Define what you are publishing, in one sentence
Most business websites are one of four things: informational pages with a form, a site with a blog, a shop, or an informational site where email is the main channel. Each makes a different demand, and it is worth knowing which is yours before looking at plans, because plans are sold by resources rather than by use case.
If you have not decided yet, pick the simplest case. Moving up a plan later is straightforward; paying a year for capabilities you never use is not recoverable.
Buy the right product, not the cheapest plan
One provider may sell generic shared hosting, a dedicated WordPress product and a VPS at the same time. They look alike on the entry price and differ on who does the work. If you are going to use WordPress, the managed WordPress product normally covers installation, updates and backups; the generic plan leaves those to you.
That difference matters more than any storage figure. An un-updated WordPress is the most common reason a small site ends up compromised, and a provider who takes on updates is solving a real and recurring risk.
- Confirm the exact product name on the purchase page, not just in the comparison table.
- Check what “managed” means in that product: updates, backups, security, or only installation.
- If you are not using WordPress, a generic plan may suit you better and cost less.
The plan limits you notice first
Entry plans have reasonable limits for a small site, but they are worth reading rather than assuming. Four of them show up before the rest: how many sites you can host, the monthly visit allowance, storage, and the number of databases. The visit allowance causes the most surprises, because a one-off campaign can exceed it.
- How many sites and how many domains the plan allows.
- The monthly visit limit, and exactly what happens when it is exceeded.
- Storage included, counting backups if they are kept in the same account.
- The PHP version available, and whether you can change it from the panel.
Professional email is rarely the same product
A mailbox on your own domain is sometimes included with the hosting plan and sometimes sold separately, with its own price and its own renewal. It is one of the cost differences that never appears in a plan comparison, and for many small businesses email matters more than the website.
Check the number of mailboxes and their size too. If the business runs on email, treat it as a decision independent of hosting rather than accepting whatever comes bundled.
Backups, and the question almost nobody asks
Nearly every plan mentions backups. The useful question is not whether they exist, but how often they are taken, how long they are kept, and whether you can restore one yourself without opening a support ticket. A backup only the provider can restore, on an unspecified timescale, is not the protection it appears to be.
The practical recommendation: alongside the provider’s backups, keep one of your own outside that account. If the account is suspended or access is lost, that external copy is the only thing still available.
- Backup frequency and retention period.
- Whether you can restore it yourself from the panel, and how quickly.
- Whether the backup includes the database as well as the files.
- Where you will keep your own copy, outside the provider’s account.
If you already have a site, migration is part of the price
Moving an existing site may be included, may cost extra, or may be entirely on you. Before buying, confirm what migration covers, how long it takes and whether the provider does it for you. Plan the domain switch in advance too: DNS records take time to propagate, so lower the records’ time-to-live a few days before the change to make the transition quick.
- Whether migration is included, and whether it covers email as well as the site.
- Who performs the DNS change, and in what window.
- How you will confirm the new site works before moving the domain.
The real cost of the first year, and of the second
The headline rate usually requires paying several years up front, and renewal is nearly always higher. To compare properly, work out two figures: the total you pay today and the total you will pay at renewal, both with taxes and with the extras you need. The second figure is the one you will live with.
- Total of the first payment and the term that justifies it.
- Renewal price of the plan and of every extra, the domain included.
- Taxes that apply in your country, and the billing currency.
- Refund window, so you can leave if the plan does not deliver.
The minimum maintenance you cannot delegate
Even when the provider updates the platform, some tasks stay yours: keeping plugins and the theme updated, removing the ones you no longer use, using unique passwords with two-step verification on both the panel and the content manager, and checking now and then that the site is served over HTTPS and the certificate renews.
That is fifteen minutes a month. It is the difference between a site that lasts years and one that has to be rebuilt after an incident.
The list is meant to be taken to the provider’s page
With these checks in hand, each provider profile in this section says what to confirm on their page before buying, and the link goes straight to the current plans.
See the comparison and profiles