As we’ve mentioned in one or two of our other articles, small business web site hosting is something you rent - rather than buy.

And there are so many different pricing options out there it’s easy to get lost wondering what the best way to pay is.

Some small business web site hosting companies will let you pay monthly, others quarterly, every 6 months or even every year.

Domains are typically purchased by the year - often with a minimum term of 2 years.

Paying monthly can be a good way to start if you have limited capital to set up your website because many of these decent quality small business web site hosts will only charge you $20-30 per month so you’re risking very little money to get online and test the water. In the worst case scenario, if everything goes wrong for whatever reason, you can just cancel the rebilling option and be back to square one.

Be careful though — note whether there is a minimum contract period (such as a minimum of a 12-month contract - like many cell phone providers do) though I’m pleased to say that very few that I’ve come across actually do tie you in to a long contract.

The better small business web site hosting companies, in my experience, really do take good care of their clients.

At the other end of the spectrum some small business web hosting companies allow you to pay for anything up to 2 years at a time (I have yet to see a longer period of time being made available).

On the downside you will have to stump up some serious cash upfront to do a deal like this but as I see it there are two real benefits of paying for longer periods of small business web hosting.

Firstly you will often get a discount on the monthly price you would have paid.

This can be significant and can amount to as much as 20-30% of what you would have spent over the same period  if you paid monthly so these savings really add up.

Secondly if you order your hosting package for the same period of time and your domain name it’s nice and easy to remember just once every year or two to just pay one invoice and you’re all ready to go again.

I have had situations where I have renewed my domain but forgotten the hosting or vice versa and it can be very frustrating I can assure you!

Taking the rough with the smooth though I should of course warn you that if you pay for a year’s small business web site hosting then decide to get rid of your website, build a different one instead, or your business goes bust it’s unlikely you’ll be able to get a refund on any unused months of your web hosting contract. So you’ll lose the money.

So the decision really is up to you - less risk paying for short periods of time for your small business web hosting but higher costs in the long term, or lower long term costs but higher risk if anything happens to your business.

Lastly I should say that how you decide to pay is unlikely to affect the service you receive - if you decide to pay monthly you shouldn’t get a less powerful small business web site hosting account or poorer service than others willing to cough up a whole years worth of fees in one go.