What's Included in Australian Web Hosting (And What Costs Extra)
Sagar Sethi is the founder of Web Hosting People and Xugar, and the author of The Business Knight.
Published 18 October 2026 Last reviewed 18 October 2026 Getting started online
Most Australian hosting plans include broadly the same list: a control panel, a bandwidth allowance, storage, email accounts and a certificate. The feature list is rarely what separates one host from another. What separates them is whether the email, the certificate and the backups are genuinely inside the price, how much capacity comes with it, and whether the limits are published at all.
Below is the inclusion list as it applies to our Australian plans, then the things that are not included, because the second list is the one that decides your real annual cost.
Before comparing lists, what shared hosting actually means is worth reading, because the model is what decides where most of these limits sit.
What every Australian plan includes
| Included | What you get | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| cPanel | Control panel access for domains, email, databases and files | You manage mailboxes and records yourself instead of opening a ticket for each change |
| Unlimited monthly bandwidth | No traffic cap and no overage bill when a page or post gets busy | A good month does not arrive as an invoice |
| Unlimited email accounts | Mailboxes on your own domain | Email stops being a per seat cost |
| Unlimited databases | Databases for your site or your store | A second site or a working copy does not need its own plan |
| Unlimited addon domains and subdomains | Additional sites and subdomains from one plan | One plan can carry more than one website |
| AutoSSL certificate | HTTPS issued and renewed automatically for the domains pointed at the hosting | Security is on by default rather than bought and renewed by hand |
| Acronis hourly backups | Restore points taken every hour on Australian plans | A bad update or an accidental deletion stays recoverable |
| Fortinet hardware firewall | Network level filtering in front of the server | Protection at the server, not only inside the application |
That list is identical on all five Australian plans. What changes between them is disk space, memory and CPU, and each plan card states all three.
One qualification on the backup line, because it is easy to misread across products: Acronis hourly backups are an inclusion on Australian plans. International hosting is a separate offer with its own inclusions, so check what applies there before comparing the two.
What is not included
None of these are hidden charges. They are separate products, or separate services you may not need at all. They are listed because a comparison that ignores them is not a comparison.
| Not included | Where to find the cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Domain name | Domain pricing page | Registration and hosting are separate purchases. A name is priced per year, per extension. |
| SSL above the free certificate | SSL certificates page | Only needed for organisation validation, subdomain coverage or a warranty. The included AutoSSL certificate encrypts the connection in the same way a paid one does. |
| Malware scanning and removal | The SiteLock product, added to any plan | The firewall and the hourly backups are in the plan. Scanning, automatic removal and a trust badge for visitors are a separate product. |
| Paid plugin, theme and mail licences | Wherever you buy them | Nothing to do with hosting, and worth budgeting for separately. |
The domain row deserves a second sentence, because it is the one people ask about first. A domain registration is its own line with its own yearly price, and it renews at the price you see rather than jumping in year two. Prices and terms per extension are on the domain pricing page, and the eligibility rules for a .com.au are in our guide to the .com.au registration rules.
Moving an existing site across
Migration is included at no cost where you host with us for at least twelve months. That condition applies to every conversation about free migration, so it is worth stating plainly here rather than in a footnote.
If you are moving several sites, or a mailbox estate that has been running for years, ask what the move covers for your setup before you order. That question is worth asking of any host.
How to read the limits
The feature list tells you what is switched on. The limits tell you whether it will keep working, and they are the part most hosts leave out.
- Storage. Everything counts: site files, images, databases and email. A 5 GB plan holding four mailboxes with years of attachments is not a 5 GB website.
- Memory per request. What a single page load is allowed to use. Exceed it and you get a blank page or a 500 error rather than a warning, which is why a site with a lot of plugins needs more memory than its visitor numbers suggest.
- CPU. The processing allowance, stated on each plan card. It is what a busy page that is not cached consumes, so a site without caching works through its allowance faster than its traffic suggests.
The inclusions worth the most
Ranked by what they remove from a typical first year of hosting somewhere else:
- Email inside the plan. If a host charges per mailbox, the mail bill grows every time you add a person. Including it removes a cost that would otherwise track your headcount.
- SSL included and renewing itself. A paid certificate with a manual renewal is both a recurring cost and a recurring chance to forget.
- Hourly backups. Beyond the cost of a separate backup product, hourly restore points are the difference between a bad afternoon and a week of rebuilding.
- Unlimited bandwidth. Overage billing on traffic is how a good month becomes an invoice.
- Unlimited databases and addon domains. Often the difference between one plan and three.
What to ask any host, including us
Four questions worth putting in writing. The answers tell you more than the marketing copy does, and they are the same four whether you are talking to us or to somebody else.
- How often are backups taken, how long are they kept, and can I restore one myself?
- Is email included, and is there a cap on the number of mailboxes or the storage they use?
- What is the renewal price after the first term?
- What are the disk, memory and CPU limits, and what happens when I reach one of them?
On our side, three of those are answered on the plan page. Email is included and unlimited in count, backups run hourly on Australian plans, and every plan card states its disk space, memory and CPU. Retention and the renewal price are the two we would confirm in writing before you commit, and any host should be willing to do the same.
If you are weighing what all of this adds up to across a year, what hosting really costs in Australia works through the same list from the other direction.
Frequently asked questions
Does hosting include email?
With us, yes. Every Australian plan includes unlimited email accounts on your own domain. Not every host bundles mail, and the ones that do not tend to charge per mailbox, which is worth knowing before you compare two hosts on the plan name alone.
Is SSL included?
Yes. Every plan includes an AutoSSL certificate, issued and renewed automatically for the domains pointed at the hosting. Paid certificates are optional, and they exist for organisation validation, subdomain coverage or a warranty. The paid certificate tiers cover those cases.
Is a domain name included?
No. A domain is a separate purchase with its own yearly price, published per extension. Many businesses end up with the name and the hosting in the same account, but they are two purchases, priced and renewed separately.
Are backups included?
On Australian plans, yes. Acronis backups run hourly, so a recent restore point exists if something goes wrong. If you are looking at the international product, check its inclusions, because the two offers are put together separately.
What does unlimited bandwidth actually mean?
No traffic cap and no overage bill. The limits that constrain a busy site are memory and CPU, which is why the plan cards state those separately rather than folding them into a bandwidth figure.
Can I use Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 instead?
Yes. Both can be supplied through us if you would rather run mail in a hosted suite than in the mailboxes that come with the plan.
What do people assume is included and is not?
A domain name, a paid certificate tier, and malware scanning beyond the firewall. None of them is required to launch a site, and all three carry a cost if you want them.
See the inclusions plan by plan
Every plan carries the same platform: cPanel, unlimited bandwidth, unlimited mailboxes, hourly backups on Australian plans, free SSL and the hardware firewall. Pick the capacity your site needs, and move up later if it needs more.
Primary action: See the Australian shared hosting plans