When choosing a hosting plan for the first time, it can be hard to know if you’re getting a good deal. And as I’ve talked about throughout Hosting 101, there are a lot of other factors to consider when choosing a hosting provider or selecting a hosting plan.

In the end, the cost of a host should be justified by the service level, uptime and available resources. But let’s dive in and do some comparisons!

How Much Does Shared Hosting Cost?

For most people reading this Hosting 101 guide you’ll need shared hosting. The price can range anywhere from $3/month (low end crappy hosting) to $15 a month (premium).

You’ll almost always get discounts for paying for a year upfront, rather than going month to month.

I currently recommend SiteGround for shared hosting. It’s only $8/month (for multiple sites), but you’ll get a premium service (fast servers, incredible customer support, standard cPanel, etc.).

PLEASE NOTE: There is no such thing as “unlimited” bandwidth or disk space. Use too much and you’re guaranteed to have the hosting company barking at you for an upgrade or to cut down on your use.

How Much Does VPS Shared Hosting Cost?

VPS hosting (virtual private server) comes at a premium above your basic, shared hosting plan, but is the next logical step for busy websites or sites who need a higher degree of reliability.

While the cost can be quite variable, a reliable average is about $30/month for an entry level VPS, but an upper level can be up to $200/month.

What About Dedicated and Cloud Hosting?

The costs of dedicated and cloud hosting are extremely variable, depending on the requirements of the website.

For example, similar cloud hosting plans at A Small Orange, SiteGround, RackSpace, LiquidWeb and (mt) range from $60/month to over $100/month.

Dedicated plans can range from $150/month to $225/month and well beyond, into the thousands for major websites.

It’s likely that almost no readers of Hosting 101 will need this level of solution.

If you’ve been reading through the guide, you now have all the information you need to choose a hosting provider and select a plan. In the next section, we’ll help you get started as you  set up your domain name and get your website going.