Can I pay monthly for web hosting? 🤔 If that question has been on your mind, the answer is “yes”. If you’re looking for a month-to-month web hosting plan, with no contract or commitment, then you’ve landed on the right page.
Not many of us want to be locked into two or three-year hosting deals, or pay the whole amount in one lump sum on sign up, as many hosting companies demand. That’s why we have put together this list of the best month-to-month web hosting providers for you to peruse.
We’ll look at six month-to-month web hosting providers:
- The first two of these hosts are cheap, costing just under $5 per month with month-to-month billing.
- The middle two are aptly priced in the middle-of-the-road range, with prices under $15 per month.
- The final two are priced in the $20 to $30 range.
Let’s get started with the first one, or feel free to use the table of contents to skip ahead to a particular host you might be interested in.
Best cheap month-to-month hosting
1. Namecheap ($4.48 per month)
Namecheap is a popular domain name registrar which has recently been making waves in the hosting arena. Offering a range of shared, managed WordPress, VPS, and dedicated hosting plans, Namecheap is an affordable option that also offers a number of impressive features.
⚙️ Top features
- Free site migration
- Free SSL certificate
- One-click WordPress install
- Manual and automatic backups (plan dependent)
- 24/7 Support
💰 Month-to-month pricing
Namecheap offers a wide assortment of plans, and the option of month-to-month payments are available on every package.
The entry-level shared hosting package Stellar costs just $4.48 per month on the month-to-month option. Compare this to $1.58 if you chose to pay up front for the year. On a percentage basis, that’s a pretty big difference, but as an actual dollar amount, it’s still relatively small and you get the freedom to cancel your contract at any time.
If you’re interested in managed WordPress hosting, you will find prices starting from just $6.88 per month (versus $2.91 per month if you paid up front for the year).
It is important to note that Namecheap does run a selection of promotions (e.g., 50% off shared hosting if you sign up for a year), but these discounts are generally not available if you only commit to month-to-month payments. However, as Namecheap prices are extremely low anyway, this shouldn’t matter too much.
2. DreamHost ($4.95 per month)
DreamHost is another budget hosting company that currently hosts over 1.5 million websites. Not only does DreamHost provide a selection of shared, managed, and cloud hosting packages, you will find all of DreamHost’s plans can be purchased on a month-to-month basis, with no contract or commitment.
⚙️ Top features
- Pre-installed WordPress
- Free website migration (managed WordPress plans only)
- Automatic backups
- 100% uptime guarantee
- 97-day money-back guarantee (shared hosting plans only)
👉 Like what you see? Read our in-depth DreamHost review for a deeper dive.
As you can see, DreamHost provides some useful features and tools. But how does its pricing work out?
💰 Month-to-month pricing
DreamHost offers two shared hosting plans, with the entry-level Shared Starter package costing $4.95 per month on the month-to-month option. Compare that to $2.95 per month if you paid up front for a year. Similar to Namecheap, the difference is pretty significant percentage-wise, but dollar-wise it’s still an excellent value. The extra two dollars per month can be well worth it, knowing that you have the option to cancel whenever you want.
If you are looking for managed WordPress hosting, you can expect prices to start at $19.95 per month for the DreamPress plan. That’s if you choose to pay month-to-month of course. If you pay up front for the whole year, it’ll average out to $16.95 per month.
Best middle priced month-to-month hosting
3. Hostinger ($9.99 per month + one-time $4.99 setup fee)
Hostinger is another popular hosting company, currently providing services to over 29 million customers, in 178 countries. Offering a range of hosting options, including shared, cloud, and VPS hosting, Hostinger also provides numerous tools like its purpose-built website builder.
⚙️ Top features
- One-click WordPress installation
- Unmetered bandwidth (excluding the entry-level shared plan)
- Easy website builder
- Free SSL certificate (plan dependent)
- Backups
- 99.9% uptime guarantee
👉 Looking good so far? Read our full Hostinger review for a more detailed look.
So, how much can you expect to pay with Hostinger if you opt for one of its month-to-month web hosting payment plans?
💰 Month-to-month pricing
Hostinger offers a range of discount prices. However, these are not available if you want to pay on a month-by-month basis.
For month-to-month payments, shared hosting starts at $9.99 a month (plus the $4.99 set up fee). For cloud hosting packages, expect to pay upwards of $24.99 per month with month-to-month billing. Hostinger does waive the one-time $4.99 set up fee on the cloud hosting package if you want to pay monthly.
4. A2 Hosting ($11.99 per month)
A2 Hosting is an independently owned hosting company that provides a personal touch. Owning their own data centers in the US, Europe, and Asia, A2 Hosting boasts secure servers and customer choice over where websites are hosted.
⚙️ Top features
- Free site migration
- Automatic backups (plan dependent)
- Anytime money-back guarantee
- Free SSL certificate
- Free Website Builder (shared plans only)
- 99.9% uptime guarantee
👉 Read our complete A2 Hosting review to get a deeper overview.
💰 Month-to-month pricing
If you want to use month-to-month pricing, you’ll pay $11.99 per month for A2 Hosting’s cheapest offering. That’s a pretty significant difference compared to if you paid for the year up front, which would average out to only $2.99 per month.
Unlike Namecheap and Dreamhost, A2 really does incentivize you to opt for their annual plan. The month-to-month plan is quadruple the price! That doesn’t make it the best month-to-month web hosting option from a price perspective, but if you really like what A2 has to offer, you can also use the one month as a trial period. If you like it after that first month, then you can always switch to the annual plan to take advantage of the savings.
If you’re interested in managed WordPress hosting, the good news is that the price difference between month-to-month and annual isn’t quite as extreme as it is on the shared hosting plans. It starts at $23.99 per month (versus $17.99 per month on the annual option).
Best premium month-to-month web hosting provider
5. SiteGround ($19.99 per month)
SiteGround is a big player in the hosting game and provides an array of hosting types, plans, tools, and features. They also offer month-to-month web hosting payment plans for their shared hosting packages.
⚙️ Top features
- Free daily backups
- Free WordPress install
- WordPress autoupdates
- WordPress advanced security
- Free Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate
- SSD storage
- WordPress special cache
👉 If you’re interested in learning more, read our full SiteGround review.
💰 Month-to-month pricing
SiteGround has the widest gap between their month-to-month pricing and what you’ll pay on the annual plan. It’s to the point where if you plan on using the month-to-month option for anything other than a one month trial period, then you might as well buy a year.
Let’s break it down:
For a single month of hosting on SiteGround’s entry-level, month-to-month option, you’ll be charged $19.99 for that one month. In comparison, for the annual pricing on that same plan, you’ll be asked to fork over $35.88 in total – as in for the entire year. That comes out to a measly $2.99 per month.
If you do the quick math, paying for two months of month-to-month hosting costs more than the entire first year on the annual plan. So realistically, the month-to-month option with SiteGround is really meant to be used as a taste test, more so than an ongoing hosting method.
6. WP Engine ($30 per month)
WP Engine is a high-end managed WordPress hosting company, with clients ranging from small businesses to large global enterprises. Currently providing hosting to over 120,000 customers in 140 countries, WP Engine is renowned for its top-level hosting service.
⚙️ Top features
- Free site migration
- 35+ free StudioPress themes
- Distributed global CDN
- Free staging environments
- Free SSL certificate
- 24/7/365 expert WordPress support
WP Engine offers an array of professional WordPress services and features, ensuring full support for your growing business.
👉 Read our in-depth WP Engine review for a more detailed look.
💰 Month-to-month pricing
WP Engine provides transparent pricing from the outset. Prices for WP Engine’s entry level hosting plan starts at $30 per month, but they do give you a $6 discount on your first month. So you’ll pay $24 and then if you choose to continue paying month-to-month after that initial month, you’ll be billed at the normal $30 per month rate. In comparison, that same plan on the annual contract averages out to $20 per month.
There are also some good cheaper WP Engine alternatives if $30 per month is out of your budget.
Final thoughts on month-to-month web hosting payment plans
If you don’t want to get locked into paying for years upfront, there are plenty of great month-to-month hosting providers, as evidenced by this post.
If you’re looking for the absolute cheapest month-to-month web hosting, Namecheap is the clear winner at just $4.48 per month. On the other hand, if you want something more premium, WP Engine makes a good option.
We recommend you to also check our list of the cheapest WordPress hosting services that offer the best value for money.
Once you decide on your monthly web hosting provider, you’ll probably want to start working on building your website.
To help you with that, check out our detailed guides on how to make a website or start a blog.
Any questions about the hosting providers mentioned in this article? Please feel free to ask away in the comments below…
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