WordPress Costs: How Much Does a WordPress Website Cost in 2024?

WordPress requires you to obtain your own domain name for your website. The cost of your domain depends on where you purchase it from and what it is –– some domain names have a higher value than others.

Where you get your domain name can also impact what you pay. Some popular domain name buyer websites include GoDaddy or BlueHost.

GoDaddy, for example, will offer a discount for the first three years before you pay regular price –– you could pay $5 per year for the first three years and then $20 per year from there on out.

So, that’s why the cost of your domain name will vary greatly depending upon your provider and the name you choose.

Aside from your domain name, you must have web hosting. There are two options for web hosting: shared and dedicated.

With shared web hosting, you share a server with other businesses. This option costs less because different companies use the server, but the server may not perform as well.

When you use a dedicated server, you have your server for your business. A personal server will be more expensive, but you won’t need to share the server with other companies.

The cost will vary depending upon the type of web hosting you use and where you host your website.

View the Best Managed WordPress Hosting Providers

WordPress offers numerous themes for your business that can help you personalize your online presence. WordPress is home to a wide variety of free themes, but you can also find free themes from third-party websites.

There are also premium themes available to your business. These themes do cost money, but they make your site appear more professional, add more functionality, and include plugins.

The cost of these themes varies — you may find a theme for $20, or you might find a theme for $100. The prices vary greatly depending on the style.

Plugins are a crucial part of your WordPress site since they add functionality and make it more professional.

Some plugins will charge a yearly cost, while others charge a one-off fee. With over 50,000 plugins, you have dozens of options available to your company. There are multiple types of plugins you may use for your site, like anti-spam, search engine optimization (SEO), and site maintenance plugins.

The cost will vary depending on how many plugins you use.

One of the most important elements of your site is its security. You want people to feel safe if they’re browsing or shopping on your site. You’ll need to add security to your website to encourage people to remain on it.

You’ll want to get an SSL certificate, which is standard technology that keeps websites safe. It helps keep the user’s internet connections secure. Sometimes you can pay a one-time fee for security, but many security options require a monthly cost.

A basic security plan will run about $50 a year, but you can easily climb up to hundreds of dollars a year for more advanced security options.

A WordPress website isn’t a once and done endeavor. It requires continuous maintenance and updating to ensure you deliver the best experience for your audience. Not to mention, plugin providers will continually release updates to fix bugs and improve performance, which means you’ll need to update them if you’re using them.

So, when trying to determine if WordPress pricing is in your budget, don’t forget to factor in the cost of maintenance for your website. If you have someone in-house that can manage your website, you won’t need to worry about this factor as much.

If not, you’ll have to consider how much it’ll cost to have someone do your website maintenance for you. A freelancer will typically charge you an hourly rate, while an agency will charge monthly fees. The size and work needed for your website may also affect these rates.

Yes and no. Technically, WordPress is free for users who select the “Free” plan. Most businesses, however, require one of WordPress’s paid plans. WordPress prices for these plans range from a couple of dollars a month to over $1000 a month.

Companies should budget for the following ongoing WordPress costs:

• WordPress subscription
• Website hosting
• Domain name
• Website security
• Website maintenance
• WordPress plugins
• Additional file storage

As you finalize your plan, like whether you’ll maintain your site in-house or with an agency’s help, you can better estimate your WordPress website costs. You should always include a buffer in your budget, though, so you can respond to unexpected costs throughout the year.

Per year, WordPress websites cost around $75 to $15,000. How much your business pays will depend on features unique to your website, like the number of pages, functionality, overall design, plugin usage, and more.

Per month, WordPress websites cost around $7 to $1250. How much your business pays will depend on your website and its unique features. For example, your number of pages and plugins, as well as your website’s design and traffic, will influence your monthly WordPress cost.

The cost to build a WordPress website is $100 to $100,000 or more, which includes designing, developing, and launching your site. Keep in mind that your custom WordPress website costs will vary and depend on your unique wants and needs.

WordPress website design costs depend on whether your business designs your website in-house or hires a freelancer or web design agency to create your site. In-house WordPress website design prices range from $0 to $300, while freelancers cost $500 to $5000 and agencies cost $3000 to $100,000.

WordPress costs for website maintenance depend on who performs the maintenance. In-house website maintenance costs $0 to $25 per month, while freelancer website maintenance costs $50 to $100 per hour. Website maintenance services from an agency cost $119 to $449 per month.

WordPress is an excellent option for building your website, but there are good and bad features of this service. Let’s take a look at a few pros and cons of using WordPress and whether the cost of WordPress is worth it.

Pros

WordPress offers a lot to businesses looking to create their website. Let’s look at the three pros of using WordPress to build your website.

• Options: WordPress gives you the freedom to build any website for your business. From a basic blogger site to a complicated ecommerce site, you have the opportunity to create what your business needs. With all the available plugins, you can continue to expand your website as your business grows.
• SEO-friendly: WordPress creates very SEO-friendly websites from the start. While you can add plugins to help with SEO, WordPress’s site structure is great for SEO to start with. This structure means you’ll rank better in the search results and drive more traffic for your business.
• Affordable: WordPress can be affordable for your business if you only have basic needs. As you add more to your site, it can get more expensive, but overall, it’s relatively affordable for businesses that need a standard website.

Cons

While WordPress has a lot to offer to your business, there are cons to using this service. Let’s look at three cons of building your website on WordPress

• Complicated to learn: WordPress has a steep learning curve. It’s not as easy to use drag and drop website builders so that it can cause headaches for inexperienced website builders. WordPress takes time to learn and requires a bit of coding knowledge, so it can end up making matters more complicated for people who aren’t familiar with it.
• Many moving parts: WordPress doesn’t hand you everything you need on your website and tell you to build it. You have to pull at the pieces together, like your hosting, theme, plugins, and more. This setup makes it a more daunting practice for busy businesses.
• May require help: Since WordPress has many moving parts and is challenging to learn, you may end up hiring someone to create your site.

The cost to host a WordPress website is $24 to $10,000 per year — if your business chooses to self-host vs. allow WordPress to host your site. WordPress website costs for hosting will depend on your hosting plan. Companies can choose between a shared server or a dedicated service, for example.