RenewalCliff
33 of 45 pricing pages re-checked, 8 blocked the check, 4 await a second check · how it works
The price you sign up at is not the price you pay.
Forty-five hosting and email companies. I read their pricing pages every morning and write down what they say.
The steepest one today
$1.00becomes$14.00
a month, when IONOS's Plus plan comes up for renewal. That is 1300% more than the price on the sign-up page.
The rest of today's worst
- IONOS Plus $1.00 rises to $14.00 +1300%
- ChemiCloud Starter $1.49 rises to $11.95 +702%
- SiteGround StartUp $2.99 rises to $17.99 +502%
- FastComet Starter $1.99 rises to $9.95 +400%
- HostArmada Start Dock $1.99 rises to $9.95 +400%
- GreenGeeks Lite $2.95 rises to $13.95 +373%
- Hostinger Unlimited $3.99 rises to $16.99 +326%
- ScalaHosting Mini $2.95 rises to $11.95 +305%
- DreamHost Web Hosting Launch $1.99 rises to $7.99 +302%
- HostGator Baby $4.50 rises to $16.49 +266%
Usually the cheapest plan. For IONOS, Hostinger and HostGator it is the one they push, which rises further. All 27 hosts, ranked by the jump.
Work out what yours will cost
Every tracked host, its intro price, the price it renews at, and what that adds up to over the years you actually keep it. Change the term and the numbers move.
| Host / plan | Intro /mo | Renewal /mo | Jump | 3-year total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 ChemiCloud Starter cheapest |
$1.49 36-mo term |
$11.95 | +702% | $53.64 $1.49/mo avg |
Visit |
| 2 AccuWeb Hosting Budget (Best Cheap Web Hosting) cheapest |
$1.99 12-mo term |
$1.99 | +0% | $71.64 $1.99/mo avg |
Visit |
| 3 HostArmada Start Dock cheapest |
$1.99 36-mo term |
$9.95 | +400% | $71.64 $1.99/mo avg |
Visit |
| 4 DreamHost Web Hosting Launch cheapest |
$1.99 48-mo term |
$7.99 | +302% | $95.52† $1.99/mo over 48 mo |
Visit |
| 5 Verpex Bronze cheapest |
$2.69 36-mo term |
$5.99 | +123% | $96.84 $2.69/mo avg |
Visit |
| 6 WordPress.com Personal cheapest |
$2.75 36-mo term |
$2.75 | +0% | $99.00 $2.75/mo avg |
Visit |
| 7 HostPapa Essentials cheapest |
$2.95 36-mo term |
$8.99 | +205% | $106.20 $2.95/mo avg |
Visit |
| 8 ScalaHosting Mini cheapest |
$2.95 36-mo term |
$11.95 | +305% | $106.20 $2.95/mo avg |
Visit |
| 9 UltaHost Starter (Shared) cheapest |
$3.44 24-mo term |
$3.44 | +0% | $123.84 $3.44/mo avg |
Visit |
| 10 HostGator Hatchling cheapest |
$3.75 36-mo term |
$10.99 | +193% | $135.00 $3.75/mo avg |
Visit |
| 11 Hostinger Premium cheapest |
$2.99 48-mo term |
$10.99 | +268% | $143.52† $2.99/mo over 48 mo |
Visit |
| 12 Bluehost Starter cheapest |
$3.99 36-mo term |
$9.99 | +150% | $143.64 $3.99/mo avg |
Visit |
| 13 InterServer Standard Web Hosting cheapest |
$2.50 24-mo term |
$7.00 | +180% | $144.00 $4.00/mo avg |
Visit |
| 14 EasyWP (Namecheap) EasyWP Starter cheapest |
$3.58 24-mo term |
$5.25 | +47% | $148.92 $4.14/mo avg |
Visit |
| 15 InMotion Hosting Launch cheapest |
$4.99 36-mo term |
$13.99 | +180% | $179.64 $4.99/mo avg |
Visit |
| 16 GoDaddy Web Hosting Economy cheapest |
$5.99 36-mo term |
$11.99 | +100% | $215.64 $5.99/mo avg |
Visit |
| 17 Hostwinds Basic Web Hosting cheapest |
$4.54 12-mo term |
$6.99 | +54% | $222.24 $6.17/mo avg |
Visit |
| 18 IONOS Essential cheapest |
$4.00 12-mo term |
$8.00 | +100% | $240.00 $6.67/mo avg |
Visit |
| 19 KnownHost Basic Web Hosting cheapest |
$6.71 36-mo term |
$8.95 | +33% | $241.56 $6.71/mo avg |
Visit |
| 20 GreenGeeks Lite cheapest |
$2.95 12-mo term |
$13.95 | +373% | $370.20 $10.28/mo avg |
Visit |
| 21 SiteGround StartUp cheapest |
$2.99 12-mo term |
$17.99 | +502% | $467.64 $12.99/mo avg |
Visit |
| 22 Cloudways Micro (DigitalOcean, Flexible, 1GB) cheapest |
$14.00 1-mo term |
$14.00 | +0% | $504.00 $14.00/mo avg |
Visit |
| 23 Pressable Signature 1 cheapest |
$20.83 12-mo term |
$20.83 | +0% | $749.88 $20.83/mo avg |
Visit |
| 24 Rocket.net Starter cheapest |
$25.00 12-mo term |
$25.00 | +0% | $900.00 $25.00/mo avg |
Visit |
| 25 WP Engine Startup cheapest |
$20.00 12-mo term |
$30.00 | +50% | $960.00 $26.67/mo avg |
Visit |
| 26 Kinsta Single 35k / Single 20GB cheapest |
$30.00 12-mo term |
$30.00 | +0% | $1,080.00 $30.00/mo avg |
Visit |
| 27 FastComet Starter cheapest |
$1.99 | $9.95 | +400% | intro term not published | Visit |
Totals are the cheapest purchasable way to cover the period: the longest intro term upfront, then the stated renewal price. † = the cheapest option is buying a full term longer than the period (you keep the extra months). Prices last verified 2026-10-16.
The plan each host puts forward is the one badged most popular, best value or bestselling, which 15 of the 24 do; where a host badges none I take the middle tier instead, and that choice is mine rather than theirs. Switching the selector to it is not a small step: across the 24 hosts that publish both prices the cheapest plan rises $6.00 a month at renewal and that one rises $9.00, and it is dearer on 16 of 24. The widest gap is IONOS, whose Plus goes $1.00 to $14.00, $9.00 a month more than its cheapest plan rises.
Most intro terms run 36 months, so a 3-year total for those hosts is all intro price and no renewal months at all. That is the horizon this table opens on, and it is the one that flatters the steepest cliffs. ChemiCloud is first here on a +702% renewal, and number 11 over 5 years. Set the period to 5 years and AccuWeb Hosting leads instead, on a renewal that does not rise at all.
The full calculator, with every plan and the 12-month billing option.
Eight things I built because I wanted the answer myself
- Hosting true-cost calculator. Intro term plus renewals over one to five years, for 27 hosts.
- Cheapest at renewal. Ranked by the price you pay after the intro term, not before it.
- Every renewal price. All tracked plans, sorted by the size of the jump.
- Who prints the renewal price. Where each host states it, with the sentence and its source.
- The fine print, by host. Free domain months, money-back window, intro term.
- Email tools at your list size. 18 vendors, every published tier, the cheapest at any size.
- When your email bill jumps. The next list-size band, what it costs, and roughly when you reach it.
- Renewal calendar. The day your price jumps, the price it jumps to, and a reminder file.
The Enshittification Index
Forty-five companies, scored 0 to 100 on what their pricing has actually done: how far it jumps at renewal, dated increases, free tiers that shrank, and whether they print the renewal price where you buy. All 45 scores.
| Company | Score | Band | Cliff | Observed since |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ChemiCloud | 55.6 | elevated | +498% | 2026-08-23 |
| EasyWP (Namecheap) | 38.5 | mild | +80% | 2026-08-26 |
| beehiiv | 30.0 | mild | — | 2026-10-01 |
| SiteGround | 25.9 | mild | +501% | 2026-08-23 |
| HostArmada | 23.2 | mild | +400% | 2026-08-24 |
| GreenGeeks | 22.2 | mild | +365% | 2026-08-23 |
| IONOS | 22.2 | mild | +367% | 2026-08-23 |
| FastComet | 21.1 | mild | +332% | 2026-08-24 |
Writing
- The plan they point at costs the most extra at renewal Fifteen of 27 hosts badge one plan most popular or best value, and it is never the cheapest one. Both rise a median of 136% at renewal, so the percentage says nothing. In dollars the cheapest plan rises $6.00 a month and the badged one rises $9.00. IONOS's badged plan goes $1.00 to $14.00, the largest cliff on the site, and it was not on my front page until this week.
- EasyWP took the prices off its own site. Here is where they went. My morning check kept saying EasyWP's page had changed. It had: the homepage now sends you to Namecheap or Spaceship, and the numbers live on a page that refuses scripts. The Internet Archive had a copy.
- GoDaddy's pricing page will not talk to a script, so I read the Internet Archive's copy GoDaddy has been off this site since the start because every automated request gets an Access Denied page. Two archive captures a day apart agree on every plan card, so GoDaddy is now the 27th host, with the capture as the source.
- I got Cloudways wrong twice in one day For five days this site showed Cloudways at $11 and $88 a month. Those were placeholder numbers in the page's HTML. The real cards say $14 and $54. My first explanation of the mistake was also wrong.
What moved
- EasyWP (Namecheap): 12-month intro price $4.05 to $6.57 a month. Receipt
- EasyWP (Namecheap): 12-month intro price $3.33 to $5.16 a month. Receipt
- EasyWP (Namecheap): 12-month intro price $1.99 to $3.24 a month. Receipt
- Flodesk: Lite plan no longer offered on the US pricing page: the page seen from the United States lists Free, Pro and Everything only, so the cheapest paid plan at 1,000 subscribers is Pro at $28/mo ($25/mo annual), where Lite was $25/mo ($19/mo annual).
- MailerLite: Free tier cut from 500 to 250 subscribers and from 12,000 to 2,500 monthly emails (seats went 1 to 2).
- Mailchimp: Free plan contact limit cut from 500 to 250 contacts.
Get an email when a price moves
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