We tested over 20 UK web hosting providers for speed, uptime, and security. Without compromising quality, we present to you the 7 best value web hosts in the UK.
We’ve gone all out to provide you with the best picks for cheap web hosting from companies that give you a great return on a reasonable investment.
Our team has tested dozens of hosting services to find the highest security and fastest internet speeds.
After comparing the features and plans of each, we have determined that, of all the options out there, the following six companies truly deliver.
While all of these six made it to the top, each company presents its own highlights.
From the best bargains on the market and the easiest WordPress hosting to more sophisticated hosting services that offer advanced features and superior support, each of these companies excels.
NOTE: All speeds are recorded in milliseconds (ms).
Best Cheap UK Web Hosting Guide 🇬🇧
If you’re like us, seeing the words “free” or “cheap” will definitely catch your attention.
Who doesn’t like a good deal?
But the truth is, appearances can be deceiving. What may at first look like a bargain can actually cost you time, money, and hassle in the long run. This is especially true of high-quality web hosting companies.
Between resellers and internet-savvy scammers, it is all too easy for your average Joe to set up a website that seems to offer website hosting for dirt cheap.
The thing is, at those rates, you never know exactly what you are paying for in terms of consistency and support.
That’s where we come in. Our job is to sift through the nonsense and find the best cheap hosting services in the UK. What we are looking for is affordable hosting from reputable companies that offer a lot in return. Below we list our top six choices (plus one bonus option).
1. Hostinger: Best Cheap UK Web Host
Affordable, High-Performance, Reliable (£0.99/Month) 🏆
Key Specifications:
PROS
CONS
Hostinger offers a special discount for our readers! By using the code “HOSTINGDATA” at checkout, you’ll receive Lowest Price Without Sacrificing Quality 
Why is Hostinger at the top of our list? For starters, you can compare the price, which is almost one-third lower than the nearest competitor.
Although we typically recommend avoiding services that charge less than £1/month, we have to make an exception for Hostinger due to its excellent reliability and performance. Our number one choice for a solid, cost-effective hosting option, Hostinger doesn’t compromise quality- and even lets you pay with cryptocurrency.
Unlike most hosting plans that boast super cheap prices, Hostinger makes sure to protect your domains against resource sharing, downtime, and security breaches. They feature some of the highest uptime percentages and fastest speeds among website hosting services. And their customer service is available 24/7, no matter your location.
Our Hostinger UK review confirms that this company is the best choice for those who want to put up a personal blog or basic website with minimal hassle and maintenance. You can launch a WP site in minutes, and Hostinger will give you free SSL and domain registration with each account.
2. SiteGround: Best for Support
Premium Service at an Affordable Price (£2.99/Month) 💎
Key Features:
PROS
CONS
Price: SiteGrounds most affordable plan is StartUp at £2.99/mo. It offers free SSL, free CDN, a free business email address, and more. However, if you wish to host more websites on a single plan, you need to upgrade to GrowBig or GoGeek at £4.99/mo and £7.49/mo, respectively.
Upgrading won’t just give you an option to host more websites. You’ll also get more web space, more monthly visits, on-demand backup copies, and premium/priority support.
When it comes to eCommerce plans, they are priced similarly, depending on the size of your store.
Discounts: SiteGround sometimes runs sales and discounts so you can grab their service at a reduced price.
Other than that, all of the plans we previously mentioned are 40-60% discounted for the duration of your first contract. Upon having to renew your plan, standard pricing will apply.
Why is SiteGround So Good for Your Ecommerce Hosting?
SiteGround offers high uptime percentages, which are guaranteed at 99.95%. When you’re running an eCommerce website, time is money. For every hour your website is down, you stand to lose about £80.000 in revenue. That’s not to mention intangible losses like reputation and the cost of recovery.
It’s also important to consider resource usage. Many eCommerce websites use dynamic designs and have features like high-res images, streaming video, and interactive media, which may seem attractive, but end up eating a lot of your site resources.
With SiteGround, you will get free transfers and domain registration, one-click WP installs, unlimited free custom email addresses, and unlimited subdomains.
When it comes to security, even the most basic plan gives you free SSL certificates, free automated backups, and 24/7 site monitoring. That alone will save you up to £60 a year and a lot of headaches.
Finally, their customer support is beyond compare. Highly responsive by phone, email, or chat, they will take the time to walk you through any issues step-by-step.
SiteGround offers all of this and more at the most affordable price for a non-shared hosting plan. They also offer managed WordPress hosting at just £2.99/month for a one-year contract. The price jumps up to £11.99/month at the end of your initial term.
3. HostPapa: Best Cheap/Premium Hosting
Awesome Business Plans for Up-and-Coming Businesses (£1.95/Month) 💼
Key Specifications:
PROS
CONS
Price: Prices start at £1.95/month and increase to £8.99/month when you renew your contract.
The HostPapa Business plan is £1.95/month for the initial three-year contract, which is regularly priced at £11.99/month. You can pay for the service with Visa, MasterCard, or American Express.
Discounts: HostPapa offers a discounted price of £1.95/month for both their standard shared hosting plan and middle-tier Business plan. Their service includes a 30-day, money-back guarantee.
When you’re looking for the best overall hosting service as well as the cheapest Business plan, you have to check out HostPapa. It’s a great option at a great price with fast, responsive customer support.
Worldwide Servers 
HostPapa is located in Canada, but has servers all over the world. The company also offers lightning fast speeds and one of the highest uptime percentages.
Then there are the features, including hundreds of apps, marketing tools, and freebies galore. Whether you’re putting up a personal blog or starting an online business, you’ll find everything you need to get up and running fast without worrying about downtime or hackers.
4. HostGator – Best Discount Cloud Hosting
Apex Predator of Cheap Hosting (£2.20/Month) 🐊
Best features:
PROS
CONS
Price: Their Hatchling Plan starts at £2.20/month with a three-year contract. The price jumps to £5.56/month when your contract renews. The top tier HostGator Business plan starts at just £4.20/month for your initial term of service. They accept payments from major credit cards or via PayPal.
Discounts: You can find HostGator discount codes and coupons all over the internet. Plus, they offer an extra long 45-day money-back guarantee- ample time for you to test out their services.
HostGator is a little more expensive than other options on our list, but you will get premium features at a relatively bargain price. It’s comparable all around in terms of speed, performance, and uptime, but where HostGator stands out is in the huge variety of features on offer- perfect for advanced bloggers and marketers.
For Marketing Enthusiasts 
The company offers a high-quality free website builder, and they’ve worked hard to improve their WordPress hosting. It’s a great solution for eCommerce platforms due to its SEO and assistance with both Google Adwords and Bing advertising.
If you go with HostGator, they will provide security through free SSL certificates and automated backups. Customers will also get unmetered bandwidth and storage, free domains, and one-click installation.
Find out more in our HostGator review.
5. Bluehost: Most Reliable Cheap Host
Officially Recommended by WordPress (£2.20/Month) 🤩
Best features:
PROS
CONS
Price: Startup plans begin at £2.20/month with a 12-month contract. Once your plan renews, the price increases to £7.45/month. Bluehost accepts all major credit cards. They also offer a 30-day, money-back guarantee.
Bluehost has existed in one form or another for as long as the internet has been a thing. The company launched in 1996, but it was officially renamed Bluehost in 2003. Over the last few years, they have been constantly promoted as the best WordPress hosting service by WP themselves.
As seen in our detailed Bluehost review, it is more expensive than other services, but the benefits may be worth it.
Prom King of Hosting 
A company that has been around for this long and still serves millions of customers must be doing something right. They have data centers located all over the world, which is great news for Brits looking for fast load times.
If what you want is a service that’s easy to learn and use, Bluehost is a top competitor alike Siteground, read more about similarities and differences between them in the Siteground vs Bluehost clash we have prepared for you.
The company definitely has beginners in mind, providing a huge knowledge base of guides and tutorials that is chock full of information.
Whether you’re a newbie or a developer with a lot of web building experience, you’ll find something to love about Bluehost. Even the most affordable of Bluehost’s plans have the highest guaranteed uptimes. The downside to Bluehost is the overseas location, which makes customer support a little more challenging for UK citizens.
6. A2 Hosting: Premium Service, Cheap(er) Price
Fastest Cheap Web Hosting Around (£2.39/Month) 💨
Best features:
PROS
CONS
Price: Starts at £2.39/month for shared hosting, with the highest tier of service priced at £84.84/month. You’ll have to sign up for a 36-month contract to get the discounted price on basic shared hosting, which reverts to the regular price of £8.80/month at the end of your contract. They accept most major credit cards, PayPal, and Skrill.
Discounts: The company offers plenty of incentives for new customers, which are updated regularly. In addition to the typical 30-day money- back guarantee, A2 also provides an “anytime” prorated money-back offer if you meet certain conditions.
The only factor keeping A2 from the top of our list is their higher introductory price. In other aspects, A2 Hosting plans generally outperform most other companies. But for the budget conscious among us, the other five companies on our list offer cheaper prices with only slightly inferior features and functionality.
DC Universe Has Flash, Hosting Universe Has A2 
While reviewing A2 Hosting, we were skeptical of their blazing fast speed guarantees. We were wrong. The company delivers on their promises and you won’t find a site hoster with better load times in this price range anywhere else.
Even their lowest-priced option includes free security features and hack prevention. With A2, you’ll also get free backups, high uptime percentages, and a whole lot of speed.
7. iPage: Good Service-to-Price Ratio
Average Performance for UK Citizens (US-Based) (£1.59/Month) 🇬🇧
Best features:
PROS
CONS
Price: Plans start at £1.59/month if you sign up for a 36-month contract. After renewal the price increases to £6.40/month. The company accepts all major credit cards and PayPal.
Discounts: You can find discounts and coupon codes on websites like Coupns.com, Groupon, and RetailMeNot, but you might have to dig around to find them. iPage also offers the standard 30-day, money-back guarantee.
Our iPage review mentions that this high-quality web host has no performance issues. What complaints we have heard about this company are mostly aimed at customer service.
The biggest problem with iPage (and the reason it has landed at the bottom of our top 6) is their US location. Their customer service is only available during American business hours, which can make it difficult for Brits. Basic plan customers also have to pay for an SSL certificate, which most of our picks offer for free.
Business Growing Fast? Look No Further 
For those who won’t be affected by the difficulty of time zone differences, iPage offers plenty of perks. Your domain is free for the first year, and you will have access to various advanced features. Their virtual private server quality makes them one of the best VPS hosts we have found.
They also provide unlimited storage and more than 1,000 templates to help you with custom design.
If the number of visitors to your site is rapidly increasing to the point where you need a VPS- and you are working with a limited hosting budget- we definitely recommend iPage.
Cheap Web Hosting Buying Guide
Why You Should Avoid Super-Cheap or “Free” Hosting 🙀
A quick web search for free web hosting in the UK will turn up pages of results- some of which you will recognise.
But among the familiar brands, brands that have been around for a while, you will also find plenty of links from new companies looking to make some easy passive income.
That’s the problem with free or super cheap hosting.
Business is business. Between infrastructure, upgrades, security, and other elements that go into maintaining a platform, technology can become expensive.
No one is going to offer all of that out of the goodness of their heart. If they’re not generating revenue by charging you for their service, they’re making a buck off of you behind your back.
How do they do that?
Many times, it’s by collecting your information on the sly and selling it to third-parties. But targeted marketing isn’t the only reason to steer clear of deals that seem too good to be true.
We have reviewed some high-quality free web hosting services, but these companies are the exception to the rule.
Most free web hosts make money in volume by throwing hundreds – maybe thousands – of customers on the same server, where they share access to the same limited resources and an identical IP address.
The problem with that is:
Often with these free or super-cheap offers, you’ll only find out the real deal after the refund period has passed. You will have to sign up for a long contract in order to get the advertised reduced prices. By the time you realise how shoddy the service is, it will be too late to get out of your contract.
You can learn a lot by reading the small print, which means combing over the terms of service (TOS) and service level agreements (SLAs) before signing up with these companies. But who wants to waste time navigating long, confusing agreements?
You could also take advantage of free trials to find out whether or not each company is legit.
But for the cost of countless hours down the drain as you personally try and discard plan after plan in search of the best, you might as well just give money away for free. What if, instead, you had a knowledgeable third party to compile all the relevant information, assess each company, and deliver concise results to you?
Server Location / Speed 
Data travels through the internet via cable networks – which is a physical thing.
The longer that that data has to travel, the longer it will take to get to the other end. We call that delay “latency.”
But doesn’t information travel at the speed of light?
Yes. However, when a user types in a URL, the computer has to skip through routers – the further away, the more routers it will move through. The more routers, the more latency.
Top Picks For Speed 
HostGator mostly has servers residing in America- in Provo, Utah and Houston, Texas- while iPage has a single data center in Boston, MA.
The following 3 companies have UK servers 
:
Hostinger (UK server)- Hostpapa (London server and others in the UK)
- Bluehost (London server)
Top Tip 
Think about where your audience is located.
If they are mostly in the UK, you should ideally go for a host provider with UK-based servers – or at least some in Europe.
Uptime 
This is a measure of whether your server is up and running, ie: available for surfers to browse it.
Uptime is recorded as a percentage out of 100, which is a very key marker of server performance. There’s no point getting a faster server that won’t be available most of the time.
Businesses lose a lot of money when a server goes down during periods of high traffic.
Top Picks For Uptime 🗹
As uptime is the most important aspect of hosting, our number one pick (Hostinger) is a great choice.
In fact, all of the web hosts we have reviewed boast very good uptimes…Of all six hosts, the following two stand out above the rest:
- Hostinger (99.9% uptime guarantee – or get money back in credit)
- Siteground beats every other host (99.99% average for the last 2 years – up to Jan 2020)
Top Tip
Businesses with significant revenue probably should hop onto a paid plan. Great free hosts offer a lot – but have their limit!
Hidden Prices & Upsells 
Here’s an example of an upsell.
You go to purchase your plan – but find it isn’t what was advertised.
Upsells give you additional features and options that add a premium to the initial price of your selected hosting plan.
If your main goal is to save time without worrying about the cost, Upsells won’t bother you, but for the budget conscious among us- keep a lookout for these features that improve upon your inexpensive plan – at a premium.
Avoid
HostGator, BlueHost, and iPage are rather notorious for doing this – even promoting options that you can get cheaper elsewhere; or encouraging you to purchase add-ons that you can add later at no extra cost, just by using your control panel.
You may even find things automatically added to your cart.
Choose SiteGround: Top pick For Earnestness
Upsells aren’t all bad. They are often a helpful way of getting more value out of your service.
But they can easily cross over useful territory and start to become confusing and obnoxious.
In terms of straightforward Upsells, SiteGround is the most decent out of the bunch.
Bonus Features 
A2 stands out as a provider with really unique features that actually enhance performance.
Sure, every top-tier web host allows you to optimize SEO by using a plug-in, which can automatically backup your site hourly or grant you access to Cloudflare CDN.
A2 hosting goes above and beyond, providing interesting and unique accelerator features – in particular:
- Turbo servers – that allow your website to load 20 times faster
- A2 sight accelerators with 1-click caching
- The Swift Server platform
A2 Hosting: Top Pick For Bonus Performance
Likely you won’t achieve the 20x performance metrics advertised on the website.
However, these bonus features can seriously affect your site’s optimizations – particularly if you combine them with plugins that boost speed.
On your cPanel, you can access “advanced caching” solutions to further optimize your speed.
- OpCache/APC – reduces your PHP response time
- Memcached – boosts your MySQL speeds by retaining important data pieces in memory
Turbo Cache – reroutes your content to Turbocache’s storage without PHP Scripts
Cheap Web Hosting (UK): FAQ
Welcome to our FAQ section, where you’ll find quick answers to your general questions about web hosting in the United Kingdom. Here are a few questions that we hear all the time.
What is the Best Cheap Dedicated Hosting Plan?
From our perspective, the overall best dedicated hosting services are undoubtedly provided by Kinsta. However, if price is a focal point, then we’d recommend… also Kinsta.
While a majority of other hosting companies have their cheapest dedicated hosting plan locked at about £100/month, with Kinsta you can start as low as £28.50 per month. They also offer the most expensive (and best) dedicated plans around- but that’s a whole different story.
What’s the Cheapest Way to Get Web Hosting?
Answer: None of our picks are free, but you can get a money-back guarantee on any of them. We don’t recommend free hosting, but a company like Hostinger UK will give you great hosting for just a few dollars a month.
How Much Does Web Hosting Usually Cost?
Answer: That depends on your service tier and optional features. The average price for safe, cheap hosting is between £2 and £4 per month, payable for the term of the contract up front.
Are Managed WordPress Hosting Plans Any Good?
Answer: Due to the popularity of WordPress, many hosting companies offer free WordPress installs and very affordable managed WP hosting.
What are the Best Cpanel Hosting Services?
Answer: Most of our picks support CPanel hosting, and there is plenty of information on the internet about how to operate this popular platform.
What’s the Fastest Hosting Company in the UK?
Answer: As per our speed tests, the absolute fastest hosting platform is A2 Hosting.
In general, modified virtual private server (VPS) hosting is the fastest way to go. With VPS hosting you will have resources and flexibility. However, this option requires a fair amount of tech knowledge and time, since all management and customisation is up to the site owner rather than the host.
Related Read: Best Minecraft Server Host Sites
Final Thoughts
We love to save money as much as the next person. However, free or ultra cheap aren’t always the bargains you expect. Sometimes, you get what you pay for.
Looking for guidance? We’ve got you covered. Our goal is to provide you with a comprehensive overview of the best affordable hosting plans in the UK.
We do the sleuthing to reveal which companies offer the best balance between affordable prices, exciting features, and excellent customer support. Then we sum up all our research and share it with you in easily accessible charts and articles.
How you use that information is up to you.