Best Web Hosting for Students: the Top 5 Budget-Friendly Providers

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Students everywhere are taking intuitive steps to get noticed, make money, or meet their grades. Whether it’s building an online portfolio, starting a business, or setting up a site as part of your course, creating a website has tons of benefits.

And the good news is, there are plenty of hosting providers out there who won’t charge you a month’s rent just to keep your website up and running. Whether they’re dirt cheap prices, student discounts, or entirely free plans, we’ve found providers for even the most cash-strapped amongst you. Compare them below and read on for our more detailed reviews:

The Best Web Hosting Providers for Students

  1. Bluehost best overall hosting provider
  2. HostGator best for uptime
  3. InMotion best for shared and VPS hosting
  4. iPage best for cheap plans but at the expense of speed
  5. DreamHost best for storage space

We’ll give you an overview of each provider, with details on pricing, insight into how it performed in our research, plus tips on who qualifies for the lowest prices. There’s no time to waste, so let’s get to it.

Are you looking for something a little easier?

If you want to combine website building with hosting that’s managed for you, check out Squarespace. Its plans start from $16 per month, and you can save 50% on the first year of your new Squarespace plan. 

All you need is a valid school email address!

Unsurprisingly, you can’t use this offer alongside any other offer codes, but you can apply the discount to up to three websites under the one school email address.

Head on over to Squarespace today and search for your school to get started!

squarespace logo

Students, are you ready to save with Squarespace?

Save 50% on the first year of any Squarespace plan. Search for your school and have your academic email ready to claim your discount!

Compare the 5 Best Student Hosting Providers

When you’ve got deadlines to hit and parties to go to, you don’t have much time to sit around researching the finer pros and cons of different hosting providers. Luckily, we’ve done the hard work – use our handy chart below to compare key features and narrow down which hosts best suit your needs. Here’s a comparison of each host’s cheapest plan:

Bluehost HostGator InMotion iPage DreamHost
Storage 50GB Unmetered 100GB Unlimited 50GB
SSD storage
Bandwidth Unmetered Unmetered Unlimited Unlimited Unmetered
Starting price/month $2.95 $2.75 $2.49 $1.99 $2.59
Money-back guarantee 30 days 45 days 90 days 30 days 97 days
cPanel
Email addresses 5 Unlimited 50 Unlimited
Free SSL
Free backups
Free domain
Free CDN

#1. Bluehost

Best Overall Hosting Provider

Editor's Choice

Bluehost

Best overall hosting provider

Outstanding

4.8

out of 5
  • Best for WordPress users
  • Great value for money
  • Lots of free perks

Paid Plans: $2.95 - $119.99 / month

Pros

  • icon yes svg Best host available for WordPress users
  • icon yes svg No risk, 30-day money-back guarantee
  • icon yes svg Generous plans include tons of freebies

Cons

  • icon no svg A little pricier than competitors
  • icon no svg Only 5 emails included on cheapest plan
  • icon no svg Only 50GB storage on cheapest plan
Read Review

Bluehost is the best overall provider on our list, and starts it off with a bang. It’s a reliable and well-known provider with a great track record. It performed solidly in our research, coming out first overall, and wowed us with its WordPress features – and no wonder, as it’s also the number one recommended provider by WordPress itself!

Bluehost’s cheapest plan is its Basic shared plan at just $2.95 per month.

For $2.95 per month you get the usual SSL certificate, plus unmetered bandwidth and 50GB storage. This plan supports one website, and includes a free domain and free backups. This is perfect for a student portfolio! You unlock more features as you upgrade, and Bluehost’s range of tools makes it a scalable choice.

You get a lot for your money – you won’t find free domains and free backups with all providers – plus a strong and reliable service across the board. Renewal prices aren’t bad, either, with the Basic shared plan renewing at $7.99 per month after your first term.

We recommend Bluehost because of the way it combines impressive features with affordable prices and top notch support. There might be cheaper hosts out there, but Bluehost is worth every buck – especially if you have a baby WordPress site and want to give it the best start in its virtual life!

bluehost logo

Are You Using WordPress?

If so, you won’t find better than Bluehost. And it only costs $2.95 per month – that’s great value for money!

Further Information

#2. HostGator

Best for Uptime

HostGator

Best for uptime

Excellent

4.7

out of 5
  • 99.99% uptime guarantee
  • Generous features
  • Unlimited emails

Paid Plans: $3.95 - $159.99 / month

Pros

  • icon yes svg Incredible uptime helps prevent crashes
  • icon yes svg No risk, 45-day money-back guarantee
  • icon yes svg Provides unlimited storage and emails

Cons

  • icon no svg No free CDN included
  • icon no svg Value for money could be better
  • icon no svg Slightly dated control panel design
Read Review

If you want the best uptime on the market, HostGator has got all bases covered. It also offers a great range of hosting types, from shared to dedicated, and it’s good at what it does. HostGator is that student who isn’t top of every single class, but is still the teacher’s favorite. In our research, it performed particularly well in dedicated hosting. 

Like most providers, HostGator’s cheapest prices come with its shared hosting plans, which start at $2.75 per month. The adorably named Hatchling plan gives you 60% off the original price, and throws in some nifty features too. It includes:

  • Free SSL
  • Unmetered bandwidth
  • Unmetered storage
  • One-click installs
  • Unlimited free email addresses

Apart from not giving you free backups or a free domain, HostGator ticks all the boxes in its shared hosting plans. Once your first term is up, the Hatchling plan renews at $6.95 per month.

hostgator logo

Do You Like the Sound of HostGator?

HostGator is a hosting powerhouse, and its $2.75 per month starting price is hard to ignore!

Further Information

#3. InMotion

Best for Shared and VPS Hosting

InMotion

Best for shared and VPS hosting

Excellent

4.5

out of 5
  • Student discount provided
  • Save up to 58%
  • Powerful features

Paid Plans: $3.49 - $539.99 / month

Pros

  • icon yes svg Best host for shared and VPS hosting
  • icon yes svg No risk, 90-day money-back guarantee
  • icon yes svg Powerful and feature rich plans

Cons

  • icon no svg No free CDN included
  • icon no svg Pricey renewal costs
  • icon no svg Less easy if you don’t have a .edu email
Read Review

InMotion is a top quality hosting provider with excellent features. In our research, it came out as the best provider for both shared and VPS hosting. If you need either of these, then InMotion is a great place to start looking.

InMotion provides a student discount on its shared hosting Power plan. Usually this reduces the regular price of $13.99 to $5.99 per month. However, our readers get a special discount so that you only pay $2.49 per month!

The Power plan is InMotion’s middle shared hosting plan, recommended for small businesses, and has the features you need to easily build and manage your site.

The Power plan comes with a great range of features, including a free domain for one year, free SSL security, unlimited disk space, unlimited bandwidth, and unlimited email. You can also say hello to marketing tools and 24/7 support, so you won’t be alone if your site crashes at 4am!

If you want to grow your site, InMotion’s Power plan will comfortably set you on your way to bigger and better things.

How generous is the discount? You can pay $2.49 per month for the six month plan and the 12 month plan. That’s 58% off when you sign up for 12 months!

The discount applies to your first term – after that, the Power plan will renew at its regular rate of $13.99 per month. The free domain lasts for a year, then renews at $15.99 per year.

It’s always worth checking what sales the provider is running at the time you sign up. Often, the promotion for new users can be cheaper than the student discount, and you can usually lock that price down for up to three years. So make sure you’re getting the best deal you can.

To sign up for InMotion’s student plans, all you have to do is type in your .edu email and claim your discount. If you don’t have a .edu email address, that’s okay – ring up the Confirmations Team with your student ID to hand, and they’ll set you up.

inmotion logo

Do You Want Powerful Shared Hosting?

InMotion has the best shared hosting plans on the market, and with its exclusive student discount you can get over 50% off the regular price!

Further Information

#5. iPage

Best for Cheap Prices, but at the Expense of Speed

iPage

Best for cheap prices, but at the expense of speed

Very Good

4.4

out of 5
  • One-size-fits-all plan
  • Very cheap hosting
  • Low uptime: 99.94%

Paid Plans: $2.99 / month

Pros

  • icon yes svg Tons of features for such a cheap price
  • icon yes svg No risk, 30-day money-back guarantee
  • icon yes svg Freebies include domain name and email

Cons

  • icon no svg Not much scalability
  • icon no svg No free backups or CDN included
  • icon no svg Not very powerful or fast hosting
Read Review

iPage has a very simple and appealing price structure for its shared hosting – in fact, it has just one price. Its ‘one-size-fits-all’ shared hosting costs $1.99 per month for everyone, until the promotional period is over. That’s 75% off its regular price!

iPage isn’t the most powerful or speedy provider out there, but it is one of the cheapest. Its single shared plan starts out at $1.99 per month, and comes with features to benefit both small and growing sites.

The best part for students is that there are lots of free extras that come with this plan. Free domain, free SSL, free drag-and-drop website builder, free domain transfer, free 24/7 support, free email address… the list goes on and on!

In fact, iPage can impressively boast that it includes over $500 worth of extras in all its plans.

The promotional price lasts for your first term, then automatically renews at $7.99 per month. Your free domain lasts for one year, renewing at $14.99 per year after that. Anyone can sign up to this plan, so don’t worry if you’ve lost your student ID card!

ipage logo

Are You Looking for the Cheapest Hosting?

iPage’s one-size-fits-all hosting plan only costs $1.99 per month – it’s not the fastest or most powerful around, but it is the cheapest!

Further Information

#6. DreamHost

Best for Storage Space

DreamHost

Best for storage space

Good

4.4

out of 5
  • Plenty of storage growth
  • Good WordPress plans
  • Support could be better

Paid Plans: $2.95 - $379 / month

Pros

  • icon yes svg SSD storage is ideal for large sites
  • icon yes svg No risk, 97-day money-back guarantee
  • icon yes svg Another good choice for WordPress users

Cons

  • icon no svg No free emails or CDN included
  • icon no svg Support isn’t as good as competitors’
  • icon no svg SSL isn’t pre-installed on cheapest plan
Read Review

DreamHost is another provider on this list which has been officially recommended by WordPress, so if you need hosting for your WordPress site, this is a good place to look. It also stood out in our research for the amount of storage space it includes in its plans.

DreamHost’s cheapest plan is its Shared Starter hosting plan for $2.59 per month. For that, you get hosting for a single website, a free domain, free SSL security, and WordPress comes pre-installed. All these things are designed to make running your site as easy as possible.

DreamHost’s shared hosting plans also come with a 97-day money back guarantee, which is very generous and means you can sign up risk-free.

The $2.59 per month price applies to the three year plan, so this price would last for that three year term and then renew to the regular rate of $4.95 per month.

dreamhost logo

Do You Want Plenty of Room to Grow?

DreamHost’s plans are great for WordPress users and come with plenty of storage too. At $2.59 per month, it’s an appealing choice!

Further Information

  • Read our DreamHost Review for a full breakdown of its pros, cons, features, and more

Are There Any Other Web Hosts For Students?

We’ve explored the very best hosting providers for students, based on our in-depth research.

However, these aren’t the only hosts that you can choose from, so we’ve also lined up two of the best (aka free) web hosts for you to take a look at. We haven’t included them in the main part of this review because we haven’t put them through our rigorous research process yet!

These are the best free web hosting providers:

  1. AccuWeb
  2. InterServer.net

Before you get too excited, though, it’s worth noting that most hosting providers will make you pay for your hosting after a certain amount of time.

Let’s take a look at just what you get with these providers, and the free student hosting they offer.

Head-to-Head Comparison

Features AccuWeb Hosting Interserver.net
Storage 2GB Unlimited
cPanel ✔️ ✔️
Email addresses 25 Unlimited
SSD storage ✔️ ✔️
Backups ✔️ ✔️

Now that you know the basics offered by both providers, we’ll dive into more detail for each of them.

#1. AccuWeb

Best for Free Student Hosting

AccuWeb Hosting was founded in 2002 and offers a range of hosting options, including shared, cloud, VPS, WordPress, and dedicated hosting. It also caters for other services, such as domain registration and SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificates.

AccuWeb Hosting takes pride in its positive customer relationships, guaranteeing 99.99% uptime, hassle-free cancellation, and 100% customer satisfaction. That’s quite a promise!

AccuWeb Hosting Pros and Cons

Pros Cons
Free until you graduate Requires some work to apply
Lots of features No free SSL included in student hosting

AccuWeb’s student hosting gives you the basic features from its shared hosting plan. These include:

  • 2GB SSD storage – space to store your site’s data, with fast SSD (Solid State Drive) storage for the best performance
  • 30GB bandwidth – the amount of data that can be transferred between your site and its users, this determines how much traffic your site can handle
  • 25 free email addresses – ideal for running a business
  • Free backups – your site is safe from crashes or data loss
  • Free CloudFlare – speeds up your site and keeps it safe from online threats

You can host a single website with the free student plan, and won’t have any pop-ups, banners, or advertisements cluttering up your pages. Although 2GB storage doesn’t sound like much, it should be more than enough for most average-sized websites.

If you already have a website, you can migrate it to AccuWeb’s student plan for free. Because AccuWeb uses cPanel for its control panel, it’s easy to install any extras you need – such as WordPress – with a single click.

The downside of AccuWeb’s hosting package is you don’t get a free SSL certificate included. SSL encrypts information like login and credit card details which pass through your site, and is essential for any website.

You can buy SSL directly from AccuWeb from $49 per year, or find cheaper deals through a registrar like GoDaddy.

The good news is, your hosting will remain totally free until you graduate!

As long as you’re a student at a well-known university (or about to become one) and can give documentation to prove your enrolment, then you’re eligible to apply.

The actual process of applying takes a little more effort, but shouldn’t take up too much of your time. First, you have to like and follow AccuWeb on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

Once you’ve ticked that off, you need to create a two minute video on what you think the next big technology trend will be in the next 10 years. Publish it on one of your social channels like YouTube, then send AccuWeb an email – it’s best to send this from your student email account.

AccuWeb says it offers two to three students free hosting accounts every day. Our top tip would be to search YouTube for ‘AccuWeb Hosting Free Hosting for Students’ to see other candidates’ videos. If you give feedback to AccuWeb on your experience, you apparently have an even better chance of getting your account approved.

accuweb free student hosting
AccuWeb Hosting will give students free hosting until they graduate, as long as they apply by following the guidelines.

#2. InterServer.net

Best for Unlimited Features

InterServer.net is a hosting provider offering a wide range of services, from standard shared hosting to dedicated servers. It’s known for being a budget friendly provider with a helpful, 24/7 support team.

InterServer.net Pros and Cons

Pros Cons
Clear price plan means you know what you’re signing up for Only free for the first year
Unlimited storage, bandwidth, emails, and websites $5 renewal cost is pricey compared to other deals

InterServer.net includes a solid range of generous features in its free student hosting plan. That’s because it’s actually the Standard Web Hosting package, which usually costs $5 per month. You get unlimited storage, unlimited bandwidth, unlimited websites, and unlimited email. That’s a lot of unlimited!

You also get free backups and a free SSL certificate, so you don’t have to worry about any extra costs creeping in. InterServer.net uses SSD storage for better performance, and features the easy to use cPanel as its standard control panel.

InterServer.net’s student plan is free for the first year. After that it renews at $5 per month, which isn’t bad, although you might want to search around to make sure you don’t miss out on even better deals.

It’s easy to sign up for the year’s free student hosting – all you have to do is sign up using your student email address (ending in .edu), or contact InterServer directly.

interserver.net free student hosting
InterServer.net offers its Standard Web Hosting package free for a year for students.

Best Web Hosting for Students: Summary

This article has gone through the best providers for students, from zero dollar plans to hero hosting providers that charge a little for a lot more quality. We’ve compared them, and broken them down to give you the best idea of which one is right for you.

5 Best Web Hosting Providers for Students: Recap

  1. Bluehost best overall hosting provider, from $2.95/month
  2. HostGator best for uptime, from $2.75/month
  3. InMotion best for shared and VPS hosting, from 2.49/month
  4. iPage best for cheap plans but at the expense of speed, from $1.99/month
  5. DreamHost best for storage space, from $2.59/month

The best student hosting provider is Bluehost. It’s the best overall, so if you’re unsure which host is best for you it’s a good idea to start with Bluehost’s shared plans. It’s also the best WordPress host, so bear that in mind when choosing!

HostGator has impressive uptime, and InMotion is a powerhouse of features (especially on its shared and VPS plans).

If you have the time and motivation to create a video for AccuWeb Hosting, then this is your best choice for getting free hosting, as you won’t have to pay at all until you graduate. However, you will have to pay for your own SSL certificate, and there’s no guarantee your application will be successful.

You might actually find the best deal amongst the regular sales for new customers offered by most hosting providers. Like finding a bargain in a brand store rather than a charity shop, this can give you the guarantee of long-term value and quality. You can lock your sale price in for up to three years, whereas student discounts often end after just one year.

Whichever one you choose, you can expect low prices and great things from all these providers – the only question is, which one will you opt for?

Best Web Hosting for Students: FAQs

AccuWeb Hosting’s free student plan is the best you’ll find, provided your application is successful. Otherwise, iPage has the cheapest sales price on the market with its $1.99 per month plan.

Read more about the Best Cheap Hosting Providers to compare over 50 plans!

It depends on you! Your control panel is the central hub where you manage your account, servers, and sites. cPanel is a popular choice of control panel because it’s easy to use and very reliable, so you can trust it’ll give you a clean and easy interface to run your site from. However, it’s not used by all providers, and that’s fine – it’s really down to personal preference!

Read about the Best cPanel Hosting Providers in our in-depth review.

Shared hosting is the cheapest type of hosting, because you share resources with other sites on the same server. While it’s the most limited of all the hosting types, it’s also the cheapest, and offered by most providers! In our research, InMotion came out as the best shared hosting provider, while DreamHost offered the best value for money.
Website Builder Expert aims to provide you with honest data. That’s why we conduct our own research and obtain direct, personal insight.
Written by:
Lucy Carney is a Content Manager at Website Builder Expert, specializing in website building, ecommerce, and digital marketing. Previously working as a Writer and then Senior Writer on the brand, Lucy has 6 years of hands-on experience testing web building platforms including Wix, Squarespace, and Shopify. Lucy is passionate about using her knowledge to help small business owners build their online presence and achieve their goals. She’s reported on industry trends over the years, attended events such as the eCommerce Expo, and advised readers directly with over 400 comment replies on the site to date. Her work has also featured on other online publications such as the Shopify Partners Blog, Usability Geek, Serpstat, and Open Source, and has over 100 articles published on the Website Builder Expert blog.
Researched by:
natasha_willett
I love to understand human behavior and the cognitive biases that drive us to do what we do. For over nine years I have worked as a mixed method researcher – research using a mix of numerical data and personal experiences – across a range of sectors, from insurance and policy development to finally arriving at Website Builder Expert five years ago. Fascinated by consumer decision-making, I meticulously built our leading ranking methodology to explore where providers like Wix sit within a competitive industry and what value they truly bring to our audience.
As a member of the Market Research Society, I’m an advocate for high ethical, commercial, and methodological best practices. All of this combines to give you the most ethical recommendations based on real data.

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