Website hosting cost:
why yours can be $0
Most small-business owners have no idea what their website hosting actually costs them, because it arrives as a small monthly line they stopped noticing years ago. Add it up across five years and it's often more than the site cost to build.
Here's what hosting really is, what it should cost, why the bill keeps creeping up, and why a well-built site can host for nothing at all.
How much does website hosting cost?
Typical small-business website hosting runs about C$5 to C$30 a month, or roughly C$60 to C$360 a year, and managed or agency hosting climbs well past that. But that price isn't a law of physics. It pays for a server running full-time to assemble your pages on demand. A site built as static files doesn't need that server, so it can be hosted on a free global tier for C$0 a month, permanently, and that's not a discount or a trial, it's just what the architecture costs.
What you're actually paying for
When you pay for hosting, you're renting a computer that stays on around the clock so it can build your page fresh every time someone visits. For a small-business site that mostly shows the same pages to everyone, it's a running engine you don't need, billed monthly whether the phone rings or not.
- The server kept powered and online 24/7 to assemble pages on request
- The software stack a content system and database that each need updates, patches, and occasionally rescue
- The "just in case" capacity so the site survives a traffic spike that most small sites never see
- The support plan there for when the stack you didn't need breaks in a way you can't fix yourself
None of that is a scam. It's just the wrong tool for a small-business site, and you pay for it every single month.
The five-year hosting bill
The monthly number feels small. The five-year number is the honest one. Here's what typical hosting adds up to over the life of a site, next to a static site that hosts for nothing.
The ranges come from our Canada-wide cost research, which checked providers' own live pricing in six cities. The gap between the bottom row and the others is the whole point of this page.
Why hosting can actually be $0
This isn't a coupon. It's a different way to build. A traditional site is assembled on demand by a server, so you rent the server. A static site is built once into plain files, served straight from a global edge that gives away small-business traffic for free.
That's why Renozer sites host at C$0 forever, on your own account. It isn't generosity, and it isn't a loss leader we make back elsewhere. It's simply what a static site on a free edge tier costs, which is nothing.
The hidden costs nobody quotes you
The sticker price is rarely the real price. Hosting bills grow quietly, and the extras are where the margin hides. Here's a typical bill, itemized.
Add the renewal jump and the add-ons to the base plan and the honest monthly cost is usually well north of the number on the ad. A static site has none of these lines, because there's nothing to meter.
What C$0 hosting looks like with Renozer
A Renozer site is built as static files and served from your own Cloudflare account on its free tier. Hosting is C$0 a month, permanently, by architecture. There's no server to rent, no database to patch, no add-ons to bolt on, and nothing that renews at triple the price next year.
You still own and pay for one thing, and we'll always be straight about it: your domain name, which runs about C$15 to C$25 a year directly to a registrar, in your own account. That's the address, not the hosting, and it's yours. Everything else, the hosting that usually runs forever, is C$0.
Common questions about zero-hosting-cost websites
How much does website hosting cost per month?
Is website hosting really free with a static site?
Why does my hosting bill keep going up?
What about "free website hosting" plans I see advertised?
Do I still have to pay for a domain name?
How much does hosting cost per year?
Will a C$0 site handle a traffic spike?
What happens to hosting if I leave Renozer?
Find out what you actually pay to host
Pick a time on the calendar. We'll add up what your current hosting really costs across five years, show you the same site hosted for C$0, and be honest about the one thing that isn't free. Fifteen minutes, no sales pitch, no obligation.
On the call you get:
- ✓Your real hosting cost per year and across five years, added up on screen
- ✓A plain look at what you're paying for and whether a small-business site needs it
- ✓The C$0 static alternative, shown running, not just described
- ✓The honest exceptions, including the domain you'll always pay for
- ✓A straight answer, including when your current setup is fine as it is
Pick a time on the calendar. Prefer to write? Email [email protected] and tell us what you need. We reply within 48 hours.
We'll only use your details for the check, nothing else.