Best Cheap Web Hosting – Best Value For Your Buck

For this article, I picked the 3 best cheap web hosting providers. They're all different in their own special way, but there's one thing that combines them all together – amazing value that you are sure to enjoy. So just stick around to find out which one works best for you. 

How did I pick my top providers? I didn't just focus on pricing alone – more importantly, I was interested in what you get for your money. It's all about the value!

And these three providers right here offer some great high-budget performance, at a fraction of a price.

So here’s what we’ve got – the best cheap web hosting providers:

1. InterServer – the hidden gem of web hosting.
2. Hostinger – the cheapest web hosting provider for the long term.
3. Cloudways – budget-friendly pay-as-you-go pricing.

1. Interserver1. InterServer

The first, and perhaps, the best-overall-cheap-web-hosting is InterServer. It’s been around since 1999 but still escaped the mainstream radar by being overpowered in marketing by corporations like Bluehost or GoDaddy.

But there was no reason for that to happen. This hidden gem of web hosting is offering unbelievably great deals starting at just $5 a month.

For some of you, this may not sound like that cheap. But oh, that's not all. InterServer offers a month-to-month payment model.

This means that to get started, you won’t need to pay hundreds of dollars upfront, which is one of the main problems making web hosting so expensive. Here, it's incredibly straightforward. Got a fiver? You got hosting.

Just beware – even this company hasn’t escaped from the oldest industry trick – higher renewals. While the first month of Standard shared hosting is $5, the renewal will be $7 a month.

I’ve covered this pricing model in detail in the full InterServer review.

But I'll take the liberty to spoil it for you here instead. It’s still affordable, much better than the industry's average, and very much justifiable.

Another advantage when it comes to pricing is InterServer’s Price Lock Guarantee. This means that you’ll be immune from any future price increases. So, if InterServer decides to increase their pricing in the future and you already have a plan purchased, the price for you will stay exactly the same as you signed up.

Overall, Interserver's pricing is low, transparent, and fair. Just the way it should be.

So, what’s included in that amount? 

The Standard shared hosting plan is the plan that'll fit around 90% of the regular users, think of it as a one-size-fits-all situation. Here, you’ll get:

• Unlimited storage space (the fast SSD kind, not the boring HDD one);
• Unlimited bandwidth;
• Unlimited emails;
• Free SSL certificate;
• Weekly backups; 
• A ton of security features for DDoS and malware protection and more.

All of this will cost $5 a month. For a price of a burger, you’re getting every premium feature there is. And honestly, you’ll probably never have to upgrade unless your site reaches hundreds of thousands of visitors or you’ll decide to upload full-length ultra HD movies on your website for some reason.

The only disadvantage I might see with InterServer is their control panel. You see, they are using the standard cPanel with its quite outdated interface. If you’ve used a nice modern control panel like SiteGround or Hostinger offers, it will be a serious downgrade. But in any case, there are plenty of other hosting providers who use it, meaning that you'll be able to find answers to pretty much any kind of problem you might encounter when using it.

And also, cPanel is still very easy to use and has all the tools you need, including one-click WordPress installation.

Talking about WordPress… I’ve tested how fast InterServer can load my website.

Performance

I’ve used InterServer automatic installation software and created a nice WordPress website for the tests. I wanted to see how fast this cheap shared hosting plan can load a simple website without me doing any fancy tricks.

And I got a great result. My WordPress website loaded in 1.3 seconds and had a 0.2 second time to first byte.

This is an incredible result. To get something similar, some providers might ask you to pay anywhere from $20 to $50 a month.

So with all the features included, InterServer is offering remarkable performance for such a cheap price.

Overall, InterServer is one of the best cheap web hosting providers. You are getting a set of premium features, convenient monthly billing, and a company that cares more about the customers than their marketing game.

2. Hostinger2. Hostinger

Hostinger is the cheapest option on the list offering shared hosting for as low as $0.99 a month. The company is booming by offering powerful yet cheap web hosting plans with the latest technology like LiteSpeed servers, Google Cloud Infrastructure, and PHP 7.4, and HTTP/2 support – all of which should make your website blazing fast.

But there’s a catch.

Unlike InterServer, Hostinger lowers the prices only if you’re buying for a long period of time. Like 3 or 4 years in advance. So, it's going to be an investment up front but then you can sit back and don’t worry about your web hosting costs for literally years to come.

Let's put all that into perspective:

A 4-year plan for 1 website will cost $47. And then, 4 years later, when cars will fly and we'll all have robotic arms, it will renew at 103 cyberdollars.

You have to admit that this is pretty cheap web hosting right there.

Hell, let’s make it even cheaper.

If you use the EMITREVIEWS coupon code at the checkout, the price will drop to $0.89 a month or $42.72 for 4 years. So don’t forget to use the discount!

So what do you get for this price?

• 10GB of disk space which is more than plenty for 1 website;
• 100GB of bandwidth which will allow you to have anywhere from 15k to 25k monthly visitors;
• SSL certificate that’s a security essential and adds that small lock by your URL;
• Weekly backups so if anything goes wrong, you can rewind the “good” version of your site.

Apart from that, you’ll also get to enjoy a very nice and modern control panel unique to Hostinger only. It’s very beginner-friendly, and while I found it to be quite sluggish when doing the full Hostinger testing, it's a great pick for novice users.

That can be forgiven. But sluggish servers, not that would actually be bad. So how does Hostinger hold up there?

Performance

To test the performance, I’m using exactly the same website setup as I used with InterServer. This way, we will have a nice comparison point. 

Well, even the cheapest Hostinger plan holds up quite well. My website loaded in 1.6 seconds with the time to first byte being 0.4 seconds.

That is slightly slower than what InterServer managed to deliver but mind the price difference. With Hostinger, I’m using the cheapest website hosting plan available at $1 a month. 

I can only praise Hostinger for the performance as this cheap option is competing with some much more expensive competitors.

Overall, Hostinger is offering great performance at a low price. Together with that, they also have a custom-designed control panel and all the features you need to start a great website.

For beginners looking to start a website on a cheap? Look no further.

3. Cloudways3. Cloudways

My last recommended provider is very different and you probably won’t see it on any other cheap website hosting list. So why is Cloudways here?

You see, they are using a unique pay-as-you-go pricing model and VPS servers. If set up properly, this will give you hundreds of dollars worth of performance for just a couple of bucks.

Sounds complicated? It’s not.

Cloudways is using the servers of top VPS providers like Google and Amazon. They set everything up for you and then give you an option: pay monthly, or pay...hourly. There are no higher renewals or unexpected pricing increases.

And while, for example, using Cloudways with DigitalOcean will cost you $10 a month...

It can also cost you about 1.4 cents per hour.

With Cloudways, you can manually control how much resources you need and how much power you’re using. So if you don’t have many visitors – you are not using much of your server and you’ll barely have to pay anything. 

The best part? You can sign up and test the services completely for free for 3 days. Not even a credit card required.

So, the real question beckons – do you need to be skilled to use this?

While experience would be useful, Cloudways is actually rather beginner-friendly. It’s the same as controlling any shared hosting account. And you’ll also get a free SSL certificate, a firewall, and automated website updates.

They also use a very nice and modern user interface that’s a pleasure to work with. I have the full Cloudways review where I show how it looks and where are the main tools located. Really, even a complete beginner will be able to manage it with some practice.

But is this extremely different approach even worth it? Let's have a look at the performance to find out.

Performance

Once again I’ve used the same website setup as before to get a good comparison. And as rightfully expected, Cloudways was the fastest of the three, loading my site in 1.2 seconds with just 0.2 seconds time to first byte. 

This is THE performance increase that you expect from virtual private servers. This extra power you get will be great for running larger projects like eCommerce stores or membership sites.

I’d say, with the performance you get for the price, Cloudways definitely earned their place on this list.

All in all, Cloudways is a unique hosting provider offering an affordable pay-as-you-go pricing model for some extra power that eCommerce and other business websites might need.

RecommendationWhat's My Recommendation?

All 3 web hosting companies on this list offer way better value and performance than your average provider. But which cheap web hosting offers the best value for you?

In my opinion, if you want to pay a small sum upfront, and need hosting for a regular business or personal website, go with InterServer.

If you’re a complete beginner, Hostinger’s 4-year plan will offer the best value as you’ll be paying less than $50 for all this time. It will also be the easiest option to use.

But if you need something more powerful for your eCommerce business, Cloudways is definitely the best out of the 3. You’ll pay as you go and never overspend for the resources you’re not using.

I hope this helps you find the wallet-friendly provider you are looking for! Let me know what you think in the comments section down below!