Every business—from small sole-proprietorships to sprawling, multimillion-dollar enterprises—needs a website and, therefore, a web host. In an always-connected world, it's critical to have an online presence that displays at least basic business information. Ideally, you'll want to sell products and services, too.
That said, not every business needs an e-commerce presence, and not every company can afford one, either. Sometimes, you just need a simple page listing your hours and location, with maybe a little blogging functionality to keep things interesting—and sometimes that's all you can afford, too. Cost is a critically important consideration when selecting a web host. It's a truism that you get what you pay for, but it's also true that every penny counts and that there are some great web hosting deals.
First, let's define web hosts in general. A web host is a company with servers you use to store and deliver the files that make up your website. Large businesses can spend hundreds of dollars each year on dedicated web hosting or virtual private server (VPS) hosting, but there are plenty of web hosts designed specifically for very small businesses, too.
That's exactly what the services collected here focus on—these are good, functional web hosting companies that will get your website online with the least amount of damage to your wallet. That's something that we can all appreciate. But how cheap?
Pricing in our list of cheap web hosts is based on the regular monthly or annual prices, with no discounts applied for the starter plans. Some budgets really are that tight, and some projects may not last a year. Our cutoff for inclusion in this table is that a provider must charge no more than $5 per month (after all, some people or companies only need temporary sites) or $50 per year. That's truly low-cost web hosting. It means that some of our top choices for best overall webhosts, like A2, Hostwinds, and GoDaddy don't make the price cut. But it also means that some perfectly fine services that don't appear on any other tables because they don't make the grade ratings-wise, such as Domain.com and iPower, do show up.
Web hosts that offer both monthly and annual plans are judged in both of those areas. Naturally, if a web host only offers monthly or yearly plans, we adjust our expectations accordingly.
