Web hosting price: what web hosting costs over five years

Web hosting costs $2 to $10 a month to start and $10 to $20 at renewal for shared hosting, $10 to $100 for a VPS and $80 to $500 for a dedicated server — and the price that decides it is none of those. It is what the plan costs over five years, once the term, the domain and the add-ons are in it. Here is what the market charges, what the plans here cost over five years, and the three things a headline price leaves out.

What the market charges

The market's own answer, read on 2026-10-21, is a table by kind of hosting rather than a single number:

And the market cannot agree with itself on the band. The same summary, for the same question phrased as "website hosting price", gives shared hosting a renewal of $10 to $35 a month where it gives $10 to $20 here — and Forbes' own line, which both summaries quote, says $10 to $20. A band that moves with the wording of the question is not a number anybody can plan against, which is the other half of why the plans' own figures matter more than the market's band.

The vendor pages under it are the same trade in single plans: GoDaddy at "as low as $5.99/mo … For first 3-yr term", Namecheap at "just $1.88/mo", Hostinger at "$2.49/mo … Get 48 months for $119.52 (regular price $585.12). Renews at $10.99/mo". The forum answers the same way — r/webdevelopment's "Cost of hosting a website? (web hosting prices)", 140+ comments: "most shared hosting plans will be between $8-15 per month. Normal can be anywhere from $5 to $30 depending. Above $20 will get you convenience…"

And the page one states its own finding. The summary above the results is headed "⚠️ The 'Introductory Rate' Trap", and it makes three claims: "the heavily advertised prices (e.g., $1.99/mo) are promotional rates"; "to get the absolute lowest rate, you typically have to prepay for a 24- to 48-month contract upfront"; and "when your initial term ends, prices regularly double or triple. For instance, a plan that starts at $3/month might renew at $11/month."

That is the whole mechanism, in the market's own voice. What the page one does not do is add it up.

The term is half of the price

The lowest rate is a rate you commit to for two to four years before you can see it, and the "People also ask" box asks for the annual figure anyway: "How much does it cost to host a website?", "How much does it cost annually to host a website?", "Is $1500 a good price for a website?" and "Can I host my own website for free?"

And the free answer is the right one for a small site. On r/web_design, "How much would a very basic website cost to host" (50+ comments) has a top answer with 97 votes: "Render has a free tier." — with 11 votes on "If it's static, just host it on github pages and call it a day" and 10 on "$0 on Netlify". Three answers, one conclusion: if the site is one page, it should cost nothing.

The second bill

The same summary lists what the headline does not include, and the three lines are the ones a reader is usually surprised by:

A free domain for year one is a discount, not a price. The rate starts again at renewal, and the rate is the registry's, not the host's — the domain price page prints it, with the five-year total beside it.

What it costs here, over five years

Our own plans, from the catalogue the pricing page reads. The renewal is not a column because it is the same number: a plan carries a renewal price only when it differs from its signup price, and the build fails if any renewal runs above its own signup.

As of: 2026-10-21. Every rate on the pricing page is real and published, but this deployment is not connected to a payment provider, so there is no button that takes money.

The free year is the same table in a different currency. It is $0 for twelve months and the Pro rate from month thirteen, so a five-year window is four paid years of Pro and one free one — $720.00 over five years, against $15.00 a month for a plan you paid for from the first day.

And the renewal step is the other half of the price. These are the published entry rates for the major hosts: the first column is what a new customer is quoted, the second is what the same plan renews at, and the third is the multiple nobody mentions at checkout.

As of: 2026-10-22. The rates in this table are each vendor's own published numbers; the date each one was verified is on that vendor's comparison page.

As of: 2026-10-21. Every rate on the pricing page is real and published, but this deployment is not connected to a payment provider, so there is no button that takes money.

Zeso is the only row on that list whose renewal does not move — and it is also the most expensive entry rate on it, which is the trade this site makes: the number stays where it is.

What to compare instead

1. The five-year total, not the month. It is the only column that is a

price; the others are rates, and a rate quoted without its term is not comparable with another rate. How to read a hosting price honestly has the six cells a price has.

1. The term. A 48-month prepay buys the headline rate and the renewal

decision four years out; a 12-month term buys the ability to re-price every year. They are different purchases at the same sticker.

1. The second bill. The domain, the certificate and the mailbox are

separate lines with separate clocks, and the domain's clock is the registry's.

1. Whether the renewal moves. Not whether it goes up — every renewal goes

up eventually — but whether it goes up at the first renewal. That is what the introductory-rate trap is about, and the renewal policy is ours.

And if the site is one page, the answer is $0. The single-page static tier is free for as long as the domain is registered here, and the forum's top answer on a very basic site is right for the same reason.