to guide you through the decision-making process.