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What decides the real cost
Whether the plan allows multiple sites, since most people end up with more than one.
Daily backups and a free CDN, both common in this bracket.
Whether the price is a promo or a flat rate. Cloudways is $11 flat; Hetzner and Contabo are near €4.50 flat.
Headroom: the ability to handle a traffic spike without the host throttling you.
Plans and renewal prices, side by side
Every price and spec below comes from our provider data, checked September 2026. Full detail is on each host’s review page.
| Host | From | Renews at | Sites | Storage | Backups |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hostinger | $2.99/mo | $10.99/mo | 25 | 25 GB SSD | Weekly (Premium), daily (Business+) |
| DreamHost | $2.59/mo | $5.99/mo | 1 | 50 GB SSD | Daily |
| GreenGeeks | $2.95/mo | $10.95/mo | 1 | 10 GB (web) | Daily |
| Hetzner | €4.59/mo | €4.59/mo | Unlimited (self-managed) | 40 GB NVMe | Paid add-on (20% of server price) |
Our best-value picks, ranked
The $2.69 to $3.99/mo Premium and Business plans allow up to 100 sites, add daily backups on Business, and post the best Core Web Vitals of the budget hosts.
From $2.99/mo (48-month term)renews $10.99/mo25 GB SSD9 datacenter regions
Best for: New blogs, small business sites and first WordPress installs
Around $3 to $4/mo for an unlimited-traffic shared plan with daily backups, and it only renews to $5.99.
From $2.59/mo (36-month term)renews $5.99/mo50 GB SSD1 datacenter regions
Best for: One-site owners who plan to stay put for years
$2.95/mo with daily backups and a free CDN included, on renewable-matched infrastructure.
From $2.95/mo (36-month term)renews $10.95/mo10 GB (web)3 datacenter regions
Best for: Small sites that want daily backups and a lighter carbon story
For a technical user, €4.59/mo buys a 4 GB NVMe VPS that outperforms any shared plan and never changes price, if you are willing to manage it.
From €4.59/mo (pay hourly or monthly, no contract)4 GB RAM4 datacenter regions
Best for: Developers who want the fastest cheap VPS and are fine with EU-centric infrastructure
Budget-hosting mistakes to avoid
The errors we see people make, and how to avoid each one.
Assuming 'unlimited' means unlimited
Under-$5 plans that advertise unlimited storage and bandwidth enforce hidden limits on inodes (total file count), CPU seconds and concurrent processes. A normal site never hits them; a site with a large media library or a busy forum can. Prefer hosts that publish real numbers.
Not turning on caching
The biggest speed difference at this price is not the host, it is whether caching is on. A $3 plan with LiteSpeed Cache or a caching plugin plus a CDN beats a $5 plan with nothing. Install a caching plugin on day one.
Choosing a US server for a non-US audience
Under $5, Hostinger is one of the few hosts offering datacenters in India, Singapore, Brazil and Indonesia. If your readers are there and you pick a US server, every page load carries 200 to 300 ms of avoidable latency.
Paying for a VPS you cannot manage
A €4.59 Hetzner VPS outperforms any shared plan, but only if you can install and secure a web server. If 'SSH' and 'firewall' are unfamiliar, a managed shared plan at the same price is the right call; the VPS saving is not worth a broken, insecure site.
How we scored these hosts
We keep a data sheet of every provider in the comparison: current intro and renewal pricing, datacenter locations, storage, backups and money-back terms, each with the sources we checked it against. The ranking on this page is our judgement about which of those providers fits web hosting under $5 best, weighted by the criteria above. A provider only appears once its current data is verified; where we could not confirm a number, that host is left off rather than guessed.
Learn the fundamentals behind this comparison
Plain-English guides to the parts of hosting that decide whether a plan performs for this use case or falls over.
- Shared vs VPS vs Cloud vs Dedicated Hosting: How to ChooseThe four hosting types are really one question: how much of a server is yours, and who keeps it running. Here is what each gives you and the signs it is time to move up a level.
- Intro Price vs Renewal Price: The Hosting Discount TrapAlmost every shared host advertises a low first-term price and renews well above it. The headline number is a discount to win you. The renewal is what you pay for most of the time you own the site.