The Renewal Price Audit: What the Big Hosts Charge in Year Two, Documented From Their Own Pages

This audit is the documented evidence behind our guide The True Cost of Web Hosting: What You Actually Pay Over Three Years. The advertised price of web hosting is the price of the first term. The price that decides what a small business actually pays is the renewal price, and it usually appears in smaller type, on a different page, or only inside the cart. So we documented it. On November 5, 2026, we captured the entry-level plan at eight hosting companies, from each company’s own website: the advertised price, the term required to get it, the amount due on day one, the renewal price on a like-for-like term, and what the .com domain costs after any free first year.

The headline finding: across the seven other hosts in this audit, the renewal price is a median of about 2.9 times the advertised monthly price. The range runs from 2.0 times to 6.0 times against standing introductory prices. One host’s live order page on capture day showed a sale price that puts its renewal at 9.0 times the price on the page; that case is documented in its row, against both figures, rather than folded quietly into a headline. One host in the set has no renewal increase at all. It is the publisher of this audit, it is in the table on identical terms, and its row was captured from its own pages the same day, by the same method.

The table

All prices in US dollars, before tax, captured November 5, 2026. The two money columns are the whole story: what you hand over on day one, and what the same term costs when it renews. Optional add-ons are excluded for every host, including us; one documented exception is discussed in its own section below, because it appears in a host’s renewal disclosure rather than its options list.

How to read this table. Day one flatters every host except one, because seven of these eight prices are introductory. The renewal column is the price of staying. Read across any row and the pattern is the same: the second time you buy the identical term, the bill is bigger, by two to six times the advertised monthly price. Read down the renewal column in yearly terms and the renewal prices run from $95.88 to $215.88 per year. InterProWebHost renews at $96.00 per year, and the renewal total is the same number as the day-one total, because the advertised price was never an introductory one. That is the entire claim of this audit, and it is checkable in the table in under a minute.

Renewal totals, defined. Each renewal total is the host’s published renewal monthly price for renewing on the same term length as the advertised first term, multiplied out across that term, which is the amount a customer who stays on the same plan is actually billed at renewal. Where a host publishes the term total itself (GoDaddy’s day-one figure, HostGator’s price chart, Hostinger’s and InterProWebHost’s stated totals), the published figure is used.

Row notes.

• GoDaddy: the plan-selection page shows Economy at $5.99/mo for the first three-year term with $11.99 struck through, and the hosting page prints “You pay $215.64 today.” GoDaddy’s offers page presents the same plan at $6.99/mo on a one-year term. Both presentations are GoDaddy’s own.
• Bluehost: the $3.99 price requires the 36-month term; hosting is, in Bluehost’s words, “paid for upfront and in full at sign-up.” Renewal depends on the renewal term chosen: $9.99/mo on 36 months, $11.99/mo on 12 months, $15.99/mo monthly. The table uses the like-for-like 36-month figure.
• Hostinger: the Premium card itself states the full arrangement on one line: “Today you pay $95.52 for 48 months. Renews at $10.99/mo for the same term.” Figures confirmed on Hostinger’s US storefront.
• SiteGround: the table uses the standing figures from SiteGround’s own published price file, dated September 30, 2026: an introductory price of $2.99/mo for the first 12-month term, renewing at $17.99/mo. On capture day, SiteGround’s live order page showed a sale price of $1.99/mo for the same plan and the same renewal, which would put the increase at 9.0x; the standing figures are the ones in the table. The .com renewal is where the “see note” in the table points: SiteGround’s price file states $11.99/yr, while its domain page shows a regular .com price of $22.99/yr with fine print stating regular prices apply to consecutive renewals. Both figures are SiteGround’s; we report the disagreement rather than pick one silently.
• DreamHost: the entry plan is now called Web Hosting Launch. The $1.99 price sits on a four-year term and renews at $7.99/mo. On a one-year term the same plan is $2.89/mo renewing at $10.99/mo. Credit where due: DreamHost states on its own shared hosting page that every plan card shows the exact renewal rate right next to the promo price.
• HostGator: the Hatchling price block reads “$3.75/mo”, “For 36 month term”, “Renews at $10.99/mo.” The renewal figure is confirmed in HostGator’s official published price chart ($395.61 for a three-year renewal term). No day-one total is printed on the plan page, so the figure shown is the term arithmetic.
• IONOS: the Essential card prints the whole structure on its face: “$4/month, with a 1-year term, then only $8/month.” The gentlest renewal step in this set, and the most plainly stated.
• InterProWebHost: the Personal plan page prints “$288 due today for 3 years. Renews at $288.” Same price, same term, stated on the pricing page before checkout. The .com renewal is $14.81/yr, the price in our own published domain pricing.

Why the sources disagree

Before this audit ran on primary sources, we compared the published trackers that already maintain renewal tables, and they disagreed with each other about what several of these hosts charge at renewal. The captures above show why. Renewal prices sit behind plan pages that change with promotions (two of the prices in this table were sale prices in effect on capture day), behind carts, and behind terms that differ by prepayment length, so a table built from other tables inherits every error upstream of it.

The strongest specimen in this audit needs no third party at all: SiteGround’s own pages give two different .com renewal figures ($11.99 in its price file, $22.99 implied on its domain page), and GoDaddy presents its entry plan at two different monthly prices for two different terms on two of its own pages. Neither is necessarily an error; both are what a buyer actually faces when trying to pin a renewal price down from outside. It is also worth recording what good practice looks like, because this audit found some: SiteGround publishes a complete price file, HostGator publishes a full price chart, and DreamHost prints renewal rates beside its promotional prices. The standard this page argues for is one those hosts already meet in part: the renewal price, on the pricing page, in the same size conversation as the introductory price.

What else renews: the SSL line

One finding sits outside the table because the method excludes add-ons, and it is documented here, labelled as outside the method, because it appears in a host’s own renewal disclosure. GoDaddy’s Economy plan includes a free SSL certificate for the first year. GoDaddy’s auto-renew disclosure, printed on its own hosting page on capture day, reads: “Hosting auto-renews Nov. 2029 at $551.63. SSL renews annually at $119.99.” The $551.63 is the three-year hosting renewal at $11.99/mo plus one year of SSL at $119.99. At the other hosts in this set, SSL certificates are included with the plan at no separate renewal charge, as they are at InterProWebHost. A buyer comparing renewal bills should ask every host one question that no headline answers: what else on my account starts billing when the free year ends?

Three checks to run in any cart before you buy

1. Find the renewal line before you pay. If the cart or the plan page shows a renewal price, that number, not the headline, is your price from the second term onward.
2. Multiply the monthly price by its term. A very low monthly figure usually requires prepaying one to four years on day one. The day-one amount is part of the price.
3. Price the domain and the certificate separately. A free .com renews at the host’s standard rate after year one, and at one host in this audit the free SSL certificate becomes a $119.99 annual line. Add both to any comparison or the comparison is not complete.

How this audit was done

One capture session per host, all on November 5, 2026, from each host’s own website: pricing pages, plan pages, published price lists and price charts, and order pages. No aggregator, review site, or third-party tracker figure is used anywhere in the table. Prices are in US dollars, before tax, for each host’s entry-level shared hosting plan, with no optional add-ons. Where a host’s own pages gave two figures for the same field, both are reported in the row notes. Screenshots and page captures are archived with this study’s working papers, and the per-row sources are the host’s own pages named in the notes above. Hosts change prices and promotions frequently; every figure here is a dated capture, not a standing claim. This is a one-time audit: it records the prices as captured on November 5, 2026, and a reader checking later should expect some of them to have moved.

InterProWebHost is in the table on identical terms, captured from our own pages the same day, by the same method. A study that audits everyone except its publisher is an advertisement. This page carries no affiliate links and earns no commissions; InterProWebHost takes no referral fees on anything it recommends.

Corrections: if any host listed here believes a figure is wrong, write to us through the contact page. We will re-capture the figure from your own website and correct this page with a dated note. That offer is part of the method, not a courtesy: an audit that cannot be corrected should not be cited.

Related: The True Cost of Web Hosting: What You Actually Pay Over Three Years, the guide this audit documents.