Cheap web hosting providers offer servers allowing businesses to store their website files for less than $5 a month. We reviewed over a dozen of the best hosting providers at this price point and chose the six best—including the best overall—based on price, storage, reliability, ease of use, and extras like free domain names and site security.
Top Cheap Web Hosting Providers 2019
| Blog Hosting Site | Best For |
|---|---|
| Bluehost | (Best Overall) Businesses needing cheap hosting that is reliable and packed with free extras. |
| HostGator | Businesses that have large, content-heavy websites and very high traffic volumes. |
| DreamHost | Businesses that want to pay for web hosting on a month-to-month basis. |
| WordPress | Businesses that want easy hosting for their WordPress website. |
| Weebly | Businesses looking for an easy-to-use website builder and web host in one. |
| ByetHost | Small businesses needing very basic, free websites. |
How We Evaluated the Best Cheap Website Hosting Providers
A business website is essential for brand awareness and customer acquisition, but hosting can often be expensive or unreliable. That’s why we sought out the best affordable hosting providers for $5 per month or less that are easy to use, reliable, do not display ads, and offer extras like free email, domain privacy, and SSL certificates for added security.
The criteria we used to evaluate the best cheap website hosting providers include:
- Price: In order to be considered cheap web hosting, hosts must have plans that cost $5 per month or less.
- Storage: Providers on our list had to offer a minimum of 6GB of storage for professional-level plans; this is considered ample storage for the average small business website.
- Bandwidth: Bandwidth determines the amount of data that can be transferred between your website and visitors’ browsers. Paid plans had to include a minimum of 250GB, but preferably include unlimited bandwidth. For reference, 1GB of bandwidth allows for approximately 50,000 views (for text-based pages of about 20KB).
- Reliability: The best cheap web hosts are not only inexpensive, but also dependable. We required all cheap hosting options to have a 99.9% uptime or more, and preferred those with a money-back guarantee.
- Inclusions and extras: Typically, web hosting plans come with extras such as a free domain name, free business email addresses, and a free SSL certificate (to keep sensitive data secure). Providers with these added features were favored in our ranking.
- Customer service: Many cheap web hosting providers do not include support. To make our list, cheap web hosts needed to include quality support for free and have average response times of 24 business hours or less.
Based on the criteria above, we believe that the best overall cheap web hosting provider is Bluehost. It costs only $2.95 per month and includes ample storage of at least 6GB, unmetered bandwidth, 24/7 customer support, a 99.9% uptime guarantee, and extras such as a free SSL certificate and five free custom email addresses.
Best Overall Cheap Web Hosting Provider: Bluehost
Bluehost is a web and email hosting provider that stands out for exceptional extra features on all web hosting packages—including a free domain name, custom email addresses, SSL certificates, a 99.9% uptime guarantee, and more. Given these additions, it’s ideal for businesses on a limited budget needing a turnkey web and email hosting solution starting at $2.95 per month.
Bluehost Pricing
Bluehost offers cheap web hosting plans ranging from $2.95 to $5.45 per month on three-year contracts. Its entry-level plan includes 50GB storage, unmetered bandwidth, and is feature-rich with unmetered bandwidth, a free domain name, a free SSL certificate, one-click WordPress installation, free 24/7 customer support, a 99.9% uptime guarantee, and more.
Bluehost Tiered Features
| Price | |||
| Number of Websites | |||
| Storage | |||
| Bandwidth | |||
| Subdomains | |||
| Custom Email Addresses Included | |||
| Free Domain | |||
| One-click WordPress Installation | |||
| Ad-free Hosting | |||
| Free SSL Certificate | |||
| Automatic Backups | |||
| Private Domain Registration Included |
*Unmetered bandwidth, while not technically unlimited, is not monitored by the host. However, some users may find instances when bandwidth is limited. Check your terms of service for full details on if and when this may happen.
Bluehost Basic Plan
Bluehost’s Basic Plan starts at $2.95 per month on the 36-month contract. Alternatively, you can pay $4.95 per month for a 12-month contract. The plan gives users reliable web hosting with 99.9% uptime and extras such as a free domain name, a free SSL certificate, and unmetered bandwidth. The main differences between this and other Bluehost plans are that this plan comes with only one website, 50GB of storage, 25 subdomains, and five custom email addresses.
Given the single website limitation and limited storage, this plan is best for small businesses with a single domain that don’t plan expanding into a franchise or multiple-brand model. However, the included SSL certificate accommodates ecommerce businesses that would like to sell their products or services online.
Bluehost Plus Plan
The mid-range Plus plan costs as little as $5.45 per month with a six-month contract, or $7.45 with a 12-month contract. The plan includes all standard features from the Basic Plan, with the addition of unlimited storage and unlimited custom email accounts.
The introductory rate for the Plus plan costs the same as the Choice Plus Plan, so most businesses would actually want to go with the Choice Plus Plan, which includes automatic website backups.
Bluehost Choice Plus
The Choice Plus Plan costs the same as the Bluehost Plus Plan at $5.45 per month under the 36-month contract, or $7.45 per month under the 12-month contract. It gives you everything from the Plus Plan, such as unlimited storage and unlimited custom email addresses, plus automatic backups.
The Bluehost Choice Plus Plan is the best cheap web hosting plan for those who want the convenience and peace of mind of automatic backups, plus unlimited storage, websites, and email addresses. This would best serve news or content-heavy companies that want to protect their data, and companies with a large employee base that require many email addresses.
Customer Service
Bluehost’s customer service is available 24/7 via online live chat and by phone at 888-401-4678. Uniquely, Bluehost offers different support categories, such as “General Question” and “WordPress Assistance,” giving users the ability to more quickly get in touch with the right support members. Generally, its support service is regarded as a fast, friendly, and helpful.
What Bluehost Is Missing
Bluehost’s entry-level plan is not priced competitively for those who do not want to commit to a long-term contract. Additionally, companies that need more hosting flexibility should know that Bluehost does not offer contracts shorter than 12 months. Those who want cheap web hosting on a month-to-month basis will find DreamHost to be a better fit.
What Users Think About Bluehost
Bluehost currently has a 4.9 out of 5-star rating from WPBeginner. Users frequently comment that Bluehost is a good value for the price. Those using Bluehost to host their site note that they like how Bluehost is officially a WordPress-recommended host. On the other hand, negative reviewers commented that they have experienced some downtimes. Read user reviews on our Bluehost reviews page.
Where to Find Bluehost
Get more details on Bluehost’s cheap web hosting plans by going to its website and clicking the green “Get Started” button in the center of the homepage. Get started with Bluehost if you want quality web hosting at a cheap price.
Best for Traffic-heavy Websites: HostGator
HostGator is a web and email hosting provider that stands out for its unlimited bandwidth on all plans starting at $2.75 per month, ideal for hosting high-traffic websites. Additionally, all plans come with unlimited storage to serve content-heavy domains. With these features, it’s good for businesses that feature a lot of multimedia content while serving a consistently large number of visitors.
HostGator Pricing
HostGator web hosting plans start at $2.75 per month and go up to over $5.95 per month on three-year contracts. All plans include unmetered storage, unmetered bandwidth, a free SSL certificate, a 99.9% uptime guarantee, 24/7 support, one-click WordPress installation, WordPress site migrations, and instant backups.
HostGator Tiered Features
| Price | |||
| Number of Websites | |||
| Storage | |||
| Bandwidth | |||
| Free Domain | |||
| One-click WordPress Installation | |||
| Ad-free Hosting | |||
| Free SSL Certificate | |||
| Instant Backups | |||
| Parked Domains | |||
| Dedicated IP Address | ✓ |
Hatchling Plan
HostGator’s entry-level Hatchling Plan starts at $2.75 per month on a 36-month contract, $5.95 per month on a 12-month contract, or $10.95 for month-to-month. As with all HostGator plans, it includes unmetered storage, unmetered bandwidth, a free SSL certificate, a 99.99% uptime guarantee, instant backups, free 24/7 customer support, and one-click WordPress installs for those hosting a site with WordPress CMS.
The Hatchling Plan is a great value for businesses that have one large website with a high number of webpages, or those with a great deal of graphics, such as ecommerce sites and portfolio-style websites. It is the cheapest option for web hosting with instant (or on-demand) backups, which is ideal for businesses that need reliable data protection.
Baby Plan
HostGator’s mid-range Baby Plan starts at $3.95 per month with a 36-month contract, $8.95 per month with a 12-month contract, or $11.95 for month-to-month. The Baby Plan includes all features from the Hatchling Plan, with the addition of a private SSL certificate (which not only encrypts sensitive user data, but hides your certificate registration information from the public), and the option to connect as many domain names as you would like.
This plan is best for businesses that utilize more than one domain name, such as those that use multiple domains to host different branded websites. For example, a fitness company may sell both fitness gear and nutritional products, using two separate websites for each product line.
Business Plan
The Business Plan costs as little as $5.95 per month with a 36-month contract, $8.95 per month with a 12-month contract, or $16.95 for month-to-month. The Business Plan gets you everything from the Baby Plan, plus a dedicated internet protocol (IP) address. This increases site performance because server resources for dedicated IP websites are not shared across multiple domains.
Given the resources available with a dedicated IP address, this is the best plan for high-traffic sites such as news and ecommerce sites. The added security of having dedicated server space, as well as fast load times, ensures that data will be easily accessible to the public whenever they need it.
Customer Service
HostGator offers free 24/7 customer service to all customers. Its service is available online via live chat and email, as well as by a toll-free phone number. It’s one of the best customer service offerings among cheap web hosting providers, as many do not offer a contact option by phone. Bluehost is the only other provider on our list that offers free support via phone.
What HostGator Is Missing
HostGator is missing a free domain name and automatic backups as part of their plans. Users can do manual backups with HostGator, but this can be time-consuming. If users want automatic backups, they need to pay an additional $15.95 per year.
What Users Think About HostGator
HostGator has a high average rating of 4.2 out of 5 stars on our HostGator reviews page and a 4 out of 5-star rating on TechRadar. Reviewers most often comment that they are satisfied with HostGator’s ease of use and helpful customer service. However, users frequently complained about unannounced downtime for server maintenance, which caused periodic interruptions or delays in site performance.
Where to Find HostGator
Learn more about HostGator by visiting them online. From the homepage, click the “Get Started” button in the center of the page to view and compare plans and features. Get started with its introductory offer of just $2.75 per month.
Best for Month-to-Month Pricing: DreamHost
DreamHost is a web hosting provider that is unique for offering low-cost, commitment-free plans starting at $4.95 per month, or $2.59 per month with an annual contract. Plans include unlimited bandwidth, ample storage, and extras—even with month-to-month hosting. It’s the best cheap web hosting option for growing businesses testing out hosting providers or anticipating a moving to a new host in the short term.
DreamHost Pricing
DreamHost offers cheap web hosting plans starting at $2.59 per month for 12 months, or $4.95 on a month-to-month basis. All plans come with unlimited bandwidth, a free SSL certificate, easy WordPress site migration, and ad-free hosting. The upgraded plan has unlimited storage and includes a free domain name.
DreamHost Tiered Features
| Price | ||
| Storage | ||
| Bandwidth | ||
| Free Domain | ||
| One-click WordPress Installation | ||
| Ad-free Hosting | ||
| Free SSL Certificate |
Shared Starter Plan
DreamHost’s Shared Starter Plan costs $2.95 per month with a 12-month contract, or $4.95 per month without a contract. It includes 50GB of storage, unlimited bandwidth, a free SSL certificate, ad-free hosting, 24/7 in-house customer support, and a long 97-day money-back guarantee on long-term contracts. This is unique, as most providers offer just a 30-day money-back guarantee.
The Shared Started Plan is the best for growing businesses that don’t want to commit to a long-term contract, but want dependable and cheap web hosting with 50GB of storage. Given the limited storage, businesses that do not use a great deal of photos and video-based content, such as law firms or restaurants, would be ideal candidates for this plan.
Shared Unlimited Plan
DreamHost’s Shared Unlimited Plan costs as little as $7.95 per month on the 12-month contract, or $10.95 per month without a contract. It includes all the features from the Shared Started Plan, such as unlimited bandwidth and a free SSL certificate, plus unlimited storage and a free domain name.
This plan is likely best for businesses that sign up for the Shared Starter plan and need to upgrade, though it’s more expensive than our $5 per month threshold. Those who are willing to sign a 12-month contract will find HostGator to be a cheaper option, which has the Hatchling Plan for $5.95 per month on a 12-month contract.
Customer Service
DreamHost offers 24/7 in-house and U.S.-based customer support, which is available through the customer dashboard. On top of online support, it also has a help center with a large knowledge base available for those who prefer to troubleshoot on their own.
What DreamHost Is Missing
DreamHost is missing the inclusion of a free domain name for those purchasing its entry-level plan. This won’t affect those who already own a domain name, but those who need one will have to purchase one separately for around $12 per year from a domain name registrar. It’s also missing a customer service phone line, which can be frustrating if you need immediate assistance and are left to wait on the response from an online contact form submission.
What Users Think About DreamHost
DreamHost receives 4 out of 5 stars from PCMag and an average 4.4 out of 5 stars on our DreamHost reviews page. Reviewers frequently comment that they like DreamHost’s affordability and its up-to-date tools. On the other hand, negative reviews noted that they wish DreamHost provided a phone number for customer service instead of just being available online.
Where to Find DreamHost
Visit DreamHost online to learn more about their plans and features. From the home screen, click the blue “Get Started” button to compare plans or contact its customer service team from any web page via live chat with any questions. Get started with DreamHost for just $2.59 per month today.
Best for WordPress Site Hosting: WordPress.com
WordPress.com is a website host that includes a content management system (CMS) for easy site building, with a free option and premium plans starting at $5 per month. While many sites built using the WordPress CMS are hosted by outside providers, the easiest way to set up a WordPress site is to use the platform’s own hosting options. For businesses needing an all-in-one WordPress CMS and hosting solution, this is the best option.
WordPress Pricing
WordPress.com has both free and paid premium plans, costing upwards of $25 per month. The free plan is designed for personal use, so businesses will want to start by considering the $5 per month premium plan with 6GB of storage, unmetered bandwidth, a free domain, customer support, and no ads.
WordPress Tiered Features
| Price | |||
| Storage | |||
| Bandwidth | |||
| Free Domain | |||
| Ad-free Hosting |
Free Plan
The Free plan includes 3GB of storage, unmetered bandwidth, easy WordPress installation, access to free WordPress themes, built-in social media integrations, and a wide range of plug-ins that give your site more functionality. The downside is that while it’s free, it displays ads on your website and does not allow you to connect your own domain. Instead, you are required to use a subdomain, such as yourname.wordpress.com.
Those with a professional website will want to avoid the Free plan. If you are on a very tight budget and are drawn to the free option, try ByetHost. If you want the simplicity of hosting a WordPress-built site through WordPress, spring for the low-cost $5 per month Personal Plan.
Personal Plan
The Personal Plan costs $5 per month with a 12-month contract. It includes all features from the Free Plan, such as hundreds of free themes, plug-ins, and SEO tools, but with the ability to connect your own domain name and to remove WordPress ads. It also doubles your storage limit to 6GB and gives you unmetered bandwidth.
This plan is good for startup businesses that plan to build informational websites using the WordPress CMS platform. The limited features and storage limits, however, mean it cannot easily accommodate ecommerce sites or businesses looking to create image-heavy websites.
WordPress Premium Plan
The WordPress Premium Plan includes everything from the Personal Plan, such as the ability to connect your own domain name, unmetered bandwidth, and ad-free hosting. For the increase to $8 per month, the storage is increased to 13GB.
The WordPress Premium Plan accommodates sites with a moderate amount of visual content, but is still only recommended for non-ecommerce, informational sites. It’s not the most competitively priced plan given the amount of storage included. Bluehost is a cheaper alternative with plans starting at $2.95 per month for 50GB per month.
Customer Service
In order to get access to the WordPress customer support team, users must be on a premium paid plan. Support is available online via a web contact form and live chat, but not via phone. Response times are typically within 24 hours for contact form submissions. Those who prefer to troubleshoot on their own will like that WordPress has a massive online community and a comprehensive forum.
What WordPress Is Missing
WordPress is missing a premium plan with an unlimited amount of storage. The maximum amount of storage they offer is 13GB. While this will be sufficient for some small businesses, it can be limiting for those with very content-heavy sites, such as businesses using their site to display product portfolios.
What Users Think About WordPress
WordPress is generally a well-regarded web host; it receives an average 4 out of 5-star rating on our WordPress reviews page. Reviewers frequently comment that they like the customization capabilities WordPress.com offers—specifically, the number of themes and plug-ins available. Negative reviews note that it can be difficult to get to know the interface if you are new to WordPress.
Where to Find WordPress
Find WordPress online by going to their website. Click “Plans & Pricing” from the horizontal menu at the top of the page to view full plan details. From there, you can review and compare options, and choose the plan that’s right for your business. Click here to get started.
Best for Hosting & All-in-One Site Builder: Weebly
Weebly is an all-in-one website host and drag-and-drop site builder that includes a domain name, templates, and a free SSL certificate. The ease of use and turnkey offerings make Weebly a standout among web hosts—and their professional plans start at just $5 per month. We recommend Weebly for non-tech-savvy businesses that need to set up and build a site quickly using an intuitive builder.
Weebly Pricing
Weebly offers both a free plan (not recommended) and premium plans that range from $5 to $12 per month. While the $5 per month Connect plan includes ads, it also includes a free domain, 500MB of storage, unlimited bandwidth, and a free SSL certificate.
Weebly Tiered Features
| Price | |||
| Storage | |||
| Bandwidth | |||
| Drag & Drop Builder | |||
| Free SSL Certificate | |||
| Free Domain | |||
| Ad-free Hosting |
Weebly Free Plan
Weebly’s Free Plan allows you to build a website at no cost; however, it is not geared toward professional business use as it displays Weebly advertising and does not allow users to connect their own domain name. Instead, it uses a Weebly subdomain, such as yourname.weebly.com. It does give users a good way of trying the drag-and-drop editing interface before committing to a premium plan.
This plan isn’t designed for professional websites, but it is a good way of trying out the interface. This gives you a chance to get a feel for how the drag-and-drop website builder works, and if it will serve the needs of your business website at no cost. On the other hand, those looking for a basic blogging site that doesn’t use a custom domain might find this a good option.
Weebly Connect Plan
The Connect plan costs $5 per month and includes all of the features of the free plan, as well as a free domain name. It should be noted that this plan still displays Weebly ads, so it’s not a good option for businesses that want to maintain a professional online presence.
The Connect plan is good for businesses that want to use their own domain, but do not have an issue with Weebly ads on their site. This could be businesses that display ads on their sites already, such as those with AdSense advertising or personal blogs with customer banner ads. Businesses looking to build a professional online presence should skip to the Pro plan instead.
Weebly Pro Plan
The Weebly Pro plan costs $12 per month, which includes your website, web hosting with unlimited storage, ad-free hosting, a free domain name, a free SSL certificate, customer support, SEO tools, and a $100 Google Ads credit. This plan is clearly more expensive than our threshold of $5 per month.
The Weebly Pro Plan is best for businesses in need of a clean professional website, and would prefer to build their own but do not have web development experience or the time for extensive site design. However, given the cost, other hosts on this list that are compatible with user-friendly content management systems like WordPress—including Bluehost or HostGator—would be better options.
Customer Service
Weebly customers can get access to free support by live chat and email, as well as through Weebly’s community forum, where they can find answers to many common questions. Phone support is available, but only to those on the Pro and Business plans. Given how easy it is to use, many will not need the assistance of customer service when building and hosting on Weebly.
What Weebly Is Missing
Weebly is missing a cheap web hosting-only plan. To use Weebly’s hosting, you must also use their proprietary site builder. Also, Weebly lacks a more affordable mid-range option, as pricing jumps quickly from $0 to $12 per month for plans that allow you to connect your own domain and not display Weebly advertising.
What Users Think About Weebly
Weebly has a 4.3 out of 5-star rating from reviewers on WhoIsHostingThis. Reviewers often comment on how easy it is to build a website with Weebly’s intuitive site builder. On the other hand, some reviewers commented that they wish there were more customization abilities with the website builder and that sometimes servers can be slow. Learn more about what users say on our Weebly reviews page.
Where to Find Weebly
Learn more about Weebly by navigating to their homepage and clicking on “Pricing” from the menu to get more detailed plan information. You can also try its drag-and-drop builder by clicking the “Sign up” button. Start building your website with Weebly today for free.
Best Free Web Hosting Provider: ByetHost
ByetHost is a web hosting provider that offers no-ad, free hosting plans. While most users would expect free hosting plans to offer no extra features, ByetHost surprisingly allows you to connect your own domain. It is the best option for budget-strapped businesses that need a reliable web host for building an online presence, but might not need the extra bells and whistles.
ByetHost Pricing
ByetHost offers a free plan, but also offers premium plans from $3.99 per month to $6.99 per month. The free plan includes 1GB storage, 50GB of bandwidth, a free SSL certificate, the ability to connect your own domain, and ad-free hosting. Upgrade to a paid plan for unlimited storage, more bandwidth, and a free domain.
ByetHost Tiered Features
| Price | |||
| Storage | |||
| Bandwidth | |||
| Email Addresses Included | |||
| Ad-free Hosting | |||
| Free SSL Certificate | |||
| Free Domain |
ByetHost Free Plan
The Free plan with ByetHost gives you 1GB of storage and 50GB of bandwidth with ad-free hosting that uses your own domain name. The no-cost plan also includes free 24/7 support and five free business email addresses.
ByetHost’s free plan is best for those who want a no-cost, but reliable, way of hosting a small business website with limited graphics and content. Those who are concerned the small 1GB of storage won’t be enough might want to consider HostGator instead, which has plans starting at $2.75 per month with unlimited storage.
Super Premium Plan
ByetHost’s Super Premium Plan costs $3.99 per month, or $47.88 with annual billing, and includes unlimited storage and 250GB of bandwidth. It also includes a free domain name, 100 free custom business email addresses, and free 24/7 tech support.
The Super Premium Plan is best for businesses that have large, content-heavy sites that do not see ultra high volumes of website visitors and traffic, such as high-end design or luxury goods businesses. A good alternative to this plan is HostGator’s Hatchling plan, which costs $2.75 for unlimited storage and bandwidth.
Ultimate Plan
The Ultimate Plan offers nearly the same features and inclusions as the Super Premium Plan, with the difference of unlimited bandwidth and unlimited custom emails addresses for $6.99 per month with annual billing.
This plan is best for businesses that want to sell products online securely and make use of multimedia content on their site. However, Bluehost offers similar features for $5.45 on a 36-month plan, and is considered a more reliable host.
Customer Service
Customer support is available at no cost for all plans—including the free plan. It is available 24/7 via an online support ticket system. ByetHost also offers its own customer service database where users can find answers to all of the most common questions and issues, allowing them to troubleshoot on their own.
What ByetHost Is Missing
ByetHost is missing a more intuitive user interface and one-click WordPress installation, which can make site setup a bit of a challenge for those with limited tech skills. Naturally, ByetHost also doesn’t offer WordPress site migration.
What Users Think About ByetHost
ByetHost has an average 3.4 out of 5-star rating from reviewers on WhoIsHostingThis. Users frequently comment that they like how ByetHost offers a free plan that does not display ads. Negative reviews noted that there is occasional downtime. Also, users found that ByetHost is overly cautious about misuse; they frequently suspend accounts at random based on perceived suspicious activity.
Where to Find ByetHost
Find ByetHost online by visiting their website. From there, learn more about its cheap web hosting plans by choosing “Free Hosting” or “Paid Hosting” from the horizontal menu at the top of the page. Visit ByetHost to get started with free hosting and free setup.
Bottom Line: Best Cheap Web Hosting Providers
The best cheap web hosting providers offer reliable uptimes, ample storage, unlimited or unmetered bandwidth, security, and extras such free domains and SSL certificates for less than $5 per month. However, each business will have different needs, so be sure to consider each provider’s plan carefully.
Based on the factors above, we found that Bluehost is the best overall cheap web hosting provider as it includes a wealth of features at a very competitive price. Plans start as $2.95 per month for 50GB of storage, unmetered bandwidth, a free domain, five email addresses, and more. Get started with Bluehost today.
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