Every website lives somewhere. So in one sense, yes, hosting is required. But the question people actually mean is: is this a separate bill I have to go and arrange? Often it isn't.

The three situations

How you're building it	Do you buy hosting?
A free service that builds the page for you	No. It's included, and it's free.
A website builder (Squarespace, Wix, Shopify)	No. It's inside the monthly fee.
WordPress, or files you upload yourself	Yes. $5–$25 a month, separately.

That's the whole answer. The rest of this page is how to tell which one you're in, because a surprising number of small businesses pay for hosting twice without knowing it.

Signs hosting is already included

• You log into one dashboard and the site, the settings and the design are all there.
• You never upload files by FTP.
• Your bill says something like "Business plan, $16/month" rather than "Hosting" plus something else.
• You don't know what "cPanel" is. Good.

If it's a free service, there's no bill at all, and hosting is part of the deal. The trade-off is usually a sub-address rather than your own domain, and a standard template rather than a custom design.

Signs you're paying for hosting separately

• A bill from a company whose name you may not recognize, for $5–$30 a month.
• An email every month mentioning "cPanel," "disk space" or "bandwidth."
• You (or someone) once installed WordPress.
• You have a folder of website files on your computer and instructions about "uploading to public_html."

If that's you, two things to check this week: is the domain registered in your name, and is that hosting bill on a card that still works?

Paying twice

This happens more than you'd think. Someone pays a builder $20 a month, and also keeps paying an old host $9 a month from a previous website that no longer exists. Neither company will tell you. The old host is happy to keep charging for an empty account.

Look at your card statement for anything website-shaped. If you can't explain what a recurring charge is for, cancel it — after you've checked nothing you still use is on it.

What happens if you get it wrong

If you use a builder or a free service: nothing to get wrong. It's their problem, and they have more practice at it than you do.

If you run WordPress on separate hosting: a lapsed hosting bill takes the site down even though you still own the domain. The domain resolves, the host doesn't answer, and visitors see an error. That one's worth a calendar reminder.

How much should you pay

If you're buying hosting on its own for a one-page brochure site, $5–$10 a month is plenty. Above $25 a month you're paying for capacity or support you probably don't need yet.

If somebody is quoting you $50–$100 a month for "managed hosting" for a five-page plumber's site, ask what's included and compare against a builder's $16 plan. Sometimes it's justified — a real person who fixes things — and sometimes it isn't.

More on the numbers: how much hosting costs. And if you're deciding between the two approaches, hosting vs builders.