Most people who want to buy web hosting have some sort of budget. If you can spend whatever you want with no thought, go ahead and ignore this section, but if you have a budget in mind you will want to read along.
When I started out online, I had to seriously consider my budget so I did a lot of research looking at prices for each of the above types of web hosting. Now keep in mind that the price recommendations I mention are based on an average package that should be good enough for someone new to online. The price you actually pay could be a little higher depending on your needs, or maybe even a little less.
Shared
I mentioned before that shared hosting is the cheapest. In fact if your sites don’t have to be secure and you don’t get much traffic you can run multiple sites off one shared hosting plan. This is perfect for people who are “dipping their toes” into the online world.
Every web host varies of course, but in general you can get a decent shared hosting plan for about $10/month. You could even get as low as $6/month if you prepay for a couple years in advance.
VPS
VPS is essentially a step up when it comes to web hosting. You get more options and resources, but of course you pay for more. VPS offers the same functionality as a dedicated server but usually at a lower cost.
Inmotion (Cnet rates best VPS host)
offers VPS packages that start as low as $39/month and rising to as high as $139/month. Even on the low end it is significantly higher than shared hosting but as detailed in the last section there are many benefits to VPS hosting.
One thing to keep in mind, is that VPS hosting makes it very easy for you to upgrade based on your needs, so if you start with a cheaper plan and need a resource boost, it is no problem.
Of note – the above plan prices I quoted are managed VPS servers, so the host will handle the heavy lifting tech wise. Managed VPS usually costs more money.
Dedicated
Going to stick with Inmotion, for comparisons sake and because they also provide highly recommended dedicated servers.
Their dedicated hosting packages start at $199/month. That may have made you gasp since it is a very high cost, but remember this is a managed plan, you can probably find cheaper plans out there but if you aren’t tech savvy you will have to choose managed.
No matter what, if you want a quality dedicated server you are looking northwards of $100. Dedicated servers are usually chosen by people who are already making money online and need to expand, or by businesses that want secure eCommerce.
A quick note – you can make some of your hosting back by selling hosting to friends who need it, or local business owners/internet marketers. If you have a fully dedicated server, you will be able to handle the extra sites no problem.
Cloud
Cloud hosting is most likely to fall within the same price range as VPS. Their main selling point is that you get all the benefits of dedicated server, but at a fraction of the cost. In the last section we went over a couple key differences between Cloud and Dedicated, so kep those in mind.
One of the oldest and most trusted companies offering cloud web hosting is Rackspace. One thing to remember is you pay for what you use in cloud computing, so some companies won’t have a monthly price, they will charge you per hour. Rackspace hosting starts out at 1.5 cents/hour for unmanaged, and 13.5 cents/hour managed.
The hourly cost is based on bandwidth and storage used etc… The good news is that you can start low and build your way up as you need it. Cloud hosting is the most flexible in that regards.
So a little basic math:
24 (hours in day) x 365 = 8760 hours per year
8760 divided by 12 = 730 hours (an average month)
730 x0.015(1.5 cents) = $10.95
So as you can see the most basic of all cloud hosting packages works out to shared hosting type of costs. A managed account would work out to just under $100 a month.