On my projects the domain and the hosting are registered to the owner of the site and paid directly to the provider: the invoice comes to you, the account stays yours, and changing contractors does not turn into a migration. Which leads to the question I get asked on almost every project — so which provider should I take?

Below is the answer I usually give. First what actually decides the choice, then the providers themselves: each has a strong side and the one that makes it wrong for somebody.

First — what it is you are hosting

Most of the bill is decided not by the provider but by what has to stay running around the clock.

• A static site — a company page, an expert’s site, a catalogue. It is a set of finished files: the server hands them to the browser without computing anything. The cheapest plan at any provider will do — 200–600 ₽ a month. Why I build sites this way is a separate article.
• A store or a web application — Medusa, a Next.js storefront, a client portal. Here a Node.js process, a PostgreSQL database, Redis and background jobs all run permanently. That needs a real server: 4 GB of memory at the least, 8 to be comfortable. About the platform itself.

The gap between those two lines is a multiple. The gap between providers within each line is a few hundred roubles, and it is worth thinking about only once the type of hosting is settled.

Two legal requirements that narrow the choice

This is not legal advice, and the details belong with a lawyer. But two rules bear on the choice of server so directly that passing over them in silence would be dishonest.

The register of hosting providers. Since February 2024, only companies entered in Roskomnadzor’s register may provide hosting services in Russia. The register is public, checking takes a minute, and it is the fastest way to rule a doubtful option out. Foreign platforms are not in it and are not going to be.

Localisation of personal data. An enquiry form, a callback request, a sign-up in a store — all of it is collection of personal data, and under 152-ФЗ the primary database has to sit in Russia. A visitor’s consent to transfer abroad does not lift that: the data has to be collected here first and only then passed on. Since 2025 the check covers not just the main hosting but the CDN, the backups and the logs as well.

Next to it stands an obligation people usually learn about late: an operator of personal data files a notification of processing with Roskomnadzor. Since 30 May 2025 the fine for not filing it is 100,000 to 300,000 ₽ for organisations and sole traders (part 10, article 13.11 of the Administrative Offences Code). A site with an enquiry form is exactly that case — and hosting has nothing to do with it: the notification is filed by the owner of the site, not by the provider.

There are everyday arguments pointing the same way: payment by a Russian card without any dancing, closing documents and electronic document exchange for a legal entity, and support in Russian in your own time zone.

Beget

Shared hosting from 420 ₽ a month, servers from roughly 330 ₽.

The strong side. The clearest control panel in the field: an owner who opens it once a quarter finds what they need without instructions. Thirty days of free trial, servers billed by the day, and prices published in full — no “ask a manager”.

The weak side. This is hosting, not a cloud: no managed databases, no private networks, no object storage with a CDN. The sites are St Petersburg and Kazakhstan; if Moscow matters to you, that is an argument against.

Who it suits. The owner of a static site or a small store who wants one invoice and a dashboard that makes sense the first time.

Timeweb and Timeweb Cloud

Shared hosting from 180 ₽ a month, cloud servers from 900 ₽.

The strong side. The cheapest way in. Timeweb Cloud is a real cloud: hourly billing, a server that stops costing money the moment it is switched off, sites in St Petersburg, Moscow and Novosibirsk. Payment by card, and through SBP and SberPay.

The weak side. Timeweb and Timeweb Cloud are two different products with two different dashboards, which is easy to get tangled in when ordering. And “from 180 ₽” means three years paid up front; month to month it is noticeably more.

Who it suits. Those counting the money and willing to pay a year ahead. Timeweb Cloud suits a store, when you would rather pay for what you use than for a year.

Reg.ru

Shared hosting from 420 ₽ a month; servers and domains as well.

The strong side. Domain, DNS, mail and hosting in one account — three fewer things for the owner to keep track of, three fewer passwords for the developer. Work with legal entities is well arranged: bank transfer, electronic document exchange, proper accounting documents. The data centre is in Moscow and the company is in the providers’ register.

The weak side. More expensive than the neighbours for the same resources, the ispmanager panel looks heavier, and the dashboard pushes add-on services insistently.

Who it suits. A legal entity for which the bookkeeping and a single supplier matter more than saving a couple of hundred roubles a month.

Selectel

Cloud servers from roughly 950 ₽ a month.

The strong side. This is infrastructure rather than hosting: cloud servers, managed PostgreSQL, object storage, private networks, load balancers. Tier III data centres in Moscow, St Petersburg and the Leningrad region, and declared compliance with 152-ФЗ up to level UZ-1. If there is a lot of personal data and the questions about it are serious ones, that carries weight.

The weak side. All of it has to be assembled yourself. The panel is designed for an engineer, not for the owner of a site, and the bill is made of line items — server, disk, address, traffic — so naming the monthly figure in advance is harder.

Who it suits. A store that intends to grow, and a company with data protection requirements. My own infrastructure — the server the demo sites run on — sits there too, so I am judging from my own experience.

Yandex Cloud, Cloud.ru, VK Cloud

The big clouds. Everything Selectel has, plus managed services for every taste, an API for all of it, and ties to the rest of the supplier’s ecosystem.

For a site or a small store this is usually too much. The billing is made of a dozen line items, and the owner cannot name the monthly figure in advance — which is normally the figure they care about. Their moment comes when the company already has a corporate perimeter, its accounting system in the cloud, or a requirement to keep everything with one supplier.

Object storage instead of hosting

An option for a static site that almost nobody mentions, though it is the tidiest one. The files go into S3-compatible storage — Selectel, Timeweb and Yandex all have it — and the same storage serves them through a CDN.

• There is no server at all: nothing to update, nothing to break into.
• You pay for volume and traffic, and for a small site that is tens of roubles a month.
• Load stops being your concern: a rush of visitors does not bring the site down.

There is one drawback, and it is a real one: a developer sets this up, once, and there is no familiar hosting panel afterwards. Mail for the domain has to be taken separately.

In short, in one table

Prices are as of September 2026; almost everywhere they depend on how far ahead you pay, so it is worth checking the provider’s own site before ordering.

What I recommend

• A company page, an expert’s site, a catalogue. Shared hosting at Beget or Timeweb, 200–600 ₽ a month. If the edits go through a developer anyway, object storage comes out cheaper and sturdier.
• A store on Medusa. A cloud server with 4–8 GB of memory, 1,000–2,000 ₽ a month: Timeweb Cloud or Selectel. Memory is not the place to economise — the database, Redis and the storefront build all run alongside the store.
• A company with an accounting system, integrations and a security department. Selectel or Yandex Cloud, and the conversation about hosting starts from their requirements rather than from the price.

What I advise against

• Foreign platforms. Vercel, Netlify and Cloudflare Pages are beautifully made, and I understand why people recommend them. But they are not in the register, and an enquiry form on them files personal data somewhere it is not supposed to be.
• The cheapest server with no backups. A backup is not a plan feature, it is the condition under which the site can be brought back at all. Check that it is switched on and that somebody can actually use it.
• Hosting registered to the developer. Mine included. An account opened and paid for by the owner is what makes changing contractors an ordinary procedure rather than a negotiation.

In the end

The choice comes down to two questions in a row. Does the site need a running server, or is handing over finished files enough — that answer changes the bill by a multiple. And are you happy with the panel and the support of whoever stays beside you after launch. Everything else is those few hundred roubles.

I help open and set up the accounts, I hand you the credentials along with the code and the repository, and the invoices come to you straight from the provider. How that works is on the How the work goes page. If you would rather skip the choosing and simply ask what to take for your own project, write to me — the review is free.