Whether you have a large, small, or middle-sized business, creating a website is vital for your success. It gives you a wider audience reach, increases your brand visibility and recognition, and provides you with customer insights. To enjoy these benefits, however, you’ll need a reliable service to host the website of your dreams.
Unfortunately, locating an excellent web hosting service for your website can be both money and time-consuming. This is especially true given the high number of web hosting services out there. So, how do you identify the right web hosting solution for your business in Australia?
This post provides you with eight of the best and cheapest web hosting services for SMEs in Australia. But before that, let’s look at factors to consider in a web hosting service provider.
Let’s get started!
Factors to consider when choosing the best, cheap web hosting services
When looking for cheap web hosting services, don’t forget that a dependable host is equally important. However, deciding which web hosting firm to choose can be tough. We know that, so we’ve made a list of factors that’ll help you choose the right host for your business, as outlined below:
a. Price
When it comes to web hosting, you should be looking for a cheap, reliable web hosting service provider. Since you’ve to pay a monthly hosting fee, even a few dollars can make a huge difference over time.
To come up with the list of the best and cheapest web hosting services below, we’ve focused on web hosting service providers with a solid reputation as far as pricing is concerned. These are the providers that have super-affordable yet very reliable plans.
b. Speed and uptime
Your website’s speed and uptime play a crucial role in attracting and retaining your customers. Research shows that 40% of your site visitors will abandon it if it takes more than 3 seconds to load.
The faster the services from your hosting provider, the better for your site.
c. Domain limits
Each hosting provider has several terms of engagement whose violations result in temporal discontinuation or extra charges.
For instance, some hosting firms won’t allow you to add a certain number of sites under your domain – and if you do, you get forced to upgrade or pay more.
As you choose your provider, it’s always good to go through the terms of engagements first.
d. Contract terms
Another important factor to consider when choosing a web hosting service provider is the contract terms. Some providers may seem cheap at first glance but end up costing you more.
For better rates, you should aim to commit to a 2-4 years plan. But, be sure to check the renewal of contract rates as well. It’s common to have the hosting rates skyrocketing upon renewal.
e. Tools to build and grow your website
Finally, you need to hire a cheap web hosting provider whose plans are packed with the right tools and capabilities to build and grow your website. In addition to saving on costs, the extra tools and capabilities allow you to scale your website based on demand.
Here are some of the features you should look out for:
- Domain name
- SSL certificates
- Ad credits
- Email account
- Visual website builder
It’s possible to get these features from a hosting provider for a very low price. For instance, for as little as $1 per month, Hostinger provides SSL certificates, a website builder, and an email account.
Which are the best and cheapest web hosting for SMEs in Australia?
Whether you’re looking to build a new website or migrate your old site, selecting an affordable and reliable hosting service provider is key to your survival.
Here is a list of eight of the best and cheapest web hosting in Australia and beyond.
1. AccuWeb Hosting
Rated as one of the best web hosting service providers, AccuWeb Hosting provides you with robust features and flexibility in the market. The service provider combines high-powered infrastructure and affordability to deliver cloud flair and SSDs even to shared servers.
For as little as $3.52/ month, AccuWeb Hosting allows you to enjoy some of the best features, including:
- 100% uptime guarantee
- Free site migration
- 24/7 chat support system
- Windows and Linux OS capabilities
- 30-day money-back guarantee
- 10-50 GB SSD storage
- Free domain for the first year
- Free SSL certificate
In addition to website hosting, you also get WordPress hosting, VPS hosting, and Forex VPS hosting.
2. Dreamhost
If you’re looking for the best monthly payment plan, Dreamhost is your go-to web hosting service provider. This service provider offers a host of features added to your plan cost.
You get an average amount of storage with its basic plan, but you’ll get unmetered bandwidth, free domain registration for your first year, and daily backups. What’s more, you get a free WHOIS privacy masking for security purposes.
For as less as $2.59 per month, the plan comes with non-contract website hosting services inclusive of the following;
- Free SSL certificate
- Unlimited traffic
- Free WordPress website builder
- Free WordPress migrations
- 50 GB storage
- Automated WordPress updates
- 24/7 customer support
- 97-days money-back guarantee
Under the Shared Unlimited plan, you can even get several sites for as little as $8.95 per month.
3. Hostinger
Hostinger is one of Australia’s best, cheapest web-hosting providers – and for a good reason! It has extremely affordable hosting plans without having the quality and performance of your site compromised. What’s more, Hostinger has a wide range of features that appeal to many small and medium-sized business owners, including:
- 100 GB bandwidth
- 1 email account
- 30 GB storage
- Cloudflare protected nameservers
- Free SSL certificate
- 99.9% guaranteed uptime
- 24/7 customer support
- Optimised for WordPress with one-click installation
- User-friendly control panel
You enjoy these features for as low as $1.39 per month for the Single Shared Hosting plan. But that requires you to sign a 48-month contract. Upon renewal, you pay only $2.99 per month, which is still very little compared to other prices offered by some providers.
The provider has a 30-day money-back guarantee if you’re not happy with their services.
4. SiteGround
SiteGround is one of the most liked web hosting service providers worldwide – and for a good reason! In addition to its pocket-friendly price, SiteGround offers its users innumerable features, including;
- 10 GB SSD storage
- Unmetered bandwidth
- Email accounts
- WordPress hosting
- Free SSL
- Website builder
- 24/7 customer support
- CDN integration with Cloudflare
- Cloud hosting
- eCommerce hosting
- 1 site
However, SiteGround has relatively high renewal rates but is still competitive price-wise.
5. Bluehost
If you’re looking for the best hosting service provider for beginners, look no further than Bluehost. It’s a favourite for business and personal web hosting because of its ease of setup. Bluehost also offers very affordable web-hosting for SMEs that need simple websites and advanced e-commerce outfits. It even offers a free domain name during the first year of registration.
But you need to be aware that Bluehost’s renewal rates are almost 2 to 3 times higher than the initial rate. Even after renewal, however, Bluehost remains one of the most competitively priced web host providers.
What’s more, for as little as 2.95 per month, you get to enjoy the following features:
- Unlimited bandwidth
- Free and very easy-to-install SSL certificates
- 50 GB storage
- 24/7/365 customer support
- Free content delivery network (CDN)
- Custom WordPress themes
- 30-day money-back guarantee
- Automated WordPress updates and installations
- $100 Google Ads credits
Bluehost is one of the few web hosting service providers recommended by WordPress.
6. A2 Hosting
If you’re looking for the most reputable yet affordable web hosting services provider, A2 Hosting is the go-to provider. This web hosting service provider offer installs for some of the most popular e-commerce applications, including Magneto, WooCommerce, Magneto, PrestaShop, and OpenCart.
For as little as 2.99/month, you can get started with A2 Hosting, enjoying some of the best features, including:
- DNS management tools
- 99.99% uptime guarantee
- 24/7 customer support
- Unlimited bandwidth
- 100 GB storage
- Paypal integration
- Website staging
- Free SSL certificate
- 30-day money-back guarantee
- Unmetered email addresses.
Website staging is an especially important feature for the SMEs looking to establish an online store.
7. HostGator
HostGator is the go-to website hosting service provider if you need more from your website than just the online presence. It’s suited for SMEs looking for a dedicated server that can manage and store more website data.
For years, HostGator has been the best, cheapest host provider for people looking to migrate from their old site. HostGator helps you migrate from your old site for free. You can move your cPanel, databases, files, email addresses, scripts, etc. – all for free.
HostGator’s contracted costs you as little as $2.75 per month, and you get access to some of the most exciting features, including:
- Unlimited storage
- Unmetered bandwidth
- One-click WordPress install
- Free SSL certificate
- Free email
- Free registration transfer or domain
- Free website builder
- Free Bing and Google Ads credits
Hostgator also comes with numerous tools to help you optimise your content to improve your SERPs ranking. What’s more, its interface is very easy to use, giving you total control over your website and databases.
8. iPage Go
Another Australia’s very affordable yet reliable web hosting service provider is the iPage Go. They have been in the web hosting industry since 1998 and have powered over 1 million websites.
For less than $2 per month, you can enjoy several features, including:
- 24/7/365 customer support
- Free PayPal integration
- Unmetered databases
- Free SSL certificate
- Free domain for the first year
- A free website builder
- Website traffic reporting
- 30-day money-back guarantee
- Integration with some of the most popular email marketing services.
- One-click installs for Magneto, PrestaShop, and OpenCart
iPage Go doesn’t have month-to-month upgrading, which means you don’t have to worry about paying to upgrade your subscription. On top of that, you even get a discount on your renewal rate! Incredible, right?