WEBSITE HOSTING · 2026
Website hosting for small businesses: do you need to buy it?
What hosting is, whether a local business needs to buy it, what the traditional setup costs item by item, how to get a business site online in 2026 — and when buying hosting separately is the right call. Every figure sourced.
Free to build · Pay when you publish · No credit card
The short answer
Every website needs hosting, but most small businesses don't need to buy it separately. If you build your site on a website builder like Zarla, hosting is part of the plan; you only buy hosting on its own when you run WordPress yourself or a developer builds you a custom site.
For a plumber, a landscaper, a junk removal company or a salon, the website's job is to be found, show your work and get you calls. Buying a hosting account, installing WordPress and keeping plugins patched is work that job doesn't need — and every piece of it is something that can lapse, break or cost you a developer's time.
Hosting on its own is cheap to start and pricier to keep: Hostinger's entry plan is $2.99 a month if you pay 48 months upfront ($143.52), then renews at $10.99 a month, and a WordPress site that someone looks after runs about $735–$4,095 a year once managed hosting and upkeep are in (Hostinger, checked September 2026; Codeable, March 2026). On a website builder there is no separate hosting bill.
No hosting to buy
See your website before you buy anything
Add what you do, your town and your business name, and Zarla builds the site from that one line in about 30 seconds. Build, edit and preview free; you pay only when you publish, and the hosting comes with the plan.
Already have a website? Bring it across →Zarla keeps your old page addresses where it can and redirects the ones that change, helping you keep the Google standing you've built.
What web hosting is, in plain English
Web hosting is the always-on computer that stores your website and sends it to anyone who visits. Your domain name (yourbusiness.com) is the address; hosting is the building at that address; the website is what's inside. Without hosting, a website only exists on the computer it was made on.
There are two ways to get it. You can rent space from a hosting company and put a website on it yourself — usually WordPress — which makes you responsible for the software, the updates and the backups. Or you can use a website builder, which builds the site and runs it on its own hosting, so there's no hosting account, server or software for you to look after.
HOSTING COSTS · SEPTEMBER 2026
What hosting costs when you buy it yourself, item by item
The traditional setup — a hosting account plus a WordPress site — and what each piece costs. US prices before tax, read off each publisher's page. Full source list at the foot of the page.
| What you pay for | What it costs · source |
|---|---|
| Hosting, at the advertised price | $2.99 a month on Hostinger's entry plan — paid as 48 months upfront, $143.52 · Hostinger |
| Hosting, once the intro price ends | renews at $10.99 a month · Hostinger |
| Managed WordPress hosting (faster, looked after) | $30–$100 a month · Codeable |
| Domain name | about $14.99 a year; often free for the first year with a hosting plan · WPBeginner, Hostinger |
| Security certificate (the padlock, SSL) | Included on every Hostinger plan, at no extra cost · Hostinger |
| Backups | Weekly on Hostinger's entry plan, daily from the next plan up · Hostinger |
| Updates and security upkeep for a WordPress site | $30–$50 a month for cheap plans; Codeable's basic plan is $240 a month · Codeable |
| A developer for changes you can't make yourself | about $75 an hour for a freelancer · FreshBooks |
| Total — hosting and a domain after the intro price, you do the rest | about $147 a year (renewal price × 12, plus the domain) |
| Total — a WordPress site someone looks after | about $735–$4,095 a year (domain + managed hosting + a maintenance plan) |
| A website builder instead — hosting, the padlock, backups and updates in one plan | Squarespace runs $19–$99 a month on annual billing, about $228–$1,188 a year · Squarespace |
Totals are our arithmetic on the rows: published monthly prices × 12, plus the domain. On a website builder, the hosting, the security certificate, the backups and the updates are part of the plan instead — Zarla's current plans are on its pricing page.
STEP BY STEP
How to host a website for your business
The route most local businesses should take in 2026: a builder that hosts the site for you.
Pick a website builder that includes hosting
Choose one where the hosting, the security certificate and the backups come with the plan, so there's no separate hosting account to buy, set up or renew.
Build and check the site before you pay
Describe the business, or bring your current site across, and look at the whole thing — your services, your towns, your photos, your phone number — before any money changes hands.
Connect your domain
Use a domain you already own, or buy one. Point it at the builder by following its step-by-step guide for wherever the domain is registered.
Publish
Choose a plan and press publish. The site goes live on the builder's hosting with the padlock on, and the builder keeps it running and backed up from then on.
Tell Google, then keep it current
Connect Google Search Console and your Google Business Profile, then keep services, prices, photos and hours up to date. That is the work that brings customers, not the hosting.
The three ways to host a business website
1. A website builder that hosts it for you. The builder makes the site and runs it. Nothing to install, update or back up; you pay one plan. This fits most local businesses: trades, cleaners, salons, clinics, restaurants, studios. Zarla works this way: it builds the site from a description of your business, hosts it on Google Cloud once you publish on a paid plan, includes the security certificate, and backs the site up automatically so you can roll back to an earlier version.
2. A hosting company plus WordPress. You rent hosting, install WordPress, choose a theme and plugins, and keep all of it updated. WordPress itself is free; hosting and a domain run about $147 a year once the intro price ends, and about $735–$4,095 a year once managed hosting and someone to keep it updated are in (Hostinger; Codeable, March 2026). It fits someone who wants full control, or already has a developer who runs it well.
3. A developer or agency on custom hosting. A developer builds the site and hosts it on a cloud server or a hosting plan they manage. It fits custom software, big catalogues and complex integrations — and it's the most expensive to build and change.
Still weighing it up? How much a website costs compares every route, and the WordPress alternative page covers the switch.
When you should buy hosting separately
A builder isn't right for everyone. Buy hosting on its own if:
- A developer is building you something custom — a web app, a customer portal, a system your business runs on. It needs hosting the developer controls.
- You choose WordPress on purpose — you publish a lot of articles with several writers, or you depend on a plugin nothing else offers — and someone keeps it updated and secure.
- You run a large online store with thousands of products and custom integrations.
- You coded the site yourself. Static files can go on a static host, and several have free tiers for small sites.
If none of those is you, a hosting account is a job you'd be taking on for no gain. The site still needs hosting — it just shouldn't be yours to run.
What to check before you pay for hosting
- The renewal price. Advertised prices usually need years paid upfront. Hostinger's $2.99 a month needs 48 months paid at once and renews at $10.99 a month — about $147 a year with the domain.
- Who applies the updates. On a hosting account, the software on your site is yours to keep updated. Ask who does it, and what it costs.
- How often it's backed up, and how you restore. Weekly backups can lose a week of changes; find out how a restore actually works before you need one.
- Who holds the domain. Keep the domain registered in your name, on an account you can log in to.
- Where your email lives. Email at your own domain often comes with a hosting account; on a website builder it's a separate service. If it's on the same account as your old hosting, move the email before you cancel the hosting. Zarla doesn't include email hosting; Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 are the common choices.
- What a change costs. If a new phone number or price means a developer's invoice, that's a running cost. Pick a setup you can edit yourself.
Hosting for trades and local service businesses
A junk removal company, a landscaper or a plumber needs a site that loads on a phone, names each service and town, shows real jobs and reviews, and puts the phone number and a quote form one tap away. None of that needs a hosting account, a server or plugins. It needs a site that stays up and is easy to change on a Friday afternoon.
See what a site for your trade looks like: junk removal, landscaping, plumbers, electricians and cleaners.
Website hosting: common questions
Your website needs hosting to be online, but you don't need to buy it separately if you use a website builder — the hosting comes with the plan. You only buy hosting on its own when you run WordPress yourself or a developer builds you a custom site.
Web hosting is the always-on computer that stores your website and sends it to visitors. Your domain name is the address; hosting is where the site lives; a website builder can include both the site and the hosting in one plan.
Hosting on its own is cheap to start and pricier to keep: Hostinger's entry plan is $2.99 a month if you pay 48 months upfront ($143.52), then renews at $10.99 a month, and a WordPress site that someone looks after runs about $735–$4,095 a year once managed hosting and upkeep are in (Hostinger, checked September 2026; Codeable, March 2026). On a website builder, hosting is part of the plan rather than a separate bill.
Hosting on its own runs about $147 a year once the intro price ends (Hostinger's entry plan renews at $10.99 a month, plus about $15 for the domain). A WordPress site that someone looks after — managed hosting plus a maintenance plan — runs about $735–$4,095 a year (Codeable, March 2026).
No. Website builders host the sites they build, so there's no separate hosting to buy. With Zarla, building and previewing is free; when you publish on a paid plan, the hosting, the security certificate and automatic backups are included.
For a hobby or a site you coded yourself, yes: several static hosts have free tiers, and some builders have free plans that publish on their own web address with their branding. A business site usually wants your own domain and no one else's branding, which means a paid plan somewhere. With Zarla you can build and preview the whole site free and pay when you publish.
Shared hosting (many sites on one server — the cheapest), VPS hosting (a reserved slice of a server), dedicated hosting (a whole server to yourself) and cloud hosting (capacity spread across many servers). Managed WordPress hosting is shared or cloud hosting where the company also looks after WordPress. A small business on a website builder doesn't choose between these; the builder runs the hosting.
Running a server yourself is rarely worth it for a business: you become responsible for uptime, security updates and backups, and if the computer or the connection fails, the site goes down. Rented hosting or a website builder does that job for less than your time is worth.
If you're running WordPress, a shared host such as Hostinger (from $2.99 a month on a 48-month prepay, renewing at $10.99, checked on its site in September 2026) covers a small site; managed WordPress hosting ($30–$100 a month, Codeable) adds speed and care. If you'd rather not run hosting at all, a website builder that includes it is simpler for most local businesses — that's what Zarla does.
Yes. When you publish on a paid plan, Zarla hosts your site on Google Cloud with the security certificate included and automatic backups you can roll back to. You can connect a domain you already own or buy one inside Zarla. Building and previewing is free; current plans are on the pricing page.
Yes. Zarla keeps your old page addresses where it can and redirects the ones that change, helping you keep the Google standing you've built. The redirects take effect when your domain points at Zarla; your old site stays live until then. Before you cancel the old hosting, check whether your email is on the same account.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page is read off a published source, dated below. They're US prices before tax, typical rather than a rule. Yearly totals are our arithmetic on the published monthly prices. Related: how much a website costs, WordPress alternative for small business and Zarla's small business website builder.
- Hostinger — Web Hosting plans (US) — no date on the page, read September 2026
- Codeable — WordPress Maintenance Pricing for 2026 — dated March 2026, read September 2026
- WPBeginner — How Much Does It Really Cost to Build a WordPress Website? — dated September 2025, read September 2026
- FreshBooks — How Much Do Web Designers Charge? A Pricing Guide — dated August 2026, read September 2026
- Squarespace — Pricing (US) — no date on the page, read September 2026
Skip the hosting account — see your website first
Describe your business in one line and Zarla builds the whole site: pages, words, photos and the Google setup. Build and preview it free; when you publish on a paid plan, the hosting, the security certificate and the backups come with it.
Already have a website? Bring it across →Zarla keeps your old page addresses where it can and redirects the ones that change, helping you keep the Google standing you've built.