I remember back in the day, there were a lot of “unlimited” hosting plans (though, not truly unlimited—usually limited by inode usage) for around $10 a month. But now it seems like hosting is 3 times as expensive. What changed?
Everything got more expensive over time.
Jax said:
Everything got more expensive over time.
Yeah, the value of the dollar has dropped due to excessive money printing. Costs have gone up across the board, but it’s really that the dollar is worth less than it used to be.
Jax said:
Everything got more expensive over time.
Makes sense. Maybe we should have stayed on the gold standard.
Jax said:
Everything got more expensive over time.
Makes sense. Maybe we should have stayed on the gold standard.
Do you expect the same performance from a $10 host with ‘unlimited’ everything compared to an AWS setup? There never was an actual unlimited plan. It was just marketing to make you think it was.
Jax said:
Everything got more expensive over time.
Makes sense. Maybe we should have stayed on the gold standard.
Exactly! Finally, someone who knows what they’re talking about. Why the downvotes, though?
There’s been a massive consolidation of hosting companies in the last decade. A few big corporations like Newfold Digital now own dozens of hosting brands, so they don’t need to compete on price anymore.
Back in the day, hosting was all about getting the cheapest plan, but now there’s less competition, so prices don’t need to be as low.
Also, hosting providers have shifted from basic ‘here’s cPanel, figure it out’ to offering more advanced services like optimized WordPress hosting and fully managed plans. That extra support and higher-end hardware come with higher costs.
On top of that, cPanel raised their prices and started charging based on the number of sites, which hit hosting companies hard. If they were already running on thin margins, even a slight increase in costs could push them to raise prices.
Inflation is also a factor. What cost $10 in 2010 should be around $15 today if you only account for inflation. But there are other costs—like supporting more users, handling more complex websites, and upgrading hardware—that add even more to the price.
Finally, hosting today involves much higher costs for security, anti-malware, and insurance due to the increasing number of attacks and threats. All these factors contribute to the price increase.
Troy said:
There’s been a massive consolidation of hosting companies in the last decade. A few big corporations like Newfold Digital now own dozens of hosting brands, so they don’t need to compete on price anymore.
Back in the day, hosting was all about getting the cheapest plan, but now there’s less competition, so prices don’t need to be as low.
Also, hosting providers have shifted from basic ‘here’s cPanel, figure it out’ to offering more advanced services like optimized WordPress hosting and fully managed plans. That extra support and higher-end hardware come with higher costs.
On top of that, cPanel raised their prices and started charging based on the number of sites, which hit hosting companies hard. If they were already running on thin margins, even a slight increase in costs could push them to raise prices.
Inflation is also a factor. What cost $10 in 2010 should be around $15 today if you only account for inflation. But there are other costs—like supporting more users, handling more complex websites, and upgrading hardware—that add even more to the price.
Finally, hosting today involves much higher costs for security, anti-malware, and insurance due to the increasing number of attacks and threats. All these factors contribute to the price increase.
To add to that, in places like the US, UK, and Europe, a few companies now control more than 80% of the web hosting and domain market. Most of the hosting brands you see are actually owned by the same few corporations.
A lot of people abused those plans, so hosting companies had to backtrack.
It’s been 14 years—pretty much everything is more expensive now.
There are still ‘unlimited’ plans, but they’ve always had limits in some form. What exactly are you looking for?
Graham said:
I remember back in the day, there were a lot of “unlimited” hosting plans (though, not truly unlimited—usually limited by inode usage) for around $10 a month. But now it seems like hosting is 3 times as expensive. What changed?
I think you may have bought into the marketing hype. There’s no such thing as truly ‘unlimited’ hosting, and there never was.
You can still find cheap services for $2-5 per month, but the quality is often lacking. If you’re paying $15 a month or more, you should expect great service.
Also, hardware today is much faster than it was in 2010. The storage alone is 5-25 times faster now.
Graham said:
I remember back in the day, there were a lot of “unlimited” hosting plans (though, not truly unlimited—usually limited by inode usage) for around $10 a month. But now it seems like hosting is 3 times as expensive. What changed?
In 2010, there were hundreds of hosting companies, but now most of them have been bought up. That’s why prices have gone up—there’s less competition.
Graham said:
I remember back in the day, there were a lot of “unlimited” hosting plans (though, not truly unlimited—usually limited by inode usage) for around $10 a month. But now it seems like hosting is 3 times as expensive. What changed?
You might be looking at the wrong providers. You can still get ‘unlimited’ plans for around $10-15 a month. I get unmetered bandwidth and unlimited subdomains with Nixihost for $12 a month.
Graham said:
I remember back in the day, there were a lot of “unlimited” hosting plans (though, not truly unlimited—usually limited by inode usage) for around $10 a month. But now it seems like hosting is 3 times as expensive. What changed?
The internet landscape has changed. There are way more bots crawling sites now, and the same server that handled traffic fine in 2010 might struggle in 2024.
Encryption standards have also improved, requiring more computing power. In 2010, most sites didn’t even use HTTPS. Now, nearly all do.
On top of that, chip shortages, tariffs, and other factors have made it more expensive to upgrade servers.
Most hosts have responded by pushing managed hosting, where they handle updates and security for you. That service costs more, but it helps keep sites safer and reduces bot traffic.
Graham said:
I remember back in the day, there were a lot of “unlimited” hosting plans (though, not truly unlimited—usually limited by inode usage) for around $10 a month. But now it seems like hosting is 3 times as expensive. What changed?
One of the reasons for the price increase is the cost of cPanel plugins. They’ve become more expensive for hosting providers.
Graham said:
I remember back in the day, there were a lot of “unlimited” hosting plans (though, not truly unlimited—usually limited by inode usage) for around $10 a month. But now it seems like hosting is 3 times as expensive. What changed?
In 2010, hosting was a race to the bottom with budget hosts. Many of them sold out or went out of business, which is why prices have gone up.
Graham said:
I remember back in the day, there were a lot of “unlimited” hosting plans (though, not truly unlimited—usually limited by inode usage) for around $10 a month. But now it seems like hosting is 3 times as expensive. What changed?
Several factors:
- cPanel was bought by venture capitalists who now charge per user, which can drastically increase costs for hosting companies.
- EIG/Newfold Digital owns most large providers and controls the market.
- Server licenses are more expensive now.
- Higher energy and data center costs.
- Wages for staff are going up.
- Inflation.
Graham said:
I remember back in the day, there were a lot of “unlimited” hosting plans (though, not truly unlimited—usually limited by inode usage) for around $10 a month. But now it seems like hosting is 3 times as expensive. What changed?
I can’t think of anything that costs the same today as it did in 2010. Hosting is no exception, and even domain prices have increased.
That said, some companies have kept their prices the same while offering better services. For example, we still offer our original £14.99 plan, though we’ve switched from cPanel to Webuzo and offer more resources.
Graham said:
I remember back in the day, there were a lot of “unlimited” hosting plans (though, not truly unlimited—usually limited by inode usage) for around $10 a month. But now it seems like hosting is 3 times as expensive. What changed?
I’m paying $12.50 a month for hosting at www.microtronixdc.com, and it works great for me.