Web hosting has come an incredibly long way over the last few years, with more and more competitors in the market, companies are advertising cheap web hosting at low monthly costs to entice customers to host with them (especially UK companies).
This naturally makes the market cheaper because there’s a lot of competition. However, when they are labeled as cheap hosting providers we often find that there are pitfalls in key features, such as support and uptime.
#1: Hostinger UK (Best Cheap Web Host)
Hostinger offers some of the cheapest web hosting around, starting from just £1.49 per month. In all honesty, you’d struggle to get a packet of crisps for that price these days, so to be able to host an entire website, suitable for WordPress, and get a free SSL – that’s got to be a bargain right?
Pricing & Features:
You can choose between Hostinger’s 3 web hosting pricing plans, all of which include a free SSL certificate, LiteSpeed Cache, 99.9% uptime guarantee, and DNS management.
Hostinger’s Single Web Hosting plan is ideal for starter websites or small blogs, however, for a really great deal, Hostinger’s Business hosting is just £3.99 per month. In my opinion, it’s the best web host currently in the UK market.
When you upgrade your Hostinger plan you’ll get a lot more for your money including unlimited bandwidth, free custom domain name of your choosing, unlimited MySQL databases, and website backups.
Pros & Cons
+ Very low prices
+ Free SSL certificate
+ Free Hostinger Website Builder
+ 24/7/365 support
– 4-year commitment required for best prices
VISIT HOSTINGER.CO.UK (£1.49/MONTH)
#2: iPage
iPage is one of the few web hosts that offer just one hosting plan. Their shared hosting plan is £1.50 per month and includes free domain registration, free software to build your own website, free email address, free SSL, and a free domain
Pricing & Features
iPage’s hosting is great for small websites and personal blogs, and even small businesses. However, even though they offer unlimited storage and bandwidth, their servers aren’t scalable in terms of power and performance to suit a larger website.
Saying that, it’s really hard to complain at the insanely affordable price of £1.50, considering all of the features you get., You’ll also get free security scans, free WordPress building tools, and if for any reason you don’t get along with your new hosting, there’s a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Pros & Cons
+ Simple pricing structure
+ Plenty of free extras
+ Free domain and SSL
– Other extras and features cost money
#3: BlueHost
BlueHost is one of the best providers for WordPress hosting, starting at £2.20 per month. They are recommended by WordPress and include unmetered bandwidth and a free SSL certificate for all shared hosting customers.
Pricing & Features
Aside from BlueHost’s Basic plan, all plans include unlimited fast SSD storage. BlueHost not only focus heavily on WordPress customers, they also put a lot of effort into making their servers speedy and reliable.
If you’re thinking of starting a new website or blog, I recommend giving the Basic plan a whirl. When your site starts to get a bit more traffic, the Choice Plus plan is a no brainer, at the same cost as the Plus plan. All plans include resource protection, easy upgrades, marketing credits, and 1-click WordPress installations.
Pros & Cons
+ Great for WordPress customers
+ Fast SSD storage
+ Easy control panel
– Upselling and add-ons included at checkout
VISIT BLUEHOST.COM (£2.20/MONTH)
#4: HostGator
HostGator are well-known for their easy and affordable shared hosting plans. It’s super easy to install software like WordPress and all of HostGator’s shared plans include free WordPress and cPanel website transfers.
Pricing & Features
HostGator have three pricing plans on offer, all boasting a free SSL certificate and free domain name. With plans starting from just $2.75 per month (£2.10) it’s hard to find a reason to dislike HostGator.
HostGator is a great cheap web host for beginners as their website and control panel is simple to use, if not a little outdated. All their plans come with the necessary features to start hosting a website including instant backups, 24/7/365 support, unlimited FTP accounts, marketing credits, and lots more.
Pros & Cons
+ Great value for money
+ Well-known provider
+ Free domain and SSL
– Mostly targetted at beginners
VISIT HOSTGATOR.COM (£2.10/MONTH)
#5: A2 Hosting
A2 Hosting is well known for its affordable and generous reseller hosting and customer support. However, they also offer great shared hosting at a very reasonable price of £2.32 per month.
Pricing & Features
All of A2 Hosting’s shared plans include SSD storage, free website migration, and a money-back guarantee. When you upgrade to their Drive plan, you’ll get 2x more resources, but the big seller is when you move onto Turbo Boost which introduces A2’s Turbo servers.
The Turbo servers are great, and they do pack a punch when it comes to speed and performance, however, it’s a shame that they come in at a costly £7.65 per month, in comparison to other premium hosts like SiteGround who knock most of its competitors out of the park for speed and performance.
On the other hand, A2’s shared plans all include unlimited email accounts, unlimited bandwidth, 99.9% uptime guarantee, free Cloudflare CDN to speed up your website, and a choice of data center location.
Pros & Cons
+ Premium web servers
+ Fast speeds
+ Unlimited email accounts
– Turbo option is expensive
VISIT A2HOSTING.CO.UK (£12.49/MONTH)
#6: HostPapa
While HostPapa is located in Canada, it offers affordable web hosting servers around the world. Despite having some security issues back in 2012, HostPapa offers reliable uptime and fast speeds and is worth considering for your cheap web hosting needs.
Pricing & Features:
HostPapa’s Starter hosting plan starts from £1.95 per month and includes hosting for two websites. You’ll also get free domain registration, a free SSL certificate, and a generous 100GB SSD storage.
Each plan includes all of HostPapa’s essential features. They use cPanel as their control panel, where you can create up to 100 professional email accounts. There’s also access to 1-click installs for WordPress, free website transfer, and a 99.9% uptime guarantee.
If for any reason you’re not happy with HostPapa, you can claim their 30-day money-back guarantee. HostPapa’s free website builder is also included with each plan, so you can create and host your website in the same place.
Pros & Cons
+ Fast UK speeds
+ Free SSL and domain
+ Office integration
– Encountered a hack back in 2012
VISIT HOSTPAPA.CO.UK (£1.95/MONTH)
#7: SiteGround
SiteGround is one of our favorite web hosts, but small businesses and beginners tend to shy away from them due to their slightly more expensive pricing plans. The good news is, SiteGround is now offering a special discount for new customers, starting from just £2.99 per month.
Pricing & Features:
For £2.99 per month, you’ll get 10GB storage, 10,000 monthly visitors allowance, a free SSL certificate, and lots more. Although SiteGround’s storage does seem minimal in comparison to other web hosts, most websites won’t exceed more than 5GB in size.
For small businesses and low-traffic websites, SiteGround’s StartUp plan is actually incredibly affordable. They develop lots of technologies in-house to ensure their customer’s websites run smoothly. For example, SG Optimizer makes WordPress websites run super-fast, SuperCacher, and free migration for WordPress websites.
If you’re put off by the renewal price, stick with SiteGround for your first term at least. In my experience, they are 100% worth the extra cost once your cheap initial term runs out. However, if you don’t want to pay for their services, you can always migrate your website to another web host.
Pros & Cons
+ Reliable uptime
+ In-house developed technologies
+ Recommended by WordPress
– Expensive renewal rates
VISIT SITEGROUND.CO.UK (£2.99/MONTH)
#8: GoDaddy
GoDaddy is a well-known UK web host, more commonly known for being one of the most popular domain registrars. However, GoDaddy’s web hosting is not only affordable but also feature-rich, gaining it a place on our recommended cheap web hosting list.
Pricing & Features:
GoDaddy’s shared hosting starts from £3.99 per month and includes a free domain name, unmetered bandwidth, and a generous 100GB storage. Ideal for blogs and small websites, the Economy plan is not only affordable but also renews at a much lower rate in comparison to other web hosting providers.
All of GoDaddy’s hosting plans will have access to cPanel, and 1-click purchase of additional resources should you need them. With access to 1-click installs like WordPress, GoDaddy’s hosting plans are suitable for beginners.
GoDaddy offers multiple data center locations, allowing you to choose from North America, Europe, or Asia-Pacific, meaning you can choose a location nearest your website visitors for an improved user experience.
Pros & Cons
+ Affordable renewal rates
+ Free domain name
+ Plenty of storage
– No included emails
VISIT GODADDY.CO.UK (£3.99/MONTH)
#9: DreamHost
DreamHost is recommended by WordPress (like Bluehost and SiteGround), and are known for their generous WordPress features. They are also one of the cheapest month-to-month web hosts, allowing you to sign up on a monthly basis, 1-year, or 3-year term.
Pricing & Features:
DreamHost’s Starter plan is priced very low, offering a free domain, unlimited traffic, free SSL certificate, and WordPress pre-installed. For this reason, we highly recommend them for beginners who don’t want the faff of having to install WordPress manually.
The option of paying monthly rather than a full term upfront is particularly attractive. Prices start on a month-to-month basis at around £3.49 per month. If you already have a WordPress website, you can migrate it to DreamHost for free.
All plans include unlimited storage and bandwidth, an easy-to-use control panel, free privacy protection, and automated backups. DreamHost’s customer support is particularly good for WordPress customers.
Pros & Cons
+ Recommended by WordPress
+ Free domain name and SSL
+ WordPress pre-installed
– Emails cost extra
VISIT DREAMHOST.COM (£1.83/MONTH)
#10: GreenGeeks
If you’re looking for cheap web hosting and are conscious about the environment, GreenGeeks could be right up your street. Although they don’t boast the bells and whistles of some of the best web hosts, they are eco-friendly and would be suitable for a personal website, blog, or small business website.
Pricing & Features:
Prices start from around £1.76 per month, which is very competitive. You’ll be able to host one website with 50GB storage space, unmetered bandwidth, and a free domain name. On top of this, GreenGeeks includes a free SSL certificate on all of their hosting plans.
50 email accounts are included, which makes GreenGeeks a real contender for small businesses. You’ll also get a free CDN, nightly backups, and a 30-day money-back guarantee. All of their hosting plans have a 300% green energy match, making them a wise choice to protect the environment.
In our testing, GreenGeeks has sometimes fallen below average in terms of uptime and speed, however, things have never been bad enough for us to cancel. Their managed WordPress feature is a blessing for beginners, and their Premium plan is still reasonably priced against the market.
Pros & Cons
+ Eco-friendly web hosting
+ Free domain name and SSL
+ Free CDN
– Performance and uptime are sometimes below average
VISIT GREENGEEKS.COM (£1.76/MONTH)
Cheap Hosting: What To Look For
Uptime
Arguably one of the most important features to look for in a cheap web hosting company (and premium hosting). If your website is down then it means no one can find your website; no one can search for it, or access its URL. This means you could potentially be losing out on customers, visitors, sales, and traffic.
The reason why up-time can affect cheap web hosting providers is simply that they may be loading up far too many websites onto one shared server; more people crammed onto one server means they don’t have to pay out as much for servers.
This, in turn, causes poor performing servers which reflect badly on your website, equating to a user experience that would be ingrained into your customers’/visitors’ minds deterring them from coming back!
Solution
Ensure you take the time to research into your cheap web hosts’ uptime records before you take up a pricing plan with them. No one wants to be left in a situation where their website isn’t accessible, so don’t let it happen to you!
| Date | Uptime | Downtime | Outages | Avg Response Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017-05-17 | 100.000 % | 0 mins | 0 | 585 ms |
| 2017-05-16 | 100.000 % | 0 mins | 0 | 551 ms |
| 2017-05-15 | 100.000 % | 0 mins | 0 | 542 ms |
| 2017-05-14 | 100.000 % | 0 mins | 0 | 564 ms |
| 2017-05-13 | 100.000 % | 0 mins | 0 | 546 ms |
| 2017-05-12 | 100.000 % | 0 mins | 0 | 541 ms |
| 2017-05-11 | 100.000 % | 0 mins | 0 | 547 ms |
| 2017-05-10 | 100.000 % | 0 mins | 0 | 584 ms |
| 2017-05-09 | 100.000 % | 0 mins | 0 | 559 ms |
| 2017-05-08 | 100.000 % | 0 mins | 0 | 565 ms |
| 2017-05-07 | 99.861 % | 2 mins | 1 | 534 ms |
| 2017-05-06 | 100.000 % | 0 mins | 0 | 559 ms |
| 2017-05-05 | 100.000 % | 0 mins | 0 | 556 ms |
| 2017-05-04 | 100.000 % | 0 mins | 0 | 537 ms |
| 2017-05-03 | 100.000 % | 0 mins | 0 | 506 ms |
| 2017-05-02 | 100.000 % | 0 mins | 0 | 533 ms |
| 2017-05-01 | 100.000 % | 0 mins | 0 | 477 ms |
Where can I check this information?
There are lots of free and paid tools online that you can use, including, server monitoring, from very simple to very complex analysis. Each one will offer different features, so it may be worth looking at a free version like Uptime Robot or Monitis, to begin with, then move onto paid options like Nagios or Cacti if it’s something you want to keep an eye on.
Poor Support
There’s a handful of cheap web hosting companies that provide very poor customer and technical support; perhaps because they’ve spent their low budget on filling up their shared servers… who knows!
However, support is a very important factor when it comes to web hosting, whether you’re a beginner or an expert. If your website goes down, you’ll want to be able to contact someone immediately to resolve the situation. You’ll also want to speak to someone who knows what they’re talking about!
Solution
Unfortunately, there’s little you or I can do to resolve poor customer support. However, it may be worth looking for a cheap web hosting provider who offers a money-back guarantee, so if you want to test the waters, you won’t have the fear of being trapped if you don’t like what you see. Keep an eye out for 24/7 support, including a variety of contact options like live chat, email, and free telephone.
Cheap Web Hosting But Overpriced Renewal Fees
Cheap web hosting providers often lure you in with affordable prices, to begin with, however, if you enjoy your services with them and want to remain a customer, you’ll likely be paying an expensive renewal fee to stay with them.
This is a great way for cheap web hosting companies to recoup costs from their initial cheap prices. Most customers will blindly pay a monthly fee and not even realise the price has gone up at renewal until they check their bank statement!
Solution #1 – Host Switching
As we’ve said, most web hosts will charge a cheap price for the first year or so, then if you decide to stay with them, you’ll be charged a much higher fee. This policy is present on most budget hosting companies, including, GreenGeeks, BlueHost, and FatCow. One way around this is to simply switch your web host every time your current web hosting package is due for renewal. This will ensure that you gain the benefits of cheap web hosting without getting sucked into another year of high prices. Of course, this will rely on you doing your research and remembering to cancel before your renewal is due.
Solution #2 – Find suitable renewal rates
It may take a little research and digging, but if you’d rather stay away from hopping between web hosts every year, look to stick with a provider who offers affordable renewal rates. Some web hosts won’t increase their renewal price at all, whereas others may increase it slightly, or if you’re unlucky, by a substantial amount.
Hidden cancellation fees
There are unfortunately some cheap web hosting companies that charge a cancellation fee if you no longer want to stay with their company. These aren’t always obvious and are hidden within their terms and conditions, or worded in a vague manner. Companies like these should be avoided at all costs.
Solution
If a cheap web hosting company is looking to charge a cancellation fee for anything other than your domain name or SSL license, avoid them at all costs. Domain names and security licenses are often purchased on a yearly basis, so canceling these mid-term and being charged a fee is justified.
However, canceling a hosting package that is often charged on a monthly basis and being charged for doing so is certainly not justified. When looking for a cheap web hosting provider, make sure you’re clear on their cancellation and refund policies. Dive into their terms and conditions and search for any keywords relating to cancellation or refund to see if they charge for cancellations. If they do, regardless of how cheap their fee might be, do not purchase a web hosting plan from them.
Nuisance Up-selling
It pains me when I visit a website and purchase a product; the product I’ve decided I want, yet am being pushed to purchase add-on services or extras that I have no use for! Well, unfortunately, this is what a lot of cheap web hosting companies do too. They’ll recommend other products that you ‘should buy‘, such as, CMS themes, email spam protection, domain registration, email management tools, and more. Now, I’m not saying that these things aren’t useful, however, being tricked into free trials then being hit with premium prices is not welcomed.
Solution
Check every step of your purchase journey to ensure there aren’t tick boxes that have already been ticked for you, opting you into free trials. Unfortunately, you’ll need to be a little on the skeptical side whenever you receive communication from your web host; read what the emails say without blindly clicking on links that will opt you into an add-on service. Smart is the way to go here to ensure you don’t get caught out.
Data limits & storage caps
Many cheap web hosting companies will offer great affordable prices for a barebone product, leaving you short if you try to include too many images, files, or store too much data on your website. Some providers combat this by offering unlimited hosting packages, others by allowing you to upgrade when necessary, and the rest leave you in a sticky situation with no choice but to cancel and go elsewhere.
Solution #1 – Unlimited options
If you know you’ll be expanding your website or blog, or you’re planning to build a website and sell products online, it might be wise to invest in an unlimited web hosting package. This means you’ll have no data limits or storage caps applied to your website, reassuring you that you can pretty much do what you like with your website without any restrictions.
Read the terms and conditions of these services carefully, however, as unlimited doesn’t always mean unlimited – even so, most of the time, the limited unlimited packages are often beyond sufficient.
Solution #2 – Upgrade options
Unlimited plans can sometimes be a little more expensive than the basic plans, so if you’re not ready to commit to unlimited, you should look out for web hosts that allow you to upgrade your plan whenever you need to.
This will mean that you won’t have to cancel your web hosting with the hassle of looking elsewhere, or tighten the reigns and make room for more content. You can simply upgrade when you need to, and most of the time this is done instantly for you.
If you don’t want to commit at all, it may be worth considering a free web hosting company. Believe it or not, there are plenty of free hosting companies out there who won’t place adverts on your site and offer upgrade options when you feel ready to expand.
Limited MySQL databases
Databases are used to store certain information, for example, if you’re running an eCommerce site, the likelihood is that your online store/shop will contain a multitude of products, pricing information, and more. All of this data is stored on databases.
Solution
Before you place your order with your web hosting company, ensure they haven’t cut costs on CPU power by offering you limited usages of MySQL databases. Unlimited might sound a lot, but there are many cheap web hosting providers that offer unlimited MySQL databases, so do some research and don’t leave yourself short.
Subscription in exchange for cheap web hosting
We all know companies that offer a cheaper monthly price if you pay 3, 6, or even 12 months in advance – fair enough. However, some cheap web hosts have been known to ask their customers to pay up to 5 years in advance in exchange for their cheap prices – outrageous!
Solution
Choose a web hosting company that will offer you an affordable price with little or no subscription. You don’t want to be stuck in a contract with a company that might go under and take your money, or one that doesn’t suit your needs and you’re unable to cancel without further costs.
Be savvy and pay attention to the billing cycle information before you purchase. Whilst SiteGround’s web hosting isn’t considered cheap, they do advertise their best deals and lowest prices for a 12-month period.
They clearly layout their extra services like domain registration which is £14.95 per month, without automatically ticking boxes for you. Features like WordPress hosting and installation are included for free, so sometimes it’s worth weighing up cheap web hosting versus value for money.
Don’t necessarily shy away from paying on a year-by-year basis, but know what you’re getting into before you get there.
Reseller Hosting FAQs
What is uptime?
In simple terms, uptime is the amount of time that your website is live and available to visitors and potential customers. Any time that isn’t uptime is downtime. Downtime means that visitors and potential customer can’t see your website; they won’t be able to search for it or view it, and if you’re running a business, that is certainly a very bad thing indeed!
As a general rule of thumb, we like to see providers who offer at least a 99.9% up-time guarantee for their products and services. If a company doesn’t offer this, there’s a good chance it’s because they can’t, and they know they’ll not be able to stick to the guarantee.
Conclusion
Choosing the best reseller web host is a bit like choosing the best free website builder, it really depends on what you need it for.
For example, you may only want to resell a certain amount of hosting accounts, in which case you could opt for a cheaper reseller host with less flexibility. On the other hand, you may want to market to the masses, thus you need a flexible and unlimited reseller account.
Whether you’re a developer working on multiple websites or you want to try your hand and selling your own web hosting, reseller hosting is a great place to start your journey.