How We Compare & Methodology
Every comparison on UK Host Compare is data-driven and reproducible. Here's exactly how we do it.
1. Data capture
For each provider we visit its official UK pricing page and record, per plan: entry (promotional) price, renewal price, term length, storage, number of sites, email allowances, and whether the provider operates UK data centres. We also record the provider's Trustpilot score as published on its own site or Trustpilot's public page.
2. Normalisation and VAT
Providers price in different ways — some monthly, some multi-year, and most UK hosts quote prices excluding VAT. For each provider we check its own site for the VAT basis and record it in our data with the source. Every price on the site is labelled "ex VAT" or "inc VAT" as published. For scoring we convert everything to a monthly figure including UK VAT at 20%; where a provider doesn't state its VAT basis, we assume its prices exclude VAT and add 20% (the conservative choice). We always show the renewal price next to the entry price so promotional offers can't hide the long-term cost.
3. How buying-guide winners are scored
Each buying guide ranks providers by a weighted score out of 10, computed from the data. The weights for every guide are published in our configuration and shown above the score breakdown on each guide page. Each component is scored 0–10:
- Renewal price (inc VAT) — the cheapest renewal in the guide scores 10; others score 10 × cheapest ÷ theirs. If a provider doesn't publish a renewal price, we score it as if it renewed at the highest renewal price in that guide.
- Intro price (inc VAT) — same formula on the promotional entry price. It is always weighted less than renewal.
- Trustpilot — rating 3.0 or below scores 0, 5.0 scores 10, linear in between.
- Support — 24/7 live chat (4 points), phone support (4 if 24/7, 2 if business hours only), ticket/email support (2). Only channels we could verify on the provider's site count.
- Guide features — the features that matter for that guide (e.g. managed WordPress, staging, auto-updates and caching for WordPress; email, free SSL, daily backups and a UK support line for small business; builder, free domain, 1-click installer and SSL for beginners; independently verified renewable energy for eco (self-declared claims score half); mailbox storage per £ for email; mailbox storage per £, office apps and video meetings for business email; specs per £ and a managed option for VPS and cloud; managed WordPress, staging, daily backups, auto-updates and caching for managed WordPress; a 1-year-term offer and a published renewal price for domains; accounts per £ and white-label for reseller). A feature only counts if we verified it on the provider's site; unknown counts as not included.
- UK data centre — 10 if a UK data centre is verified for that product, otherwise 0.
| Guide | Renewal | Intro | Trustpilot | Support | Features | UK DC |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cheap Web Hosting UK | 45% | 25% | 10% | 10% | 5% | 5% |
| Best WordPress Hosting UK | 20% | 5% | 15% | 20% | 30% | 10% |
| Best Hosting for Small Business | 20% | 5% | 15% | 20% | 25% | 15% |
| Green Web Hosting UK | 15% | 5% | 15% | 10% | 45% | 10% |
| Best Hosting for Beginners | 20% | 10% | 15% | 20% | 30% | 5% |
| Best Email Hosting UK | 25% | 5% | 15% | 15% | 30% | 10% |
| Best VPS & Cloud Hosting UK | 25% | 5% | 10% | 15% | 35% | 10% |
| Best Reseller Hosting UK | 25% | 5% | 15% | 15% | 30% | 10% |
| Managed WordPress Hosting UK | 25% | 5% | 15% | 20% | 25% | 10% |
| Cheapest .co.uk Domains & UK Registrars | 45% | 15% | 20% | 10% | 10% | 0% |
| Business Email UK | 30% | 5% | 15% | 15% | 30% | 5% |
Honest caveats: the weights are an editorial judgement about what matters for each type of buyer, not an objective truth — you may weigh things differently, which is why we show every component. Trustpilot scores reflect a provider's whole customer base, not one product. We don't run our own speed or uptime tests. Affiliate commission and earnings per click are never inputs to the score, and we earn commission from some listed providers and not others.
3a. Providers scored in one guide only, and currency conversion
Some providers don't sell shared web hosting, so they appear only in the guide their product belongs to: managed WordPress platforms (Kinsta, WP Engine, Cloudways), developer clouds (DigitalOcean, Vultr, Akamai Cloud/Linode, Hetzner), a domain registrar (Porkbun) and business email suites (Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Proton). They are scored with exactly the same components and rules, but they aren't in the overall score, provider reviews or X vs Y pages, which compare shared hosting plans. For UK hosts in the managed WordPress guide we use a dedicated managed WordPress plan where we've recorded one, otherwise the entry shared plan, and only where managed WordPress is verified on it.
Where a provider bills in US dollars or euros we convert its advertised price to pounds for scoring and show the original price next to it. Providers that bill in US dollars or euros are converted to pounds for scoring at the ECB reference rate for 26 Oct 2026 ($1 = £0.7492, €1 = £0.8382; source: Frankfurter/ECB). Advertised foreign-currency prices are shown next to every converted figure. We don't convert where a provider sets its own GBP price list that we couldn't load; those are listed as "also worth a look" without a score (for example Zoho Mail and Contabo).
The .co.uk domain guide scores the price per year and doesn't use the UK data centre component (weight 0%). Its two features check whether the first-year price is available on a 1-year registration and whether the renewal price is published.
4. Overall score, homepage shortlist and X vs Y pages
The homepage shortlist, provider reviews and every head-to-head (X vs Y) page use one overall score, calculated across all 11 providers on each provider's entry shared-hosting plan, with the same components as above:
| Renewal price (inc VAT) | Intro price (inc VAT) | Trustpilot | Support | Guide features | UK data centre |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25% | 10% | 15% | 15% | 20% | 15% |
Overall features: Free SSL, Email included, Daily backups, 1-click installer, Staging, Free domain. Because it's the same score on every page, a head-to-head can never contradict the homepage or a provider review.
5. Multi-year cost
Our calculator and the "3-year cost" columns add up the intro price for the length of the promotion and the renewal price after that, including VAT at 20% where a provider quotes ex VAT. Where an intro price needs a multi-year prepayment (for example 48 months), we also show the upfront payment. Domain renewals, add-ons and price rises after we capture the data aren't included.
6. Freshness
Every page shows the date its data was last verified. The site rebuilds every Monday from the dataset, and we re-check providers on a rolling basis and rebuild the site from the same data. If a provider changes a price between captures, the site reflects it on the next rebuild.
7. What we do NOT do
- We do not run hands-on performance tests or claim personal experience of every provider. We state facts from published specifications.
- We do not accept payment to rank a provider higher.
- We do not publish user-submitted reviews, because we cannot verify them.
8. Corrections
If you spot an error — a price, a plan, a feature that's changed — contact us. We verify against the provider's current page and correct the dataset, and the fix ships on the next rebuild.
Last updated: 2026-10-27