With so many hosts out there, it can be hard to tell what the typical price is for hosting. It definitally varies, and each and every host has their own idea of what cheap web hosting is. For some companies, $10/month is cheap. For some, $5/month is cheap. For others, $3/month is cheap. It really varies, and finding a true average would be impossible without days of research.
However, I believe it is safe to say that the average cost of hosting is around $5/month or $60/year. Keep in mind that I am talking about the BASIC packages. So the LOWEST price should be around $5. Anything much higher than that is a rip-off, and anything much lower than that might not be reliable.
There are many $1, $2, and $3/month cheap web hosting companies, but many aren’t reliable. Personally I would never trust a company that offers $1 or $2/month hosting. They have horrible servers, have bad regulations, or have hidden fees that will nail you. Either way, I wouldn’t trust a company that can afford to sell hosting packages for less than $2 per month.
I’d say $3/month or more is a good figure to go off of. There are plenty of hosts who offer $3/month hosting, and even more that offer cheap web hosting for about $4/month. These companies are generally much more reliable than the fly by night type companies who often run with clients’ money. Also, a company who charges more for cheap web hosting usually has better servers, so you can expect increased uptime, fast loading, etc.
If you’re not worried about money and don’t want cheap web hosting, I would go with a dedicated server. That way, you never have to worry about downtime, limits, etc. Also, with a large dedicated server, you can sell portions of it to other people.
Written by Web Hosting Expert on Apr 23, 2009.
