Web hosting · Buyer's guide
Shared, cloud or managed WordPress hosting: which do you need?
Shared hosting is cheapest to start and fine for small sites, but prices rise sharply at renewal. Cloud servers like Cloudways cost more up front and host unlimited sites. Managed WordPress hosts cost the most and do the upkeep for you, with plans sized by monthly visits.
There are three common ways to host a website, and they differ in who looks after the server, how many sites you can run and how the price is set. This guide uses the plans and limits each host publishes, checked on 9 October 2026. We have not yet measured the speed or uptime of these hosts ourselves.
Shared hosting: cheapest to start
On shared hosting, your site sits on a server with many others and the host runs everything for you through a control panel. It is the cheapest way to get online and is enough for most new blogs, portfolios and small business sites.
The catch is the renewal. Shared hosts advertise a first-term price and charge much more after it. SiteGround's StartUp plan was $2.99 a month for the first year and $17.99 a month after that. Our guide to hosting renewal prices covers how to plan for that.
Shared plans also cap how many sites you can run, and entry plans vary widely: SiteGround StartUp and GreenGeeks Lite allow 1 site, Hostinger Premium allows 3 and DreamHost Launch allows 25.
Cloud hosting: your own server, managed for you
Cloudways rents you a server on DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, AWS or Google Cloud and manages it. You pay for the server size, billed hourly, and can run as many sites on it as it can handle. The smallest DigitalOcean server was $11 a month for 1 GB of memory, and Cloudways showed no introductory discount, so that is also what you pay later. Cloudways offers a 3-day free trial.
Cloud hosting suits you if you run several sites, want resources that are not shared with strangers, or expect to grow. It costs more than shared hosting in the first year, and about the same as several shared plans once they renew.
Managed WordPress hosting: the host does the upkeep
Managed WordPress hosts run only WordPress and look after the server and backups for you. Plans are sized by how many visits a month the site gets and how many WordPress installs it has.
Prices start at $25 to $30 a month on yearly billing for one site. Kinsta's Single 35K plan is sized for 35,000 visits a month. WP Engine's Essential plan for 1 site lists 25,000. Rocket.net does not meter visitors but caps bandwidth, charging $0.08 per GB over the cap.
Visit limits are where managed hosting gets expensive. Kinsta counts each unique IP address in a 24-hour period as one visit and says overage fees apply. WP Engine calls its visit figures estimates and says overages may apply, without listing the rate on its plans page.
| Product | Visits and traffic |
|---|---|
| Kinsta | Visits-billed plans list 35,000 (Single 35K) to 750,000 (WP 40 and Single 750K) estimated visits a month. The tooltip says visits "aren't metered, so use this as a guide, not a limit", but the FAQ says overage fees apply if a site exceeds its visit, storage or CDN limits. Kinsta counts each unique IP in a 24-hour period as one visit |
| WP Engine | Essential: 25,000 (1 site), 75,000 (3 sites), 100,000 (10 sites) or 400,000 (30 sites) visits a month. WP Engine calls these "estimates only" and says "Taxes and overages may apply"; overage rates are not shown on the plans page |
| Rocket.net | Unmetered visitors on all plans; bandwidth is capped (50 GB to 500 GB) with overages at $0.08/GB |
| Cloudways | Unlimited visits on every plan (limited by server resources and bandwidth: 1 TB to 5 TB; extra DigitalOcean bandwidth $0.02/GB) |
The three side by side
Shared
Cheapest to start
- Server
- Shared with many other sites
- Looked after by
- The host, through a control panel
- Price set by
- A first-term price, then a higher renewal
- Sites
- Capped by plan
Cloud
Costs more in year one
- Server
- Your own, rented and managed for you
- Looked after by
- The host manages it; you pick its size
- Price set by
- Server size, billed hourly
- Sites
- As many as the server can handle
Managed WordPress
Costs the most
- Server
- Runs only WordPress
- Looked after by
- The host, including backups
- Price set by
- Monthly visits and WordPress installs
- Sites
- Set by plan
| Product | Cheapest paid plan | Renews at | Ways to try it | Sites | Visit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hostinger | $2.99/mo (Premium, 4 years) | $10.99/mo | 30-day money-back | Premium 3, Unlimited and Cloud Startup unlimited | Visit Hostinger (no commission) (opens in a new tab) |
| DreamHost | $1.99/mo (Web Hosting Launch, 4 years) | $7.99/mo | 30-day money-back | Launch 25, Growth 50, Scale 100 | Visit DreamHost (no commission) (opens in a new tab) |
| SiteGround | $2.99/mo (StartUp, 1 year) | $17.99/mo | 30-day money-back | StartUp 1, GrowBig and GoGeek unlimited | Visit SiteGround (no commission) (opens in a new tab) |
| GreenGeeks | $2.95/mo (Lite, 1 year) | $13.95/mo | 30-day money-back | Lite 1, Pro and Premium unlimited | Visit GreenGeeks (no commission) (opens in a new tab) |
| Cloudways | $11/mo (DigitalOcean Standard Micro (1 GB), monthly) | Same price | 3-day trial | Unlimited websites per server | Visit Cloudways (no commission) (opens in a new tab) |
| Kinsta | $30/mo (Single 35K, 1 year) | Not stated | 30-day money-back | Single plans 1 WordPress install; WP 2, 5, 10, 20, 40 allow 2, 5, 10, 20 and 40 installs. Extra sites $30/month each | Visit Kinsta (no commission) (opens in a new tab) |
| WP Engine | $28/mo (Essential (1 site), 1 year) | Not stated | None listed | Essential: 1, 3, 10 or 30 sites; Core 30-50; Enterprise 50+ | Visit WP Engine (no commission) (opens in a new tab) |
| Rocket.net | $25/mo (Starter, 1 year) | Same price | 30-day money-back | Starter 1, Pro 3, Business 10, Expert 25 WordPress installs | Visit Rocket.net (no commission) (opens in a new tab) |
Which one to choose
- Choose shared hosting for a first site with modest traffic, when the lowest cost in year one matters most. Prepay only as long as you are sure about the host, and note the renewal price.
- Choose cloud hosting when you run several sites, want predictable pricing with no renewal jump, or are comfortable choosing a server size.
- Choose managed WordPress when your site earns money, traffic is steady, and you would rather pay than spend time on updates, backups and speed tuning. Check the visit allowance against your analytics first.
Whichever you choose, most of these hosts list a 30-day money-back guarantee, so move your site early and check it works before the window closes. To compare total costs over several years, use the hosting cost calculator.
Products in this guide
Hostinger
Low-cost shared and cloud web hosting with free domain, email and SSL, priced on long prepaid terms that renew higher.
$2.99/mo48-month term, renews $10.99/mo
Checked Screenshot of the pricing page (opens in a new tab)
DreamHost
Independent US host whose Web Hosting plans state a monthly visit allowance, with monthly billing or prepaid terms up to four years.
$1.99/mo48-month term, renews $7.99/mo
Checked Screenshot of the pricing page (opens in a new tab)
SiteGround
Premium-leaning shared host on Google Cloud with daily backups and its own Site Tools panel, with a large jump at renewal.
$2.99/mobilled yearly, renews $17.99/mo
Checked Screenshot of the pricing page (opens in a new tab)
GreenGeeks
Eco-focused shared host using cPanel, with daily backups and staging on every plan and prices that roughly quadruple at renewal.
$2.95/mobilled yearly, renews $13.95/mo
Checked Screenshot of the pricing page (opens in a new tab)
Cloudways
Managed cloud servers on DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, AWS or Google Cloud, billed hourly, with unlimited sites per server.
$11/mobilled monthly
Checked Screenshot of the pricing page (opens in a new tab)
Kinsta
Premium managed WordPress host on Google Cloud infrastructure, with plans sized by visits or bandwidth and per-site pricing.
$30/mobilled yearly
Checked Screenshot of the pricing page (opens in a new tab)
WP Engine
Long-running managed WordPress host; the Essential plan is sized by sites, visits and storage, with Core and Enterprise sold through sales.
$28/mobilled yearly
Checked Screenshot of the pricing page (opens in a new tab)
Rocket.net
Managed WordPress host built around a Cloudflare Enterprise edge network, with unmetered visitors and a no-renewal-hike pricing promise.
$25/mobilled yearly
Checked Screenshot of the pricing page (opens in a new tab)
Frequently asked questions
Is shared hosting good enough for a new website?
For a new blog, portfolio or small business site, usually yes. DreamHost's entry plan lists 40,000 monthly visits, while GreenGeeks, SiteGround and Hostinger state unmetered or unlimited traffic, subject to fair use. Move up when the site is slow at busy times or you outgrow the plan's limits.
What does managed WordPress hosting actually include?
The managed hosts we track all list automatic daily or on-demand backups and free SSL, and Kinsta, WP Engine and Cloudways list free staging sites. The host looks after the server, so you spend less time on upkeep than on a server you run yourself.
What is a monthly visit limit?
Managed hosts size plans by estimated visits. Kinsta counts each unique IP address in a 24-hour period as one visit, and its FAQ says overage fees apply above the limit. WP Engine calls its figures estimates and says overages may apply.