Guides / website-maintenance

How Much Does Website Hosting Cost in 2026?

By Ryan Goering, CEO, BaaDigi · Last updated October 2026 · 28 sources checked

Website hosting cost for one small business site runs from a few dollars to about $30 a month, but the advertised price is almost always a first-term discount. Among the five hosts compared here, entry shared plans are advertised at $2.89–$3.99 a month, and only on a 12 to 48 month term; the same plans renew at $9.99–$17.99 a month[1][2][3][4][5]. Managed WordPress plans from Pressable, WP Engine and Kinsta start at $20.83–$30 a month on annual billing[6][7][8]. Wix and Squarespace, which include hosting, start at $17 and $19 a month billed yearly[9][10]. Hosting keeps your website’s files online. It does not cover your domain after the first year, business email after any trial, or anyone to change or fix the site. Budget at the renewal price, not the sign-up price: SiteGround’s StartUp plan is $2.99 a month for the first 12 months, prepaid, and $17.99 a month after that[5].

BaaDigi sells website maintenance and management, so we compete with companies named on this page. Every outside figure below is from the company’s own pages or a public source, so you can check it.

What is website hosting?

Hosting is rent for the computer that stores your website’s files and sends them to every visitor, around the clock. Your domain (yourbusiness.com) is the address; hosting is the building at that address. They are usually bought and renewed separately, even when one company sells both, though builders such as Wix and Squarespace include a domain offer in year one.

Website builders bundle hosting into the plan price; Wix, for example, lists hosting in every plan[9]. If your site runs on WordPress you buy hosting from a hosting company yourself, or someone buys it for you.

What does website hosting cost per month?

Below is the entry plan from each host we checked, by type of hosting. The "advertised price" is the number in big type on the pricing page. The next column is what you have to commit to get it. The last column is what the host says you pay after that first term.

Entry hosting plans as shown on each company’s pricing page, October 1, 2026 (Namecheap: archived copy, September 29, 2026). Advertised prices are first-term offers unless the plan is billed monthly
TypeHost and planAdvertised priceTerm needed for that priceRenewal price
SharedBluehost Starter$3.99/mo[1]36-month term[1]$9.99/mo[1]
SharedHostGator Hatchling$3.75/mo[2]36-month term[2]$10.99/mo[2]
SharedGoDaddy Web Hosting Economy$5.99/mo[11]First 3-year term[11]not shown on pricing page
SharedHostinger Premium$2.99/mo, $143.52 for 48 months[3]48 months prepaid[3]$10.99/mo[3]
SharedDreamHost Web Hosting Launch$2.89/mo[4]First year, yearly subscription[4]$10.99/mo[4]
SharedSiteGround StartUp$2.99/mo[5]12 months prepaid[5]$17.99/mo[5]
SharedNamecheap Stellar (archived)$2.28/mo, 61% off[12]Not stated on the archived page; it also lists 1 month $5.88, 1 year $55.88, 2 years $102.88[12]not labeled on the archived page
Managed WordPressWP Engine Essential$28.00/mo, $336.00 due today[7]Billed annually; first-year price for new customers[7]not shown on pricing page
Managed WordPressKinsta Launch$30/mo, $350 billed annually; $35/mo billed monthly[8]Annual billing (first month free)[8]not shown on pricing page
Managed WordPressFlywheel Starter$25/mo, billed $300/year[13]Annual billing[13]not shown on pricing page
Managed WordPressPressable Signature 1$20.83/mo, billed $250/year[6]Annual billing[6]not shown on pricing page
Managed WordPressGoDaddy Hosting for WordPress Basic$6.99/mo[14]1-year term (GoDaddy’s web-hosting page shows a $5.99 Basic price for a first 3-year term)[14][11]not shown on pricing page
Website builderWix Light$17/mo[9]Yearly, paid in full upfront[9]not shown on pricing page
Website builderSquarespace Basic$19/mo; $25/mo billed monthly[10]Annual billing[10]not shown on pricing page
Website builderShopify Basic$29/mo; $39/mo billed monthly[15]Yearly billing[15]not shown on pricing page
Modern / staticVercel Pro$20/mo per developer seat[16]Monthly[16]n/a, monthly plan[16]
Modern / staticNetlify Personal$9/month[17]Monthly[17]n/a, monthly plan[17]
Modern / staticCloudflare Pages FreeFree plan, 500 builds a month[18]None[18]n/a, free plan[18]
VPS (your own server)DigitalOcean Basic Droplet, 512 MiB / 1 vCPU$4.00/mo[19]Billed per second, 60-second minimum, capped at the monthly price; hourly rate $0.00595[19]n/a, usage billing[19]

Higher tiers cost more at both ends. Bluehost Business is $6.99 a month on a 36-month term and renews at $13.99[1]. HostGator Baby is $4.50 and renews at $16.49[2]. SiteGround GrowBig is $4.99 for 12 months prepaid and renews at $29.99[5]. Hostinger’s second plan is $191.52 for 48 months and renews at $16.99 a month[3].

Managed WordPress hosts charge for each extra site: $20 a month at WP Engine[7], $30 a month at Kinsta[8] and $20 a month or $200 a year at Flywheel[13]. Flywheel and Pressable bill overages when you pass your plan’s visitor or storage limit: $1 per 1,000 extra visitors and $1 per GB at Flywheel[13], $1.20 per 1,000 visits and $1.00 per GB at Pressable[6].

Shared hosting means your site shares one server with other customers’ sites. Managed WordPress hosting is WordPress-only and often adds features such as staging copies, backups and automatic updates; WP Engine, for example, lists daily backups, one-click staging and automatic WordPress and PHP updates as included[7]. An unmanaged VPS is a bare server: you or a developer set up, secure and maintain everything on it. Some hosts also sell managed VPS plans.

We could not find month-to-month prices for Bluehost, HostGator, GoDaddy, Hostinger or SiteGround on the pages we read; Hostinger’s page showed only its 48-month offer. DreamHost’s Launch plan can be billed monthly; its page data shows $4.99 for the first month and $11.99 after that[4].

Why is the renewal price higher than the advertised price?

Because the advertised price is a new-customer discount for the first term only, and the host says so in the fine print. Sign up, and the next bill is at the regular rate.

  • HostGator’s footnote says its special offers are limited-time promotional prices for new customers, valid for the initial term only and not for renewals[2].
  • DreamHost Launch: "Auto-renews at $10.99 /mo after 1 year."[4]
  • SiteGround StartUp: "Renews at $17.99 /mo. Prepaid for 12 months."[5]
  • Hostinger shows its 48-month Premium deal as $143.52 against a regular price of $575.52, then renews at $10.99 a month[3].
  • WP Engine says its first-year pricing is for new customers and that renewal pricing is subject to change; no renewal figure is shown[7].
  • Shopify’s offer is 3 days free, then $1 a month for 3 months, then standard monthly pricing[15].

The long term commitment is the other half of the deal. Bluehost and HostGator’s advertised prices need a 36-month term, and Hostinger’s a 48-month term, which its page says is paid upfront[1][2][3]. SiteGround’s jump is the steepest we found: $2.99 a month prepaid for 12 months is $35.88 for year one; at $17.99 a month, year two is $215.88[5].

GoDaddy shows a higher price struck through next to each offer, such as $11.99 next to Economy’s $5.99 and $14.99 next to WordPress Basic’s $6.99[11][14]. The page text we read does not say that the struck-through price is what you pay at renewal, so we do not treat it as one.

HostGator’s money-back guarantee does not cover renewals. Its 30-day refund excludes renewals, monthly terms, domain registration fees, setup fees and add-ons[2]. If you cancel within the first year after taking HostGator’s free domain, you pay a non-refundable $17.99 domain fee[2]. Set a reminder a month before your first term ends and compare prices then.

What does hosting not include?

The hosting bill is rarely the whole bill. These are the costs that sit next to it.

Domain renewal. Many hosts include a domain free for the first year only[1][4][3]. Hostinger’s free domain needs a yearly or longer plan[3]; HostGator’s needs a 12, 24 or 36-month plan[2]. Squarespace says promotional domains renew at its standard rate after the first year[10], and Wix’s free-domain voucher works only for a new domain bought from Wix, not to renew one you already own[9]. Standalone prices we found:

  • Namecheap (archived September 29, 2026): a .com for $6.79 a year for new customers, instead of $14.98 a year[20]. Namecheap says it charges a mandatory $0.20 annual ICANN fee for each domain registration, renewal or transfer, added to the listed price for some domains[20].
  • GoDaddy: a .com from $0.01 for the first year when you buy 3 years; the renewal price is not on that page. Transferring a domain in costs $12.99 and includes a year of registration[21].
  • Cloudflare Registrar says it does not mark up domain prices at all[22]. We did not read a .com figure.

Business email. Hosting plans often include email for a limited time only. Hostinger includes 2 mailboxes per website free for one year[3]; the page text does not show the price after that. HostGator’s Professional Email trial auto-renews at $2.99 a month[2]. DreamHost includes email free for 3 months[4], and Bluehost lists its Pro Email as a free trial[1]. Separate email services:

  • Google Workspace Business Starter is $7 per user per month on its annual-commitment tab; the card also shows a $3.50 promotional price labeled “50% off for 3 months”[23].
  • Microsoft 365 Business Basic is $7.00 per user per month, paid yearly, on an annual subscription that auto-renews[24].

Backups. How often your site is backed up depends on the plan. Bluehost Starter and Business and Hostinger Premium back up weekly[1][3]; SiteGround, GoDaddy Web Hosting and DreamHost Launch back up daily[5][11][4]. Kinsta backs up every 24 hours and keeps 14 days of backups[8].

Security and SSL. Bluehost sells security add-ons such as SiteLock and CodeGuard separately; the price is not on its hosting page[1]. WP Engine lists advanced DDoS protection and a managed web application firewall as an optional add-on[7]. GoDaddy’s Economy plan includes an SSL certificate (the padlock in the browser) free for 1 year[11], while Bluehost includes a free Let’s Encrypt SSL[1].

Usage. Vercel Pro includes a $20 usage credit, and beyond it you pay as you go, uncapped[16]. Netlify’s paid plans run on credits, with add-on credit packs listed from $5 for 500 credits[17]. WP Engine notes that taxes and overages may apply at checkout[7].

Hosting does not include anyone to change your website or fix it when it breaks. A plugin conflict, a broken contact form or a new service page is not a hosting problem, so hosting support is for the server, not your site’s content.

Is free hosting allowed for a business website?

Read the terms before you put a business site on a free plan. Vercel’s are the clearest: "Hobby teams are restricted to non-commercial personal use only. All commercial usage of the platform requires either a Pro or Enterprise plan."[25] Vercel’s examples of commercial use include receiving payment to create, update or host the site[25]. So a developer who builds you a site and hosts it on a free Vercel Hobby account is outside those terms; it belongs on Pro, which is $20 a month per developer seat[16].

Netlify’s free plan has hard monthly limits that cannot be exceeded or run up any charge[17]. We found no commercial-use restriction on Netlify’s pricing page, but we did not read its full terms of service. Cloudflare Pages has a free plan with 500 builds a month[18], and Cloudflare says all Pages plans include unlimited sites, requests and bandwidth[26]; Cloudflare’s Workers pricing page says requests to static assets are free and unlimited[27]. We did not check Cloudflare’s commercial-use terms for this page.

A free plan is fine for testing. For the site your customers find you on, check the commercial-use terms in writing, and know who owns the account: if a developer’s personal account hosts your site, you do not control it.

What is the difference between hosting and website maintenance?

Hosting keeps your website’s files online. Maintenance is the work of keeping the site itself correct, safe and current: software and plugin updates (add-ons that give WordPress extra features), checking backups actually restore, fixing what breaks, and making the changes your business needs, such as new prices, new photos or a new service page.

Some managed hosts take over part of that. WP Engine includes automatic WordPress and PHP updates, daily backups and one-click staging[7]. DreamHost includes a free 4-page starter site build[4], but none of the hosting pricing pages we read lists ongoing content changes or fixing your site’s own design or forms as part of the hosting price. That work is what a maintenance plan or a developer bills for, and much of it is small edits. Our guides on website maintenance cost and website maintenance packages cover those prices.

There is now a third way to handle the small edits: make them yourself, in plain English, with the AI assistant you already pay for. BaaDigi’s AI Website Management plan is built around that. It is $97 a month plus a one-time $300 setup, month to month with no contract[28]. We rebuild your current site on Next.js (up to 15 standard pages), host it on Vercel with Cloudflare in front, filter spam from your lead forms, and connect your own Claude or ChatGPT to the site[28]. You keep and pay for your own AI subscription[28].

  • Your AI can change content only: words, photos, services and FAQs. These are kept separate from the website’s code[28].
  • Every change goes to a preview first, automated checks run, you approve it, then it publishes. Every change is saved and can be rolled back[28].
  • We provide technical support when something breaks[28].
  • You own the domain, code, content and lead data, and the code is transferred to you if you leave[28].

What it does not include: done-for-you content changes. Those start on the Predictable Work Website plan at $147 a month plus $500 setup, which adds a dashboard and one update request a month of up to 30 minutes, and the Foundation Engine at $297 a month plus $700 setup does changes for you[28]. E-commerce, membership sites, web apps, portals, complex booking or calculators and large content migrations are quoted separately[28].

Which hosting option fits you?

  • A website builder (Wix, Squarespace, Shopify for stores): likely a fit if you want one bill that covers hosting and an editor, and you will make your own changes in their editor. Compare the yearly and monthly price, and check what the domain costs after year one.
  • Cheap shared hosting: likely a fit if you have a simple WordPress site and someone, you or a developer, will keep it updated. Price it at the renewal rate and the term length you are comfortable with.
  • Managed WordPress hosting: likely a fit if your business depends on a WordPress site and you want updates, staging and daily backups handled at the hosting level. Pressable, WP Engine and Kinsta start at $20.83–$30 a month on annual billing, plus fees for extra sites.
  • Modern or static hosting (Vercel, Netlify, Cloudflare Pages): likely a fit if a developer built your site with these tools. Use a paid or commercial-use plan for a business site.
  • Do it yourself on any of the above: likely a fit if you have the time and are comfortable with updates and fixes. Hosting will not do them for you.
  • Hire a maintenance company: likely a fit if you want someone else to make every change and handle updates and fixes, and the monthly fee is worth not thinking about it.
  • A managed setup you edit with AI: likely a fit if you mostly need small content changes, want to make them yourself in plain English with your own ChatGPT or Claude, and want someone else to handle hosting, security and support.

Frequently asked questions

How much does website hosting cost for a small business?
Most single-site small business hosting costs a few dollars to about $30 a month. Among Bluehost, HostGator, Hostinger, DreamHost and SiteGround, entry shared plans are advertised at $2.89 to $3.99 a month only on a 12 to 48 month term, then renew at $9.99 to $17.99 a month. Managed WordPress plans from Pressable, WP Engine and Kinsta start at $20.83 to $30 a month on annual billing, and Wix and Squarespace start at $17 and $19 a month billed yearly.
Why did my hosting bill go up after the first year?
The price you signed up at was a new-customer discount for the first term only. Hosts state this in the fine print; for example, DreamHost Launch is $2.89 a month for the first year and auto-renews at $10.99 a month, and SiteGround StartUp goes from $2.99 to $17.99 a month after 12 months.
Does website hosting include a domain and email?
Often only for a limited time. Many hosts include a domain free for the first year, then you pay the registrar’s renewal price. Included email is frequently a trial or a free first year, after which mailboxes renew at a monthly fee. Microsoft 365 Business Basic is $7.00 per user per month paid yearly; Google Workspace Business Starter is $7 per user per month, with a promotional $3.50 shown for the first 3 months.
Can I use free hosting for my business website?
Check the plan’s terms. Vercel’s free Hobby plan is restricted to non-commercial personal use, and commercial use, including being paid to create, update or host a site, requires its Pro plan at $20 a month per developer seat. Other free plans have their own limits and terms.
Is website hosting the same as website maintenance?
No. Hosting keeps your site’s files online and reachable. Maintenance is the work of updating, fixing and changing the site. Some managed WordPress hosts include automatic updates and backups, DreamHost includes a free 4-page starter site build, but none of the hosting pricing pages we read include ongoing content changes or fixing your site’s own design or forms in the hosting price.

Related reading

Sources

Every source was opened and read on the date shown. Vendor prices change; check the vendor's page before buying. How we research: methodology.

  1. Bluehost: shared hosting plans — checked 2026-10-01
  2. HostGator: web hosting plans and terms — checked 2026-10-01
  3. Hostinger: web hosting plans — checked 2026-10-01
  4. DreamHost: shared hosting plans — checked 2026-10-01
  5. SiteGround: web hosting plans — checked 2026-10-01
  6. Pressable: pricing — checked 2026-10-01
  7. WP Engine: plans — checked 2026-10-01
  8. Kinsta: pricing — checked 2026-10-01
  9. Wix: premium plans (US pricing) — checked 2026-10-01
  10. Squarespace: pricing — checked 2026-10-01
  11. GoDaddy: web hosting plans — checked 2026-10-01
  12. Namecheap: shared hosting plans (archived 2026-09-29) — checked 2026-09-29
  13. Flywheel: pricing — checked 2026-10-01
  14. GoDaddy: Managed Hosting for WordPress plans — checked 2026-10-01
  15. Shopify: pricing — checked 2026-10-01
  16. Vercel: pricing — checked 2026-10-01
  17. Netlify: pricing — checked 2026-10-01
  18. Cloudflare Pages: limits — checked 2026-10-01
  19. DigitalOcean: Droplet pricing — checked 2026-10-01
  20. Namecheap: domain prices (archived 2026-09-29) — checked 2026-09-29
  21. GoDaddy: domain pricing — checked 2026-10-01
  22. Cloudflare Registrar — checked 2026-10-01
  23. Google Workspace: pricing — checked 2026-10-01
  24. Microsoft 365: business plans compared — checked 2026-10-01
  25. Vercel: fair use guidelines — checked 2026-10-01
  26. Cloudflare Pages: product page — checked 2026-10-01
  27. Cloudflare Workers: pricing — checked 2026-10-01
  28. BaaDigi: AI Website Management pricing and scope — checked 2026-10-01