Searches for the cheapest web hosting get answered with intro prices, which is a bit like ranking mortgages by the arrangement fee. The intro rate is real, but it lasts 12 to 48 months depending on the host, and what follows it is usually three to eight times higher. Rank by the 36-month bill instead and the order changes almost completely.
Cheapest by advertised price
IONOS at $1/mo, BigRock at $1.73, Namecheap at $2.28. On this measure IONOS wins outright.
Cheapest by what you actually pay
Over 36 months: MilesWeb $25.92, DreamHost $104, Bluehost $106, Hostinger $108. IONOS — the cheapest-looking host on the market — comes eighth, at $204, because its $1 rate lasts 12 months and then becomes $8.
MilesWeb's position is worth explaining rather than just asserting: its rate is $0.72/mo locked for 48 months, so the entire three-year window is covered by the intro price. Nothing about its discount is unusual; the length of the lock is.
The two questions that decide it
How long is the rate locked? Hostinger holds $2.99 for 48 months. SiteGround holds $2.99 for 12 and then charges $17.99. Same headline, $360 apart over three years.
What is the renewal? A host that never raises the price can be the cheaper option even when it looks expensive — although not here: Cloudways at a flat $11/mo totals $396, more than every climbing host except SiteGround. Flat pricing is not automatically cheap, it is merely predictable.
Cheap is not the same as adequate
None of this says the cheapest host is the right one. A $25 three-year bill buys you the resources of a $25 three-year bill. What the figures do tell you is which hosts are cheap and which merely look it — see every offer ranked by real cost, and whether free hosting is worth it if you are considering the bottom of the market. To model your own term rather than ours, use the true cost calculator.