The picks at a glance
Hostinger
Best for a first site on a budget
A domain, a certificate and a WordPress install arrive with the plan, on the cheapest entry rung of the three.
SiteGround
Best for setup done for you
The host carries the migration, the updates and two plugins, so the site keeps being maintained after launch.
Cloudways
Best for outgrowing shared hosting
Your own server on a cloud provider you choose, with resources that belong to the site rather than shared.
How we picked
Shared hosting is the cheapest way to put a site online and the easiest thing to buy badly. This guide covers the three hosts we have reviewed in full that sell it to a small site, and it stays on that: a first website, or a handful of them, that does not yet need a server of its own. Cloudways sits here as the step a reader takes when shared hosting stops fitting, which is why it is the pick that bundles no domain.
Every host below publishes its plan ladder, the renewals printed beside its entry rates, and the terms that govern leaving. Those pages were read against the same three questions: what the entry rung actually includes, where the second-term price lands, and what the host owes when the service fails. A host that keeps any of those off its own pages does not earn a place, because an entry rate without the renewal next to it is not a number a reader can act on.
No account was opened with any of the three for this page, so nothing here is a measurement of how they run. The rates, allowances and terms come from the companies’ own pricing, plan and legal pages, read on the date given at the end, and the judgement behind each pick is argued criterion by criterion in that host’s full review.
The picks, in detail
Hostinger
(Best for a first site on a budget)
Hostinger is the pick when the site does not exist yet and the first year is the thing being paid for. The order arrives assembled: a domain for the year, a certificate issued and installed without a step from the buyer, and WordPress or Node.js installed from the panel rather than by hand. The domain and the certificate are the two items a reader would otherwise buy elsewhere, and both sit inside the plan for the first term.
The part to read twice is the term. The advertised rate belongs to the longest commitment the company sells, so the low figure on its homepage is bought by paying several years at once rather than by choosing a cheaper host. The renewal is printed beside it and priced separately, and the distance between the two figures is the whole of the discount.
Skip it if the site needs a written answer on support. The desk is described as priority and round the clock, with no first-response time published beside it, so what is promised is that someone is reachable rather than how soon. A reader who needs a response time they can hold a company to is shopping for a different kind of host.
Read the review
SiteGround
(Best for setup done for you)
SiteGround is the pick when the owner would rather not be the person who keeps WordPress running. The migration is carried out by the host, the software updates itself, and two plugins the company maintains arrive with the caching and the security already wired in. Staging is where the plans separate: a test copy of the site exists from the second rung up, and the rung above that adds Git beside it.
Expect to trade room for that help. The entry allowance is tighter here than on the other shared host at the same advertised price, and the range does not grow gently from there, because the next size the company sells is a cloud instance rather than a larger shared plan. A site that outgrows the top shared tier changes environment rather than plan.
Skip it if the second-year bill matters more than the first. The introductory rate is sold on a single year, and the renewal printed beside it is a multiple of the entry figure, so a reader who means to keep the site for years is really buying the renewal and renting the discount.
Read the review
Cloudways
(Best for outgrowing shared hosting)
Cloudways answers the point at which a shared plan stops fitting. The resources belong to the site rather than being shared with neighbours, and the machine underneath is chosen at setup from a list of cloud providers, so which region the site sits in and whose service level stands behind it are decisions the buyer makes rather than inherits.
The bill is shaped differently from the other two, and that difference is the reason to consider it. Nothing is prepaid and no term is bought down, so the second month costs what the first did and there is no renewal to plan around. What the plan leaves out is what moves a budget: the domain, the mailbox, and extra bandwidth, which the provider choice prices differently from one cloud to the next.
Skip it if the site is new. Setting up means answering which cloud, which region and how large a server before a page exists, and the smallest machine here is priced well above a shared plan. A first site is better served by the two picks above, with a move made later once there is traffic to justify it.
Read the review
How they compare
Key differences between the three web hosts recommended for a small site
| Platform |
Best for |
Starting price |
Free tier |
| Hostinger |
A first site, or several small ones |
From $2.99/mo on a 48-month term paid upfront |
No · 30-day money-back, renewals included |
| SiteGround |
A first WordPress site that wants the setup done |
From $2.99/mo on a 12-month term paid upfront |
No · 30-day money-back on the shared plans |
| Cloudways |
A site that has outgrown shared hosting |
From $11/mo, billed hourly, no term |
No · three-day trial, no card required |
Swipe the table sideways to see every column.
The rates and free-tier lines above come off the hosts’ own pages, checked on 16 September 2026. Both shared hosts advertise the same entry figure on terms of different lengths, so that number is only half of what is being compared here; the term beside it is the other half.
Matching a host to the site you are building
Three questions separate these hosts faster than a feature list will.
Is the site live yet, or is it already struggling?
Before launch the work is setup, and setup is what the two shared hosts sell: a domain, a certificate, an install, and a migration when there is something to move across. Once the site is live and busy hours are showing, the work becomes resources instead, and a shared plan cannot be made faster by anything except a rung that is still shared. That is the line Cloudways sits on the other side of, and it is the only reason to pay its price.
What happens when the first term ends?
This is the question the homepage answers last. A host whose entry rate belongs to its longest term and a host whose rate belongs to a single year are not competing on price, they are competing on how long you are tied to it. Read the renewal printed beside the entry rate and compare those two figures, because the second one is the price of the site rather than the price of the offer.
Who has to fix it at eleven at night?
Every plan here is managed, so the honest question is not whether support exists but what it promises. The split is whether a time is written down. One host publishes targets by tier and attaches a credit to a missed one; the two shared hosts keep desks open at every hour without saying how long a reply takes. Where an hour of downtime carries a price, that number belongs in the comparison ahead of the monthly rate. For a hobby site, none of it is worth paying for.
If the site is a page or two that will not change, shared hosting is more machinery than the job needs. The cheapest hosting is the one nobody has to maintain, and static files can sit behind a service that charges a fraction of these rates with no panel, no plugins and no renewal to watch. Every plan on this page is priced for a site that runs software and gets updated.
Frequently asked questions
What happens to my files if I cancel?+
Nothing is moved for you, and the three hosts handle the leftovers differently. Hostinger stops the service and deletes what is left behind, so a site has to be migrated before the request rather than after it. SiteGround removes the account’s files on termination and may keep backup copies for up to sixty days without being obliged to. Cloudways simply stops billing, and a month already invoiced is not refunded.
Can I start on the cheapest plan and move up later?+
On the two shared hosts that is the ordinary path, because the entry plans are sized for a first site and the rungs above them lift the website limit rather than changing the software underneath. The move that is not a plan change is SiteGround’s, where the next size up from shared hosting is a cloud instance. Hostinger keeps its cloud and VPS lines inside the same account.
Is the free domain really free?+
For the first year on both shared hosts, and not after that. Hostinger’s free domain also sits outside its money-back guarantee, so a refund can have the domain’s standard price deducted from it, and a domain bought separately is refundable only within 96 hours of registration. Cloudways includes no domain at all, which makes it a separate purchase and a separate renewal.
Our verdict
For most small sites the answer is Hostinger, whose entry rung is both priced and sized for a first website. The domain, the certificate and the install arrive with the plan, and the rung above is a change to the same account rather than a move to a new one. Choose SiteGround instead when the upkeep after launch is the part you would rather hand over, and accept a tighter allowance and a steeper renewal in exchange for it.
Cloudways is the pick for a site that has stopped fitting rather than one that has not started, and it costs several times what the other two charge at entry. Where the site is live and slowing down at busy hours, that is a trade worth making. Where it is not, the money buys nothing yet.
Sources
Hostinger (hostinger.com), checked 16 September 2026: the web hosting pricing page for the plan rates, the term each one requires and the renewal printed beside it, the plan cards for storage, website and mailbox allowances, and the refund policy page for what the guarantee covers and what it excludes.
SiteGround (siteground.com), checked 16 September 2026: the WordPress hosting page for the plan rates, the twelve-month term and the renewals, the plan cards for storage, website counts and where staging begins, and the terms of service for the uptime guarantee and how a cancellation takes effect.
Cloudways (cloudways.com), checked 16 September 2026: the pricing page for the pay-as-you-go server ladder and the fixed-price plans, and the service level agreement for the support targets, what they cover and how a missed target is compensated.
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Last updated Sep 16, 2026 · Some links on this page may be affiliate links; see our Affiliate Disclosure.
