How Much Does It Cost To Start a Self Hosted Blog

In this blog, we will see how much it costs to start a self-hosted blog.

When it comes to a self-hosted blog, the following are the options available.

1. WordPress
2. Ghost
3. Jekyll

Choosing a platform totally depends on your preferences.

To self-host any platform, you need a domain and good web hosting.

With all the recent Google webmaster guidelines for page speed optimizations, it is very important to choose a good hosting provider which offers a faster, highly available, and secure hosting platform.

Google uses the core web vitals parameters that affect the user experience and one of the signals for ranking. So not SEO is beyond great content.

Now let’s talk about the cost involved in self-hosting a blogging platform that can perform as per google webmaster guidelines.

Cost of Domain Name

If you purchase a domain name separately, it could cost you anywhere from $3 to $10 per year.

But if you buy a hosting plan with any hosting provider, you will get a free domain name for a year.

But I prefer to keep all my domain names in a single account. I use Godaddy for all my domain name purchases. It is cheap to get started with Godaddy.

Shared Hosting Solutions (Starts for $0.99/month)

If you are starting with blogging and don’t want to spend too much on hosting expenses, shared web hosting is a good option for you.

All shared hosting platforms have one-click options to install the required blogging platform.

It is very important to go with a reliable provider who offers good shared hosting.

Following are the best-shared hosting platforms which offer free domain name with the hosting plan.

Cloud Hosting Solutions [Free Credits]

If you can install and configure hosting platforms on your own, the cheapest and best way to host your blog is on cloud platforms.

All the cloud providers offer free credits to run a virtual server for up to one year completely free.

1. AWS – One-year free tier program
2. Google Cloud – $300 credits for a year
3. Azure Cloud – 12 Months Free a VM.
4. Alibaba Cloud – Free credits for a year.

Once the free credits are over, you will have to spend an average of $10 per month for a virtual server.

Cheapest Cloud Hosting Solutions

Apart from major cloud players, there are other cloud players who offer very good virtual servers starting from $5

Following are the services.

1. Digital Ocean – Starts from $5 per month ($100 free credit for 60 days)
2. Linode – Starts from $5 ($100 free credits for 60 days)
3. Vultr – Starts from $2.5