Best Hosting for Contractor Websites (And What to Avoid)
What contractor website hosting really costs: shared, VPS, managed WordPress and static hosting compared, and the renewal prices to watch.
The short answer
For most contractors, managed WordPress hosting (about $30 to $35 a month) if your website runs on WordPress, or a static host like Netlify or Cloudflare Pages if it was built that way. Avoid cheap shared plans bought on the intro price: they renew at two to six times that.
The rest of this guide shows you how.
On this page
Most contractors never think about hosting until something goes wrong. The website is down on a Saturday morning, right when homeowners are searching. It crawls on a phone, and people leave before your number shows up. Or the bill doubles after the first term and nobody warned you.
Your hosting decides how fast your website loads, how often it's online, and part of how Google judges it. Every price below is from the company's own pricing page, checked in September 2026.
Why speed matters for calls
Google measures how long your main content takes to show up. It calls this Largest Contentful Paint, and it counts 2.5 seconds or less as good and anything over 4 seconds as poor. It's one of three Core Web Vitals, and Google says good scores line up with what its ranking systems reward.
Google also says it always tries to show the most relevant page, even when the page experience is poor. Speed won't rank a thin website on its own (here's what does). But between two good answers, the slow one is working against you.
The bigger cost is people.
53%
of mobile visits are likely to be abandoned when a page takes longer than 3 seconds to load
Google, The need for mobile speed (2016), read 23 September 2026
That study is from 2016, and phones and networks are faster now. The point still stands. Someone with a leaking water heater won't wait for your page. They'll hit back and call the next name.
Hosting isn't the only thing behind speed. Huge photos and heavy themes slow a website down on any host. But nothing loads until the server answers, so a slow server holds everything else back. To see where you stand, run your website through PageSpeed Insights (pagespeed.web.dev). It's free and shows your Largest Contentful Paint on mobile.
The four kinds of hosting
| Type | What it costs | Good for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shared | $2.99 to $5.99 a month to start, then $9.99 to $17.99 | A placeholder you don't rely on | Renewal prices, shared resources |
| VPS | $4 a month bare, from $14 a month managed | A developer who wants control | Someone has to run the server |
| Managed WordPress | About $30 to $35 a month | A WordPress website you want looked after | The cost per website adds up |
| Static | Free to $20 a month | A website built for it | You need a developer who builds this way |
Shared hosting
Shared hosting puts your website on one server with many others. Think of an apartment building: everyone shares the same pipes and power. When a neighbor gets busy, your website can slow down, and you have no say in what they do.
This is where the big budget names sell their entry plans: GoDaddy, Bluehost, HostGator and SiteGround. The prices look great until you read the fine print.
Who it's for: a one-page placeholder you don't depend on. If your website is supposed to bring in calls, it's the wrong place to save a few dollars a month.
VPS hosting
A VPS, or virtual private server, gives you your own slice of a server. Same building, but now it's a condo: your own walls, your own pipes. Other websites can't use up your share.
The catch is that someone has to run it. DigitalOcean's smallest server is $4 a month, but you or your developer have to set it up, update it and keep it secure. Cloudways does that part for you on a server from DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode or others, starting at $14 a month.
Managed WordPress hosting
If your website runs on WordPress, and a lot of contractor websites do, managed WordPress hosting is usually the right call. The host looks after the server, WordPress updates, security and backups. You run your business.
- WP Engine: $28 a month for the first year, billed yearly, with security, updates and performance work included. The renewal price isn't on its pricing page, so ask.
- Kinsta: $35 a month for one website, or $30 a month paid yearly. Every website is backed up automatically every 24 hours.
If you're still deciding whether WordPress is right for you at all, read Wix vs. WordPress for contractors first.
Static hosting
A static website is a set of finished pages, built ahead of time, so nothing has to be put together when someone visits. Hosts like Netlify, Cloudflare Pages and Vercel keep copies of those pages on servers in many places, so each visitor loads them from one nearby.
Netlify and Cloudflare Pages both have free plans, and Netlify's paid plans start at $9 a month.
Vercel's free Hobby plan is for personal, non-commercial use only. A business website belongs on its Pro plan, which is $20 a month per developer seat.
The catch: your website has to be built this way, by a developer who knows how.
The fine print on cheap hosting
The low price is real, but only for the first term, and you commit to one to three years to get it.
| Plan | Intro price | To get it | After that |
|---|---|---|---|
| GoDaddy Web Hosting Economy | $5.99 a month | First 3-year term | $11.99 a month regular price |
| Bluehost Starter | $3.99 a month | 36-month term | Renews at $9.99 a month |
| HostGator Hatchling | $3.75 a month | 36-month term | Renews at $10.99 a month |
| SiteGround StartUp | $2.99 a month | Prepaid for 12 months | Renews at $17.99 a month |
That's two to six times the intro price, every month after. It doesn't make these hosts bad at hosting. It means the price on the banner isn't the price you'll keep paying.
Watch the extras too. On GoDaddy's Economy plan, the SSL certificate is free for the first year, then renews at GoDaddy's current price until you cancel it. Bluehost and HostGator include a free Let's Encrypt certificate.
Picking a host on the intro price. Before you buy, find the renewal price in the fine print and budget for that number, because it's the one you'll pay for years.
Keep your domain, move your hosting
Your domain and your hosting are two different things. The domain is your address. The hosting is the building your website lives in. If you bought your domain at GoDaddy, it can stay there while your website lives somewhere else. You just point the domain at the new host. For the whole bill, here's what a website costs, every way you can pay.
- Leave the domain where it is. You only change where it points.
- Set up the website on the new host first, and check every page and form before anything switches.
- Download a full backup from the old host, so you have a copy of everything.
- Point your domain at the new host. You do it in your domain's DNS, the setting that tells browsers where your website lives. GoDaddy says most changes spread within a few hours, but it can take up to 48.
- Keep the old hosting for a few days, then cancel it. Anyone still reaching the old server sees a working website in the meantime.
What to look for in any host
Whatever type you pick, check four things.
Speed
Your main content should show up within 2.5 seconds on a phone. Test on PageSpeed Insights before and after any move, so you know the change helped.
Uptime
Uptime is the share of time your website is online. Look for 99.9% or better. GoDaddy, for one, guarantees 99.9% on its web hosting. The gap sounds tiny, but it isn't:
- 99.9% uptime allows about 8.8 hours of downtime a year.
- 99% allows about 87.6 hours, more than three and a half days.
If your website is down when someone searches for your trade in your area, that call goes to someone else.
SSL
SSL is what puts https at the start of your address. Since Chrome 68 in July 2018, Chrome labels every page without it "Not secure". Google has also used HTTPS as a ranking signal since 2014, though it called that signal very lightweight.
You shouldn't pay much for it. Let's Encrypt is a free, nonprofit certificate authority, and Bluehost, HostGator and Cloudways all include its certificates. If a host charges you for SSL every year, ask why.
Backups
Your host should back up your website every day, automatically. If an update breaks something or the website gets hacked, you want yesterday's copy back fast. GoDaddy's web hosting and Kinsta both include daily backups, so it's a fair thing to expect. Don't plan on doing it by hand. You'll forget.
What we recommend
Most contractor websites belong on managed WordPress hosting, or on a static host if they were built for one. Skip bottom-tier shared plans if your website is supposed to bring in calls. The money you save is small next to one missed job.
And if your website is slow and you're not sure why, it might be the hosting. It might be the website itself. Either way, a free audit will show you what's going on and what we'd fix first.
People also ask
How much should WordPress hosting cost?
For a business website, managed WordPress hosting runs about $30 to $35 a month for one website. Kinsta is $35, or $30 a month paid yearly. WP Engine is $28 a month for the first year, billed yearly, and its renewal price isn't on its pricing page, so ask. Budget WordPress plans start lower, like SiteGround at $2.99 a month, but that price is prepaid for 12 months and renews at $17.99. Compare the renewal price, not the intro price.
Which hosting company is best for WordPress?
For a contractor who wants it handled, a managed WordPress host such as WP Engine or Kinsta. They look after the server, updates, security and backups, and Kinsta backs up every website every 24 hours. If you have a developer, Cloudways runs managed servers from $14 a month.
What is the cheapest way to host a website?
A static website on a free plan, such as Netlify or Cloudflare Pages, can cost nothing to host. The catch is that the website has to be built that way by a developer. Vercel also has a free plan, but it is for personal, non-commercial use only, so a business website needs its Pro plan at $20 a month per developer seat.
Can I move my website from GoDaddy to another host?
Yes. Your domain can stay at GoDaddy while your website lives somewhere else: you set the website up on the new host, then change the domain's DNS, the setting that tells browsers where your website lives, to point at it. GoDaddy says DNS changes usually spread within a few hours but can take up to 48, so keep the old hosting running for a few days before you cancel it.
Sources
- web.dev, Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), read 23 September 2026.
- Google Search Central, Core Web Vitals and Google search results, read 23 September 2026.
- Google Search Central, Understanding page experience, read 23 September 2026.
- Google, The need for mobile speed (2016), read 23 September 2026.
- PageSpeed Insights, read 23 September 2026.
- GoDaddy web hosting pricing, read 23 September 2026.
- Bluehost shared hosting pricing, read 23 September 2026.
- HostGator web hosting pricing, read 23 September 2026.
- SiteGround WordPress hosting pricing, read 23 September 2026.
- DigitalOcean Droplet pricing, read 23 September 2026.
- Cloudways pricing, read 23 September 2026.
- WP Engine plans and pricing, read 25 September 2026.
- Kinsta pricing, read 25 September 2026.
- Netlify pricing, read 23 September 2026.
- Cloudflare Pages limits, read 23 September 2026.
- Vercel, Hobby plan, read 23 September 2026.
- Cloudflare, What is a CDN?, read 23 September 2026.
- Chromium Blog, A secure web is here to stay, read 23 September 2026.
- Google Search Central Blog, HTTPS as a ranking signal, read 23 September 2026.
- Let's Encrypt, read 23 September 2026.
- GoDaddy Help, What factors affect DNS propagation time?, read 23 September 2026.
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