The combined search for free website builders and free web hosting is at its highest level in almost two years as people come to terms with the cost of living crisis and the broader economic downturn.
In May-June 2022 alone, the search volume for free web hosting has doubled with a large increase in the number of people searching for free website builder services as well.
This is reflected in the number of website visits some of the best web hosting and website builder services have received.
Switching to free web hosting
There is also some evidence that this shift may have played out over several years.
According to data Similarweb shares exclusively with TechRadar Pro, GoDaddy has lost around 20 million website visits over the past two years, while cheap web hosting provider Namecheap has gained around eight million.
It’s not just GoDaddy that has taken a hit; Popular hosting providers like Bluehost and HostGator also saw a significant drop in website visitors from May 2019 to May 2022.
Alongside Namecheap, affordable hosting provider Hostinger also saw an increase in website visits as monthly visits rose steadily from just over 2 million in 2019 to 8.2 million in 2022.
Interestingly, searches for cheap web hosting dropped significantly in June 2022 as free web hosting became an increasingly popular search. Although in the last twelve months, the number of searches for cheap web hosting has increased by 30%, searches for cheap website hosting have increased by 44% and search volume for cheap website builders has increased by 20%.
That’s what our research revealed last year Web hosting and website builder traffic plummeted after COVID. The coupling of the damage from the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine has compounded the slowdown in the global economy, which is entering what may be a protracted period of weak growth and elevated inflation, according to World Bank statistics, reflected in the shift in the Web Hosting Requirements of Online Users.
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