Pricing for web hosting can range from free web hosting, to a few bucks a month for cheap shared web hosting to hundreds of dollars a month for dedicated hosting.

Free web hosting as the name implies is free and doesn't cost anything. Often times, the resources are extremely limited and shared between thousands of users, the technologies are limited (for instance no database access or MySQL, etc), and possibly there are stringent requirements for hosting such as the requirement to place banner ads or links on every page to the host company.

Cheap web hosting or shared web hosting is basically a cheaper alternative to dedicated hosting which allows for multiple user accounts to host their respective web sites on the same computer. Since multiple people are paying for hosting and for the technology and resources, the divided costs end up being less. So the hundreds of dollars a month that someone would spend if they had the entire web server for just their one website can be spread amongst the several individuals hosting on the shared web server. Hence shared web hosting often ranges from less than $10 a month to the 10s of dollars a month for shared hosting.

Dedicated hosting as previously mentioned is expensive and is up to hundreds of dollars a month for the web server. The whole computer of the web server is practically yours; all the resources are used for your web site and you get full control, but someone's gotta pay for the computer and the web space and memory and hardware and transfer rates, etc, and that person is you, so you get all the costs.

VPS hosting or virtual private server is somewhere in between dedicated hosting and shared hosting since the number of users is significantly limited and resources are limited but dedicated to each user.

Things that make web hosting cost more or less is the computer/hardware its on and the software technology. For instance Windows hosting costs more than Linux hosting because the cost of Windows operating system is more. ColdFusion hosting is more costly than a server that only offers PHP or ASP because a ColdFusion application server is about a thousand dollars or more and that cost has to be absorbed by the end user. SQL server databases cost more than MySQL databases so if a Web Hosting company offers SQL Server database then it'll cost more than just offering MySQL. Even the control panel used (ie CPanel or Plesk) can cost more than having a more generic or custom control panel.

So all the above mentioned various factors determine the cost of web hosting. Just remember shared web hosting is pretty cheap vs dedicated or VPS hosting. Also Windows hosting costs a little more than Unix/Linux hosting. And SQL Server will cost you more than MySQL.