The days of costly web hosting are over. Just a few years ago, hosting wasn't as inexpensive as it is today. Let's examine the reasons.
Hosting is all about data bandwidth and storage on a hard disk (which is located on the web server). Hard disk storage was not as big as it is now till a few years ago. Hard disk drives today typically range in size from 400 GB to 500 GB. Even the smallest ones for use with home computers come in sizes of more than 100 GB. Just a few years ago, a 40 GB hard disk was comparable to that.
A typical Linux web server with 4 Intel Xeon Central Processing Units and a handful of these 400 GB to 500 GB hard disk drives has more than enough processing power and storage space to support hundreds of websites on one server, all of which are happily operational.
With the addition of open source (free) Apache, PHP, and MySQL, you can host a true, functional dynamic website for incredibly little money. What was once a high-end combo is now extremely common, very inexpensive, and very accessible. It is not unusual to find hosting packages for as little as 99 cents a month, replete with PHP and MySQL and ample storage and bandwidth.
As a result, there is no need for anyone who wants to host anything from a personal homepage to a home business or small business desiring a dynamic website for their online business to stick with simple HTML webpages. No. That is no longer there.
For all uses and applications, shared web hosting has become relatively economical. Hosting will become more readily available with even better capacities more potent features as storage and processing technology develops. Utilizing the strength of PHP and MySQL when it is so easily accessible makes perfect sense.