Web Hosting Price Ranges - What Price Is Considered Low Cost?
The web hosting industry is a very competitive industry, so many hosting providers will assign themselves all manner of praise and fancy adjectives in an effort to appear more valuable to potential customers. Among those efforts to appear like a real bargain, providers will market themselves with phrases like "an affordable web host" or "budget hosting accounts." Many such claims couldn't be further from the truth.
Only hosting accounts that are priced at under $12.00 per month can truly be considered "low cost". The average price for a standard shared hosting over the past five years has been around $19.95 per month. With that said, many outstanding hosts have emerged in the last couple years that offer great hosting accounts for around $7.95 per month on average. The following descriptions should give you an idea of acceptable price ranges for web hosting accounts so that you can fairly judge the hosting providers you are evaluating.
Hosting Accounts From $3.00 To $4.95 Per Month
| Storage Space | 10 MB to 50 MB |
| Bandwidth | 500 MB to 2 GB / Month |
| Email Accounts | 1 to 25 Accounts |
| Comments | Best for small personal websites only. Such a plan should never be considered for any type of business or Ecommerce functions, since it will almost certainly be on older server hardware shared with several hundred other web hosting accounts. |
Hosting Accounts From $5.00 To $6.95 Per Month
| Storage Space | 25 MB to 100 MB |
| Bandwidth | 2 GB to 5 GB / Month |
| Email Accounts | 25 to 100 Accounts |
| Comments | There are some good hosts out that are able to price their smallest accounts as low as $5.00 per month without sacrificing quality. However, the bandwidth and support they provide for this price is still good for non-business sites only. |
Hosting Accounts From $7.00 To $8.95 Per Month
| Storage Space | 100 MB to 500 MB |
| Bandwidth | 5 GB to 20 GB / Month |
| Email Accounts | 100 to Unlimited Accounts |
| Comments | You will find accounts that offer the most value for your money in this price range. With the features listed above, you're getting a hosting package that will accommodate most websites. This range is good for small business and large personal sites. |
Hosting Accounts From $9.00 To $11.95 Per Month
| Storage Space | 300 MB to 1 GB |
| Bandwidth | 20 GB to 50 GB / Month |
| Email Accounts | 100 to Unlimited Email Accounts |
| Comments | With the features above, you can safely host any type of site until you reach the point of needing a dedicated server. If you're paying for an account that's more than $11.95 per month, then you're basically paying more for a hosting company's name and reputation rather than the actual features of your hosting account. |
So, if you see hosting accounts in these price ranges that don't have the basic features listed, keep looking because you're bound to find a better host at the same price. Also, if they offer the features listed above on the various charts, you should be able to tell if they are charging more than such as account is worth.
If you'd like to read some more helpful articles on choosing a low cost hosting provider, then please return to our Web Hosting Articles section.
