How much do web hosting prices rise after the first year? Every host compared
A lot: across the eight promo-priced hosts in our shortlist, the monthly price rises by an average of just over 4x at renewal (guide prices, June 2026). The extremes: IONOS goes from $1 to $8 (x8) and SiteGround from $2.99 to $17.99 (x6). Namecheap and GoDaddy have the mildest jumps.
We compared the promotional price against the renewal price for the hosts in our shortlist (guide prices June 2026, effective monthly rate on the entry plan). The increases, ranked: IONOS from $1.00 to $8.00 (x8.0), SiteGround from $2.99 to $17.99 (x6.0), A2 Hosting from $2.99 to $12.99 (x4.3), Bluehost from $2.95 to $11.99 (x4.1), Hostinger from $2.99 to $10.99 (x3.7), DreamHost from $2.95 to $7.99 (x2.7), Namecheap from $1.98 to $4.48 (x2.3), and GoDaddy from $5.99 to $11.99 (x2.0). The average markup across these eight: just over 4x. The advertised price, in other words, is roughly a quarter of what you pay in year two and beyond.
The nuance differs per host. Namecheap's renewal at $4.48 is still among the cheapest rates in the market, so its "increase" barely stings. DreamHost pairs a fair $7.99 renewal with a 97-day money-back guarantee, the gentlest overall deal in the lineup. At the other end, SiteGround's near-$18 renewal is the real price of its premium shared hosting, and Bluehost's quadrupling is why the most-advertised host in the world sits low in our rankings.
The practical takeaway for any hosting decision: compare hosts on the renewal price, not the promo, and set a calendar reminder one month before renewal the day you buy. At that point you choose again: migrate to a fresh promo (most hosts migrate your site free) or stay deliberately. We refresh this comparison periodically; figures are guide prices and vary by promotion window.