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Plans & Prices
Intro prices, renewal rates, and features in one place. See the real cost before you sign up.
True Cost Calculator
Advertised price versus what you actually pay.
Typical Shared plan
median of 12- Advertised · 24-mo term
- $2.50/mo
- Renews at
- $7.00/mo
Median entry plan of 12 providers that renew higher · Oct 26, 2026
Typical Shared plan: $180.00 over 3 years, versus $90.00 at the advertised price.
Calculate your true costBy category
Narrow the field by what you're actually building.
WordPress, VPS, cloud, shared, gaming, agency. Hosts optimise for very different workloads, and these categories pre-filter the index to the providers that are genuinely suited to a particular kind of project.
47 providers, from $1.00
32 providers, from $2.00
21 providers, from $0.00
29 providers, from $1.00
20 providers, from $18.56
32 providers, from $0.00
26 providers, from $0.00
34 providers, from $0.00
Where to start
Pick a path, not a provider.
The index is already filtered down to providers that make sense for a particular kind of project. Pick the closest fit and skip straight to the shortlist.
Personal blog, portfolio
Building with WordPress
Low-traffic, WordPress-optimised shared plans. Best for blogs, landing pages and small marketing sites.
Online store
Launching an e-commerce site
WooCommerce-ready plans with more resources, automated backups and PCI-friendly SSL out of the box.
Developer, custom backend
Running your own stack on a VPS
Root SSH, dedicated CPU/RAM and full control. Suited to staging environments, SaaS backends and custom runtimes.
Not sure yet
Help me decide in 60 seconds
Seven questions about what you are building, your budget and your priorities. You end up with two or three best-fit plans.
From the directory
54 hosts on file. Here are six of them.
A rotating selection from the 54 hosts we track. Each card shows the advertised intro price next to the renewal rate, along with regions served and the headline features that come included on the cheapest plan.
Diploi
- Free SSL
A2 Hosting
No reviews yet
- Uptime Guarantee
- Backups
- Free SSL
Amazon Lightsail
No reviews yet
- Uptime Guarantee
- Backups
- Free SSL
Bluehost
No reviews yet - Free Domain
- Uptime Guarantee
- Free SSL
ChemiCloud
No reviews yet- Free Domain
- Money-back Guarantee
- Free SSL
Cloudways
No reviews yet - Backups
- DDoS Protection
- Free SSL
Cloudzy
No reviews yet - Money-back Guarantee
- Uptime Guarantee
Contabo
No reviews yet - Uptime Guarantee
- Backups
Devrims
No reviews yet - Uptime Guarantee
- Backups
- Free SSL
DigitalOcean
No reviews yet - Money-back Guarantee
- Uptime Guarantee
- Free SSL
DreamHost
No reviews yet - Free Domain
- Money-back Guarantee
- Free SSL
Dynadot
No reviews yet - Money-back Guarantee
- Uptime Guarantee
- Free SSL
Evolution Host
No reviews yet - Uptime Guarantee
- Backups
ExtraVM
No reviews yet - Money-back Guarantee
- DDoS Protection
- Free SSL
FastComet
No reviews yet - Free Domain
- Money-back Guarantee
- Free SSL
Fly.io
No reviews yet - Backups
- DDoS Protection
GoDaddy
No reviews yet - Free Domain
- Money-back Guarantee
- Free SSL
Godlike.Host
No reviews yet- Money-back Guarantee
- Backups
GreenGeeks
No reviews yet - Free Domain
- Money-back Guarantee
- Free SSL
Hetzner
No reviews yet - Uptime Guarantee
- Backups
- Free SSL
HostArmada
No reviews yet - Backups
- Malware Protection
HostGator
No reviews yet - Money-back Guarantee
- Backups
Hostinger
No reviews yet - Free Domain
- Money-back Guarantee
- Free SSL
HostPapa
No reviews yet - Free Domain
- Money-back Guarantee
- Free SSL
Hostwinds
No reviews yet - Money-back Guarantee
- Uptime Guarantee
- Free SSL
InMotion Hosting
No reviews yet - Free Domain
- Money-back Guarantee
- Free SSL
InterServer
No reviews yet - Money-back Guarantee
- Uptime Guarantee
- Free SSL
IONOS
No reviews yet - Free Domain
- Money-back Guarantee
- Free SSL
is*hosting
No reviews yet - Uptime Guarantee
- Backups
Kamatera
No reviews yet - Uptime Guarantee
- Backups
Kinsta
No reviews yet - Money-back Guarantee
- Uptime Guarantee
- Free SSL
Linode (Akamai)
No reviews yet - Uptime Guarantee
- Backups
- Free SSL
Liquid Web
No reviews yet - Money-back Guarantee
- Uptime Guarantee
- Free SSL
Namecheap
No reviews yet - Free Domain
- Money-back Guarantee
- Free SSL
Name.com
No reviews yet- Free Domain
- Money-back Guarantee
- Free SSL
NameHero
No reviews yet- Free Domain
- Money-back Guarantee
- Free SSL
Netcup
No reviews yet - Free Domain
- Money-back Guarantee
- Free SSL
OVHcloud
No reviews yet - Free Domain
- Uptime Guarantee
- Free SSL
PebbleHost
No reviews yet - Money-back Guarantee
- Uptime Guarantee
- Free SSL
Private Hosting
No reviews yet - Money-back Guarantee
- Uptime Guarantee
- Free SSL
Railway
No reviews yet - DDoS Protection
- Free SSL
Rocket.net
No reviews yet - Money-back Guarantee
- Uptime Guarantee
- Free SSL
Scala Hosting
No reviews yet - Backups
- Malware Protection
ServaRica
No reviews yet - Free Domain
- Money-back Guarantee
- Free SSL
Shopify
No reviews yet - Uptime Guarantee
- Website Builder
- Free SSL
SiteGround
No reviews yet - Free Domain
- Money-back Guarantee
- Free SSL
Squarespace
No reviews yet - Free Domain
- Money-back Guarantee
- Free SSL
Tiiny Host
No reviews yet - Money-back Guarantee
- Uptime Guarantee
Time4VPS
No reviews yet - Money-back Guarantee
- Uptime Guarantee
- Free SSL
UltaHost
No reviews yet- Free Domain
- Money-back Guarantee
- Free SSL
Verpex
No reviews yet- Free Domain
- Money-back Guarantee
- Free SSL
Vultr
No reviews yet - Uptime Guarantee
- Backups
- Free SSL
Wix
No reviews yet - Free Domain
- Money-back Guarantee
- Free SSL
WP Engine
No reviews yet - Uptime Guarantee
- Backups
- Free SSL
A closer look, true cost
What a "$2.50 a month" plan actually costs over three years.
The number in the ad is a first-term rate. It holds for the billing cycle you commit to, then jumps (often by two or three times) when the plan renews. Add a domain, SSL or backups the plan leaves out and the gap widens further. Across the plans we track, the average renewal premium is +292%. Below is the same plan as the calculator at the top of the page: the typical Shared entry plan, the median of 12 providers that renew higher, checked Oct 26, 2026. It renews at $7.00/mo. Here it is year by year.
Advertised
$90.00
36 mo × $2.50
Extra paid
+$90.00
+100%
Actual
$180.00
3-year total
Year by year
Live figures, the same as the calculator above with 3 years selected. Each year shows that year's share of the hosting plus estimated extras the plan doesn't include; a multi-year term is billed upfront. Actual numbers vary by provider, billing cycle and optional extras.
Run the same math on any plan in the index. Pick the billing cycle, add the extras you need, and read the full multi-year total.
Open the calculatorAbout HostingSift
A hosting comparison built to be read, not sold from.
A lot of "best web hosting" sites read like affiliate catalogues with the same ten providers in a slightly different order each time. HostingSift is built the other way around, starting from the data in a format that makes it easy to tell good plans from bad ones without wading through marketing copy. Three things sit under that.
Renewal prices are shown next to the intro price, always.
The headline rate on most shared-hosting plans is a first-term promo. It's honest, until you're two years in and realise you've been paying three times that figure. Every plan profile on HostingSift puts both numbers on the same line, with the same weight, so the renewal can't be quietly forgotten.
Every provider is described in the same format.
One host advertises "unlimited bandwidth". Another lists 100 GB of transfer. A third gives you a visitor cap. The comparison is only useful if those three things sit in the same column, measured the same way. Storage, CPU, memory, refund windows, SSL, datacentre regions: every one of them gets folded into one shared set of fields before anything shows up on the page.
Rankings aren't for sale.
No provider pays to appear higher in a list, to feature in a category, or to influence which plan we highlight as a starting point. When there is a commercial relationship on a particular link, it's disclosed on the page where the link lives. The order of results is driven by the numbers, not the bookkeeping.
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