WordPress Costs: How Much Does a WordPress Website Cost?

Cost is no longer a factor when it comes to starting a website. The most affordable way to do so is with WordPress. Still, since there are so many different hosting subscription options and pricing models, it can be tricky to prepare a website budget. So, how much does it really cost to create and run a WordPress website?

In this guide, we'll let you know how much money to set aside to get your WordPress website up and running, as well as what you'll be paying for.

Let's take a look at the necessary or unavoidable costs associated with running a WordPress website. Thankfully, there are only two of them: Hosting and a domain.

Web hosting is an expense that you won't be able to avoid paying for. To get any website online, you'll need storage space on a web server, as well as a few other services offered by hosting providers. This is no different for WordPress websites, however, there are companies that specialize in providing hosting solutions exclusively designed for WordPress websites, WordPress hosting.

What you pay for managed WordPress hosting varies significantly from provider to provider. Not helping to clarify things is that each service also offers a range of different subscriptions intended to meet the needs of different kinds of websites. Comparing the lowest-priced plans is a good yardstick for determining how affordable each provider's plans are. In the table below, you can compare how the 9 providers from our sample measured up:

As you can see, there are huge differences even for beginner plans and packages. Some providers charge in a month what others ask subscribers to pay over the course of a year.

We're able to make one conclusion about the higher-priced services from our ranking: They offer better support. With more affordable hosts, you'll need to accept weaker and/or slower customer support. Of course, there are differences in other areas too, such as in terms of performance and the variety and number of features that are included.

The winner among our sample of managed WordPress hosting services was SiteGround: Hailing from Bulgaria, it didn't only impress us with its excellent performance, but also its user-friendly design concept, huge selection of features, and top-notch security standards.

And it's priced right too: Since subscriptions include free email hosting and a domain (for the first year), you'll get excellent value for money in an all-in-one package.

In terms of blemishes, we did miss having hotline support as well as the limitation of on-demand, manual backups to GrowBig and GoGeek subscribers.

Just like hosting, there's no getting around paying for a domain. This is your WordPress website's name and the address where it can be found online. Thankfully, many hosting services throw in a free domain (at least for the first year) in their subscription packages. If the provider you've selected doesn't, you'll need to purchase one separately. Even then, if hosts don't offer domains, they usually allow subscribers to purchase them separately.

But how much does a domain cost? This depends on the domain name and domain ending. For a .com or .org domain, you can expect to pay around $10 per year, however, this can increase. Should your desired domain already be owned by someone else, you can also expect higher costs if you intend to purchase it from them.

Apart from the mandatory costs above, there are also a number of potential fees and charges that you might decide to pay. To make sure that your website meets your requirements, you'll need more than just the features your hosting package and WordPress include.

Below, we've summarized some of the most common (optional) WordPress website costs:

It's hard to talk about WordPress without mentioning its plugins. Whenever you can't find a feature or tool that you're looking for, there's a 99.9% chance that there's a WordPress plugin for it. The only drawback: Most of the time, these cost extra.

Just how much a plugin costs varies dramatically. For some, you'll pay a monthly or annual fee, while others have a one-time charge. Expect to pay anywhere from $0 to $500 per plugin, per year.

WordPress themes provide the design framework for your WordPress website. Each theme makes a range of different tools, features, and elements available for you to customize your WordPress website's appearance, layout, and design.

In terms of price, themes are a lot like plugins: There are free options, however, the highest-quality ones are often premium. Thankfully, you only have to pay for most themes once, with the subscription model being far less common. Expect to pay anywhere from $20 to $200 for a premium WordPress theme.

Some managed WordPress hosting services also occasionally try to extract more from their paying subscribers by offering certain non-subscription features as at-cost add-ons. Most of the time, these are performance or security features kept behind paywalls that aren't necessary, but nice to have. These include:

Do you need professional assistance in designing your WordPress website? Or maybe you want a graphic designer to create a logo for your business page? Perhaps you need custom code, that can only be written by a developer? Or ad-copy and marketing expertise?

These are just some of the services you might need to bring your WordPress website to the next level. Options, and the associated costs, are nearly endless. To learn more about the best places to find freelancers, as well as what sort of costs they entail, and what you can expect to pay for a custom-built website, be sure to check out our guides:

Do you have $50? If so, congratulations, you have enough to design and host your own WordPress website on a unique domain with a managed WordPress hosting service for a year. Of course, in terms of costs, the sky is the limit. Many hosting services charges significantly more, offering better service and performance in exchange.

In addition to the unavoidable costs of operating a WordPress website (hosting and a domain), there are many other (optional) costs, such as for premium themes, plugins, or hosting add-ons. The great thing about WordPress is that it can fit just about any budget, allowing you to make a truly professional website for whatever kind of investment you can afford.