The Green web hosting industry is booming as internet users are becoming more aware about the environmental impacts of conventional hosting. If you’re reading this article it means you already know that hosting is one of the biggest contributors to pollution. Just to give you some background, according to Climate Care, the internet industry is responsible for the emission of 3.7% of global greenhouse gasses.
This is the same amount of greenhouse emissions as the entire airline industry. The percentage is expected to be doubled by the year 2025. If internet would be a country, then its electricity demand would be the third highest in the world after China and US. Based on stats provided by BBC, every internet user emits 414Kg of CO2 in one year.
Everyone is looking for a more sustainable and eco-friendlier alternative to conventional hosting which is green web hosting. Now we have many options in green hosting service providers in the market. So, let’s find out “how much does green web hosting cost?”.
What Is Green Web Hosting?
For those who don’t know, green web hosting refers to any hosting company that uses renewable energy sources to power its data centers. This helps them in being carbon neutral because no fossil fuels (oil, gas, and coal) are burned. Instead, renewable sources (like hydro and solar power) are used for generating electricity to operate the data centers.
Data centers of web hosting are energy intensive and consume a lot of energy resulting in high amount of carbon emissions. Just by using green web hosting the amount of energy consumed and carbon emitted by the internet industry can be decreased significantly.
Some hosting companies don’t use renewable energy but do carbon offsetting to become green hosting company. This is another way to save the environment. As the company is responsible for planting enough trees to neutralize the effect of CO2 emitted.
Should We Switch to Green Web Hosting?
The research of Fraser Institute predicts that we are just 10 years away from climate catastrophe. If we don’t reduce greenhouse gas emissions, then we should be ready to face the consequences. So yes, it’s time that we switch to green web hosting and make the internet a better place.
Some business and website owners think that green hosting might be much more expensive and unreliable, which isn’t correct. In most cases, the green companies are offering the same or even lower prices compared to conventional hosting.
How Much Does Green Web Hosting Cost?
Since there are many different green web hosting providers available, the cost varies for each company. The cost of green hosting also differs based on the type of hosting plan you choose. However, if we take a rough estimate then green web hosting cost starts from $2.96 to $8 per month.
You can choose your green hosting company based on your budget and the hosting plans available. Before finalizing, you must know a few more things to ensure you’re making the right decision.
- See if the features offered are enough to fulfill your requirements. For example, Uptime, disk space, and backup.
- How reliable their services are in terms of customer support and management?
- You must look at the web hosting price for renewal because many hosting providers cost less the first time but charge heavily on renewals.
- Do they implement eco-friendly measures and green business practices?
Factors That Affect the Cost of Green Web Hosting
You can observe that there is a huge difference between the cost of green web hosting packages. This might seem absurd but several factors influence the cost of green web hosting. Some of the key factors include:
- Features Offered
Every green hosting company would have its hosting package with a combination of different features. A hosting package with extra features would cost more. Some of these features could include a free domain name, unlimited email accounts, unlimited bandwidth, free site builder, and migration.
- Hardware and Equipment Used
A hosting provider that has energy-efficient hardware and equipment would charge you less because they would have lower energy consumption. So, opt for those companies that use energy-efficient servers.
If your hosting company has a Renewable Energy Certificate (REC) that means their data center is powered by renewable sources. This will help them charge less on green hosting. However, if the hosting provider has Carbon Offset Certificate (VER) that means they must plant trees to offset carbon. So, their green hosting cost would be higher.
- PUE Rating of Hosting Company
When a hosting provider has low Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) rating (e.g.,1.2) then their green web hosting package would be cheaper. A lower PUE rating means they are using electricity efficiently.
How to Know If Website Hosting Is Green?
Many different aspects are involved for a company to become a green web hosting provider. For example, the hosting provider must ensure that they are not polluting the environment. This can be done by getting REC or VER certificates.
If web hosting is using renewable energy, then they’d get REC and in case of doing carbon offsetting, the hosting provider will get VER. This is the most tangible proof that makes web hosting green. So, do check if the company has any of these certificates.
Things that make a website hosting green are listed below:
- Carbon offsetting
- Being carbon neutral
- Using the natural cooling system
- Using renewable energy sources
- Following green business practices
Some other practices that make web hosting greener like going paperless and decreasing e-waste. If a hosting company takes additional initiatives like these then they should be preferred.
Tips to Choose the Green Web Hosting Provider
Due to the increasing trend towards green hosting number of companies offering eco-friendly hosting solutions has also increased. It can be very confusing to choose one from many options available.
Don’t worry because we have some tips for you that will help in choosing the perfect green hosting. You should finalize your hosting provider and plan based on the following factors.
- Finalize your budget per month for hosting your website. This will help you shortlist a few options that are within your budget constraints.
- List down your requirements. This can include disk space, bandwidth, business email, uptime, renewal cost, and backups. Based on these requirements you can further narrow down the options.
- Now check reviews of their existing customers about their hosting services. This will help you understand how reliable a hosting company is compared to others.
- The last thing to ensure you’re making the right decision is to see how good their customer support services are and do they offer 24/7 live support.
Is Green Hosting Available for WordPress Website?
Yes, green web hosting is available for WordPress websites as well. Thanks to its huge popularity, you can easily get your green WordPress hosting. According to the stats of EarthWeb, 455 million websites are based on WordPress in 2022. This makes 39.5% of all the websites on the internet.
So, doesn’t matter what type of website you have whether it’s WordPress or a custom website you can host it on green web hosting. Almost every green hosting provider has a dedicated WordPress hosting plan. The cost for WordPress green hosting starts from $2.5 per month.
How Green Hosting Is Beneficial For Environment?
Green hosting can significantly avoid the emission of greenhouse gasses into the environment. This will also help us use electricity efficiently to make the internet industry carbon neutral and sustainable. The report of Shift Project suggests that we can’t address climate change without making our IT industry green.
Green web hosting can help us control rising temperatures every year. A green hosting provider that does carbon offsetting will aid by planting trees and making the environment cleaner and greener. Heat emitted by the data centers can also be used to heat water instead of affecting the environment. On top of that, green web hosting is a great way to make your website sustainable.
Green Hosting Is Future for Sustainable Internet
We’re currently observing a huge impact of climatic changes around the globe in form of increased drought, hotter temperatures, severe storms, and rising oceans. Using green web hosting is the best place to get started because it is easy to switch and makes a huge difference.
While conventional hosting is polluting the environment, green hosting is contributing to a better, cleaner, and greener atmosphere. It might seem to be of very low impact to some people but when you see facts and figures you’d know how important it is to adopt green hosting.
So, it’s time for you to stand for the cause of green energy and choose green web hosting instead of conventional hosting. We should also spread awareness as much as possible.
Conclusion
The revolution of clean and green energy not just helps us at an individual level but supports a bigger cause to save the environment. Green hosting is very cost-effective as well because you can get started with as low as $2.95 per month.
This is a very reasonable cost for hosting your website with more than 99% uptime. So, don’t waste any more time and switch to green web hosting. We hope that the information provided in this article would be helpful for you.
If you want to know more about green web hosting, then do read some of our other articles as well. However, if you still have any doubts or questions please do let us know in the comment section down below and we’ll be glad to help as much as possible.
