Guides

What does web hosting cost in Ireland?

By Ashton Foran, director. Published 22nd September 2026.

A hosting plan from an Irish host starts at about €5 a month and runs to about €30 for the bigger plans, and most of those prices are quoted before VAT. A .ie domain costs €19 to €47 a year to renew once the first year's offer ends. Business email is often a separate bill of €5 to €8 a month for each mailbox. For a small business website, the hosting itself should be one of the smallest costs you have.

Most of the confusion comes from four bills that get called "hosting" when they are different things, sold by different companies, renewing on different dates.

What are you paying for?

The hosting plan. Space on a server that keeps your website online, day and night. Everything else sits on top of it.

The domain. Your address, such as yourbusiness.ie. You rent it a year at a time from a registrar, and it should be registered in your name or your company's.

Email. Mailboxes at your own domain, such as info@yourbusiness.ie. Some hosting plans include basic mailboxes. Many businesses pay for Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace instead.

The padlock. The SSL certificate that makes your address start with https and stops browsers warning people away. Most hosts now include one free.

What each piece costs

What you pay for	What it usually costs
Hosting plan	About €5 to €30 a month, mostly before VAT
.ie domain	€19 to €47 a year to renew, before VAT
Business email	About €5 to €8 a month per mailbox, before VAT
SSL certificate	Usually included free

These are published prices from Irish hosts and registrars, checked in September 2026. They move, so check the price page on the day you buy.

For one small business website with two mailboxes, that comes to somewhere between about €80 and €600 a year before VAT. Most of that spread comes from the size of the plan and from whether email is included.

Why is the second year dearer than the first?

Hosting and domains are sold on a first-year offer. The low figure on the front page usually applies to the first term only, and sometimes only when you pay for two or three years up front.

Domains show it most clearly. One registrar's published price for a .ie domain is €2.99 for the first year and €46.99 for every year after, before VAT. Another charges €18.49 to register and €19.49 to renew. Over five years the second one works out at about half the cost of the first.

So the number worth comparing is the renewal price, and the one to write down is the date it renews.

Does it matter where the server is?

Less than people are told. A small, well-built website loads quickly from any decent server in Europe. What matters more for speed is how much the site itself asks a phone to download.

Where it does matter is data. A server in Ireland or elsewhere in the EU keeps your visitors' details inside the EU, which keeps the GDPR side of things simple.

Hosting on its own or hosting with care?

Hosting on its own keeps the site online. It does not change your opening hours, update a price, restore the site when something breaks or tell you the padlock is about to expire. Somebody still has to do those things, and if nobody is paid to, that somebody is you.

That is what a web designer's yearly fee is meant to cover: the hosting plus the upkeep plus the changes. When you compare a yearly fee against a hosting plan, compare it against the hosting plan plus your own time.

What to check before you sign up

The renewal price. Get the second-year figure and put the renewal date in your calendar.

Whether VAT goes on top. Most hosting prices in Ireland are shown before 23% VAT.

Whose name the account is in. The hosting account and the domain should both be in your name or your company's, with a login you control. Our guide on who owns your website goes through how to check.

What the backups are. How often they run, how long they are kept, and whether restoring one costs extra.

Whether email is included. If it is not, add the mailbox price before you compare plans.

What we charge

The first year of hosting is included in the €500 build. After that it is part of care at €300 a year, along with security, backups, small changes, new pages and a monthly report. There is no VAT on top. Your domain is registered in your name from day one, and if you ever leave, the site and the domain go with you.

How that sits against what a website costs to build is in how much a website costs in Ireland, and every figure is on our pricing page.

Common questions

How much is web hosting in Ireland? A hosting plan from an Irish host costs about €5 to €30 a month, mostly before VAT. Add a .ie domain at €19 to €47 a year to renew and email at about €5 to €8 a month per mailbox if it is not included.

How much does a .ie domain cost? The first year is often on offer from about €3. The renewal is what you pay every year after, and published renewal prices run from about €19 to €47 a year before VAT.

Is web hosting paid monthly or yearly? Either. Most hosts charge less a month when you pay a year or more up front, and the lowest advertised price usually needs a long term paid in advance.

Do I need to pay for an SSL certificate? Usually not. Most hosts include a free certificate that renews itself. If yours charges for a basic one, ask why.

Can I move my hosting later? Yes, as long as the domain and the hosting account are in your name. The site is copied to the new host and the domain is pointed at it. If either one is in somebody else's name, sort that out first.