Web hosting is a commodity, just like your phone service or running water. The main difference between hosting and those examples is that there is an element of technical knowledge required to maintain a website.

If you have a very simple website, not tied to a database then you almost certainly only need a simple hosting account, there is really no reason to be vastly over paying.

A web host provides more than just the basic plan features, they provide you a service. If they always have problems and you never can get good support then they are not much use to you at any price.

You need a web host to do the following things

• Provide the features you need at a good price
• Maintain reliability so your site is available
• Offer timely and friendly support if you have questions or problems

If a host does the above three things then your web hosting will be just like your phone service - for the most part hassle free.

The price of your web hosting plan probably has the biggest impact on the type of service you will receive. Although even for very cheap plans you can often find good service.

There are hosting plans listed in FindMyHosting that are very cheap (under $1 a month) - these might well meet your needs and offer very good savings, but the support might not be as fast as a more expensive host. You will probably find many plans that offer middle of the road savings.

Read the customer ratings and check the reliability - you might well find that you can save hundreds of dollars a year.