When a cheap plan is the right call
At least one LMS plugin maker is explicit about small sites: LifterLMS's documentation says it can function on low-cost shared hosting and reserves its at least $30 a month guidance for sites with lots of traffic, users and concurrent logins. Kinsta, a premium host, says it is fine to run dynamic sites on its 2-thread plans if you only expect light traffic.
Treat that as your test. A cheap plan fits when you are building courses before launch, running a beta cohort, or selling self-paced lessons that learners take at different times. It stops fitting when many students log in or submit work in the same few minutes, which is a concurrency question, not an enrolment count.
- Good fit: pre-launch, waitlist pages, first cohort, low-ticket self-paced courses.
- Poor fit: scheduled live classes with quizzes, community feeds, subscription renewals concentrated on one date.
Three-year cost including renewals
Intro prices hide the real bill. SiteGround states its special prices apply to the first invoice and regular prices apply for all subsequent renewals, and the intro rate requires prepaying 12 months. The table uses list prices read on 29 October 2026, before tax, for one site.
| Option | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | 3-year total | Average per month |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SiteGround StartUp ($2.99 intro, $17.99 renewal) | $35.88 | $215.88 | $215.88 | $467.64 | $12.99 |
| SiteGround GrowBig ($4.99 intro, $29.99 renewal) | $59.88 | $359.88 | $359.88 | $779.64 | $21.66 |
| DigitalOcean 2 GiB Droplet $12 + daily backups 30% | $187.20 | $187.20 | $187.20 | $561.60 | $15.60 |
| Kinsta Single 35k billed annually | $350.00 | $350.00 | $350.00 | $1,050.00 | $29.17 |
Reading the table honestly
SiteGround StartUp is cheapest over three years among managed options here, but it is limited to one website and a marketing estimate of about 10,000 visits. GrowBig adds unlimited websites and about 100,000 visits. SiteGround's features page lists staging on all three shared plans, while its WordPress hosting page lists staging from GrowBig, so confirm before relying on StartUp for staging.
The DigitalOcean row looks cheap but is a server, not a service: DigitalOcean's Droplet pricing covers compute, storage, transfer and optional backups. You install and patch the web server, PHP and database yourself or pay for a server panel, which our VPS panel cost guide prices. Kinsta is the managed premium reference point at $350 a year, with 2 PHP threads and 14-day backups on that tier.
Corner 1 you should not cut: backups you can restore
SiteGround lists automated daily backups and on-demand backups on its shared plans. DigitalOcean charges 20% of the Droplet price for weekly or 30% for daily backups, which is why the table includes $3.60 a month on top of the $12 Droplet. Kinsta lists 14-day retention on its lower single-site plans.
Add one more layer on any budget: a scheduled off-host copy of the database and uploads. A course site's value is in enrolments and progress records, which you cannot recreate from memory.
Corner 2: a staging copy
LMS, membership and payment plugins update often. Testing an update on a copy before applying it to the live site is the cheapest insurance a course business can buy. If the cheapest plan does not include staging, the real cheapest plan is the next one up, or a manual staging site on a subdomain that you maintain yourself.
Corner 3: email that arrives
SiteGround lists free email accounts on its shared plans; DigitalOcean's Droplet pricing does not include mailboxes, so budget them separately. Either way, course platforms send password resets, receipts and enrolment emails, and those should go through an authenticated sending service with SPF, DKIM and DMARC records in your DNS rather than relying on a web server's default mail function.
Checklist before you buy the cheap plan
- Multiply the renewal price by 12 and put year two in your budget now.
- Confirm staging and daily backups appear on the exact plan, not just the plan family.
- Confirm PHP 8.3 is available, as WordPress.org recommends.
- Write down the upgrade trigger: for example, the first live class where more than a handful of learners submit a quiz together.
- Check how the host moves you up a tier: in-place upgrade, or a migration you must do yourself.
Questions before you decide
Is $3 a month hosting really enough for a course site?
For building and a small first cohort it can be, but SiteGround's StartUp renews at $17.99 a month after the first prepaid year, so plan on about $13 a month averaged over three years.
Is a VPS cheaper than shared hosting?
At list price a 2 GiB DigitalOcean Droplet with daily backups is $15.60 a month, but it is unmanaged, so the saving only holds if you or someone you trust maintains the server.
Sources & verification
Product details and prices can change. Check the linked provider before buying.
- SiteGround: Shared hosting features and plan comparison Accessed 29 Oct 2026
- SiteGround: WordPress hosting plans Accessed 29 Oct 2026
- DigitalOcean: Droplet pricing Accessed 29 Oct 2026
- Kinsta: Pricing Accessed 29 Oct 2026
- Kinsta: PHP thread recommendations for eCommerce and membership sites Accessed 29 Oct 2026
- LifterLMS: System requirements Accessed 29 Oct 2026
- WordPress.org: Hosting requirements Accessed 29 Oct 2026
Sources link directly to providers. Product buttons may use separately labeled affiliate links. Read our disclosure.