Affiliate disclosure

HostingPrimer is free to read, and a small part of how it stays that way is affiliate links. When a handful of pages point you toward a beginner-friendly host or registrar, those links are affiliate links: if you sign up through one, the company may pay us a commission, at no extra cost to you. This disclosure explains the arrangement in full, in keeping with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission's guidance on disclosing material connections.

Where affiliate links appear

Most of this site links to nothing but its own explainers. Affiliate links appear only at the "now that you understand hosting, here is where beginners start" handoff — chiefly on the what is web hosting guide and the page on whether you need hosting. The hosts we may link — a low-cost shared host, a common WordPress default, a support-focused host and a domain registrar — are named because they are sensible, well-known starting points, not because they pay the most. Every affiliate link is marked with a sponsored, nofollow tag and routed through a /go/ redirect so it is easy to identify.

Why it doesn't affect what we write

This is a reference, not a rankings site, so there is no scoreboard for a commission to tilt. The definitions and explanations would be word-for-word the same if we earned nothing. Where the genuinely independent advice is to register a domain separately, or to stay on cheap shared hosting rather than upgrade, we say so plainly — even though it earns us less. Commissions fund the site; they do not write it.

Prices and your own checks

Any prices mentioned on HostingPrimer are advertised figures read in September 2026 and given as ranges, because hosting pricing changes often and varies by region and billing term. Always confirm the current price — and, more importantly, the renewal price — on the host's own site before you buy. If you have a question about this disclosure, email [email protected].