Most small business websites don't need much from a web host. A contractor, cleaning company or local service business usually has a homepage, service pages, area pages, a quote form and maybe a blog. Any reputable shared hosting plan can run that. The real differences are in the price you'll pay after the first term, how long you have to commit to get the advertised price, and what's included: domain, email, backups and support.
We compared the entry-level shared hosting plans of five well-known hosts, using each host's own plans page as of October 16, 2026. We compare listed plans and terms; we haven't load-tested each host. Prices exclude taxes.
Quick comparison: small business web hosting
| Host | Entry plan | Intro price | Renews at | Commitment for the intro price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hostinger | Premium | $2.99/mo | $10.99/mo | 48 months |
| Bluehost | Starter | $3.99/mo | $9.99/mo | 36 months |
| DreamHost | Web Hosting Launch | $2.89/mo | $10.99/mo | First year, billed yearly |
| IONOS | Essential | $4/mo | $8/mo | 1-year term |
| SiteGround | StartUp | Varies by region | Varies by region | Prepaid for 12 months |
SiteGround shows prices by region, so we've listed its plans without prices. Check the US price at checkout.
How to read hosting prices
Hosting prices are built to look cheap. Three things decide what you actually pay:
- The renewal price. Almost every host offers a large discount on the first term, then renews at the regular price. A plan advertised at $2.99 a month can renew at $10.99.
- The commitment. The lowest intro prices usually require paying for 2 to 4 years up front. Shorter terms cost more per month.
- What's included. A free domain usually covers only the first year. Email may be included, included for one year, or offered as a paid add-on after a trial.
For a small business site you plan to keep for years, compare the total cost over three years, including renewal, domain and email. Here's the hosting cost alone over the first 36 months, from each plan's listed intro and renewal prices:
| Plan | What you pay | Hosting cost over 36 months |
|---|---|---|
| Hostinger Premium | $143.52 up front for 48 months | $143.52 (covers 48 months) |
| Bluehost Starter | $3.99/mo for a 36-month term | $143.64 |
| IONOS Essential | $4/mo for year 1, then $8/mo | $240.00 |
| DreamHost Web Hosting Launch | $2.89/mo for year 1, then $10.99/mo | $298.44 |
| IONOS Plus | $1/mo for year 1, then $14/mo | $348.00 |
Domain renewals after the first year and any paid email come on top.
Hostinger
Hostinger shows three plans on its web hosting page, each with a 48-month intro price:
| Plan | Intro price (48 months) | Renews at | Websites | Storage | Backups | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Premium | $2.99/mo ($143.52 for 48 months) | $10.99/mo | 3 | 20 GB SSD | Weekly | 2 mailboxes per website, free for 1 year |
| Unlimited | $3.99/mo ($191.52 for 48 months) | $16.99/mo | Unlimited | 50 GB NVMe | Daily | Unlimited mailboxes per website, free for 1 year |
| Cloud Startup | $7.99/mo ($383.52 for 48 months) | $25.99/mo | Unlimited | 100 GB NVMe | Daily and on demand | Unlimited mailboxes per website, free for 1 year |
All three include a domain free for one year, a CDN, AI website tools, WordPress, and 24/7 support, with a 30-day money-back guarantee. Hostinger also offers its own drag-and-drop website builder.
Good fit: a small business that wants the lowest monthly cost and is comfortable paying for four years up front. Note that included mailboxes are free for the first year only.
Bluehost
Bluehost's shared hosting plans are priced for a 36-month term:
| Plan | Intro price (36 months) | Renews at | Websites | Storage | Suited to |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | $3.99/mo | $9.99/mo | 10 | 10 GB NVMe | About 40K visits/month |
| Business | $6.99/mo | $13.99/mo | 50 | 50 GB NVMe | About 200K visits/month |
| eCommerce Essentials | $14.99/mo | $21.99/mo | 100 | 100 GB NVMe | About 400K visits/month |
Every plan lists a free first-year domain, free SSL, a CDN, malware scanning, weekly backups, managed WordPress updates, a staging site and a 30-day money-back guarantee. Starter includes 24/7 chat support; phone support starts with Business, which also adds a web application firewall, DDoS protection and first-year domain privacy. Email is a "Pro Email" free trial that renews at $2.50 a month after the first month.
Good fit: a WordPress site on a three-year plan, with room for up to 10 sites on the entry tier, if you're happy to keep email elsewhere.
DreamHost
DreamHost's web hosting page shows one shared plan, Web Hosting Launch: $2.89 a month for the first year, then $10.99 a month. It includes 25 websites, 25 GB of NVMe storage, unmetered bandwidth, and a plan sized for about 40,000 monthly visits (DreamHost says this isn't a hard cap). It also includes an AI website builder, a free SSL certificate, and a free 1-year domain on annual and multi-year plans with free domain privacy.
Two details stand out for small businesses: DreamHost offers monthly billing on every web hosting plan, so you don't have to prepay years in advance, and its intro price only needs a one-year commitment. Email is a free 3-month trial of its Professional Email.
Good fit: a business that doesn't want to lock in for three or four years, or wants room for several sites.
IONOS
IONOS lists four web hosting plans with a 1-year term:
| Plan | First year | Then | Storage | Email addresses |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Essential | $4/mo | $8/mo | 100 GB NVMe | 1 |
| Starter | $6/mo | $10/mo | 200 GB NVMe | 2 |
| Plus | $1/mo | $14/mo | 350 GB NVMe | 4 |
| Ultimate | $10/mo | $18/mo | 500 GB NVMe | 5 |
IONOS lists a domain (free for the first year) and SSL on every plan, along with unlimited websites, unlimited traffic, daily backups of storage and databases, 2 GB of storage per email account, and a malware scanner; Starter and above add a CDN, and Ultimate adds a malware scanner with automatic repair. IONOS also offers a pay-monthly option, and there's a 30-day money-back guarantee.
The pricing is unusual: the Plus plan, labeled its bestseller, has the lowest first-year price but a higher renewal than Essential or Starter. IONOS also has the lowest renewal price among the hosts with US prices listed here (Essential at $8 a month), and every plan includes at least one email address, with no time limit stated on its plans page.
Good fit: a small business that wants email and daily backups included and a low renewal price.
SiteGround
SiteGround offers three shared plans: StartUp (1 website, 10 GB storage, suited to about 10,000 monthly visits), GrowBig (unlimited websites, 50 GB, about 100,000 visits) and GoGeek (about 400,000+ visits). All plans list free SSL, a CDN, free daily backups, free email accounts at your domain, and SiteGround's caching and security tools. GrowBig and above add on-demand backups and staging for WordPress.
SiteGround's prices are prepaid for 12 months, and its renewal prices are much higher than its intro prices. SiteGround shows prices by region, so check the US price at checkout.
Good fit: a business that values daily backups and support, and is willing to pay more for them.
What a contractor website actually needs from hosting
For a home service business, hosting matters less than what's built on it. Before you pay for a bigger plan, make sure you have:
- SSL (https): included on every plan here. Browsers warn visitors on sites without it.
- Daily or at least weekly backups, and a way to restore them yourself.
- Speed where your customers are: a fast theme, compressed images and caching matter more than the hosting tier for a small site. Most of your visitors will be on phones.
- A domain you own: register it in your business's name and keep the login. If a web designer registers it for you, make sure the account is yours.
- Email that won't disappear: if your host's mailboxes are free for only the first year, budget for them, or use a separate business email service.
Our contractor website checklist covers the pages and features that turn visitors into calls, and our guides to HVAC website design and plumbing website design go into trade-specific detail.
Hosting vs. a website builder
If you don't want to manage WordPress, an all-in-one website builder includes hosting, templates and updates in one monthly price. Builders are simpler; self-hosted WordPress gives you more control over SEO and design and is easier to move between hosts. Either way, the site needs the same things to rank locally: clear service and area pages, a fast mobile experience and a connected Google Business Profile. Our local SEO guide for contractors covers what to build.
Which hosting plan should you choose?
- Lowest total cost, long commitment: Hostinger Premium (48 months) or Bluehost Starter (36 months).
- No long commitment: DreamHost Web Hosting Launch or IONOS, both with monthly billing available.
- Email and daily backups included, low renewal: IONOS Essential or Starter.
- Daily backups with SiteGround's caching and support: SiteGround StartUp (staging starts with GrowBig).
Whichever you pick, set a calendar reminder a month before renewal. That's the moment to check the renewal price, and to move if another host offers better value.
