How much does website hosting cost in the UK? Real prices compared

TL;DR: Website hosting for a small business in the UK typically costs from about £1 to £5 a month in the first term and £6 to £24 a month after renewal, before VAT. On 14 October 2026, Hostinger’s Single plan was £1.49 a month on a 48-month term renewing at £7.99, SiteGround StartUp £1.99 a month for 12 months renewing at £13.99, and IONOS Plus £1 a month for 12 months then £9. Always compare the renewal price, not the offer.

Key takeaways

• Website hosting cost for a small UK business site usually starts at £1 to £5 a month for the first term, before VAT.
• Renewal prices are several times higher: £7.99 to £20.99 a month at Hostinger, £13.99 to £34.99 at SiteGround and £6 to £24 at IONOS, all excluding VAT.
• The cheapest monthly prices need you to pay upfront: 48 months at Hostinger, 12 months at SiteGround.
• UK hosting prices are usually shown without VAT, which adds 20% for most small businesses.
• Hosting is only part of the cost: add the domain, business email, backups and someone to keep the site updated.

How much does website hosting cost in the UK?

Website hosting cost for a typical small business site in the UK runs from about £1 to £5 a month in the first term and from about £6 to £24 a month once the plan renews, before VAT. Shared hosting, where your site shares a server with others, is the cheapest and is enough for most brochure and small booking sites.

The headline price is rarely what you pay over time. Hosts advertise a low monthly figure that only applies if you pay for one to four years upfront, and the plan then renews at its regular price. We read the prices below on each host’s UK pricing page on 14 October 2026. They change often, so check the live page before you buy.

We checked Hostinger, SiteGround and IONOS, three of the largest hosts selling to UK businesses.

Host and plan	First term price	Paid upfront	Renews at
Hostinger Single	£1.49 a month	48 months, £71.52	£7.99 a month
Hostinger Premium	£2.99 a month	48 months, £143.52	£10.99 a month
SiteGround StartUp	£1.99 a month	12 months	£13.99 a month
SiteGround GrowBig	£3.99 a month	12 months	£23.99 a month
IONOS Standard	£3 a month	For 6 months	£6 a month
IONOS Plus	£1 a month	For 12 months	£9 a month

All of these prices exclude VAT. Hostinger says its plans are paid upfront, with the monthly rate being the total divided by the number of months. SiteGround says its prices are prepaid for 12 months.

Why does hosting cost more when it renews?

Because the first-term price is a discount to win your business, and the renewal is the regular price. On 14 October 2026, Hostinger showed its Single plan at £1.49 a month against a regular price of £10.99, renewing at £7.99. SiteGround’s StartUp plan was £1.99 a month for the first year, renewing at £13.99.

That gap is where most surprises come from. A business that signs up at £1.99 a month on SiteGround pays £23.88 for the first year before VAT, then £167.88 a year from year two. A Hostinger Single plan costs £71.52 for four years upfront, then £7.99 a month, or £95.88 a year, after that.

Before you buy, work out the cost over three to five years, not just the first year. If you plan to keep the site for a long time, a plan with a slightly higher offer but a lower renewal price can work out cheaper.

What does a small business website actually need?

Most small business websites need very little: one website, a few gigabytes of storage, an SSL certificate for the padlock, daily or weekly backups, and decent support. A brochure site, a menu or a small booking site runs comfortably on an entry-level shared hosting plan. Busy online shops and large sites need more.

The entry plans we checked include more than enough storage for a typical site: Hostinger Single lists 10 GB, and IONOS Standard lists 100 GB. What matters more is speed, backups and support. Hostinger’s page lists free weekly backups on Single and daily backups on its Cloud Startup plan; look for daily backups if your site changes often or takes bookings.

You run	You usually need	Example plan
A simple brochure site	Entry shared hosting	Hostinger Single, IONOS Standard, SiteGround StartUp
Several sites or a growing site	Mid-tier shared hosting	Hostinger Premium, SiteGround GrowBig, IONOS Plus
A busy online shop	Higher-tier or cloud hosting	Hostinger Cloud Startup, SiteGround GoGeek
A Wix, Squarespace or Shopify site	No separate hosting	Included in the builder’s plan

Is hosting included with website builders?

Yes. Wix, Squarespace and Shopify include hosting in their monthly plan, so you do not buy it separately. You pay the builder instead: our website builder comparison found plans from about £9 to £25 a month on yearly billing for Wix and Squarespace, and £19 a month for Shopify Basic.

Separate hosting is mainly for WordPress and custom-built sites. WordPress itself is free software, so the hosting is the main running cost. The trade-off is that you, or whoever manages the site, look after updates and security, while a website builder handles those for you.

What is the difference between shared, cloud and managed hosting?

Shared hosting puts many websites on one server and splits its resources, which keeps the price low. Cloud and VPS hosting give your site its own share of resources, so it stays fast under heavier traffic. Managed WordPress hosting adds updates, backups and security handled by the host. Most small businesses start on shared hosting.

Type	What it is	Good for	Typical cost
Shared hosting	Many sites share one server	Brochure, menu and small booking sites	Lowest
Managed WordPress	Shared or cloud, with updates and backups handled	Owners who want less admin	Low to medium
Cloud or VPS	Dedicated share of resources	Busy shops and higher traffic	Medium
Dedicated server	A whole server for one business	Large sites with technical staff	Highest

On the pages we checked, the entry plans at each host were shared hosting, and the higher tiers added more websites, more storage, daily backups or cloud resources. Hostinger’s Cloud Startup plan, at £7.99 a month on a 48-month term renewing at £20.99, is an example of the step up.

How do you compare hosting plans fairly?

Compare the total cost over three to five years including VAT, not the first-month price. Then compare what each hosting plan includes: number of websites, storage, backups and how often they run, SSL, email, support hours and the money-back period. Finally, test speed and support during any trial.

A simple way to compare is to work out the five-year cost of each shortlisted plan. Using the prices we read, before VAT:

• Hostinger Single: £71.52 for the first four years, then £95.88 for year five, so about £167 over five years.
• IONOS Plus: £12 for the first year at £1 a month, then £108 a year for four years, so about £444.
• SiteGround StartUp: £23.88 for the first year, then £167.88 a year for four years, so about £695.

These totals assume you stay on the same plan and the renewal prices do not change. Add VAT at 20% if you are not VAT registered. The cheapest five-year option here was not the one with the lowest first-month price, which is exactly why the renewal price matters more than the offer.

Who should own the hosting account?

You should. Put the hosting account in your business’s name, with an email address you check, even if a web designer sets it up. If a designer or agency owns the account, moving your site later depends on them. Keep the login details safe and make sure you can download a backup yourself.

If someone manages your site for you, ask them to add you as the account owner and themselves as a user, rather than the other way round. That way you keep control of your website, its backups and its renewal date whatever happens to the working relationship.

What else should you budget for?

Hosting is only one line. Budget for a domain name, business email, backups if they are not included, any paid plugins or booking software, and time or money to keep the site updated. For many small businesses, the website’s yearly running cost is several times the hosting bill.

• Domain. A few pounds to around twenty pounds a year after any offer. Our guide to .co.uk or .com covers renewal prices.
• Business email. Some hosting plans include email addresses; IONOS lists one on Standard and two on Plus.
• SSL certificate. Hostinger’s page says SSL is included; many hosts now include it.
• Backups. Check they are included, how often they run and how you restore one.
• Plugins and systems. Booking systems, forms or shop extensions may have their own fees.
• Maintenance. Updates, security checks and small changes, done by you or paid for.

Is cheap hosting good enough?

For many small sites, yes, as long as it is reliable, reasonably fast, backed up and well supported. The risk with the very cheapest plans is not the price but what happens when something goes wrong: slow support, no recent backup, or a site that slows down when traffic rises. Speed matters because Google recommends pages load their main content within 2.5 seconds.

Google’s guidance on Core Web Vitals suggests aiming for the largest content to load within 2.5 seconds. Hosting is one factor, but large images and heavy themes usually matter more. Good hosting will not fix a slow site on its own; a well-built site on modest hosting is often faster than a heavy site on expensive hosting.

Test before you commit. Hostinger offers a 30-day money-back guarantee, according to its page. Use the trial period to check speed, the control panel and how quickly support replies.

Does it matter where your hosting is based?

A little, but less than people think. Google’s guide to multi-regional sites lists server location as one signal of a site’s intended audience, but says it is not a definitive one, because many sites use content delivery networks or are hosted where infrastructure is better. A UK address, phone number and .co.uk domain are stronger signals.

What matters more for your customers is speed. A server in or near the UK, or a content delivery network, usually means faster loading for UK visitors. Several plans we checked list a CDN, such as Hostinger Single and IONOS Plus. If your customers are all local, check that your host has servers in the UK or Europe, then focus on image sizes and a lightweight site.

When should you upgrade your hosting plan?

Upgrade when your site is regularly slow at busy times, you are running out of storage or websites on your plan, you need daily backups because the site changes every day, or you start selling online in volume. Do not upgrade just because the host suggests it; check the cause of any slowness first.

Signs it may be time:

• Slow pages at peak times, such as Friday evenings for a restaurant taking bookings.
• Storage or inode warnings from your host.
• More websites than your hosting plan allows.
• An online shop with regular orders, where downtime costs sales.
• Bookings or orders every day, where losing a day of data would hurt.

Often the cheapest fix is not a bigger plan but a lighter site: compressed images, fewer plugins and a simpler theme. Fix those first, then upgrade if the site is still slow.

Should you pay monthly or upfront?

Paying upfront for one to four years gets the lowest monthly rate, but locks you in and means a large first payment. Paying monthly, where offered, costs more per month but keeps you flexible. For a new business that may change its site, a 12-month term is often a sensible middle ground.

Whichever you choose, note the renewal date in your diary and check the renewal price a month before. Many hosts renew automatically. That is useful, because an expired hosting plan takes your website and sometimes your email offline, but it also means the higher price arrives without a reminder.

How do you switch hosts without losing your site?

Back up the whole site, set it up on the new host, test it on a temporary address, then point your domain to the new host and keep the old plan running for a few days until everything has moved. Many hosts offer help moving WordPress sites. Never cancel the old hosting until the new site is live and checked.

Nominet’s guidance for .UK domains notes that you do not have to host your website with the company that registered your domain. Keeping the domain separate from the hosting makes switching easier, because you only change where the domain points.

Based in Hampshire and would rather someone local did it? Our Portsmouth web designers meet you at your place, and you can open the sites we have built.

Frequently asked questions

How much is web hosting per month in the UK?

On 14 October 2026, entry plans started from £1 to £3 a month for the first term at IONOS, £1.49 at Hostinger and £1.99 at SiteGround, renewing at £6 to £13.99 a month, all excluding VAT.

Do UK hosting prices include VAT?

Usually not. Hostinger, SiteGround and IONOS all showed prices excluding VAT, which adds 20% for most small businesses.

What is the cheapest hosting for a small business?

The lowest first-term prices were IONOS Plus at £1 a month for 12 months and Hostinger Single at £1.49 a month on a 48-month term. Compare renewal prices too, because they decide the long-term website hosting cost.

Do I need hosting if I use Wix or Squarespace?

No. Website builders include hosting in their monthly plans. You only need separate hosting for WordPress or a custom-built site.

How much storage does a small business website need?

Very little. A typical brochure or booking site fits easily within the 10 GB or more that entry plans include. Speed, backups and support matter more than storage.

Is free website hosting worth it for a business?

Rarely. IONOS warns on its hosting page that free plans can have hidden costs, may show advertising on your site, and often need paid add-ons later. For a business site, a low-cost paid plan with your own domain, backups and support is the safer choice.

How much does hosting cost over five years?

Using prices read on 14 October 2026 and excluding VAT, about £167 for Hostinger Single, £444 for IONOS Plus and £695 for SiteGround StartUp, assuming renewal prices stay the same. That is why comparing the renewal price matters more than the first-month offer.

Can I move my website to a cheaper host later?

Yes. Back up the site, set it up on the new host, test it, then point your domain to the new host. Keep the old plan running until the move is checked, and time it before the old plan renews.

Want hosting sorted for you?

Working out the real website hosting cost, and keeping a site fast, backed up and updated, takes time most owners do not have. Our website design service includes setting up hosting in your name on a plan that fits, and our free website check shows whether your current site is slowing customers down.