How to Save Money on WebHosting Renewals for WordPress Blogs

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Web hosting is one of those essential investments that every blogger has to make every month to run their self-hosted WordPress blog. Usually, cheap hosting for WordPress will cost anywhere between $3/month to $15/month, depending on your requirements. The cost explodes when you move to managed WordPress hosting, VPS, or a dedicated hosting server.

When a new blogger or an entrepreneur takes the initial steps to set up a self-hosted blog, he is often unaware of the costs involved in web hosting. Frequently a new blogger may end up buying web hosting at an unnecessarily high cost (and without a discount).

Even if you manage to get discounted hosting, the cost of hosting renewal is excessively high when the time comes to renew.

In today’s post, I will share with you a few important tips that will help you to save money on your web hosting renewal. Some of these ideas may be of use from day one of your first hosting purchase.

Others may be used when your hosting time is about to expire, and you have to pay for the renewal.

• A beginner’s guide to WordPress Webhosting packages
• Guide to selecting the best web hosting company

How To Save on Hosting Renewal Bills:

Some of you are considering your first purchase of hosting service, and others are looking at a renewal of your current hosting account. For this reason, I will take care to point out various methods that will fit either scenario and will help you to save your money whether you are just starting out or renewing your service.

Please note that this guide is for shared hosting only, but will also work for any other hosting plans you may be seeking, such as managed WordPress hosting, VPS, or dedicated.

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For the purchase of new hosting:

If you are about to buy a hosting package for your blog, this is the right time to save money for the long term. Usually, when you buy hosting from any of the hosting companies, you can easily find discount coupons. We also have a dedicated section sharing discounts on popular hosting companies here.

One mistake that most beginners make is that they buy hosting for one year only, and then the following year they face having to pay in full for their hosting renewal.

Rarely is there a discount coupon available for hosting renewals, so opting to buy service for over one year at the time of your original purchase will save you money in the long run.

So – when you make the first purchase, you have the option to buy hosting for over one year.

It is a good idea to buy your hosting from a reliable company and purchase a package for two or three years.  I purchased hosting from Bluehost for three years at the cost of $3.95/month, and this saved me a lot of money in the long run.

Bluehost hosting renewal price and how to save –

Let’s understand this concept by taking an example from Bluehost, which is one of the top hosting companies in the market as of now.

Let me do a quick calculation for Bluehost hosting here:

Scenario 1 – One year hosting at discounted price

Buying Bluehost hosting for 1 year with discounted link (Choice plus package) = $59.40 (77% saving)

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Scenario 2 – 3 year hosting at discounted

Buying Bluehost hosting for 3 years with discounted link (Choice plus package) = $268.2 (62% saving)

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Now you need to pay extra attention here, as this will help you save a ton of money in the long run.

From the above two scenarios, the scenario one seems more lucrative, as you will be paying only $59.40 and that too with a discount of 77%.

But, this is where a lot of newbies make mistakes. Scenario one is ideal when you are just starting out and unsure if your online business will see the sunlight of 2nd year or not, or when you are short of cash and wish to keep your initial cost cheap.

However, when you are certain for multiple years (often we are), scenario 2 is ideal. To explain this, let me share one more scenario.

Scenario 3 – One-year hosting + 2 year Bluehost hosting renewal at the actual cost

In this case, you will be paying $59.40 (for the first year) + 21.99 * 24 = $587.16 for 3 years of hosting

That’s more than double of scenario 2, and thus in the long term, you end up paying way more.

If you understand this, it is much clearer that in most of the scenarios buying hosting upfront for 2-3 years is way much better than buying for the first year, and then paying the full amount every year for renewal.

HostArmada Hosting renewal –

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Now let’s look at HostArmada hosting, in particular, their “Web Warp plan“. HostArmada offers a maximum possible up to 80% off your first bill using this special link, and again no discount on renewal.

Scenario 1 – Purchasing hosting for three year upfront

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Three-year hosting for only $118.40 and this comes with one free domain.

Scenario 2 – Pay for one year HostArmada hosting upfront + Manual hosting renewal for next 2 years

Now, in this scenario, you will be paying

$44.75 (80% discount for first year) + $16.45 * 24 = $439.55

This is a major difference of more than $300, which you will end up paying extra if you don’t buy hosting upfront for 3 years.

Conclusion – Buy hosting for 24-36 months if you wish to save a lot of money in longer run.

Note: This is ideal for those users who are more or less sure that they will be running their website for the next few years.

So, this is one way to save money by buying your web hosting for a longer term, thus getting a better hosting discount. The one problem with this approach is that you are stuck with the same hosting for a lengthy period. I usually use this technique for my small niche websites.

Moving your hosting service to save money on web hosting:

This is the second technique that you can use every time your renewal is due. This technique will allow you to save money on your hosting renewal bill. From my experience, HostArmada and Bluehost offer almost the same quality, so it doesn’t make much difference which company you choose as your hosting service.

When your hosting term is about to expire, you can sign up for a hosting package from an alternative hosting company, and move your sites. A great aspect of this transition is the fact that some companies such as Hostinger or HostArmada offer free migration, so you don’t even need to worry about tech hassles.

Moving a WordPress site is not very difficult, and you can refer to this guide to learn how to move a WordPress site to a new host.

This way you will end up saving a good $20-$40 every year. This approach is preferred by people who are technically savvy and don’t mind changing hosting companies, but I suggest the former method for users who are less technically oriented.

Ask your hosting company for a discount:

This approach will work with almost every hosting company. Retaining a customer is the utmost priority for any hosting company, and when your hosting term is about to expire, you can ask your hosting sales team for a discount on your renewal.

You could simply say:

“I’m getting a decent discount on (name of competing for hosting service), and I want to save some money. The renewal with you will cost me $120, but if I move my website to X hosting, I will save at least $50. I was hoping I could get a discount on renewal, as I would love to stay with you, and at the same time I want to value my hard-earned money.”

This may or may not work, depending upon the policy of a hosting company. But, if you ask in the right way, you may well end up getting a decent discount. Otherwise, you can always fall back on method # 2!

Most people ignore such small savings for the sake of their comfort level, but remember, “money saved is money earned.”

Do you have any additional tips to share that are helpful for the purpose of saving money on web hosting bills?

If you find the information in this post useful, please share it with your friends and colleagues on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

For further reading:

•  Which is the Top WordPress Hosting for High Traffic Sites?
• 4 Best Managed WordPress Hosting Providers

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