Budget Web Hosting

Listing of budget web hosts and their brief reviews

Listed on this page are cheap web hosts (commercial web hosts, of course) and brief reviews of the hosts (note: only where I have information pertaining to the host will there be a review). What constitutes a "budget web host" for the purpose of this page? Essentially I just use common sense (my definition of it!), looking at the price of the package and its features. A package which costs $20 or under per month might make it here. On the other hand, a package that costs more (eg $30) but providing additional features (eg an exceptional amount of data transfer or free web design) might also make it here. Most of these web hosts have more than one package available. To keep each description from being overly-long, I often only list their cheapest package on this page. You can click the link to find out more about the other packages if that host interests you.

I strongly recommend that you read the article How to Choose a Web Host before committing yourself to any web host. You can also find my personal favourites (with a review of those hosts) in my FAQ: Which Web Host Do You Recommend?.

Disclaimer

The information provided on this page comes without any warranty whatsoever. Use it at your own risk. Just because a program, book or service is listed here or has a good review does not mean that I endorse or approve of the program or of any of its contents. All the other standard disclaimers also apply.

Budget Web Hosts

X Web Hosting

For $4.95, this web host offers you 2,500 MB of web space, 100 GB of data transfer, 10 sub-domains, CGI-BIN, Perl, PHP, SSI, FrontPage extensions, 1 free domain registration, 1,000 POP3/IMAP accounts, 1,000 FTP and Virtual FTP accounts, 1 domain alias, raw web logs, web statistics, a web-based control panel, etc.

This web host is one of the biggest (if not the biggest) web host around. They offer Linux hosting packages , Microsoft Windows packages , Instant Website packages (useful for beginners and others who want to build your website without any hassle: you choose your layout, customize it and publish it), Dedicated Linux Servers , and so on. The cheapest Linux package costs $4.99 per month and includes 1 domain name, 1,000 MB of web space, 200 email accounts (1 GB of mailbox space), email forwarding, autoresponders, DNS management, 25 GB of data transfer, FTP, a control panel, various site building tools, FrontPage extensions, an assortment of ready-to-run CGI scripts, etc. The bigger packages ($9.99) include Perl, PHP, Python, and more.

This famous company offers a variety of web hosting packages. The smallest plan costs $11.95 per month and includes 2 GB of disk space, a free domain name, 25 email addresses, 25 GB data transfer (bandwidth), 100 subdomains, multiuser FTP, a site builder with more than 330 web site templates, site statistics, raw web access logs, password protected user accounts, certain preinstalled scripts like email forms, guestbooks and site search. The larger plans include the ability to run your own Perl and PHP scripts.

The cheapest package here is $5 per month (if paid annually, $8 if paid three-monthly), for which you are given 750 MB web space, 50 GB monthly transfer, unlimited POP3 email accounts, unlimited email forwarding and autoresponders, email filtering, web email, CGI-BIN, Perl, PHP, MySQL, SSI, FrontPage 2002/2003 extensions, web statistics, control panel, OS Commerce, Agora and Pay Pal shopping carts, various pre-installed scripts (formmail, guestbook, bulletin board, PHP Nuke, Chat, Blogger), ability to configure your error pages, etc.

For $7.95 per month, you get 1000MB disk space (that can be upgraded, free, up to 3000MB in increments of 500MB subject to various conditions), 40GB traffic, FTP access, one MySQL database, a mailing list, 25 email accounts, a control panel, custom error pages, FrontPage extensions, CGI-BIN, PHP, server side includes (SSI), etc. They also have another plan which provides you with shopping carts, more databases, etc.

This host has consistently good reviews from many users. They are known for their reliability, honesty and competence. Their cheapest package, $9.95 per month gives you 100 MB of web space, 5 GB bandwidth, 15 POP email accounts, unlimited email aliases and autoresponders, spam filtering (via SpamAssassin), 3 FTP accounts, 1 MySQL database, telnet, SSH, CGI-BIN access, web site statistics, error logs, PHP 4 access, dedicated IP address, web email access, etc. You can add subdomains and other domains to your site for one-time setup charges.

For $6.95 a month, you get 2 GB of web space, 75 G of data transfer, 1,000 POP email accounts, unlimited email forwarding and autoresponders, web mail, spam filtering (via SpamAssassin), SSL, FTP, anonymous FTP, SSH, CGI, PHP, 10 MySQL databases, 10 PostgreSQL databases, web statistics and web logs, 2000/2002/2003 FrontPage extensions, a free domain name, the ability to park 20 domain names on your account, various preinstalled scripts (eg, a forum, form mail, PHP Nuke, chat, bloggers, mailing lists), shopping cart, etc.

The cheapest package here, at $6.95 a month (if you pay for 2 years), allows you to have 400 MB of web space, 15 GB of traffic, something they call Site Studio which has 450 web templates you can use for your site, website statistics, up to 3 websites (presumably domain names), PHP, Perl, CGI-BIN, SSI, 1 MySQL database, a web-based control panel, etc.

This web host provides a number of plans, the cheapest of which costs $6.95 a month (paid annually). For this, you get 1,000 MB of disk space, 100 GB of data transfer, 500 email addresses, PHP, Perl or ASP, a MySQL database, shared SSL, a free domain name, etc.

Their shared web hosting packages start from $19.95 ($13.95 if you pay yearly). For this, you get 200MB of disk space, 4GB of data transfer, unlimited POP3 email accounts, unlimited email forwarding, unlimited email autoresponders, web-based email, 20 mailing lists, your own dedicated IP address, access to a SSL secure server, control panel, website builder, Microsoft FrontPage 2000 extensions, FTP access, anonymous FTP, domain parking for an additional 5 domains, PHP access, Perl access, Java Servlet support, your own cgi-bin, one MySQL database, preinstalled CGI scripts, telnet access, automated tasks with cron, custom 404 page, etc.

The cheapest package for this host costs $7.95 per month (paid annually). It provides 800 MB of web space, 30 GB of monthly transfer, 20 email accounts with spam filters, unlimited email aliases, web mail, 1 MySQL database, FTP, website statistics, Perl 5, PHP 4, C/C++, password protected directories and Frontpage extensions.

For $7.95 a month (when paid annually), you are offered 1500 MB disk space, 50 GB data transfer, 500 POP3 accounts, website statistics, Cpanel Control Panel, domain name parking, Perl CGI, PHP, unlimited MySQL, cron jobs, POP3 email, SMTP, email filters (SpamAssassin), web mail, etc.

This web host's cheapest package costs $7.50 a month, and provides 1000 Mb of web space, 40 Gb of traffic, CGI, PHP, a free domain name, unlimited email accounts, SSL secure server, SSI, log file, web statistics, control panel, anonymous FTP, web builder with templates, POP3 email, email forwarding, autoresponders, e-mail filtering, web browser based email, pre-installed CGI scripts (form mail, guestbook, bulletin board, chat, PHP Nuke, blogger), Agora shopping cart, OS commerce, PayPal shopping cart, FrontPage extensions, etc. (It's not stated on the site whether this $7.50 a month rate is to be paid annually or otherwise.)

This web host features 150MB of web space, 50 POP3 email accounts (with additional accounts added free), CGI-BIN, PHP, MySQL, Frontpage 2000 extensions, control panel, FTP access, anonymous FTP account, web-based email, log files, unlimited email autoresponders, unlimited email forwarding, free shopping cart, 15 GB transfer, etc. The package costs $7.95 with no setup fees if you pay annually (or $9.95 if you pay three-monthly with a $30 setup fee).

This web hosting provider has been around for quite a while. Their cheapest plan, at $11.95 per month (or $12.50 if you pay monthly) with a $20 setup fee, provides you with 200MB disk space, 7,500MB traffic, 100 email accounts, MySQL, SSH, PHP, Perl, CGI-BIN, email forwarding, FrontPage 2000 access, multiple FTP accounts, SSI, raw logs, Urchin website statistics, web mail, a website manager, a file manager, etc.

This web host has numerous plans. Its cheapest plan costs $10 per month, provides 55MB of disk space, 10 email addresses, 1GB of data transfer, a unique IP address, a website creation tool, control panel, web email, FrontPage extensions, web statistics, various pre-installed CGI scripts, FTP, SSH, your own CGI-BIN access, etc. Other plans provide more disk space and data transfer.

Hostway - The hosting Company

Hostway UK Web Hosting provides both shared hosting and dedicated hosting plans. You can choose among their Windows hosting plans, their Linux hosting plans and their ColdFusion hosting plans. Their cheapest Linux plan, costing £ 8.95 per month, provides 100 MB disk space, 1 GB of monthly traffic, FrontPage 2002 support, FTP, Virtual/SSL Shared Security Certificate, PHP, 5 POP3 email accounts, catch-all email addresses, SMTP, web based email, unlimited email aliases and forwarding, email autoresponders, Perl CGI with CGI-BIN, Server Side Includes (SSI), preinstalled CGI scripts (mailer, forum, counter), control panel, raw logs, custom error pages, etc. You can read about their other plans from their website.

This appears to be an Alabanza-based host. Its cheapest package is $19.95 per month (or $13.96 if you pay 2-yearly - plus you get 7 months worth of free web hosting) with no setup fees. For that you get 200MB of web space, 4GB bandwidth, SSL, unlimited POP3 email accounts, "catch-all" email addresses, the usual Alabanza Control Panel (to manage your website via a web interface), CGI access, pre-installed CGI scripts, telnet, FTP, PHP, SSI (server side includes), 1 MySQL database, etc. More expensive packages come with other features, more databases, larger bandwidth, more disk space, etc.

For $5 per month (paid annually, or $7 if paid monthly), you get 50MB web space, 6 GB monthly transfer, 25 POP3 mail accounts, CGI, SSI, PHP 3 and 4, password protected directories, custom error pages, web statistics, web log files, FrontPage 98 and 2000 support, etc.

This web host charges £14.95 for its cheapest plan, providing your site with 200MB of disk space, 4GB of web traffic, FTP, PHP4, MySQL, 10 POP3 email accounts, SMTP, email aliases, catch-all email address, web email, auto-responders, Perl, CGI-BIN support, SSL, raw log files, web statistics, supports Microsoft FrontPage 2002, etc.