Guide
How much does web hosting cost in the UK?
UK shared web hosting can cost as little as £10.03 a year with us, and a typical small business site costs about £21.18 a year, plus £9.99 a year for a .co.uk or .uk domain. Larger sites and agencies pay up to £133.79 a year. The bigger costs of a website are usually the build and the content, not the hosting.
Our prices
What our plans cost a year
Prices in pounds when billed yearly.
What affects price
Why hosting prices differ
Hosting prices rise with what you get. More disk space, more bandwidth, more domains, stronger resources and more included services all push the price up.
The type of hosting is the biggest factor. Shared hosting is the cheapest, because many sites split the cost of one server. A VPS or dedicated server costs more because you reserve resources. Managed services, where the provider does more of the work, cost more again.
Billing term also matters. Some providers discount long terms heavily and raise the price at renewal, so look at the full cost over several years, not just the first.
What is included
What to expect at each price level
| Budget | Type | Typical fit |
|---|---|---|
| Around £10 to £25 a year | Entry shared hosting | A single small site or blog |
| Around £25 to £70 a year | Larger shared hosting | Business sites, shops, several sites |
| Around £130 a year | Top shared hosting | Agencies and busy sites |
| Higher | VPS, dedicated or managed | Demanding or custom projects |
These bands describe our own plans and the general shape of the market. They are not quotes from other companies.
Extras
Costs that can sneak up on you
Domain names
A .co.uk or .uk costs £9.99 a year with us, with the same price at renewal.
SSL certificates
Included free on every plan here. Some hosts charge extra.
Backups
Weekly remote backups are included. Elsewhere they can be an add-on.
Unlimited mailboxes are included. Business email suites elsewhere cost per user.
Migration
Free on Small and higher plans billed yearly. Elsewhere it can cost a fee.
Themes and plugins
WordPress itself is free, but premium themes and plugins are an annual cost.
Saving money
How to keep hosting costs down sensibly
The best saving is to buy the plan you need, not the one that sounds impressive. A typical small business site uses a small fraction of the space on a Small plan, so there is rarely a need to pay for more.
Choose a provider that includes SSL, backups and email. Paying separately for each of these can double the cost of a cheap plan. Check what is free at checkout, not just on the advertising page.
Be careful with very long terms and large first-term discounts. A multi-year price may look cheap, but you are committing money before you know whether the service suits you. A short term with a money-back guarantee lets you test first.
When to spend more
When paying more for hosting makes sense
If your site earns money directly, such as a shop or booking system, downtime and slow pages cost real sales. In that case, a larger plan with more resources and good caching is cheap insurance.
Similarly, if you run several client sites, a plan with unlimited addon domains is far cheaper than separate accounts. Do the sum per site, and you will often find the larger plan is the cheaper way to host.
Over time
Looking at the cost over three years
A fair comparison looks at several years, not one. On our Small plan, three years of hosting at £21.18 a year is £63.54, and three years of a .co.uk domain at £9.99 a year is £29.97, giving about £93.51 for everything most small business sites need to be online, with SSL and email included.
Add what you would otherwise pay separately for backups, SSL or email on a cheaper-looking plan, and the picture often reverses. Always total the full set of things you need rather than comparing the price of one line.
Remember also that your hosting cost is tiny next to the value of an enquiry. One extra customer a year from a fast, reliable site can cover the whole cost many times over.
Payment
Choosing how to pay
Yearly billing keeps things simple, with one payment and one renewal to remember, and it includes free migration on Small and higher plans. Shorter terms suit testing or short projects. The monthly cost is about the same either way, so pick the one that fits your cash flow and plans.
Hidden value
What good hosting saves you
A cheap host that is slow or unreliable costs you in ways that never appear on an invoice: visitors who leave before the page loads, enquiries that never arrive because email failed, and hours spent fixing problems that better hosting would have prevented.
When you weigh two prices, ask what the cheaper one leaves out and what a bad day would cost you. Often the answer makes a small difference in price look very small indeed.
In short
The short answer, again
For most UK small businesses, hosting and a domain together cost roughly £30 to £60 a year. Spend more only when your site has a reason to need it, and always compare the full set of things included.
See every price before you pay
Our checkout shows each billing term and the total.
A worked budget
First-year cost of a small business website
| Item | Cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Hosting, Small plan | £21.18 | Billed yearly |
| Domain, .co.uk | £9.99 | Same at renewal |
| SSL certificate | £0 | Included |
| Business email | £0 | Unlimited mailboxes included |
| Premium theme, optional | Varies | Many good free themes exist |
| Design and build | Varies | The largest cost for most businesses |
| Total hosting and domain | £31.17 | Before any build costs |
Beyond hosting
The bigger costs of a website
For most small businesses, hosting is the cheapest part of having a website. The larger costs are the design and build, the writing, the photography and the time to keep the site current.
A freelancer or agency might charge a fixed fee for a small site. A template and your own time costs far less in money, and more in effort. Either way, a few pounds a month for good hosting is small compared with the cost of lost customers from a slow or broken site.
Budget for maintenance too: updates, backups and occasional fixes. These are what keep the site working a year from now.
Budgeting
How to set a hosting budget
Define the site
One page, a business site, a shop or a set of client sites.
Estimate the size
Count pages and photographs, and think about email and traffic.
Pick the smallest plan that fits
You can always move up later.
Add the domain
A .co.uk or .uk is £9.99 a year with us.
Check the renewal
Note the date and the price so it never surprises you.
FAQ
Common questions
What is the cheapest hosting plan you offer?
Very Small, at £10.03 a year when billed yearly.
Does the price include a domain?
No, except Limitless Plus, which includes a free .co.uk or .uk for the first year when billed yearly. Otherwise a domain is £9.99 a year.
Is there a free trial?
There is a 15-day money-back guarantee on your first hosting order.
Do prices rise at renewal?
Check the price of your term at checkout and in the client area. Domain prices stay at £9.99 at renewal.
Why is free hosting not a good idea for business?
Free hosting often limits features, shows adverts and offers weak support, and it can disappear without notice.
Keep reading
Related pages
Get a clear price for your website
Plans from 84p a month (£10.03 billed yearly), with a 15-day money-back guarantee.