Web hosting advertised at £1.99 or £2.99 a month is almost never what you end up paying. The hosting industry is rife with introductory pricing models designed to lock you in before springing extortionate renewal fees. Here are the five most common hidden costs.
1. The 300% renewal hike
That £2.99/mo promotional rate usually turns into £12.99 to £24.99/mo + VAT the moment your first invoice cycle ends. Over three years, you pay more than you would on premium managed hosting.
2. Paid SSL certificates
Let’s Encrypt provides free, industry-standard SSL certificates to the entire internet. Yet commodity hosts still charge £30 to £60 a year for “Standard SSL” as an optional checkout add-on.
3. Backup restoration fees
Many budget hosts advertise “automated backups” but charge £50 to £100 if you actually need to restore your website from a snapshot after an issue or plugin failure.
4. Mailbox storage caps
Basic plans often limit mailboxes to a tiny 1GB or 2GB, forcing you to pay an additional £3 to £5 per month per user just to keep receiving business email.
5. Your own wasted time
Scripted overseas call centres reading tier-1 trouble tickets will cost you hours of frustration when something goes wrong.
Fair hosting from day one
WebSavers Starter hosting is £8/mo at signup and £8/mo at renewal. Backups, SSL, and UK engineer support are included standard. Explore our fair hosting plans.