About NoTricksHosting

Honest hosting reviews from people who've been burned by the "just $2.99/month!" bait-and-switch one too many times.

Why We Built This

We spent years recommending hosting to small business clients as part of our IT consulting work. Every time, we'd watch them get lured in by a $2.99/month intro price, only to discover at checkout that SSL was extra, WHOIS privacy was extra, backups were extra, and the renewal price was triple what they signed up for.

Meanwhile, every "best hosting" review site was recommending whichever host paid the highest affiliate commission — not whichever was actually best for the reader.

We got tired of it. So we built the site we wished existed: one that rates hosts on transparency, shows real prices, and recommends hosts we don't even earn from when they're the best fit.

Our Editorial Policy

Every review on this site follows the same rules:

  1. Transparency scores rate honesty, not just features. A host that includes fewer features but is upfront about pricing scores higher than one that hides costs behind upsells.
  2. We show intro AND renewal prices. Always. On every review. Because the renewal price is what you'll actually pay.
  3. We recommend hosts we don't earn from. Cloudflare, Porkbun, Netlify, Vercel — none of these pay us a cent. We recommend them anyway because they're great.
  4. Affiliate relationships are disclosed on every review. Not in tiny footer text. Right at the top, where you can see it.
  5. We never rank based on commission. Our rankings reflect transparency, value, and fit — not who pays us the most.

💚 Our Affiliate Disclosure

Some links on this site are affiliate links. When you sign up through them, we earn a commission at no extra cost to you. This is how we keep the lights on.

But here's the thing: we also recommend hosts that don't have affiliate programs at all. Cloudflare Pages, Porkbun, Netlify, and Vercel pay us exactly $0. We recommend them because they're honest, transparent, and genuinely good.

Every review clearly states whether we earn from the recommendation. If we do, we tell you. If we don't, we tell you that too. No tricks.

How Transparency Scores Work

Our transparency scores (A+ through F) evaluate hosts on a simple question: how honest and upfront is this company with its customers?

We look at:

  • Pricing transparency — Is the renewal price clearly shown before checkout? How big is the intro-to-renewal jump?
  • What's included — Are SSL, WHOIS privacy, backups, and email included or sold as extras?
  • Checkout experience — Does the checkout pre-select upsells? Are there dark patterns?
  • Fine print — Are there hidden limits on "unlimited" plans? Are there surprise fees?
  • Communication — Does the host clearly communicate pricing changes and renewals?

A host can have fewer features and still score an A+ if they're completely upfront about what they offer. Transparency beats feature count.

Who We Are

NoTricksHosting is built by the team behind OmniTechPro, an IT services company serving financial services firms on Maryland's Eastern Shore. We've been helping small businesses with their technology since 2018, and we've seen firsthand how predatory hosting practices hurt real people.

This site is our way of leveling the playing field. If you need hands-on IT help — not just hosting advice — OmniTechPro is here for that too.