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Domain vs hosting: what each costs and do you need both?

A domain is your address, about $10 to $23 a year to renew a .com; hosting runs the site, $27 to $132 a year. Email-only needs no hosting at all.

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Quick comparison

ProviderFromStarting planFree tierOur rating
NamecheapChecked
$2.28/moStellar20 GB SSD30-day free trial of shared hosting, one per accountNot ratedVisit
DreamHostChecked
$2.89/moWeb Hosting Launch25 GB NVMe SSDNo (30-day money-back guarantee)Not ratedVisit
HostingerChecked
$2.49/moPremium (web hosting)20 GB SSDNo (30-day money-back guarantee)Not ratedVisit
BluehostChecked
$3.99/moStarter (shared)10 GB NVMe SSDNo (30-day money-back guarantee)Not ratedVisit

A domain is your site’s address (yourname.com), registered at a registrar and renewed every year; hosting is the server that stores the site and sends it to visitors. As of October 2026, a .com renews at $9.98 to $22.99 a year at the nine registrars we track, and an entry-level hosting or builder plan costs $27.36 to $131.88 a year, depending on whether you are in the intro year. A website needs both (a builder plan includes the hosting); email at you@yourname.com needs only the domain plus an email service.

How this guide was put together: the prices come from AskGPU’s own price data, with the date each was checked (October 17 to 25, 2026). The rules on free domains, refunds, transfers and DNS come from the companies’ own pages and from ICANN, read on October 27, 2026. We haven’t bought these plans ourselves. All prices are in US dollars, before tax.

What is the difference between a domain and hosting?

Think of the domain as the street address and the hosting as the building.

  • A domain name is the name people type. You register it through a registrar such as Porkbun, Cloudflare or Namecheap for a set term, then renew it, usually once a year. Stop renewing and the name lapses.
  • Web hosting is a computer, or a share of one, that stores your site’s files and database and sends pages to visitors. Shared hosting puts many sites on one server and is the cheap entry level. A VPS is a virtual server of your own; Hostinger’s smallest, KVM 1, is $6.49 a month at its intro price and renews at $11.99. A website builder such as WordPress.com includes hosting in its plan.
  • DNS joins the two. Your domain’s nameservers say which company answers for the name. The records there point it at your web host (an A or CNAME record) and at your email provider (MX records). That’s why your domain and your hosting can live at different companies.

Do you need both?

What you want Domain Hosting
A WordPress or hand-built site on your own name Yes Yes, a web host
A site made with a builder (WordPress.com, Wix, Squarespace) Yes, to use your own name Included in the builder plan
Email like you@yourname.com, no website yet Yes No; you need an email service instead
Hold a name for later, or forward it to a social profile Yes No
A free site to try things out No Free, on a subdomain

The free route: WordPress.com Free puts your site at yoursite.wordpress.com (1 GB, with ads) and Wix Free at a username.wixsite.com address with Wix branding. Your own domain needs a paid plan on both.

How much does a domain cost per year?

A standard .com, at six of the registrars we track (checked October 18, 2026):

Registrar First year Renews at Transfer in Worth knowing
Spaceship $8.88 (sale) $9.98 $9.48 (sale) ICANN fee of $0.20 added: $9.08 and $10.18 with it
Cloudflare Registrar $10.46 $10.46 Not in our data Sold at cost, ICANN fee included; must use Cloudflare’s nameservers
Porkbun $11.08 $11.08 $11.08 Same price every year
Namecheap $11.28 (25% off) $18.48 $11.48 (sale) ICANN fee added
Squarespace Domains $14 (discount) $20 Not in our data Squarespace says taxes and fees are in the price
GoDaddy $0.01, only with a 3-year purchase ($45.99) $22.99 Not in our data ICANN fee and taxes added

All nine registrars, with their free extras, are on our domains page.

The renewal price is the one to compare, because you pay it every year after the first. Five years of a .com:

  • Cloudflare: 5 × $10.46 = $52.30
  • GoDaddy: $45.99 for the first three years, then 2 × $22.99 = $45.98, so $91.97

The one-cent first year still leaves GoDaddy $39.67 more expensive over five years. Other extensions can cost several times as much as a .com; see is a .ai domain worth it for one example.

How much does web hosting cost?

The entry plan at four hosts we track, and the cheapest plan with your own domain at one builder:

Plan Intro price What the intro price needs Renews at Per year after the intro Free domain
Namecheap Stellar $2.28/mo ($27.36 a year) Yearly billing, after a 30-day free trial $55.88/yr $55.88 Only on EU-datacenter plans
Hostinger Premium $2.49/mo 48 months, paid upfront $10.99/mo $131.88 First year
DreamHost Launch $2.89/mo ($34.68 a year) 1-year term $10.99/mo $131.88 First year
Bluehost Starter $3.99/mo 36-month term $9.99/mo $119.88 First year
WordPress.com Personal (builder) $4/mo ($48 a year) Yearly billing $5/mo $60 First year

Checked: Hostinger October 25, 2026, Namecheap and DreamHost October 18, Bluehost October 17. Hostinger is running a Black Friday promotion, so its intro price may change; its page showed the same $2.49 and $10.99 on October 27. WordPress.com’s $4 was on its pricing page on October 27; the $5 renewal is from our WordPress.com tool data (checked October 17), as the pricing page showed no renewal figure.

The intro prices need a long prepay (four years at Hostinger, three at Bluehost) or last only one year (DreamHost, Namecheap). Year two is the real price.

More hosts, with intro and renewal prices, are on our web hosting page; for two hosts that both bundle a free domain, see Hostinger vs Bluehost.

What do the common setups cost per year?

One domain, one person, cheapest sensible plan in each case:

Setup Example Year one Each year after
Domain only (parked or forwarded) Cloudflare .com $10.46 $10.46
Domain + forwarded email Cloudflare .com + Cloudflare Email Routing (free) $10.46 $10.46
Domain + one real mailbox Cloudflare .com + Google Workspace Business Starter, annual plan $94.46 $94.46
Domain + builder WordPress.com Personal, yearly, domain free in year one $48 $60 plus the domain renewal
Domain + shared host, one company Namecheap Stellar + Namecheap .com $38.64 $74.36
Domain + shared host, split Namecheap Stellar + Cloudflare .com $37.82 $66.34
Host with a free domain DreamHost Launch, 1-year term $34.68 $131.88 plus the domain renewal

Notes: Cloudflare Email Routing forwards mail to an inbox you already have; it doesn’t give you a mailbox, and it needs Cloudflare DNS. Google’s annual Business Starter price is $84 a user a year ($7 a month), per its help center. Our data has no domain renewal price for WordPress.com or DreamHost.

Worked example 1: domain at the host, or at a separate registrar?

Same Namecheap Stellar hosting for three years, with the .com either at Namecheap or at Cloudflare.

Everything at Namecheap

  • Year one: $27.36 hosting + $11.28 domain = $38.64
  • Years two and three: 2 × ($55.88 + $18.48) = 2 × $74.36 = $148.72
  • Three years: $38.64 + $148.72 = $187.36, plus Namecheap’s ICANN fee each year

Domain at Cloudflare

  • Year one: $27.36 + $10.46 = $37.82
  • Years two and three: 2 × ($55.88 + $10.46) = 2 × $66.34 = $132.68
  • Three years: $37.82 + $132.68 = $170.50, ICANN fee included

Splitting saves $16.86 over three years, almost all from the domain renewal: $18.48 − $10.46 = $8.02 a year. The catch is a second account, and at Cloudflare you point the domain at your host with DNS records instead of using the host’s nameservers (see below).

Worked example 2: a three-person business that needs email but no website yet

  • Domain: Cloudflare .com, $10.46
  • Google Workspace Business Starter on the annual plan: 3 users × $84 = $252
  • Total: $252 + $10.46 = $262.46 a year

On Google’s Flexible Plan ($8.40 a user a month, no commitment) it’s 3 × $8.40 × 12 = $302.40 + $10.46 = $312.86. Microsoft 365 Business Basic matches Google’s annual price in our data ($7 a user a month, paid yearly). Zoho Mail’s Forever Free plan covers up to 5 users on one domain with 5 GB each, but without IMAP, POP or ActiveSync and only in some of Zoho’s data centers; then the domain, $10.46, is the whole bill.

For three-year totals for a whole small-business site on each route, see how much it costs to build a website.

Should you buy the domain from your host or builder?

A domain from your host means one bill, one login and DNS set up for you; Hostinger’s FAQ says keeping them together makes the site easier to manage and troubleshoot. What the bundle doesn’t change:

  • The free domain is free for one year only. Hostinger, DreamHost, Bluehost, WordPress.com and Squarespace all limit it to the first year. Squarespace says the domain then renews “at our standard rate, plus applicable taxes”; Squarespace Domains lists $20 a year to renew a .com in our data. Hostinger’s hosting page and WordPress.com’s pricing page don’t state the renewal price.
  • It comes with conditions. Hostinger includes it only on orders of one year or longer and not on its Single plan. Bluehost requires a 12- or 36-month term and asks you to claim the domain within 90 days. WordPress.com and Squarespace include it only on annual or longer billing, not monthly.
  • Cancelling early costs you the domain. Bluehost’s refund policy says that when you cancel within its 30-day guarantee, “a fee will be deducted for the domain” plus taxes; it doesn’t state the amount. WordPress.com refunds annual plans within 14 days, but if you ask after its 96-hour domain window, it credits the plan price minus the cost of the domain, and you keep the name.
  • Bundled email is short-lived too. Hostinger Premium includes 2 mailboxes per website free for one year; DreamHost’s email is free for the first three months.

Worked example 3: what a free domain is worth

DreamHost Launch on a 1-year term costs $34.68 with the domain included. Bought separately, that domain would cost $10.46 at Cloudflare or $22.99 a year to renew at GoDaddy. The hosting renewal, though, is 12 × $10.99 = $131.88, which is $131.88 − $34.68 = $97.20 more in year two. The free domain is worth about $10 to $23; the host’s renewal price matters far more. Choose the host on its renewal price, and treat the free domain as a small first-year bonus.

How do you move one without the other?

Because DNS links them, you can change either side on its own.

Changing hosts, keeping your domain. ICANN’s registrant FAQ notes that switching web hosts doesn’t require moving the domain between registrars; you can update the nameservers or the hosting IP address instead. In practice:

  1. Set up the site at the new host.
  2. Change the domain’s nameservers to the new host’s (Hostinger’s FAQ tells customers with a domain elsewhere to do this), or keep your DNS where it is and change the A or CNAME record to the new host’s address.
  3. If you change nameservers, copy every existing record first, especially MX records for email. Cloudflare warns that its automatic scan may miss some existing records, and that the email values depend on your email provider.
  4. Allow time. Cloudflare says to wait up to 24 hours for a nameserver change.

Moving your domain, keeping your host. This is a registrar transfer:

  1. Remove the transfer lock and get the authorization code (also called an Auth-Code or transfer code) from your current registrar. ICANN says a registrar that doesn’t let you generate it yourself must provide it within five calendar days.
  2. Start the transfer at the new registrar and approve it. Cloudflare says a transfer takes up to 10 days, with most registrars finishing within 5 business days.
  3. Expect to pay. Porkbun lists $11.08 for a .com transfer and Spaceship $9.48 on sale; at Cloudflare, the transfer price includes a one-year extension from your current expiry date.
  4. Check the DNS. Cloudflare requires its own nameservers and says “You cannot use another DNS provider while registered with Cloudflare,” so you add your host’s records there instead of using the host’s nameservers.

What to watch for

  • The 60-day locks. Under ICANN’s rules, a registrar may refuse a transfer within 60 days of the domain’s first registration or of its last transfer, and changing the owner’s name, organization or email blocks a transfer for 60 days unless the registrar offers an opt-out. If you plan to move a free domain away from a host, expect to wait up to 60 days.
  • Two renewals. Hosting and domain can both renew higher (Namecheap’s .com goes from $11.28 to $18.48). Put both dates in your calendar.
  • .com prices may rise. Namecheap’s .com page, checked October 18, 2026, said .com registry prices are rising and offered multi-year renewal discounts before November 1, 2026. Check before you renew.
  • The ICANN fee. Spaceship, Namecheap and GoDaddy add it on top of the listed price; Cloudflare and Squarespace include it.
  • Lapsed domains are costly to recover. ICANN says an expired name can still be transferred, but one in the redemption period must be restored first, which may carry a fee. Dynadot charges $100.92 to restore a lapsed .com. Turn on auto-renew.
  • Annual email plans are commitments. Google says you must pay the full commitment on its annual plan even if you cancel early.

Which setup should you choose?

  • You only need email on your own name: a domain at a registrar with a low renewal price, plus forwarding (free with Cloudflare Email Routing) or a mailbox ($84 a year on Google Workspace’s annual plan).
  • You want a simple site without managing a server: a builder, which includes the hosting. WordPress.com Personal is $48 for the first year with the domain; budget for the domain renewal from year two. Setup steps are on build a website.
  • You want WordPress on your own host: choose the host on its renewal price, not the free domain. A separate registrar saved $16.86 over three years in our Namecheap example.
  • You expect to switch hosts or builders: keep the domain at a registrar, so moving means changing DNS records, not transferring the name.
  • You want one bill: take the host’s free domain, turn on auto-renew, and check its renewal price before the first year ends.

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