Compare web hosting providersThe criteria that really matter

Published on October 20, 2026

The first-year price says the least

In the web hosting market, the advertised entry price is almost always a promotional price. Common are models with heavily discounted first months and a minimum term of twelve or twenty-four months, after which the regular price applies - often many times higher. If you want to switch providers then, you have to keep an eye on the notice period.

So when comparing, consistently calculate with the regular price over 24 months, not with the advertised price. Also watch out for setup fees, for whether a free domain becomes chargeable after the promotion ends, and for the notice period.

The criteria that count in everyday use

Storage: the most quoted, least relevant number

Large providers advertise with three-digit gigabyte figures. In practice, a typical WordPress site takes up one to five gigabytes - the rest is advertising space. The secondary limits become the bottleneck much more often: how many domains can be assigned, how many databases are included and how large a single file may be on upload.

A second point that rarely stands out: with some providers, the website and mailboxes share the same storage pool. A mail archive that has grown over years then eats the space for the website. So check whether both quotas are shown separately. Concrete guidance on actual requirements is in the guide How much web space do I need?.

Backups: the point you only understand in an emergency

Providers differ fundamentally here, and the advertising claim "backups included" reveals little. The decisive questions: how many versions are kept and for how long? Can you restore yourself, or do you have to write a ticket? And does the backup also cover the database and mailboxes - or only the files?

More important than any of these answers, however, is whether you have ever tried the restore. A backup that has never been restored is an assumption, not a safety net. How to back up and restore with us is described in Create and restore backups.

Panel and portability

An underestimated criterion: is management done via an established panel such as Plesk or via an in-house interface? Established panels bring standardized export and import functions that make moving to another provider much easier.

With proprietary interfaces, the operating concept is often leaner, but the way out is rockier - configurations, mail accounts and automations then have to be rebuilt by hand. If you do not want to commit for years, a standard panel serves you better. How a move works in practice is described in Migrate a website.

Where MainHoster.de stands

For completeness and without sugar-coating:

Our strengths. Fully prepaid without a minimum term, notice period or automatic renewal - the price is the same from the first month, and there is no promotional discount that flips later. Management via Plesk Obsidian with its full feature set, i.e. WordPress Toolkit including staging, a website builder at no extra cost, a task scheduler for cron jobs, Git integration and all current PHP versions to switch yourself. If you are still undecided which of the two routes suits your site, you will find the trade-offs under Builder or WordPress. Technically: NVMe SSD storage in RAID 1, MariaDB as the database system, delivery via nginx with HTTP/2, free SSL, web and mail storage counted separately, DDoS protection up to 250 Gbit/⁠s, server location exclusively in Germany. Provisioning in around 120 seconds, support around the clock via the ticket system.

Where others offer more. We do not create automatic backups - backing up is up to you, but with the complete Plesk backup manager as the tool. Large providers advertise much larger amounts of storage and a guaranteed availability as a commitment; we deliberately do not quote such a figure. We currently do not offer HTTP/3, nor an integrated CDN or a malware scanner. And we are a small provider - if you need corporate structures, a telephone hotline and awards as selection criteria, the big houses are the better fit.

Who we suit. Everyone who runs a manageable number of websites, has no interest in contract terms, wants to keep their environment in their own hands and values a server location in Germany.

How to compare in practice

1. Define your needs before looking at plans. How many websites, how many mailboxes, which CMS? Without these three answers, you are comparing numbers without context.
2. Calculate over 24 months. Regular price, setup fee, domain costs after the promotion ends.
3. Check the secondary limits. Domains, databases, upload size, separate mail storage.
4. Ask the backup and exit questions. How do I get out again, and how do I get at my data?
5. Test the support. Ask a concrete question before ordering and see how and how quickly it is answered. That is more meaningful than any rating scale.

Frequently asked questions