How much should small business hosting cost?
For a typical small business website, a brochure site or a small WordPress site, hosting should be one clear yearly price with the SSL certificate and backups included. I charge £119 a year for that, with no VAT to add. If I keep WordPress updated for you as well, it's £450 a year.
When people send me their hosting invoices, the hosting itself is often a fair price. The money goes on extras around it: the £79 or more a year in SSL and domain fees that nobody mentioned at sign-up.
What you should be paying for
Hosting is the space on a server where your website lives, plus the work of keeping that server running. For a small business, that should cover:
- The hosting itself, with enough room for your site
- An SSL certificate, the padlock in the browser
- Regular backups, kept somewhere other than the server
- Security updates and a firewall on the server
- Someone to contact when something goes wrong
Your domain name (the web address) and your email are separate things. They're often sold together, which is how costs get muddled.
The extras to look for
These are the lines I see most on invoices people send me:
- A yearly SSL fee. Free SSL certificates have been widely available for years. Most sites don't need a paid one.
- Domain protection or privacy charges. Often added at checkout and renewed every year. For a .co.uk domain, your personal details are already kept off public lookups as standard.
- Backup add-ons. If backups cost extra, check whether you're paying for them and whether anyone has ever tested one.
- VAT on top. If the provider is VAT registered and shows prices without VAT, you'll pay 20% on top. I'm not VAT registered, so there's nothing to add to my prices.
Why the first year looks cheap
Many large hosts advertise a low monthly price that only applies to the first year, and only if you pay for several years up front. The renewal price is usually much higher and sits in the small print.
When you compare hosts, compare the renewal price. With me, you renew at the price you paid. If that ever changes, I write to you 30 days before.
How to check your own bill
- Find your last hosting and domain invoices. They may be from different companies.
- List every line, including anything renewed automatically.
- Check which ones are SSL, domain protection, backups or VAT.
- Add it all up for a full year, and compare that number, not the headline price.
If the total surprises you, send it to me and I'll go through it with you.