Last updated on December 20th, 2023 at 07:40 am
The number of websites has increasingly been growing in Ghana over the past few years, as many businesses and individuals begin to see the necessity of establishing an online presence. And without any doubt, it’s impossible to create a website without having a web host. So one must know the cost of hosting a website in Ghana.
While your website hosting cost can range from just under a hundred cedis per month to over a hundred cedis per year, depending on your needs, some types of hosting plans cost more, certain types of domains are priced higher, and more.
Understanding all the costs involved in hosting a website in Ghana is critical if you want to be able to budget well.
In this article, we’ll break down the overall website hosting cost in Ghana. We’ll expound on the obvious costs, the hidden costs, and the optional charges. Also Including various types of hosting providers; local and international, and a lot of information to go over. Let’s go!
What is Hosting in Ghana (and why it costs money)
Every website you visit is a collection of files on a remote computer. The computers used to host websites are called servers.
The data that makes up a live site—the text, the images, the videos—has to live on a computer somewhere in the world that’s connected to the internet. The providers of these services are called web hosts. When you pay for hosting, you’re paying for a slice of a server’s space.
What are the different types of web hosting in Ghana?
Not all hosting servers are built the same, and each has its own advantages that depend on what you need, and trying to achieve with your website in Ghana. But nearly all the web hosting options out there fall into one of four primary categories.
1. Shared hosting
A shared hosting plan lets multiple websites use a single server. In this, you’re sharing the same resources and facilities with other websites. You might never even know which sites you’re sharing resources with.
But the entire nature of this set-up is that multiple sites share the same infrastructure in order to be accessible to the internet-using public.
Hosting providers that offer shared web hosting have often invested in large server farms that store and transmit their client’s website data.
Shared hosting is the most popular, user-friendly, and cheapest of all forms of hosting websites in Ghana. It’s good enough if your business is small scale, or you’re just starting out.
However, shared hosting has a few disadvantages. Once your website achieves a certain level of traffic or server load, its performance and loading times will inevitably suffer.
The resources for offering up data at blazing-fast speeds are shared across every website using that particular hosting provider. As your site successfully scales its operation on a shared hosting provider, you might need to look elsewhere to find a better solution that won’t affect your website growth.
What it costs: In Ghana, Shared hosting starts from around GH62 per month, and may run as high as GH248 per month depending on the level of service you require.
2. WordPress hosting plan in Ghana
The free and open-source software platform called WordPress accounts for more than 43% portion of all websites on the internet in the world including Ghana. It also provides hosting services.
This type of plan is customized for WordPress users only, and you sometimes get access to perks such as free themes and plugins.
But, it’s not a one-size-fits-all solution. Some business processes may not be compatible with this infrastructure, so it’s good to do proper research to ensure WordPress is a good solution to host your website in Ghana.
What it costs: You can expect to pay around GH124 per month for a WordPress hosting plan.
3. Virtual Private Server (VPS) hosting
VPS hosting is about using virtualization technology to provide you with your own set of private resources on a server that has multiple users. In this, your hosting provider installs a virtual layer on top of the server’s operating system, partitioning the server in such a way that every individual site user gets to install their operating system and software.
VPS hosting plans offer accessibility similar to if you had a dedicated server, but at a much lower cost. The websites hosted on this category of shared server can never interfere with the others, and it easily scales to accommodate higher-traffic websites.
At the same time, it’s a more expensive route to take for hosting and is more technically involved.
What it costs: A plan in this arena will cost GH248–GH496 per month.
4. Dedicated Hosting
This is a type of website hosting where you have complete control and access over the server.
All of the resources and features of dedicated hosting are only for one client. You can configure or customize the server at will.
It is similar to buying a complete building and then using it however you like without any obstruction from anyone.
Dedicated hosting has the highest uptime, and is the most expensive. Unsurprisingly, large websites with massive traffic choose dedicated hosting.
What it costs: A plan in this arena will cost from GH620 upward per month.
Cost of hosting a website in Ghana and buying a domain
Apart from hosting, a domain is the only other obligatory cost of running a website in Ghana. In some cases, your web hosts will give you access to free subdomains you can use, such as mywebsite.hostingcompany.com. However, those subdomains may look unprofessional and they’re not a viable long-term solution.
The reliable option for most people is to register a domain. How much it costs to register a domain will depend on two factors:
1. The TLD you use: You can usually register .com domains for a low amount of cedis. But other options can be cheaper or more expensive.
2. The registrar you use: Some web hosts enable you to register domains through them, but you can also use dedicated services known as ‘registrars‘.
The price of domains can vary slightly depending on your choice of registrar.
When you register a domain, you will usually only pay for one year of ownership. You’ll then need to renew your registration, which usually costs the same as the initial purchase.
Six Factors To Consider Before Choosing a Webhost For Your Site In Ghana
1. Pricing
It’s quite a random thing for hosting companies to offer an introductory simple price and then increase it after the first month or the first year. It’s a method that works well for them and it’s to be expected.
Therefore you need to understand exactly how much you’ll be paying after your first term is up before choosing any web host for your site. Many web hosts make this information difficult to find or are constantly changing it.
Generally, avoid web hosts that increase their prices by more than 100% on renewal unless the introductory price appears unreasonably cheap.
But the major thing is, as long as the renewal price is within your budget, the host is worth considering
2. User-Friendly
Another important factor to consider is how easy it is to perform essential functions. For example, can you quickly install an SSL certificate? How much effort does it take to add another domain to the hosting, if it has a website builder, are the options obvious and easy for a beginner?
On most occasions, you won’t be able to use a web host before signing up but popular hosts have many video tutorials available. Watching them will give you an idea of how to perform certain functions and check how easy it is. This is a very important factor to consider when choosing a web host for your website in Ghana.
3. Reliability
A web host can have all the goodies like website builder, email marketing, scheduling, etc. But, all this doesn’t matter if it’s not reliable. An unreliable web host will have constant downtime. The problem with this is that your visitors won’t form a bad opinion of the web host. The blame will solely be on you.
Before you choose a web host, do a bit of research about its uptime scores. You should aim for a host with 99% uptime at minimum. Anything less than that should be avoided.
4. Speed and performance
Speed, which is often proportional to overall performance, is one of the most visible aspects of a web host. No matter what the offers your web host gives, if your host is slow, you’ll only get subpar results.
A lot of things contribute to the performance of your host. A major factor is a technology used. Software evolves rapidly so your web host should update its infrastructure regularly to take advantage of advancements.
Some other questions to ask include; how much bandwidth is allocated to your plan? What about storage? If you answered these questions at the beginning of this guide then you’ll already know what you need for optimal performance from your web host.
5. Security
Security is essential to having a lasting website in Ghana. While many security issues are your responsibility, a quota of them is the responsibility of your hosting company. Things like DDoS attack protection, firewalls, OS updates, and all that.
Some other things a high-quality hosting company should make available include: It should have regular malware scanning and removal on your behalf if anything is found. This is often an add-on service if it’s not included in the main hosting plans.
Secondly, your host should have is a regular backup service. Can you restore your site after a compromise in case you can’t clean up the malware? Finally, your hosting service must support SSL certificates.
6. Customer support quality
The entire hosting experience, no matter how simple the interface and helpful the FAQs, requires technical assistance from time to time. Once in a while, there be problems with your server or even your website that are difficult or impossible for you to solve. That’s when the support team of your host comes in to assist.
You should check, what kind of availability do they have? Are they only available during working hours or can you reach them 24/7? Do they have multiple channels you can use to contact the support reps like live chat on social media, email, and even phone? What about self-help resources such as videos and written tutorials?
If all these things are available, then now you have to look at the quality of each area. Are the tutorials well-explained and useful? Is the support team responsive and knowledgeable? Are they able to solve problems quickly? If you’re not satisfied with any of these answers then it may be best to make another choice for the hosting service for your website.
Cost of hosting a website in Ghana and how to select a hosting
Selecting the best web host company in Ghana or Africa differs from obtaining the best web host in Europe or the United States.
The most significant factors to consider when choosing a website hosting service are the factors listed above already. So it’s important to go through them before making your choice. Now let’s take a look at some local and International hosting Providers and their prices.
Best Local Hosting Providers For Your Website In Ghana (Cost Included)
1. Truehost
Itis a global Cloud computing Service Provider with a presence in The US, Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, India and Europe. Truehost offers web hosting services, domain registration, dedicated and virtual private servers, Email hosting, SSL certificates, data backup solutions and web design.
They have one of the cheapest cost of hosting a website in Ghana, their hosting starts from 7.23 GHC for the bronze hosting, 15.5 GHC for the silver plan, 38.04 GHC for the Gold hosting and 229 GHC for the platinum hosting. They have one of the cheapest hosting plans you can find in the world.
2. Ovation Hall
It is a high-speed web hosting company that offers both secure and reliable hosting plans. Its services range from shared hosting, WordPress hosting, and Virtual Private Servers (VPS).
The starter package which is its most basic hosting offer starts at GHCC6.7 per month. The silver package starts at GHC25 and the diamond package starts at GHC35.
The beautiful thing is, all of the packages offered by Ovation come with free SSL certificates and daily backups.
Also, they have two control panel options; Plesk or CPanel. Depending on your choice. Finally, Ovation Hall provides the ultimate ‘dedicated hosting’ which is private server hosting for only one website or client. Ideal for large websites and apps.
3. Stormerhost
Stormerhost has been one of the formidable web hosting providers in Ghana for a while now. They also provide web design and development services, offering web technologies such as SEO and bulk SMS.
Their data centres are primarily in the UK and USA. Efficiently, they provide a 99.9% uptime for all clients. They offer Linux-based shared hosting, WordPress hosting, VPS hosting, dedicated servers, cloud server hosting, and Windows shared hosting.
Stomerhost also provides reseller packages for individuals and businesses looking to enter the hosting business.
Their hosting packages start at GH60 per year for the starter package. Next is the Basic plan at GHC150, the standard plan at GHC250, and lastly, the professional plan at GHC520. All plans come with a free SSL certificate, free website builder, and cPanel management controls.
4. Plugnom
Plugnom is also a local Ghanaian-based hosting provider with data centres in the United Kingdom. They offer a wide range of services including domain name registration and hosting, with a location at Impact Hub, Osu in Accra.
Plugnom has cloud hosting which starts at GHC25 per month, WordPress hosting starting at GHC29.50 per month, Virtual Private Server (VPS) which begins at GHC95.00, and custom plans if you can’t find something that fits your particular needs.
A great thing about Plugnom is their support options ranging from phone calls, and emails to online chats with a representative. For a relatively young Ghanaian hosting company, plugnom has a lot of catching up to with its competitors although, they have started on a good foot.
5. Shine Daddy
This is a relatively small hosting company also located in Ghana. They offer web hosting services to individuals, small businesses, and large institutions all over the world. Some of their services include domain name registrations and transfers, website development, web hosting web security, and email services.
Their packages are based on VPS, Shared WordPress hosting and Dedicated Server options, with a 24/7 customer support service.
All Shine Daddy packages usually come with:
•Unlimited disk space & bandwidth
• A guaranteed 99.9% uptime
•24/7 support and security monitoring
6. Nakrotech
Nakrotech is an internet services provider offering domain name registration and hosting services.
They offer a range of hosting services from shared hosting, WordPress hosting, and Virtual Private Servers (VPS), to Dedicated Servers, with a wonderful offer of a 100% money-back guarantee for their services.
Apart from having standard hosting packages, which include a basic free plan which takes up to 1 website, Nakrotech, also has an economic plan which gives a free domain for the first year for just GHC152.00.
This plan has SSD for speed and efficiency. The last two plans are the deluxe plan costing GHC182.00 and the platinum plan which costs GHC212.00.
Like many other hosts, all Nakrotech hosting packages include a free SSL Certificate, a free domain for the first year, 99.9% server uptime, and monthly backups.
7. Aveshost
Avehost is a web hosting company known for providing good hosting at good prices. They enable users to easily get started with their web exploits without technical issues. Not so surprisingly, Avehost offers 99.9% server uptime.
They are located at Dzorwulu in Accra and offer various support services including technical assistance via phone call, direct chat, or email.
Having hosting services including VPS hosting, shared hosting, dedicated hosting, reseller packages, and email hosting, Avehoost has just four standard hosting packages starting at just GHC6 with their deluxe plan. They have a professional plan at GH12, an enterprise plan at GHC18, and an ‘ultimate’ plan at GHC32.
Avehost rates are on a per-month basis and are charged annually. The basic deluxe package allows only one website while their ultimate allows unlimited add-on domains.
8. Dtech Ghana
Fully Darrel Technologies Ltd, Dtech is a technology company offering a host of internet services including web hosting, bulk SMS, software development, and IT support services. They offer Linux-based cPanel hosting and Windows ASP.NET hosting options.
In Dtech, each hosting type gives a free domain for life and comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee. Wonderful isn’t it? They also have other forms of hosting types including dedicated servers, VPS, and shared hosting types.
All these come with a 99.9% uptime and promised tech- support. The company came alive in 2009 and has over the years continued to evolve.
9. Web 4 Africa
It is also a Ghanaian-based web hosting provider focusing mainly on Africa with data centres in Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, and parts of Europe.
Very highly recommended, all their regular hosting packages include a Mercury package at GHC12 per month, Bronze at GHC30 per month, a silver package at GHC45 per month, and a Gold package at GH90 per month, all of which include unlimited bandwidth.
Another great feature of Web4Africa is the availability of a basic web builder to get you started immediately after you set up your domain and hosting.
Also, they have daily, weekly and monthly backups so that your website is safe from crashes and unforeseen errors on the servers.
10. Ultra Host Ghana
Based primarily in Ghana, Ultra Host Ghana provides high-speed secured servers and dedicated support systems.
With their support channels including phone, email, or online chat, they have just two hosting options which are shared hosting and VPS hosting.
The shared hosting starts with a personal plan at GHC9 per month which takes up to 5 websites.
The basic plan is up next to the personal plan and costs GHC15 per month. The mega plan costs GHC18 per month and takes up to 40 websites. The last plan is the ultra plan costing GHC22 per month. All plans come free SSL certificate for only the first year.
All packages also include a cPanel control panel, softaculous 1-click script installer, website builder, and daily backups.
11. HUBS8
HUBS8 is one of the newest web hosting providers based primarily in Nigeria. They also provide cost-effective choices for small businesses and blogs in Africa.
Worthy of notice, HUBS8 is also Nigeria’s first hosting company offering a free WordPress hosting package with 500MB of storage and 100GB of bandwidth.
Hub8 also offers 7 GB SSD storage, all of its basic features for small websites, unlimited bandwidth, MySQL databases, subdomains, and emails with a free domain for just N250 monthly or N2,500 annually.
12. Utiware
Utiware is a renowned Nigerian web hosting provider with clients spanning across Africa and the United States.
The company is known for having high-grade technical equipment matched by no one else in its region and offers eye catchy web hosting and domain name services.
Utiware runs its own world-class data centres, with the infrastructures managed from offices in Lagos, Nigeria, and Cincinnati, Ohio.
Web hosting, domains, SSL Certificates, Reseller Hosting, Cloud Servers, Dedicated Servers, eTextMail Bulk service, and SMS API/Reseller SMS are among the plenty services provided by Utiware.
13. WhoGoHost
Opeyemi Awoyemi a Nigerian created WhogoHost in 2007. After being listed under Ennovate NIGERIA Limited, the firm was created as an individual in 2011.
WhoGoHost rose to become one of West Africa’s top three web hosting service providers in a short period.
As with any other local web hosting provider, they offer a variety of options. They include shared hosting, reseller packages, cloud hosting, and VPS hosting, to name a few. You can buy hosting from them with as little as GHC16.2 per month for the premium plan, GHC 25.38 for a pro plan, GHC47.38 for the deluxe plan and GHC59.22 for the supreme plan.
The cost of international hosting In Ghana
1. Bluehost Web Hosting
Price: Starts at $2.95 / Month
Bluehost is one of the best-known web host providers in the globe.
Offering high quality for low premium, Bluehost allows for simple domain management, allowing users to track, transfer, or update domains in a centralized location.
Bluehost also consists of unlimited email accounts and comes with filters, secure POP3, and third-party client compatibility, among many other features.
When you chose Bluehost, you can rest assured your sites and content are safe, as Bluehost has to host account backups daily.
Bluehost also ensures optimal site performance even in its shared server environment — by recognizing sites that are consuming a lot of resources and temporarily reassigning them to another web server.
If you’re looking for a cheap, scalable website hosting company for your website in Ghana. Bluehost may be for you.
2. InMotion
Price: Starts at $2.29 / Month
InMotion is made perfect for individuals and businesses in Ghana looking for quality in their cheap international web hosting provider.
The hosting company is highly User-Friendly, giving users a drag-and-drop site builder with hundreds of design templates, along with free domain registration, SSL certificate, and hassle-free site migration
Even better, InMotion has one of the best customer service teams in the business, with a 24/7 support available via chat, phone, and email.
Some important features to note include:
Starting Price/Month: $2.29
Money Back Guarantee: 90 days
Disk Space: 100 GB
SSD: Unlimited
Domain Name: FREE (1 year)
3. HostGator
Price: Starts at $2.64
HostGator is known for its budget-friendly web hosting plan that web users and businesses leverage to build an online presence.
The host’s website builder provides a drag-and-drop feature and a wide range of templates that make getting your site up and running
HostGator also gives customers access to a plethora number of CMS and eCommerce platforms, including WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, and Magento, among others.
Some important information to note includes
Money Back Guarantee: 30 days
Disk Space: Unlimited
Domain Name: FREE (1 year
4. Hostinger
Price: Starts at $1.99 / Month
Hostinger somehow manages to give its customers tons of extra features while still keeping its hosting cost among the lowest around. Offering services in Shared, VPS and Dedicated hosting.
Apart from unlimited storage and bandwidth, Hostinger also offers limitless websites, databases, FTP users, subdomains, and parked domain names for most customers.
Using Hostinger, you can choose a weekly or daily backup and an optional SSL certificate for added security protection.
Other Key Information Includes:
Money Back Guarantee 30 days
Disk Space 50 GB SSD – 200 GB SSD
Domain Name FREE (1 year)
A2 Hosting
Prices: Starts at $2.99 / Month
A2 Hosting is renowned for loading time and optimization. It prides itself on the reliable, high-performing hosting service it provides.
A2 Hosting’s Starter hosting package will get you one website, five databases, unlimited storage and transfer, and the popular cPanel control panel. Higher-tiered plans come with unlimited sites, databases, storage, and transfer, and free SSL and SSD.
It also has a special package called ‘Turbo’ With Turbo, sites run up to 20 times faster because of A2’s fine-tuned server. This package also comes with a site accelerator, boosting speeds even more.
Extending its reputation for performance to professional email hosting services, A2 Hosting is one of the favourites to recommend to host your website in Ghana.
While you may start with a shared server plan, you can confidently scale and advance to one of the company’s VPS hosting or dedicated server options with stand-by 24/7 technical support available.
Some other valuable information includes
Money Back Guarantee: 30 days
Disk Space 100 GB
SSD – Unlimited
Domain Name: New or Transfer
How to buy web hosting in Ghana
1. Choose your plan
The above are some of the hosting packages under this hosting plan, the recommended one being the Silver package which costs ₦7,500( ) per year and ₦750 ( ) per month. Remember, we have 12 months in a year, which means you are given a 20% discount for buying a 1-year plan.
When you select the hosting plan you want, you will be required to choose a domain name to link to the hosting. However, if you have bought a domain before, you don’t have to buy another one, you can transfer the domain from your previous hosting company to Truehost.
2. Select your blog’s domain name
This step requires you to check for the availability of the hosting domain you have decided to use. When you input the domain name, it will tell you if it’s available or not. If it’s available then hurray, you can go ahead to buy it, if it’s not available, you will have to try with another name.
Every domain has an extension, the popular one being .com, but there are a lot of other domain extensions you can use for yours. Some of them are .com.ng,Ng, .net, .org, .edu and .edu.ng., .gh, .com.gh
A domain name may be taken already with a .com extension and still be available for the .gh extension. So, if you are insistent on using .com you can choose from the other available extensions.
3. Check the availability of your blog’s domain name
If it’s available, you can just click on the extension you want to use. Before you will be directed to create an account with Truehost if you don’t have one already.
4 Create a Truehost account
This stage requires you to fill in some basic information as shown in the image above.
5. Enter your billing
Finally, you will preview your purchases before you make payments. From the above, you can see that the .com domain was bought at N8,000 ( 203 GHC ) and a silver hosting of N7,500( 190 GHC ) for a year, which sums up to N15,500 ( 393 GHC ) only. If you are satisfied with everything, you will now make payment through your debit card or transfer.
Average Cost To Host Your Website In Ghana Per Month
As revealed in this post, the cost of web hosting in Ghana can vary wildly — from $2 (GH 24.8) to upward of $200 (GH2480) per month.
On average:
•shared server hosting in Ghana plans cost less than GH 25 per month
•WordPress hosting plan prices fluctuate around the cost of standard shared hosting packages
• VPS hosting plans go for GH62 to GH 248 per month
•Dedicated server prices are most expensive, from GH620 monthly price tag to over a hundred or thousand.
Conclusion
The cost of hosting your website in Ghana is relative to the quality and desire you want.
So it’s ideal for you to do a deep analysis of knowing what you want, and pay attention to all the key factors and points mentioned in this article to choose the ideal web host plan, and provider for your website.
To buy your web hosting at a very affordable price, we recommend Truehost.
