When you see cheap hosting plans starting at $5.00 being advertised, what are you really buying with your hard earned fiver? Many people who have never run a web site before just assume that that five dollars covers everything. In reality, the five dollar hosting package is really only there to get you started. If you want to look at all of the costs combined, here’s what it really takes to start a good, simple website…

Domain Registration
When you spend five dollars on web hosting, you’re probably going to wind up with a domain name like websitehost.yoursitehere.com. If you just want yoursitehere.com, that’ll cost you a little extra. The domain registration itself might only cost one to five dollars depending on where you get it, and you can shop around, you don’t have to buy it through your web host. But then you do need to pay them to map it for you, as in attaching that domain name to your website. This might cost anywhere from ten to fifteen bucks, so already, we’re talking about anywhere from sixteen to twenty five bucks on that “five dollar hosting” plan.

Templates and Styles
Some websites include a web builder or an easy user interface to make the site look nice. Unless you’re an expert, you probably want to go with a ready made template. If you don’t mind your site looking like everyone else’s, you can skip this part, but if you want a unique, eye-catching home on the web, a template may cost anywhere from ten to fifty bucks, while some sites actually charge you five dollars or so to use your own custom templates.

Email Registration and Etc.
There are a lot of miscellaneous costs that you might or might not want to look into like email registration, banner ad packages and so on. The bottom line is that five dollars rarely covers it. That said, this is why finding a cheap host is so important: if you don’t try to save with your basic startup fee, those costs can quickly spiral out of control.