Tech Hosting Guide is an independent review publication. We publish what each plan actually costs once the introductory discount expires, scored against six criteria we apply identically to every provider — and we mark clearly what we have not measured yet.
Tech Hosting Guide is an independent review publication. We are not a hosting company, not a reseller, and not owned by or affiliated with any of the providers we cover. Our policy is to buy every plan we review with our own money and never to accept vendor-supplied review accounts. That hands-on testing round is in progress; until a criterion has been measured it carries no score. What is published today is verified pricing and plan data, checked against each provider's own pricing page — including the renewal prices most review sites quietly leave out.
Every provider page on this site is scored against the same six criteria using the process described in our testing methodology. When you buy through a link on this site we may earn a commission. That commission never changes a score, a ranking, or a recommendation, and every provider we cover is scored the same way whether or not an affiliate relationship exists.
Scored out of 10 against the six weighted criteria in our methodology. Click through for the full test data, pricing including renewals, and the caveats.
Provisional score — 25% of the weighting measured so far
Hostinger's shared plans (Premium, Unlimited, Cloud Startup) advertise from $2.99/mo but only on a 48-month term, renewing at $10.99-$25.99/mo. All tiers include a free 1st-year domain, free SSL, free email and free migration, with NVMe storage on the Unlimited and Cloud Startup plans. Data checked 2026-08-20.
Provisional score — 25% of the weighting measured so far
Bluehost's shared plans (Starter, Business, eCommerce Essentials) run from $3.99/mo on a 36-month term, renewing at $9.99-$21.99/mo. All include NVMe SSD storage, free 1st-year domain, free SSL, free CDN and a free migration tool, but professional email is only a free trial. Data checked 2026-08-20.
Provisional score — 25% of the weighting measured so far
SiteGround's shared plans (StartUp, GrowBig, GoGeek) start at $2.99/mo on a 12-month prepaid term but renew at a high $17.99-$44.99/mo. All include a free domain, free SSL, free CDN, free daily backups, free email and free migrations on Google Cloud infrastructure. Data checked 2026-08-20.
Provisional score — 25% of the weighting measured so far
DreamHost now offers a single main shared 'Web Hosting (Launch)' plan at $2.89/mo for the first year (annual billing), renewing at $10.99/mo, with 25 websites, 25 GB NVMe SSD, unmetered bandwidth and a free 1-year domain. The older Shared Starter/Unlimited tiers are discontinued, and email is only free for 3 months. Data checked 2026-08-20.
Provisional score — 10% of the weighting measured so far
A2 Hosting has rebranded to hosting.com, with shared plans Starter, Plus, Pro and Max ($3.99-$8.99/mo intro on a 1-year term). All now include LiteSpeed, NVMe SSD, AMD EPYC CPUs, free SSL, free managed migration and daily backups, but exact renewal prices are not officially published (UNVERIFIED). Data checked 2026-08-20.
Provisional score — 25% of the weighting measured so far
Namecheap's shared plans (Stellar, Stellar Plus, Stellar Business) have very low intro prices (from ~$1.91-$2.28/mo) plus a 30-day free trial, but no free domain is included on standalone plans. Per Namecheap's official KB (effective 19 May 2026), annual renewals are $55.88, $85.44 and $128.88/yr respectively; all plans include free SSL, free migration and included email. Data checked 2026-08-20.
Entry-tier plan for each provider. The renewal column is the one worth reading.
| Provider | Score | From | Renews at | Refund window | Free migration |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hostinger | 6.9/10 | $2.99/mo | $10.99/mo | 30 days | Yes - free website migration advertised (auto-migrator + team assistance). |
| Bluehost | 6.8/10 | $3.99/mo | $9.99/mo | 30 days | Yes - free WordPress site migration tool included on all plans. |
| SiteGround | 5.7/10 | $2.99/mo | $17.99/mo | 30 days | Yes - free site migrations (automatic WP migrator plus expert-assisted transfer). |
| DreamHost | 7.3/10 | $2.89/mo | $10.99/mo | 30 days | Free automated WordPress migrations; non-WordPress sites are manual or paid Pro Services. (DreamPress plan includes 1 professional site migration.) |
| A2 Hosting (now hosting.com) | 8.0/10 | $3.99/mo | UNVERIFIED (hosting.com states renewals are lower than A2's across tiers but does not publish exact figures) | 30 days | Yes - free managed migration by in-house team (unlimited sites, no per-move fee). |
| Namecheap | 7.7/10 | $2.28/mo (monthly-billing promo shown); yearly first year ~$22.92 (~$1.91/mo per third-party review, official yearly intro UNVERIFIED) | $5.88/mo monthly, or $55.88/yr (~$4.66/mo) on annual (official KB, effective 19 May 2026) | 30 days | Yes - free website migration included on all plans. |
Four rules we do not break. The full process is on our methodology page.
No free review accounts, no press seats, no vendor-supplied test environments. We buy the same plan a normal customer buys, at the same price, through the same checkout, and we keep it running for the full measurement window.
Identical WordPress install, identical theme, identical seed content, identical synthetic load. Six weighted criteria, applied without exception. The weights are published and do not change between reviews.
Introductory hosting prices are marketing. The renewal rate is what you actually pay from year two onwards, so we put both numbers side by side in every pricing table on this site.
When we get something wrong we fix it, date the fix, and say what changed. Our correction policy is part of our published methodology.
No. Tech Hosting Guide is an independent review publication operated by İsmail Salgın. We are not owned by, operated by, or affiliated with any hosting provider we review, and we are not an authorised reseller or partner of any of them. Every review page on this site carries that statement explicitly.
Through affiliate commissions. If you buy a hosting plan after clicking a link on this site, the provider pays us a referral fee, and you pay exactly the same price you would pay going direct. Commission rates are not an input to any score and the writer scoring a review does not see them. Our affiliate disclosure sets out the full arrangement.
Six weighted criteria — performance 25%, uptime 20%, support 20%, pricing 15%, ease of use 10%, features 10% — applied identically to every provider. The full process, including the test environment and the measurement windows, is published on our methodology page.
Yes. We buy every plan at the normal public price through the normal checkout. We do not accept free review accounts, complimentary upgrades, or vendor-prepared test environments, because a review environment the vendor controls is not a review. Where our paid testing of a criterion is not yet finished, that criterion is shown as unscored rather than estimated.
Hosting prices change constantly and vary by region, currency, and promotion. Every pricing table here is date-stamped and links to the provider's official pricing page. Treat the provider's own site as authoritative, and if you spot a discrepancy please tell us so we can correct it.
No. We accept no paid placements, no sponsored reviews, and no payment in exchange for a score, a ranking, or the removal of a criticism. No provider sees a review before it is published or has any right to request changes.