Most small businesses in Cumbria pay somewhere between £10 and £40 per month for hosting, or £50 to £150 per year for a basic shared plan. What is confusing is not the number itself — it is that two businesses can pay a similar amount and get very different things for it.
This post breaks down what a hosting bill should actually cover, why prices vary so much between providers, and how to tell whether you are getting a fair deal or paying for very little.
What is hosting actually paying for?
Hosting is the service that keeps your website’s files and database on a server that is connected to the internet, so people can reach your site when they type in your domain. A proper hosting bill should be paying for:
- server space and processing power to run the site
- an SSL certificate, so the connection is encrypted
- backups, ideally automated and stored separately from the live site
- uptime — the server actually staying online and reachable
- technical support if something goes wrong
Some plans bundle in more than this. Others charge separately for almost all of it, which is where a headline price can be misleading.
Why hosting prices vary so much
Shared, VPS, or dedicated
Most small business sites run on shared hosting, where your site sits on a server alongside many others. It is the cheapest option and fine for most brochure and service sites. A VPS (virtual private server) gives you a dedicated slice of resources and costs more, but is rarely necessary unless a site gets serious traffic or needs specific technical requirements. Dedicated servers are a different conversation entirely, and not one most small businesses need to have.
What is bundled in
A £5 per month plan that only covers server space is not comparable to a £25 per month plan that includes SSL, daily backups, and email hosting. Read what is actually included before comparing two prices side by side.
UK-based versus overseas providers
Hosting a UK business’s website on a UK-based server tends to mean faster loading times for UK visitors and more straightforward support during UK working hours. It is not always cheaper, but the difference in day-to-day reliability is often worth the extra cost.
Renewal price hikes
A common trick in the hosting industry: a low first-year price that jumps sharply at renewal. Always check the renewal rate before signing up, not just the introductory offer.
Hosting and business email are usually separate
This trips a lot of businesses up. Hosting keeps your website live. Business email — a proper address using your own domain, rather than a free Gmail or Hotmail account — is a related but separate service, and how it is priced varies a lot between providers.
Sending an invoice from a random Hotmail or Gmail account can cost you credibility before you’ve even started the job. If your business email is not currently running through your own domain, or you are not sure how it is set up, that is worth sorting alongside hosting rather than as an afterthought. Our hosting and business email support page covers what a proper setup looks like, including SSL, domain configuration, and mailbox setup.
Hosting is not maintenance
The two get bundled together in people’s minds, but they are different jobs. Hosting keeps the server running. It does not update your CMS, fix a broken form, or check your backups actually restore. That is maintenance, and it is usually priced and delivered separately — we covered what website maintenance costs and what it should include in a previous post.
Paying for hosting alone and assuming the site is being looked after is one of the most common gaps we find when reviewing a new client’s setup.
What to watch out for
Cheap hosting bundled into a website quote — some website builds come with hosting locked in at a low headline price, which then rises sharply after year one or two. Check the ongoing cost before you commit.
No clarity on backups — ask specifically where backups are stored and how often they run. “We take backups” is not a specification.
Support that is slow or hard to reach — when a site goes down, an hour of downtime can cost more in lost enquiries than a year of hosting. Check what support actually looks like before you need it, not after.
Overpaying for resources you do not need — a five-page brochure site does not need a dedicated server. If a provider is pushing you toward something bigger than the site requires, ask why.
The honest answer on price
For a typical small business website in Cumbria:
- A simple brochure or service site — £10 to £20 per month for solid shared hosting with SSL and backups included
- A site with business email included — £15 to £30 per month, depending on the number of mailboxes
- A larger or higher-traffic site — £30 to £40+ per month, where the extra cost reflects genuine resource needs rather than provider markup
If you are not sure what your current hosting bill is actually paying for, or you are still using a free email address for business, get in touch and we can take a look and give you a straight answer.
1418 provides website hosting and business email support for businesses in Cumbria, including SSL, domain setup, mailbox configuration, and migration from older providers.