Web hosting is the standard for anyone who wants to run a website without having to look after servers. The differences lie less in the entry price than in the renewal price after the promotional period, the server location and the quality of support.
Prices: regular monthly prices (incl. VAT; Mittwald net plus VAT) of a typical entry plan according to the providers' websites, as of 30 October 2026. If the smallest plan is a different one, it is listed in the highlights – as are promotional prices for the first contract period.
What does web hosting really cost?
Reputable web hosting for a normal website costs €2 to €12 a month in Germany – meaning the regular price, not the teaser price. Anything below that is almost always a promotional price for the first contract period – after 6, 12 or 48 months the price jumps to the regular rate, sometimes to ten times as much.
So always calculate the total cost over the full minimum term plus the first renewal. Example IONOS Webhosting Plus: €1/month for 12 months, then €11/month – so €144 over two years plus €10 set-up fee. Hetzner Webhosting S costs a constant €1.90/month and comes to around €46 over the same period.
What to look for when comparing
- Renewal price, not teaser price – the price after the promotion ends is in the small print and is the figure that really matters.
- Server location – a data centre in Germany or the EU makes GDPR documentation considerably easier.
- PHP version & databases – current PHP 8.4/8.5 and at least 5 MySQL databases should be standard.
- Backups – daily automatic backups with self-restore in the customer panel, not just on request via support.
- Traffic & inodes – "unlimited" almost always has a fair-use limit, often based on the number of files (inodes).
- Support – German-language phone support is worth a lot when the site goes down at the weekend.
- Migration service – some providers migrate existing websites for free, others charge for it; ask beforehand.
Shared hosting, managed hosting or a server?
Shared hosting (classic web hosting) shares a server with many other customers. Cheap and maintenance-free, but limited in performance and configuration – the right choice for business-card websites, blogs and small shops.
Managed hosting costs more, but the provider takes care of updates, security and performance. Worthwhile from the point at which downtime costs money.
Your own server pays off as soon as you need root access, your own services or Docker. Entry prices are now on a par with web hosting – see our VPS comparison.
Worked example: total cost over three years
The difference between promotional and permanent prices only becomes visible over the term. Take IONOS Webhosting Plus as an example: 12 months at €1, then €11 a month. Over three years that is €12 plus 24 times €11, together €276, plus €10 set-up fee, so €286 or just under €8 a month on average.
Hetzner Webhosting S costs a constant €1.90 a month, so €68.40 over 36 months. The gap of just over €217 shows why the renewal price matters more than the teaser price. With plans of equal standing, support, location and extras then count. If you plan to switch after a year anyway, you can use promotional prices deliberately, but you need to allow for the domain and the effort of moving.
Domain, email and SSL: what comes with the package
With many plans a domain is included in the first year and is charged at the regular price afterwards. For .de domains, DENIC is the central registry, and management runs through your provider. Make sure you are registered as the domain holder yourself and note the auth code so that you can later move to another provider without a dispute.
SSL certificates for the encrypted connection are now usually included free of charge with reputable providers, for example via Let's Encrypt. For email, check how many mailboxes are included, how large they may be and whether there are spam filters and webmail. If you send business email, you should also set up SPF, DKIM and DMARC so that messages do not end up in the spam folder.
Legal obligations for website operators
Anyone running a business website in Germany needs a legal notice (Impressum) under section 5 DDG that is easy to find and permanently available, as well as a privacy policy. You conclude a data processing agreement with your host under Art. 28 GDPR, which reputable providers make available in the customer menu. This also applies to email operation, because personal data is processed.
If you use statistics, map or video services, visitors' consent is usually required. Storing and reading information on the end device is governed by section 25 TDDDG. A hosting plan does not replace these obligations; it only creates the technical basis, for example with a server location in the EU and access to the server log files.