Top 10 Best Cheap Web Hosting Providers: Under $5 Edition


For all websites and blogs, a decent web host is a must, but it doesn’t have to cost you an arm and a leg. These companies provide the cheapest way to host a website – if you’re looking for a budget option, you can check it out. 


Hi there, welcome to another installment of WebsitesAdvice’s comprehensive reviews of anything related to web hosting. Today, we’ll take a look at 10 Web Hosting Providers that offer best plans under $5. Yes, you heard it right- five dollars. Choosing a $5 hosting plan can be confusing to many businesses. That is because each company offers different options and services. Unfortunately, several hosting companies provide low-quality services at very low rates, so we’re going to list the biggest hosting services under $5 you can use to launch a blog, a website, or a full eCommerce site and succeed.


1. HOSTINGER

Cheapest Plan at Signup: $0.80/month

Hostinger offers a wide range of hosting services, ranging from advanced VPS cloud hosting plans to beginners who want a shared hosting to get started. 


The cheapest plan for Hostinger called “Single” is priced at $0.80/month. At the price of less than a buck, you can host one website with 10 GB of disk space and 100 GB of bandwidth, plus creative features such as advance cron work, Curl SSL, MariaDB and InnoDB Database, weekly backup – stuff you usually don’t get from a budget hosting scheme. Hostinger’s Premium Shared Hosting Plan (starts at $2.15/month) comes with free BitNinja Smart Protection to protect you from XXS, DDoS, ransomware and a range of other cyber-attacks; and Mail Assassin to protect you from spam mails.


ABOUT HOSTINGER

Here’s what we like about Hostinger, and hate it. In this in-depth overview of the Hosting you will read more about our experience.

PROS OF HOSTINGER

  • Solid hosting performance – Uptime > 99.98%, speed test A+
  • Up to 90% discount on signup, “Single” plan starts at $0.80/month.
  • Server optimized for best WordPress site performance.
  • Free site migration for first-time customers.
  • Innovative features, support Curl, Cron Jobs, MariaDB, and InnoDB.
  • Free BitNinja Smart Security (prevent XXS, DDoS, malware, and script injection attack) for Premium Plan ($2.45/month).

CONS OF HOSTINGER

  • Hosting prices increase after the first term.
  • Hosts only one domain per account.
  • No SSH / sFTP access for Single Plan.
 

2. INMOTION HOSTING

Cheapest Plan at Signup: $3.99/month

InMotion Hosting is reliable, affordable, and rich in features. The launching plan begins at $3.99/month. It enables users to host 2 websites (generous feat) and comes with a free domain, SSH access, PHP 7 support, Full Cron and Ruby Support, and $150 free ad credits (only for U.S. users – Google AdWords and Yellow Pages). What’s more, if you ‘re a first-time customer, InMotion Hosting folks will help you migrate your site free of charge.


Admittedly, InMotion Hosting does not deliver the cheapest plan in town, but based on my experience, they are the best hosting company in general.


ABOUT INMOTION HOSTING

Here’s what we like and don’t like about InMotion Hosting:

PROS OF INMOTION HOSTING

  • Solid server performance, uptime >99.95% TTFB ~400ms
  • Free domain name for the first year
  • Good live chat and email support
  • Free site migration for first-time customers
  • Entry-level plans (Launch) packed with all necessary features to host a business website
  • 90 days money-back guarantee (Industry’s #1).

CONS OF INMOTION HOSTING

  • Hosting prices increase during the renewal
  • Choice of server locations in the United States only
 

3.INTERSERVER

Cheapest Plan at Signup: $5.00/month

Self-referred to as an easy-to-use, cheap hosting provider, InterServer specializes in shared, VPS, dedicated and co-location hosting solutions. Two things that I like the most about the InterServer:

  • The company does not increase its price after the first term – InterServer shared hosting plans are locked at $5/month, and; 
  • Allow users to host unlimited domains below $5/month (most of the budget plans discussed in this article allow only one domain per account)

 These two factors made it easy for InterServer to choose when you plan to host multiple (low-traffic) websites in one account for more than 5 years.


ABOUT INTERSERVER

I started using InterServer since 2013 and visited HQ in Secaucus, New Jersey in, 2016. Their server performance was rock solid and the technical support is excellent (all done by in-house staff).

PROS OF INTERSERVER

  • Rock solid server performance, hosting uptime above 99.97% based on our record
  • Signup price ($5/month) locked for life while others increase their price after the first term
  • Technical support 100% done in-house
  • Host unlimited domains and email accounts
  • Free site migration for all new customers
  • Company founded and lead by two good friends – Michael Lavrik and John Quaglieri; Over 20 years of proven business track record.

CONS OF INTERSERVER

  • Does not provide a free domain name (additional cost of $15/year).
  • Server location in the United States only – the company build and run its own data center in New Jersey.

4. A2 HOSTING

Cheapest Plan at Signup: $3.92/month

A2 Hosting is fast, reliable and inexpensive. Their shared hosting comes in three different flavors – Lite, Swift, and Turbo. Lite, the cheapest of all, allows users to host 1 website, 5 databases, and 25 email accounts.

You wouldn’t know that Lite is a budget plan by looking at its features: full SSD storage, SSH access, Rsync, FTP / FTPS, Git and CVS ready, Node.js and Cron support, and pre-configured for best WordPress performance (using in-house built-in WP plugin – A2 Optimized). All for $3.92/month.


ABOUT A2 HOSTING

Here’s a quick review of the Pros and Cons:

PROS OF INTERSERVER

  • Excellent server performance; TTFB < 550ms
  • Risk-free and anytime money-back guarantee
  • Entry-level plans (Lite) packed with all necessary features to host a business website
  • Choice of server locations in the United States, Europe, and Asia
  • Plenty of room to grow – users get to upgrade their servers to VPS, cloud and dedicated hosting

CONS OF INTERSERVER

  • Hosts only one domain per account.
  • Live chat support not 24×7 based on my live chat test.

5. HOSTPAPA

Cheapest Plan at Signup: $3.95/month

Founded in 2006 by Jamie Opalchuk, HostPapa is based in Ontario, Canada.

We found HostPapa as an okay host – they are not the best, but their cheap price tag is a huge plus – considering that the cheapest plan also comes with a free domain name, 100 GB storage, and 120 free pre-built site templates.


ABOUT HOSTPAPA

In summary, here are the pros and cons of HostPapa:

PROS OF HOSTPAPA

  • Recent server uptime performance meets industry standards. Uptime > 99.98%
  • Free domain name on signup – Save ~$15 (domain registration fee)
  • Reputable company with a good business track record (BBB Accredited Business with A+ rating)
  • Helpful live chat support based on our experience
  • Eco-friendly hosting – reduces your carbon footprint

CONS OF HOSTPAPA

  • Lack of options in server locations (hosts in Canada only)
  • Expensive renewal fees – Starter Plan costs $7.99/month after the first term

6. GREENGEEKS

Cheapest Plan at Signup: $2.95/month

Founded in 2006 by Trey Gardner, GreenGeeks has benefited from its extensive experience with several large hosting companies. Today, Trey and his experienced team of professionals have built GreenGeeks into a healthy, stable and competitive company.

The company is based in North America and has served more than 35,000 customers with more than 300,000 websites. As an eco-friendly company, it has dedicated itself to leaving a positive energy footprint and replaces used energy with three times the energy credits used. But that’s not all – GreenGeeks is also very budget-friendly, in addition to being environmentally friendly. Their all-in-one, 300 percent green shared hosting plan costs just $2.95/month.


ABOUT GREENGEEKS

Here’s a quick look at their pros and cons.

PROS OF GREENGEEKS

  • Environmentally friendly – 300% green hosting (Industry’s Top)
  • Excellent server speed – rated A and above in all speed test
  • More than 15 years of proven business track record
  • Free domain name for the first year
  • Free sites migration for new customers
  • Well worth the money – $2.95/month to host unlimited sites in one account (with daily backup)

CONS OF GREENGEEKS

  • Customer complaints on billing practices
  • A non-refundable $15 setup fee is charged during purchase
  • Price increases to $9.95/month after the first term

7. TMD HOSTING

Cheapest Plan at Signup: $2.95/month

For the first time, TMD ‘s shared plan starts at $2.95/month – 60 percent lower than the standard renewal price. The company has been around for more than 10 years and has four data centers spread across the United States and an overseas data center in Amsterdam.


ABOUT TMD HOSTING

Here’s what we like and don’t like about TMD Hosting:

PROS OF TMD HOSTING

  • Great server performance
  • Easy to use user dashboard
  • Clear guidelines on server limitation
  • 60-day money-back guarantee
  • Big discount for new signups – use coupon code “WHSR7”
  • Selection of six hosting locations
  • Weebly ready
  • Excellent customer supports

CONS OF TMD HOSTING

  • Auto backup feature can be better
  • Prices hike after the first term
  • Standard CloudFlare only

8. WEBHOSTFACE

Cheapest Plan at Signup: $0.69/month

Mainstream has yet to discover WebHostFace, making it an amazing hidden gem. WebHostFace’s cheapest hosting plan is incredibly low when you sign up – their cheapest plan, Face Standard, costs just $0.69 per month when you sign up. The plan comes with 15 GB of disk space, RV Site Builder, free CDN, SSH access, and daily backup.


ABOUT WEBHOSTFACE

To summarize, here’s what we like and don’t like about WebHostFace:

PROS OF WEBHOSTFACE

  • Extremely cheap – only $0.69/month during signup
  • Acceptable server performance, average hosting uptime above 99.9%
  • Excellent live chat support based on my study on hosting company live chat system
  • Secured hosting environment – Built-in DDoS mitigation and brute force detection
  • Choice of server locations in the United States, Europe, and Asia
  • Full range of hosting solution for an upgrade – to VPS and dedicated hosting

CONS OF WEBHOSTFACE

  • Hosts only one domain per account
  • Price increases 10x when you renew ($6.90/month)
  • Does not provide a free domain name (additional cost of $15/year)
  • Mixed results in our recent server tests – Our test site’s TTFB goes beyond 2,400 ms

9. FASTWEBHOST

Cheapest Plan at Signup: $2.97/month

FastWebHost (FWH) cheapest hosting plan (named as “Value”) starts as low as $2.95/month. We like FastWebHost budget plan for its price and security features. You’ll get basic hosting facility plus DDoS protection when you sign up on their Value plan.


ABOUT FASTWEBHOST

PROS OF FASTWEBHOST

  • Free DDoS Protection and Cloud Flare CDN
  • Free domain name for the first year (save ~$15)
  • Reasonable renewal rate – the same plan renews at $5.95/month after the first term
  • Choice of server locations in the United States, Netherlands, India, and Hong Kong
  • Full range of hosting solution for an upgrade – VPS, Dedicated and Managed WP plan

CONS OF FASTWEBHOST

  • Hosts only one domain with 20 GB disk space per account
  • Low priority support and server resources when you subscribe to the cheapest plan
 

10. IPAGE

Cheapest Plan at Signup: $1.99/month

Founded by Thomas Gurney in Burlington, Massachusetts, iPage has been based on the WHOIS Records domain since 1995. However, the company was not recognized until it was acquired and rebranded by the Endurance International Group.

iPage all-in-one unlimited hosting plan (named Essential) allows users to host unlimited domains and email accounts. The cost of hosting multiple domains in an iPage account is cheap – sign up at $1.99/month and renew it at $7.99/month.


ABOUT IPAGE

Here’s a quick rundown of all the pros and cons:

PROS OF IPAGE

  • 75% discount on signup – shared hosting at $1.99/month
  • Hosts unlimited domain names in one account
  • Free one-year domain for all new customers (save ~$15)
  • Newbie-friendly: smooth on-boarding process

CONS OF IPAGE

  • Mix results in our recent server speed test
  • Prices jump to $7.99/month when renewal
  • Limited website builder features (only 6 pages)
  • Unlimited hosting limited by other constraints
  • No free site migration for first-time customers
  • Users can only host their sites in the United States
  • Website help portal is not helpful at all
  • Does not support Cron job, SSH access, and SFTP

CONCLUSION

Hosting prices have changed dramatically over the last 10 to 15 years. At the beginning of 2000, an $8.95 monthly package with basic features was considered cheap. Then the price went down to $7.95, then $6.95, $5.95/month, and lower. If you look at some of the cheapest offers I hand-picked below – you’ll notice that some shared hosting services today cost less than $1 a month.


ADDITIONAL FACTS

  1. Average price: $4.84/month for 24-month subscription, $4.77/month for 36-month subscription. 
  2. On average, Australia’s hosting companies (sample size of 22) charge $7.20/month for their cheapest plans. 
  3. On average, U.K. companies (sample size 54) charge $4.45/month for their cheapest plans. 
  4. On average, U.S. companies (sample size 228) charge $5.05/month for their cheapest plans. 
  5. On average, India companies (sample size 9) charge $1.56/month for their cheapest plans. 
  6. Theoretically, you can host a site that is as low as $0.30 a month. Almost Free Speech’s “pay only for what you use” pricing model allows users to host a non-production site at $0.01/day.

To be considered as “budget hosting,” the hosting plan should not cost more than $5/month.


SHOULD I CONSIDER AVAILING ONE THESE CHEAP WEB HOSTING PLANS?

There are many factors that you need to consider when choosing a web hosting service. Price is just one of these factors. There are also other criteria – such as uptime hosting, server speed, security features, software version, after-sales support, etc. – that you need to look at.


A good budget host should have sufficient server resources to host at least one low-traffic website (~1,000 visits per day). The hosting plan should also include basic hosting features, including (but not limited to) basic server maintenance features, email services, easy-to-install popular scripts, latest versions of PHP and MySQL, live chat technical support, 99.9 percent server uptime, and reasonable server uptime.


The hosting plan should also include basic hosting features, including (but not limited to) basic server maintenance features, email services, easy-to-install popular scripts, latest versions of PHP and MySQL, live chat technical support, 99.9% server uptime, and reasonable server network speed.


Some budget hosting companies also provide regular server backup, auto malware scanning, additional dedicated IP, and one-click SSL Encrypt Activation. These features are nice to have, but they’re like a “bonus.” I can fully understand if hosting companies charge extra users for malware scanning or backup-and-restore features.


WHAT ARE THE COMMON ISSUES WHEN IT COMES TO THESE CHEAP HOSTING PLANS?

So far, we’ve covered a list of cheap, quality hosting services to consider. Now is the time for some useful tips on how to deal with the common problems that arise in cheap hosting deals.

  1. AGGRESSIVE UPSELLING AND CROSS-SELLING

Most low-cost hosting companies have aggressive up-selling and cross-selling practices. Budget hosting companies are in the market to make money. They sell or recommend add-on services and web applications such as SSL certificates, advanced email hosting features, domain names, CDN services, email marketing tools, and more.

While some of the offerings are straightforward, some cheap web hosting providers trick their customers into signing up for free trials. When the trial ends, they charge their customers high prices for the services. Their customers end up paying premium prices for services they wanted to try and likely don’t even need.


  1. RUSHED SERVER

Some budget hosting companies tend to overload their capacity and host too many websites on one server. The practice is known as over-selling. While overselling is a good way to reduce hosting costs, it sometimes jeopardizes user experience. Sites hosted on a crowded server result in slow response and frequent downtime.


  1. BAD NEIGHBORS

Occasionally, cheap hosts are infiltrated by what is commonly referred to as bad neighbors. These bad neighbors are the spammers who eat the resources of the server or the careless webmasters who get hacked. If you share a server with spammers, you won’t have enough resources left. If you share a server with someone who gets a Trojan or a computer virus, your site might also get infected.


  1. BLACK HOLED IP ADDRESS

Usually, you get a shared IP address when you subscribe to a cheap web host. In rare instances, this shared IP address may be black-listed due to the activities of other users.


  1. POOR TECHNICAL SUPPORT

Some cheap hosting companies have poor customer support and are unable to respond to customer requests promptly. Slow response times are not always due to lack of care. In some cases, cheap hosts do not have enough technical staff to respond to customer support requests.


  1. HIDDEN FEES AND CHARGES

Some low-cost hosting companies have suspicious business practices and unclear terms and conditions. Read TOS (quick tip: go to TOS Host page, press Ctrl + F, search for keywords such as ‘cancellation’ and ‘refund’) clearly and make sure the cancellation is made. The web host may charge the domain registration fee (which may be up to a one-time $25 fee) and the SSL certificate fee, but anything more than that is a no-go fee.Don’t go with those with a policy of fish cancellation, no matter how cheap they are.


  1. FEES INCREMENT AFTER FIRST TERM

Cheap hosting companies are not always cheap. Many lure customers at low prices and then jack up the renewal fee two or three years later. Unfortunately, this is the industry standard. Many of these companies lose their customers’ money in the first two or three years, so they charge higher prices later to recover their losses. Many customers don’t realize they ‘re going to pay higher prices, and they’re going to get a sticker shock when they see the auto-charge on their credit card bill.


  1. LONG SUBSCRIPTION PERIOD

Some web hosts will ask their customers to sign up for a very long time in exchange for low price tags. Lunarpages marketed its shared hosting deal as $4.95/month many years ago. But the $4.95/month deal is only available to customers who are willing to pay five years in advance – which is a rip-off. Five years! Anything can happen online in 5 years; the hosting company might take your money and close the store.


SUMMARY

Not all shared hosting companies are bad at all. Cheap unlimited shared hosting plans are popular and powerful these days. More than 90% of individuals host their domains and sites on a shared hosting plan. And they’re just working fine. It doesn’t make your sites ‘cooler’ or better simply because you’re opting for an expensive hosting solution. Not to mention – if you make a comparison, there are a lot of things that can go wrong with dedicated or VPS hosting.


Some site owners subscribed to VPS or dedicated hosting simply because of their ego – with a kind of mind where they think they ‘re different and better. But this isn’t true. In fact, I know some small business owners who switched to dedicated hosting when they didn’t need it, and they regretted it. They spent money on unnecessary server resources and expert technical assistance when shared hosting would have been fine.


Until you build a high-traffic site/blog, there’s no need to put that much time and money into a powerful hosting plan. It’s a waste of time and money. Instead, focus on content and marketing.


If you’re buying something you don’t need, you ‘re wasting money, no matter how cheap or good it is. And that’s why you need to know your hosting needs before you choose a new web host. Before you leave this page to purchase a web host, make sure you have a basic understanding of the web host and domain name. Think deeply about our own needs and answer the following questions:

  • What kind of website are you building up for? 
  • Do you want a common thing? 
  • Do you need a Windows application? 
  • Do you need a special version of the software (i.e. PHP)? 
  • Do you need special software on your website? 
  • How big (or small) is the volume of web traffic going? 
  • What is your 12 (or 24) month website budget? 
  • How much of this money is supposed to go to the hosting?

And that’s all for this installment of WebsitesAdvice’s comprehensive reviews of anything but web hosting providers. Please let us know should you have any questions. Feel free to use the comments section below.

Thank you so much and we are hoping to see you again!

Ciao!

This Post Has 8 Comments

    1. WebsitesAdvice

      Thank you for supporting our website. Glad you found it helpful:) We will keep up!

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