Hosting Cost Calculator

Why the cheapest host keeps changing

Move the calculator from one year to five and the order rearranges itself. That is not a glitch. Shared hosting is sold on a first-term discount, so the winner depends entirely on how long you stay.

• At one year SiteGround is cheapest, because it only asks for twelve months.
• At three years Hostinger and Bluehost are cheapest, because their first term already covers that long.
• At five years SiteGround is the most expensive of the shared hosts, because $17.99 a month adds up.
• Cloudways never changes position much, because it never discounts and never jumps.

The three numbers that decide it

Any honest hosting comparison needs all three. Most only show the first.

1. 1The advertised monthly rate — the number on the pricing page.
2. 2The term you must prepay to get it — one to four years, depending on the host.
3. 3The renewal rate — what you pay for every month after that term ends.

What this does not include

Taxes, domains and add-ons are excluded, because they vary too much to guess. Cloudways bills backup storage at $0.033 per GB and mailboxes from $1.50 each per month. Most shared hosts include email but charge for extra storage. Add whatever you will actually use before comparing.

Prices also change without notice. We check them against each provider's own pricing page and date every figure, so you can see how fresh it is rather than guessing.