When you’re running a non-profit, finding affordable and reliable web hosting might seem overwhelming. Well, prepare to be shocked. Not only does affordable hosting exist, but you can even find affordable, fully featured web hosting for non-profits.
But what exactly does fully-featured mean?
A fully-featured host will give you things like automatic backups and staging sites, so you can keep your site online even when you make changes.
They will also offer security features and easy PCI compliance so you can accept donations online with peace of mind.
And, like every other website, you need your website to load quickly. That’s where a host who offers essential features like a content delivery network (CDN) can help your non-profit blossom.
Better yet, most of them offer special discounts for registered non-profits, which can help you put more money towards your cause.
Let’s dive in!
The best web hosting for non-profits 🏆
In this post, we’ll showcase nine excellent options. The best choice for you will come down to budget, location, and technical skill but they all offer somewhat similar features.
1. Bluehost
Recommended by WordPress.org for years, Bluehost is one of our go-to recommendations for affordable and reliable hosting.
It’s this affordability that earns Bluehost a spot on our list despite the absence of a dedicated web hosting deal for non-profits. With that said, their everyday deals are cheap enough to appeal to budget conscious non-profits. This is particularly true if you commit to a 36-month contract.
Setting up your website is also efficient with a one-click setup provided for WordPress as well as CMSs like Drupal and Joomla.
If anything goes wrong, Bluehost’s support team is knowledgable, professional, and available 24/7 through chat, phone, or email.
💡 You can read more about Bluehost in our review.
Pricing 💰
- Basic – $2.75 per month. ($11.99 after promo) for one website, 10 GB storage, and five email accounts.
- Choice Plus – $4.95 per month month. ($21.99 after promo) for unlimited websites, unlimited storage, unlimited email accounts, spam support, domain privacy, and site backups.
Both plans run on PCI compliant servers and come with a free SSL certificate, free CDN, one-click staging site, and a free domain for the first year.
2. DreamHost
Unlike most hosts, DreamHost doesn’t offer cPanel for server management. They offer their own custom solution which may take some getting used to.
This obstacle aside, DreamHost offers reliable and secure web hosting for non-profits and is worth careful consideration, particularly if you are planning to use WordPress. For US-based registered charities, they offer two heavily discounted single-site web hosting plans.
You have two options: completely free shared hosting or a 35% discount on managed WordPress hosting (the DreamPress package).
💡 Can’t choose between DreamHost and Bluehost? Read our comparison.
Pricing 💰
- Shared Starter is free for one website, 50 GB of SSD storage with unlimited visits and bandwidth.
- DreamPress starts at ~$16.95 per month. after the non-profit discount and covers a single site, 30 GB of SSD storage with 100k uncached monthly visits or unlimited cached visits.
Both plans run on PCI compliant servers and come with free email hosting, free SSL, server-side caching, and free domains with domain privacy.
For peace-of-mind, DreamHost offers automatic daily backups on both plans and on-demand backups on DreamPress.
3. InterServer
InterServer has been providing web hosting services for over 20 years and now they offer free web hosting to non-profits. Unfortunately, the deal is limited to US-based, registered non-profits.
Despite all the caveats concerning free hosting, the standard web hosting package does come with InterServer’s comprehensive security solution that blocks attacks, scans for viruses, and detects malware.
Pricing 💰
- Standard Web Hosting comes with unlimited websites, visits, bandwidth, storage, and emails. Both the SSL certificates and the CDN are free and your automated backups occur monthly.
Unfortunately, there are a few issues with the deal. When you sign up you have 30 days to add “Powered by InterServer” with a link to the footer of your website.
Unfortunately, PCI compliance is not available with InterServer’s shared hosting plans, you will need to arrange this with help from your payment provider.
Finally, InterServer does not offer a domain name or domain privacy in their plans. They do, however, offer cheap domain registration for $7.99 per year.
4. Kualo
Founded 15 years ago, Kualo is an oddly named hosting company from the UK. They are a sustainable web host offering green-powered hosting to over 100,000 web sites in 90 countries.
Despite being a smaller host, Kualo offers free web hosting to non-profits registered in the UK. They do have some limitations, but they also offer a 50% discount to any charity that doesn’t qualify for the free deal.
Pricing 💰
- Charity Solo is free for one site with 10 GB SSD storage, unlimited bandwidth, 10 emails and daily backups.
Kuala throws in a free SSL certificate on servers that are PCI compiant. The Kualo deal does come with two significant strings attached.
First, Kualo doesn’t offer a free domain and you will need to either purchase a domain through them or transfer any existing domains to Kualo.
Second, in order to qualify for the free hosting plan, you will need to provide a backlink to Kualo in the footer of your website.
5. Microsoft Azure
Microsoft Azure offers a great opportunity for technically minded non-profits to get web hosting. While Azure is an enterprise-level platform for cloud services, not a blog platform, the $2,000 USD annual credit makes it a worthwhile consideration.
Even taking this into consideration, you will need help from some experienced with cloud hosting.
And, keep in mind that real-world pricing of cloud products is notoriously difficult. You can get a sense of the cost using the Microsoft Azure Price Calculator and pricing documentation.
Pricing 💰
- $2,000 USD in free Azure credits for non-profits will get cloud hosting with 16 GB RAM and 4 vCPUs at $0.408 per hour with 100 GB temporary storage.
When it comes to added extras you get Microsoft 365 Business Premium for up to ten users (additional users discounted to $5 USD per user, per month) and free data visualization tools with Power BI desktop.
However, you will be responsible for maintaining the server and deploying things like PCI compliance.
In any event, Microsoft for non-profits has an unbeatable range of offers and discounts that make running a non-profit slightly easier. We recommend you check out the full range of non-profit discounts.
6. Flywheel
Flywheel is a popular managed WordPress host, which means it only works for WordPress sites. They offer discounts on their managed web hosting for non-profit organizations. If you’re a registered non-profit, then reach out to their sales team and start the conversation.
You will be happy you did. Not only is the platform very user-friendly with a streamlined custom dashboard, but Flywheel also has strategically placed data centers to guarantee your site’s performance all over the world.
Pricing 💰
- The Starter plan has a pre-discount price of $13.00 per month for one website with 10 GB SSD storage, 50 GB, and is good for 25,000 monthly visits.
When you sign up with Flywheel you will also get a free SSL, a CDN, and nightly backups.
There’s a lot to like about the Flywheel plan even if there’s no free domain name. The hands-on security removes a layer of site management with Flywheel experts taking care of malware and other attacks. If you have any concerns their support team is available 24/7 through tickets and chat.
7. Kinsta
If you’re running an established charity that has outgrown it’s hosting, then Kinsta’s managed WordPress solutions could be for you. For non-profits, they offer a recurring 15% discount on all of their WordPress hosting plans.
Better yet, they even offer this discount if you’d prefer monthly payments.
Kinsta is a great low-stress option for non-profits who’d like to delegate their site management while also enjoying a powerful platform. All Kinsta plans are powered by Google Cloud Platform, so you get the power of cloud hosting without the headaches.
💡 Curious about Kinsta? Read our review.
Pricing 💰
- The Starter plan is available for $24 per month with the non-profit discount. You can run a single WordPress site that gets 25,000 visitors and uses 10 GB of storage.
While you don’t get a free domain, you will have a free CDN and SSL certificate. Your daily backups are held for 14 days and Kinsta handles all of the tricky maintenance and security tasks.
8. Hostinger
Hostinger is a budget-friendly option that offers fast and reliable pricing for over 29 million websites around the world. They don’t offer free or discounted hosting but they have a range of low-cost hosting options, including shared, cloud, and cheap VPS hosting.
💡 You can read our full review of Hostinger here.
Pricing 💰
- Single Shared Hosting offer starts at $2.69 per month for the first year on a single site with 10 GB SSD storage and 10,000 monthly visits. You don’t get a free domain, but the SSL certificate is included in the price.
- Premium Shared Hosting starts from $3.99 per month in the first year and supports 100 websites with 20 GB SSD storage. This could be considered the full package with free email, SSL, and a domain name. Both bandwidth and databases are unlimited.
- VPS 1 is the cheapest VPS offering at just $4.49 per month for a single core and 1 GB of RAM. It comes with 20 GB SSD storage and 1 TB of bandwidth.
Hostinger’s servers are all located in PCI compliant data centers, so you will be able to ensure secure payments with a minimum of effort.
9. A2 Hosting
Another one of our hosting regulars, A2 Hosting offers discounts on all of their hosting packages to registered non-profit organizations in the US and beyond. However, you will need to contact them directly to discuss the size of the discount and the plan you would like to sign up for.
A2 Hosting has a range of great plans, but we recommend going with the WordPress Drive plan for flexibility.
💡 Read more about A2 Hosting in our review.
Pricing 💰
- The Drive Plan starts at $3.99 per month without a discount. You can build unlimited websites using unlimited storage and databases.
A2 Hosting offers the flexibility to host from global data centers using the latest green hosting technology. Not only will WordPress be installed and optimized, but A2 Hosting will provide security and help you set up Cloudflare.
Get your web hosting for non-profits today 💯
When you’re running a non-profit, every dollar counts.
Fortunately, there are a lot of hosts who offer discounts or budget-friendly hosting with an amazing amount of functionality.
All of the hosts we have mentioned in this article are great options for hosting your non-profit website. They offer speed, reliability, and security to give you the best value for your money.
Do you have any questions about the best web host for non-profts? Ask us in the comments below!
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