Pioneer Micro · cheap web hosting
Billed annually at $9.90. One site, free SSL, DirectAdmin.
The smallest plan we sell, on the same servers, panel and backups as every other one. For a first website, a portfolio, a landing page or a side project that does not need more than one domain.
Cheap web hosting, explained
At a glance
Most "$1 web hosting" offers are a teaser: a low first-year price, a renewal at three or four times that, and a plan stripped of the things a site needs. Pioneer Micro is the opposite. It is a small plan with a small price that stays small: $9.90 this year and $9.90 next year, on the same servers, the same DirectAdmin control panel and the same daily backups as our $11.99 plan.
What makes it cheap is the size, not the quality. One website, 2 GB of SSD storage and 20 GB of monthly traffic is enough for a personal site, a portfolio, a landing page or a small business card site, and far more than a free host or a page builder gives you: your own domain, your own mailboxes, a real database, free SSL and a panel you control. When the site outgrows it, you move up to Pioneer Start, Grow or Pro without moving anything.
We sell it this cheap because the account costs us very little to run, and because people who start on a $0.99 plan tend to stay with a host that treated them well. No tricks on the way in means no reason to leave.
Who it is for
Budget web hosting makes sense when the site is small and the stakes are low. These are the sites Pioneer Micro is built for.
Your name, your project or your club, on your own domain instead of a free subdomain somebody else controls. Learn WordPress or plain HTML on a real server.
A few pages, a gallery and a contact form. Designers, photographers, writers and freelancers rarely need more than 2 GB.
A tradesperson, a café, a consultant: one page with opening hours, a map, a phone number and mail at the company domain.
Try an idea for less than $9.90 a year. If it takes off, upgrade in place; if it does not, you have lost the price of a coffee.
What you can run
A good fit
Better on a bigger plan
WordPress. One site with its MySQL database, a theme and a handful of plugins. Pick your PHP version in DirectAdmin, upload with the file manager or FTP, and the free SSL certificate is installed for you. If you want WordPress-specific tooling such as staging and cloning, that starts on Pioneer Start.
A static site. HTML, CSS and JavaScript from a generator such as Hugo, Astro or Eleventy, or hand-written. 2 GB is thousands of pages, and 20 GB of monthly traffic is a lot of visits when every page is a few hundred kilobytes.
A small PHP application. Anything that runs on PHP and one MySQL database: a contact form, a booking page, a small CMS, a Laravel or Symfony app with modest traffic. There is no SSH, so deploy by FTP or the file manager and run migrations from a web endpoint or a one-off script.
Mail at your domain. Five mailboxes with webmail, IMAP and SMTP, so hello@yourdomain works from day one. New to DirectAdmin? Our beginner's tour walks through the panel, and this guide covers the free SSL.
Cheap, not cut-down
Cheap web hosting usually means an overcrowded server and a support queue that never answers. Pioneer Micro shares everything but the limits with the plans above it.
Getting started
What you need
30-day money-back guarantee, no setup fee. Stuck at any step? Open a ticket; answers within four hours, around the clock.
Pay $9.90 for the year by card or PayPal. The account is created automatically and your DirectAdmin login arrives by email within minutes.
Point an existing domain at our nameservers, or register one at checkout. SSL is issued as soon as the domain resolves.
Install WordPress, upload a static site or a PHP app through the file manager or FTP, and create your mailboxes in the same panel.
A second site, more storage or more mail? Upgrade from the client area; the site, mail and database stay exactly where they are. Already hosted elsewhere? We move it for free.
What you get
The full list for the cheapest web hosting plan we sell. Every line below is included in the $9.90 a year.
Honest limits
$0.99 a month buys a real hosting account, not a trial. These are the lines it draws, so you can decide before you pay.
Everything is done through DirectAdmin and its file manager, FTP or the one-click installer. None of the shared plans include SSH.
One domain and three subdomains. A second site means moving up to Pioneer Grow, which keeps everything in place.
The plan is $9.90 a year, paid up front. There is no monthly option at this price.
Outgrown it? Move to Pioneer Start, Grow or Pro from your client area; the site, mail and database stay where they are.
Compared
Cheap web hosting is only a bargain if the plan fits. Prices per month, incl. VAT. Start and Grow can be billed monthly or yearly with two months free; Micro is yearly only.
| Pioneer Micro | Pioneer Start | Pioneer Grow | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $0.99/mo, billed yearly | $2.49/mo | $6.99/mo |
| Per year | $9.90 | $24.90 | $69.90 |
| Billing | Yearly only | Monthly or yearly | Monthly or yearly |
| Websites | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Subdomains | 3 | 5 | 15 |
| Storage | 2 GB SSD | 5 GB SSD | 10 GB SSD |
| Monthly traffic | 20 GB | 50 GB | 250 GB |
| Mailboxes | 5 | 5 | 25 |
| Databases | 1 | 2 | 10 |
| Free SSL, daily backups | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Order Micro | Order Start | Order Grow |
Pioneer Start is $2.49/mo: 5 GB, 50 GB of traffic, two databases and monthly billing. Upgrading from Micro keeps your site, mail and database in place.
FAQ
