Although an average hosting account is typically set up automatically, there are still small setup duties that are handled manually by the website hosting company. The set up of a virtual or a dedicated server requires more efforts because a lot of time is spent to install and set up the software and hardware platform, and after that test the server in order to guarantee its optimal operation prior to it being handed over to the end user. To help cover the amount of time spent on that, numerous companies have a set-up charge that you need to pay any time you order your brand new website hosting plan. In many cases, that particular charge will not appear prior to reaching the payment page and you won't notice it before that on your main page next to the web hosting package attributes. In the general case, this fee is one-time and it can range from a little to a significant amount of money depending on the company.