Best Cheap Web Hosting UK

I tested, tracked and compared the top 5 cheap web hosting companies in the UK for 2023 to find the best of the best. My test results revealed a clear winner with better server uptime, better website loading speed, better customer support, features and price.
Best Cheap Web Hosting UK
RANKCOMPANYUPTIMESPEED
120i99.995%475ms
2Krystal99.991%485ms
3eUKhost99.992%1000ms
4tsoHost99.953%499ms
5Webhosting UK99.848%885ms

After months of tracking uptime statistics and server performance metrics, I discovered the best cheap web hosting in the UK is 20i Web Hosting. They deliver fast website loading speeds, consistent server uptime and support.


When you are doing your research to find the best cheap web hosting company, you are going to run into a real problem, let me explain…

Unfortunately, the majority of hosting review websites in the UK that you will come across while you are doing your research are motivated by how much they are paid in commissions when you signup through their links.

The services they are recommending right now will entice you with the cheapest introductory offers for the first year, that actually TRIPLE or even QUADRUPLE on renewal automatically, none of which you’ll find here.

Here’s just a few examples of what some websites are willing to recommend:

Bluehost wants to charge you £2.30/month if you pay a year in advance, which is then automatically renewed at nearly 4X the price (£8.57/month, billed yearly, excluding VAT), plus they also try to upsell you security & SSL at double the price when it should be free.
Hostinger wants to charge you £1.49 per month, ONLY if you pay 4 years upfront, which is then automatically renewed at 2X the price (£2.99/month) for 4 years upfront and if you want to pay monthly for just one website, they want £10.99/month which is absolutely nuts.
SiteGround wants to charge you £2.99/month if you pay a year in advance, which is then automatically renewed at 4X the price (£11.99/month, billed yearly, excluding VAT) and if you want to pay monthly it’s a whopping £20.39/month for 1 website which is also BONKERS!

Now think about it, before you found Hosting Spy, how many other websites have you visited which recommend the hosting companies listed above OR ones that charge similar ridiculous fees?

They obviously don’t care if you’re going to get ripped off on your second year and are clearly motivated by how much they earn in commissions when you sign up through their links.

You may not be aware of this but it did not take me too long to discover that it is these same exact companies that just happen to pay the most commissions to their affiliates for each sale.

I somehow think that this is no coincidence.

HOW is hosting spy DIFFERENT?
I’m not motivated or influenced by commissions in any way and don’t accept bribes to rank a specific provider at the top of the list as they have to earn it with their performance over time.

I obsessively test, track and compare the performance of only the most trust-worthy web hosting companies in the UK that don’t TRIPLE or even QUADRUPLE fees on renewal.

This unbiased approach offers a level of transparency that allows you to clearly see which cheap web hosting providers do or don’t deliver on their promises based on real data.

The best cheap web hosting in the UK is not always the lowest price but a company who can balance high levels of service, features and support without overcharging their customers for the privilege. The web hosting companies that are featured below are not only affordable, but also deliver quality services.

The rankings you see here are based on actual historical performance data based on real-time tracking of server uptime, server response times and page loading speeds over long periods of time.

Over the last 2 years I have performed extensive daily testing on server performance for a large list of the UK’s most popular website hosting companies that are on the cheaper end of the scale.

Here’s a list of the ones that performed the best.

TOP 5 CHEAP UK WEB HOSTING SERVICES


The top 3 cheap web hosting providers below allow you to pay on a monthly basis. They DO NOT force you to pay yearly or triple the renewal price on year 2. They also DO NOT try to upsell you with worthless add-ons that you can get for free.
1

20i Web Hosting

Most affordable web hosting.
9.7
20i Hosting Review

20i Best Host

20i hosting was launched in 2016 by Tim and Jonathan Brealey who have 20+ years experience within the industry and are …
Pros
  • Fast Servers.
  • Excellent support.
  • Free SSL certificate.
  • Affordable monthly fees.
Cons
  • No cPanel.
  • No free domain.
  • Only host 1 site on Startup Plan.

20i web hosting was launched around 5 years ago by Tim & Jonathan Brealey, who created WebFusion, 123-reg & Heart Internet. These 2 founders are no strangers to growing industry leading web hosting companies that develop innovative web hosting software and tools.

My extensive testing has shown that they have consistent server uptime and blazing fast server response times, so your website will load fast on a consistent basis which is a great sign of a good host.

Here’s a quick overview of 20i’s web hosting features:

SPECSTARTUPWORDPRESSMANAGED CLOUD
Sites Hosted11Unlimited
Disk Space10 GB SSD10 GB SSD25 GB SSD
Bandwidth50 GB50 GB1 TB
SSL CertificateFREEFREEFREE
BackupsDailyDailyDaily
MySQL Databases11Unlimited
Mailboxes (10 GB)10001000Unlimited
Free DomainNONONO
Control PanelMy20iMy20iMy20i

You don’t get very much on the Startup package similar to other providers such as only been allowed to host just 1 website, but that’s normal, but if you only need 1 website then it’s fine.

The amount of diskspace you get is more than enough to create a small business website on WordPress as you also get 1 MySQL database with WordPress built in which is useful on both Startup & WordPress.

2

Krystal Web Hosting

Not the cheapest but highest quality hosting.
9.5
Krystal Hosting Review

Krystal Web Hosting

Krystal Hosting was founded back in 2002 by Simon Blackler and has transformed into the UK’s largest independent web …
Positive
  • Super fast loading speeds
  • Award winning support
  • Above average uptime
  • cPanel control panel
  • Free SSL certificate
Negatives
  • You can only host 1 website on the AMETHYST package, so you’ll need the RUBY package if you have multiple websites.
  • Not the cheapest but you get what you pay for as they don’t over sell their services.

Krystal is the largest independent web hosting company in the UK and has been delivering a range of shared, VPS, and dedicated hosting services for 18 years.

Unlike other large faceless companies who often have hidden extras or extortionate renewal fees, Krystal are honest, reliable and personal which is why they have become so popular within the UK.

Here’s a quick overview of Krystal’s web hosting features.

SPECAMETHYSTRUBYSAPPHIRE
Sites Hosted1UnlimitedUnlimited
Disk Space10GB SSDUnlimited SSD100GB Premium NVMe
BandwidthUnlimitedUnlimitedUnlimited
PerformanceStandardEnhancedHigh
SSL CertificateFREEFREEFREE
BackupsDailyDaily4-hourly
Free DomainNOYESYES
Control PanelcPanelcPanelcPanel

In all of our manual and automated tests such as server response time, website loading speed and server uptime, Krystal hosting is at the top of their game compared to other companies with similar pricing.

This is the exact reason why I’ve been a customer of Krystal web hosting myself for the last couple of years as I host this website you are reading right now and my clients websites on their reliable servers.

If you are setting up your web hosting account for the first time then I would recommend registering your domain with Krystal at the same time as ordering your web hosting, as everything will connect automatically. Then you can simply login and install WordPress or use Krystal’s website builder.

Krystal’s web hosting services are easy to setup and are very simple to use so you can literally start building your website in the next 10 minutes, knowing you have a solid foundation to build it on.

3

eUKhost Web Hosting

Cheap web hosting with decent uptime.
8.5
eUKhost Review

eUKhost

eUKhost (part of the Hyperslice Group) are a fully managed web hosting provider that offer cloud, VPS, dedicated and …
Positive
  • cPanel controls
  • Free domain (yearly account)
  • Unmetered bandwidth
  • Free SSL
Negatives
  • Account activation delay
  • AutoSSL failed

eUKhost (part of the Hyperslice Group) are a fully managed UK web hosting provider that offer cloud, VPS, dedicated and email hosting with a range of website security services and domain name registration.

They operate from their registered office in Leeds and through their data centres located in Wakefield, Maidenhead and Nottingham, allowing them to offer reliable hosting services across the UK.

Here’s a quick overview of eUKhost’s web hosting features:

SPECBASICINTERMEDIATEADVANCED
Sites HostedUnlimitedUnlimitedUnlimited
Disk Space2GB SSD10GB SSD20GB SSD
BandwidthUnmeteredUnmeteredUnmetered
SSL CertificateFREEFREEFREE
BackupsDailyDailyDaily
MySQL Databases1030Unlimited
MailboxesUnlimitedUnlimitedUnlimited
Free DomainYESYESYES
Control PanelcPanelcPanelcPanel

Over the last 90 days, eUKhost has recorded the best uptime statistics out of all the web hosting companies featured on Hosting Spy and their website loading speed is pretty good too.

However, when you first signup to a web hosting package there is a couple hours delay while you are waiting for your account to be activated and can be quite confusing to set up for beginners.

You also only get 2GB SSD diskpace on the Basic Plan which is far less than what all other web hosting companies offer you on their entry plans, so allowing you to host unlimited websites is not much use.

4

tsoHost Web Hosting

7.7
tsoHost Review

tsoHost

tsoHost based out of Hayes, Hillingdon is a popular UK web hosting provider that looks after 250,000+ customers. They …
Positive
  • cPanel control panel
  • Free domain (yearly account)
  • Unmetered bandwidth
  • Free SSL certificate
Negatives
  • Account setup failed
  • No nameservers
  • No free SSL on economy
  • Average server performance

tsoHost based out of Hayes, Hillingdon has more than a decade within the hosting industry and is a popular UK web hosting provider that offers a range of low cost web hosting services for personal or business use.

You’ll discover cloud based cPanel hosting along with VPS, dedicated and managed servers with website security packages and domain name registration services at really competitive rates.

Here’s a quick overview of tsoHost’s web hosting features:

SPECECONOMYDELUXEULTIMATEMAXIMUM
Sites Hosted1510200
Disk Space100GB SSDUnlimitedUnlimitedUnlimited
BandwidthUnlimitedUnlimitedUnlimitedUnlimited
Memory (RAM)512MB512MB1GB2GB
SSL CertificateNONOYESYES
BackupsDailyDailyDailyDaily
MySQL DatabasesUnlimitedUnlimitedUnlimitedUnlimited
MailboxesUnlimitedUnlimitedUnlimitedUnlimited
Free Domain
(Yearly Plan Only)
YESYESYESYES
Control PanelcPanelcPanelcPanelcPanel

Although tsoHost are quite popular and you get tons of resources for such a low price, the uptime I have recorded over the last 90 days is below average, so they still have a long way to go.

One of the biggest put downs of this web hosting provider is the fact that they don’t offer free SSL on their starter plans like their competitors do and they charge more per year for standard SSL than they do for hosting.

5

Webhosting UK

7.5
Webhosting UK Review

Webhosting UK

Webhosting UK offers a wide range of affordable web hosting services including email, shared, cloud, WordPress, …
Positive
  • cPanel control panel
  • Free domain (yearly account)
  • Unmetered bandwidth
  • Free SSL certificate
Negatives
  • Account activation delay
  • AutoSSL failed
  • Minimum quarterly billing
  • Poor uptime stats

Webhosting UK (WHUK) offers a wide range of affordable web hosting services including email, shared, cloud, WordPress, reseller, VPS and dedicated hosting packages, along with website security and domains.

They were founded in 2001 (now part of the Hyperslice® Group) and are one of the UK’s largest web hosting providers with more than 35k customers and 1 million+ websites hosted on their platform.

Here’s a quick overview of the features:

SPECSTARTERPREMIUMADVANCEDDEVELOPER
Sites Hosted2515Unlimited
Disk Space5GB SSD10GB SSD20GB SSD40GB SSD
BandwidthUnmeteredUnmeteredUnmeteredUnmetered
SSL CertificateFREEFREEFREEFREE
BackupsDailyDailyDailyDaily
MySQL DatabasesUnlimitedUnlimitedUnlimitedUnlimited
MailboxesUnlimitedUnlimitedUnlimitedUnlimited
Free DomainYESYESYESYES
Control PanelcPanelcPanelcPanelcPanel

WHUK is one of the most affordable web hosting providers on the list although their server performance is fractionally out performed by their competitors, but not by much I might add.

The amount of features you get for such a low monthly fee would attract startups or existing small business owners who want to establish an online presence on a super tight budget.

However, this is the only web hosting company we have featured that requires a minimum of 3 months payment upfront, so if you want to test out their services for a month then there is a 30-day money back guarantee if required.


In this section we will answer some of the most popular questions that have been asked by our readers to help you learn more about the cheap web hosting companies we have featured in the list above.

Server Uptime Comparison

Which cheap hosting has the best uptime in the UK?

Uptime is a measurement of how long the website remains online without it becoming inaccessible and low uptime is bad for you and your business as you want your website to remain online as much as possible for obvious reasons.

Just because you want a web hosting service at the cheaper end of the scale, this does not mean that your provider should deliver poor uptime, although you will see from our actual research below, some are far better than others.

Many cheap UK web hosting providers promise a specific percentage of uptime, although not all of them deliver what they promise, which is why we constantly track them to get the real data.

Here’s how they performed (the higher the number the better):

CompanyLast 90 Days
Krystal99.996%
20i99.943%
eUKhost99.992%
tsoHost99.953%
Webhosting UK99.848%
Based on the last 90 days, the winner of the best uptime is Krystal hosting followed by 20i, eUKhost and tsoHost. Unfortunately, Webhosting UK comes in last place. These figures are updated every 7 days.

Response Time Comparison

Which cheap hosting has the best server response time in the UK?

Server response time is another important metric that we test on a regular basis as you want your server to respond quickly to requests as your website cannot start to load until the server starts to respond.

The better these metrics are, the better experience your potential customers will have when browsing your website as slow server response times will make your website load slower and will annoy people.

We test the server response times in the exact same way for every web hosting company we have featured on this page to ensure it’s fair and the server in which the test is initiated from is based in London.

Here’s how they performed (the lower the number the better):

CompanyServer Response Time
Krystal2 ms
20i4 ms
tsoHost53 ms
eUKhost172 ms
Webhosting UK201 ms
Based on the last manual test, the winner of the best server response time is Krystal hosting followed by 20i, tsoHost and eUKhost. Unfortunately, Webhosting UK comes in last place. This test is performed every 7 days.

Loading Speed Comparison

Which cheap hosting has the best website loading speed in the UK?

Website loading speed is another important metric that we test on a regular basis as you want the pages of your website to load fast for your website visitors.

When you have a fast loading website, this can have a massive impact on your results by improving user experience and increasing your conversions.

I test the website loading speed the exact same way for all the providers to ensure it’s fair such as the website is exactly the same size on each host and is tested from the same London based server.

Here’s how they performed (the lower the number the better):

CompanyWebsite Loading Speed
Krystal485 ms
tsoHost499 ms
20i 546 ms
Webhosting UK885 ms
eUKhost1000 ms
Based on the last manual test, the winner of the best website loading speed is Krystal hosting followed by tsoHost, 20i and Webhosting UK. Unfortunately, eUKhost comes in last place. This test is performed every 7 days.

Conclusion

Considering all the test results and comparisons I have made during my research, I discovered that Krystal hosting is the superior web hosting company out of all the cheap web hosting companies worth testing.

Krystal hosting has better server uptime, website loading speeds, server response times, features and award winning support all while offering affordable pricing that does not break the bank for small businesses.

It does not matter if you want to create a personal blog, launch a new business website or create an online store, Krystal hosting is your best option for fast, secure and affordable web hosting in the UK.

Aden Clark

Aden Clark

For more than a decade as a WordPress freelancer I’ve personally built or managed 100’s of websites across more than 50 different web hosting providers. After realising how many people had unreliable web hosting I decided to test, track and compare the performance of the UK's most popular hosting companies to discover the best.

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