Shared hosting is cheaper than a VPS for the first term and often more expensive after it. Across the 50 shared plans we track, the median intro price is $6.39 a month and the median renewal price is $12.40. A VPS with 4 GB of RAM costs $5.03 a month (OVHcloud VPS-1, €4.49) and renews at the same price, but you run the server yourself.
We checked these prices on 11 October 2026. The comparison uses 50 shared hosting plans and 142 unmanaged Linux VPS plans from 20 providers.
The prices side by side
| Shared hosting | Unmanaged VPS | |
|---|---|---|
| Cheapest plan | $1.00 a month (IONOS Plus, first year) | $2.07 a month (netcup VPS pico) |
| Median price | $6.39 intro on the longest term | $28.01 paid monthly |
| Middle half of plans | $2.53 to $10.69 intro | $12.00 to $59.99 |
| Median renewal | $12.40 | Same as the starting price on most plans |
| Plans whose price rises at renewal | 35 of 50 (70%) | 26 of 142 (18%) |
| Typical commitment for the low price | 12 to 48 months, prepaid | Monthly or hourly |
The VPS median looks high because the range is enormous: the list runs from 1 GB servers at $2 to machines with dozens of gigabytes of RAM. For a fair comparison with shared hosting, look at the small end.
What a small VPS costs
These are the cheapest unmanaged VPS plans at the sizes that replace a shared plan:
| RAM | Cheapest plan | vCPU | Storage | Price per month | Renewal |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 GB | netcup VPS pico G11.5s | 1 | 30 GB SSD | $2.07 (€1.85), 12-month contract | Same price |
| 2 GB | InterServer Linux VPS 1 Slice | 1 | 40 GB SSD | $3.00 | Same price |
| 4 GB | OVHcloud VPS-1 | 2 | 40 GB NVMe | $5.03 (€4.49) | Same price |
| 8 GB | Contabo Cloud VPS 4 SSD | 4 | 100 GB SSD | $6.16 (€5.50) | Same price |
Every one of these costs less per month than the median shared plan at renewal.
What shared hosting costs after the first term
The intro price is what the ads show. The renewal price is what you pay for most of the time you own a site. A few well-known examples from our data:
| Plan | Intro price | Renews at |
|---|---|---|
| Hostinger Premium | $2.99, 48 months | $10.99 |
| Bluehost Starter | $3.99, 12 months | $11.99 |
| DreamHost Launch | $1.99, 48 months | $7.99 |
| SiteGround StartUp | $3.99, 12 months | $17.99 |
| hosting.com Starter | $1.99, 48 months | $13.99 |
| Namecheap Stellar | $1.87, 24 months | $4.29 |
| netcup Webhosting 1000 | $2.53 (€2.26), 12 months | Same price |
Seven in ten shared plans go up at renewal, and half of all shared plans renew at $12.40 a month or more. The exceptions are mostly European hosts such as netcup and Hetzner, which charge one price throughout. Our renewal prices explainer covers why the gap exists.
What you get for the money
Price is only half of it. The two products are different things.
Shared hosting puts your site on a server with many other customers. You don't see the server: you get a control panel, one-click WordPress, email accounts, SSL and usually a free domain for the first year and backups. Limits are expressed as "websites" and "storage" rather than CPU and RAM. Hostinger's Premium plan, one of the few that states its resources, lists 1 CPU core and 2 GB of RAM.
An unmanaged VPS gives you a slice of a server that is yours alone: fixed vCPUs, RAM and disk, root access, and nothing installed. No control panel, no email, no backups unless you set them up or pay for an add-on. You install the web server, the database and the security updates.
So the $5.03 VPS has twice the RAM of that Hostinger plan and costs less than half its renewal price, but the comparison leaves out your time. If you have never used a Linux command line, that time is real.
The middle option: a managed VPS
If you want VPS resources without the administration, managed plans exist, and they are priced accordingly. Cloudways' smallest managed server (1 GB on DigitalOcean) is $11.00 a month, and DreamHost's managed VPS starts at $15.00 for 2 GB. That is about five times the price of the same RAM unmanaged, and still in the range of a shared plan at renewal.
When shared hosting is the right buy
- You have one to three small sites and want email on the same account.
- You don't want to maintain a server.
- You are happy to prepay a long term and move, or renegotiate, when it ends.
- Your traffic is modest and steady.
In that case, buy on the renewal price, not the intro price. Namecheap Stellar ($4.29 at renewal) and netcup Webhosting 1000 ($2.53 throughout) cost far less over five years than plans that start cheaper.
When to move up to a VPS
- Your renewal quote is over $10 a month. At that price a 4 GB or 8 GB VPS is cheaper, and a managed VPS is within reach.
- The site is slow at busy times. Shared resources are shared; a VPS gives you fixed CPU and RAM.
- You need something shared hosting doesn't allow: Docker, a background worker, a specific database version, a non-PHP app. See our Docker VPS guide.
- You host several sites. One 4 GB VPS can hold many small sites for the same $5.
Stay on shared hosting if nobody on your side will apply updates and check backups. An unmaintained VPS is a worse deal than an overpriced shared plan.
FAQ
Is a VPS more expensive than shared hosting?
Not necessarily. Small unmanaged VPS plans start at $2 to $5 a month, below what most shared plans cost after their first term. A managed VPS, where the provider looks after the server, starts around $11.
Why is shared hosting so cheap at first?
The intro price is a discount for prepaying a long term. In our data, 35 of 50 shared plans renew at a higher price, with a median renewal of $12.40 a month against a median intro of $6.39.
Can a beginner run a VPS?
Yes, with some patience. You'll need to install and update the software yourself, or use a managed plan. If that sounds like too much, a shared plan with a low renewal price is the sensible choice.
How much RAM does a VPS need to replace a shared plan?
For one WordPress site, 2 GB is enough and 4 GB is comfortable. Both cost about $3 to $5 a month unmanaged.
The bottom line
Shared hosting wins on convenience and on the first bill. A VPS wins on price per resource and on the bills after that: $5.03 buys 4 GB of RAM with no renewal increase, while the median shared plan renews at $12.40. If you can manage a server, or pay around $11 for someone else to, moving up often costs less than staying.
Compare every plan by renewal price on the shared hosting page and by RAM on the VPS hosting page. For a budget in between, see the best VPS under $5 and what web hosting costs by type.
