How Much Does It Really Cost to Build a WordPress Website?

So, you’re ready to build a WordPress website – that’s awesome! WordPress itself is free, but let’s be real, there’s always going to be some costs involved.

We’ve built hundreds of WordPress sites here at WPBeginner – everything from simple blogs to complex eCommerce stores, so we’ve seen it all when it comes to budgeting.

In this article, we’re breaking down the costs associated with creating a WordPress website. We’ll explain what you might spend and, more importantly, why you might spend it.

We know that budgets are important, so we’re also sharing insider tips on how to manage your spending and minimize costs without sacrificing quality. Basically, we’re here to help you navigate everything, so you end up with a world-class WordPress website, no matter what your budget.

We’re going to cover a lot of important information in this article. You can use the quick links below to jump straight to the topic you want to learn about:

What Do You Need to Build a WordPress Website?

WordPress is free for anyone to download and use. It’s open-source software, which means you’re free to install it on any kind of website.

If WordPress is free, then where is the cost coming from?

The cost of a WordPress site can be broken down into the following categories:

• WordPress hosting
• Domain Name
• Design
• Plugins and extensions (apps)

To create a self-hosted WordPress site, you need web hosting to store your files. Every website on the internet needs hosting. This is your website’s home on the internet.

There are different hosting plans available for all kinds of websites, so you need to pick the one that suits your requirements and fits your budget.

Next, you will need a domain name. This will be your website’s address on the internet, and this is what your users will type in the browser to reach your website (for example, optinmonster.com or wpforms.com).

The great thing about WordPress is that there are tons of free website templates available that you can use. However, if you want something more advanced or custom, then you can purchase a premium template or have one custom-made, which will raise the cost.

Then, there’s any additional software you may want to use. There are 59,000+ free plugins on WordPress.org alone that you can use to add features such as contact forms and galleries. However, at some point you may want to invest in premium plugins, apps, or extensions.

So, while you can build a website with just the hosting and domain cost, you may end up paying for additional tools and services. That’s why figuring out the real cost of a WordPress website can be so confusing.

Feeling lost? Don’t worry – let us walk you through the real cost of building a WordPress site.

Estimating The Real Cost of Building a WordPress Site

Depending on your needs, starting a WordPress website can cost from $100 to $500 to $3000, or even as high as $30,000 or more.

Knowing what kind of website you’re building and what features you need is crucial, as this directly impacts your overall cost.

But don’t worry. We’ll show you how to avoid a financial disaster and make the best decisions.

For the sake of this article, let’s break down websites into different budget categories:

• Building a WordPress website (low budget)
• Building a WordPress website (with more features)
• Building a WordPress website for small business
• Building a WordPress eCommerce website
• Building a custom WordPress website

Now let’s see how much each of these projects costs and how you can avoid spending any more than necessary.

What’s the Cost of a WordPress Website (Low Budget)?

You can build a fully functional WordPress website for yourself and keep your costs under $100. Here is the cost breakdown of a WordPress website on a low budget.

First, you will need a domain name and web hosting.

A domain name typically costs $14.99 / year, and web hosting normally costs $7.99 / month.

Thankfully, Bluehost, an official WordPress-recommended hosting provider, has agreed to offer our users a free domain name and up to 83% off on web hosting.

For more hosting recommendations, check out our guide on how to choose the best WordPress hosting.

Next, you will need to install WordPress on your hosting account. For complete instructions, see our step-by-step guide on how to start a WordPress blog.

Once you have installed WordPress, you can choose a design for your website using a free template. These design templates are called WordPress themes, and they control how your website looks.

There are thousands of professionally designed free themes available for WordPress that you can install. For some examples, see our expert pick of beautiful free WordPress blog themes.

Once you have chosen a WordPress template, follow the instructions in our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress theme.

Next, you may want to add certain features to your website, like a contact form, a photo gallery, or a slider. Don’t worry, there are more than 59,000 WordPress plugins available that will help you do exactly that, without costing a cent.

Plugins are like apps or extensions for your WordPress site. After choosing a plugin, see our step-step guide on how to install it.

Not sure where to start? We’ve put together a list of essential WordPress plugins that you can install on your site for free:

Features

• WPForms Lite – Add contact forms to your WordPress site and accept online payments with Stripe.
• Novashare – A top-notch social media plugin that won’t slow down your website.
• SeedProd Lite – Easily build custom landing pages for your website without writing a single line of code.

Website Optimization

• All in One SEO – Improve your WordPress SEO and get more traffic from search engines such as Google.
• MonsterInsights (Free) – Track visitor stats using Google Analytics, so you can see exactly where people are coming from, and the content they’re interested in.
• WP Super Cache – Improves your website’s speed by adding cache.

Website Security

• Duplicator or UpdraftPlus– These WordPress backup plugins ensure you always have something to restore, in case disaster strikes.
• Sucuri or MalCare – Scan your site for malware and keep your visitors safe.

There are many more free WordPress plugins that can add different features and extend your WordPress site in all kinds of ways. Want to learn more? We’ve reviewed hundreds of WordPress plugins, spanning all kinds of categories.

Total Cost of website: $46 – $100 per year

What’s the Cost of a WordPress Site (with More Features)?

We always recommend our users start small and then add more features as their website grows. This way, you’re not paying for things you don’t really need.

As you add more features to your website, your costs will start to increase.

You can continue to use Bluehost for WordPress hosting to keep the cost low and get a free domain name.

However, as you add more features to your website, it may make sense to get a more powerful hosting configuration like SiteGround’s GoGeek plan. This will cost you a little more, but it comes with premium features like staging, faster performance, and can handle up to 100,000 visitors per month.

You can use our SiteGround coupon to get 83% off for the first year of your hosting.

You can also invest in a premium WordPress template for your site. Unlike free WordPress templates, these templates come with extra features and priority support. For some great premium templates, see our expert selection of the best responsive WordPress themes.

To get more features, you’ll typically need to use a combination of free and paid plugins. To help you out, here’s some essential premium WordPress plugins and extensions that you’ll need as your site grows:

Features

• WPForms Pro – Adds a drag-and-drop form builder to your WordPress site.
• WP Rocket – Premium WordPress caching plugin to speed up your site.
• SeedProd Pro – Adds a drag-and-drop WordPress page builder.
• WP Mail SMTP – Improves email deliverability and fixes a known issue where WordPress doesn’t send emails properly.
• Uncanny Automator – WordPress automation plugin that helps you connect your website with popular tools and services without writing any code.

Marketing

• Constant Contact – One of the best email marketing services.
• OptinMonster – A powerful lead generation tool for WordPress that converts abandoning website visitors into subscribers.
• MonsterInsights Pro – Advanced analytics so you can monitor how visitors find and use your site.
• All in One SEO Pro – Improve your website’s SEO ranking.
• PushEngage – Get more traffic with push notifications.
• HubSpot – All-in-one CRM, live chat, email marketing, and sales tools.

Security

• Duplicator – Backup your site securely to the cloud, so you always have a recent copy to hand.
• Sucuri Firewall – Website firewall and malware protection.

There are many more WordPress plugins and services that you can add. Just be aware that each paid service or addon will increase the cost of your WordPress site.

Total cost of website: Depending on the premium WordPress plugins and services you add, the total cost can be anywhere between $500 and $1000 per year.

What’s the Cost of a Small Business Website with WordPress

A lot of people ask us how much it costs to build a small business website with WordPress. The answer depends on your business needs and the tools you’ll use to grow your business online.

Basically, you can estimate the cost to be somewhere between a low-budget WordPress site and a WordPress site with more features.

Just be aware that this estimate doesn’t include the cost of a full eCommerce store. For a more accurate estimate for online stores, please see the next section.

If you are just starting out and need a simple website showcasing your products and services, then we recommend starting with Bluehost. Their starter plan will reduce the cost significantly and leave you with more money to spend on other premium tools, if needed.

If you have a more flexible budget, then you can sign up for SiteGround’s GrowBig plan. They are known for their excellent support, which is a life-saver if you’re a busy small business owner with no technical background.

Next, you will need to pick a design for your website. You can look at our top pick of WordPress themes for business websites or pick a responsive WordPress theme that matches your requirements.

You can choose a free WordPress theme. However, since you’re creating a business website we recommend purchasing a premium theme, so you’ll have access to support and updates.

Now, let’s talk about plugins.

In our experience, it’s a good idea to use a combination of free and premium plugins in order to keep costs down. To get started, here’s some of the premium plans that are absolutely essential for a small business website:

Features

• WPForms Pro – The premium version has all the features you need to generate leads. This includes PayPal, Stripe, and Square payments, conversational forms, email marketing integration, and more.
• SeedProd Pro – Adds a drag-and-drop WordPress page builder.
• WP Mail SMTP – Improves email deliverability and fixes the known issue where WordPress doesn’t always send emails correctly – this is essential for making sure your messages arrive safely in the recipient’s inbox, and not in their spam folder.
• Uncanny Automator – WordPress automation plugin that helps you connect your website with popular tools and services without having to write any code.

Marketing

• Constant Contact – One of the best email marketing services, especially for small businesses.
• OptinMonster – Helps you convert website visitors into leads and customers. You’ll need it for lead generation and conversion optimization.
• MonsterInsights Pro – This Google Analytics plugin helps you see where your users are coming from and what they do on your website. This empowers you to make data-driven decisions to grow your business.
• All in One SEO Pro – Improve your website’s SEO ranking, so more people can find you on search engines such as Google.

Security

• Duplicator Pro – The premium version of Duplicator comes with automatic backup scheduling, remote storage locations for your backups, drag and drop site migrations, and more.
• Sucuri Firewall or MalCare – Website firewall and malware protection.

Now, there are many more plugins and tools that you might want to use. The great thing is, many premium plugins have free versions, and lots of premium tools offer free trials. We recommend trying these out before committing to a purchase to make sure they’re a good fit for your business website.

Of course, we understand that businesses need to invest to grow. The key is to make sure those investments are smart and within your budget.

For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to make a small business website.

Total cost of website: Once again it depends on the premium tools and plugins you purchase. The total cost can be anywhere between $300 and $700 per year, but could go as high as $1000 per year.

What’s the Cost of a WordPress Ecommerce Website?

WordPress powers millions of eCommerce websites around the world.

In our experience, the cost of building a WordPress eCommerce website is often significantly higher, but we will show you how to build a WordPress eCommerce website while avoiding potential losses and overspending.

In addition to hosting and domain, your eCommerce site will need an SSL certificate, which costs around $69.99/year. SSL is required to securely transfer customer data such as credit card information, usernames, and passwords.

We recommend using Bluehost as it gives you a free domain and SSL certificate, plus a discount on hosting.

After that, you need to select a WordPress eCommerce plugin.

There are several eCommerce plugins for WordPress, but none even comes close to WooCommerce. It is the most popular WordPress eCommerce plugin that lets you build robust online stores to sell your products and services. In fact, according to our eCommerce stats, WooCommerce is the most popular eCommerce platform, with an eCommerce market share of 37.7% and 6.6 million users.

For more information, please see our detailed WooCommerce review.

Next, you will need to install WordPress and WooCommerce on your website. To help you out, we’ve created a step-by-step guide on how to start an online store.

Once you are up and running, you will need to choose a WooCommerce WordPress theme for your site. There are several paid and free WordPress templates with full WooCommerce support. We recommend choosing a premium or paid template, as these typically come with professional support.

While WooCommerce is free, you will need to use paid addons for additional features. The cost of your website may increase depending on how many extras you add to your site.

Unsure where to start? We’ve created a list of the best free WooCommerce addons, but you may need to use some paid extensions as well.

Here are some other paid services that you’ll need on your eCommerce website:

Features

• WPForms – To add customer inquiries and feedback forms, surveys and polls, and more.
• SeedProd Pro – Adds a drag-and-drop WordPress page builder to create beautiful product grids, customize the WooCommerce checkout, and more.
• WP Mail SMTP – Improves email deliverability and fixes a problem where WordPress may not send your emails correctly. This is bad news when you’re running an online store, as your transactional emails may get lost in the spam folder.
• Uncanny Automator – WordPress automation plugin that helps you connect your website with popular tools and services without having to write a single line of code. It’s basically the secret to supercharging your online store.
• FunnelKit – Create high-converting sales funnels, slide out carts, frictionless checkouts, 1-click upsells, order bumps, and more. This plugin can really boost your bottom line!

Marketing

• OptinMonster – Convert visitors into customers with this powerful lead generation tool.
• Constant Contact – Powerful email marketing service.
• MonsterInsights – Ecommerce tracking with real-time stats using Google Analytics. Find out what products your customers are buying, which traffic sources are delivering the most revenue, and more.
• All in One SEO Pro – Improve your WooCommerce SEO ranking.
• HubSpot – All-in-one CRM, live chat, email marketing, and sales tools.

Security

• Duplicator or BlogVault – Backup your online store, including customer information and order details.
• Sucuri – Keep your customers and their payment information safe, with this website firewall and malware scanner.

Remember, the best way to keep your costs down is by starting small and adding extensions and services as your online store grows.

Total cost of building a WordPress eCommerce website: $1000 – $3000. It could be higher depending on how many paid addons and services you add to your eCommerce store.

What’s the Cost of a Custom WordPress Site?

A custom WordPress site is when you hire a WordPress developer to create a unique design and build specific features for it.

Usually well established, large to medium-sized businesses choose this route.

To support a custom WordPress site, you may also want to go for a managed WordPress hosting provider. This is a WordPress-centric hosting environment with managed updates, premium support, strict security, and developer-friendly tools.

In addition to your hosting and domain name, you will need to pay the web developer that’s building your website. Depending on your needs, you may want to get quotes from several theme developers, web designers, and agencies.

The cost of a custom website depends on your requirements, budget, and the rates of the developer or agency you hire.

A standard custom WordPress theme alone can cost you up to $5,000. More robust WordPress sites with specific custom features can cost up to $15,000 or even higher.

However, if you want to get a custom WordPress site without breaking the bank, WPBeginner Pro Services offers custom WordPress site design and development at revolutionary pricing.

The Custom Web Design package, which costs $1,299, includes a dedicated project manager, WordPress setup, bespoke homepage design, 5 templated subpages, analytics setup, Brandy style guide, and much more.

For more recommendations, see our pick of the best places to hire WordPress developers.

Aside from that, we have created a beginner’s guide on how much it costs to start a membership site in WordPress.

Regardless of the type of custom website you want to create, one effective way to reduce custom WordPress site costs is by using the SeedProd plugin. SeedProd is a drag-and-drop website builder that lets you create custom themes and page layouts without editing any code.

You can use SeedProd to reduce your custom WordPress site costs by as much as 90%.

For more details, see our tutorial on how to easily create a custom WordPress theme with SeedProd.

Want to see what SeedProd can do? We’ve used SeedProd to design multiple websites for our partner brands, including the WP Charitable, WPForms, and Duplicator sites. Even the SeedProd website was designed using SeedProd!

Intrigued? You can learn more about this popular page builder plugin, by checking out our complete SeedProd review.

How to Avoid Overpaying and Cut Down Spending?

We always recommend our users start small and then scale their WordPress site as it grows. In many cases, you don’t need all the premium features that you see on many well-established websites in your industry.

Keep in mind that those websites had a head start, and it likely took them some time to figure out how to manage costs and grow their business.

You can start with a budget website using free plugins and templates. Once you start getting visitors, you can consider adding premium features like a professionally-designed template, email marketing, a paid backup plugin, a website firewall, a business email address, business phone services, live chat, and so on.

The same goes for your eCommerce website. Start with the bare minimum, and then add more tools and features as you figure out what will help you and your customers.

Another top tip, is to look for the best WordPress deals and coupons to get additional discounts whenever you can. It’s all about maximizing your budget!

And remember, you don’t always need to hire a developer. We have step-by-step tutorials on how to create different types of WordPress websites, such as:

• How to create a business directory with WordPress
• How to create an online review website with WordPress
• How to build an auction website using WordPress
• How to build a coupons website with WordPress
• How to create a multilingual website with WordPress
• How to create a job board with WordPress
• How to create a questions & answers website with WordPress
• How to create a portfolio website with WordPress
• How to create a wiki knowledge base website using WordPress
• How to create an online marketplace using WordPress

Video Tutorial

If you’d prefer a visual overview of how much it costs to build a WordPress site, you can check out our video tutorial:

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We hope this article answers your questions about how much a website costs to build. You may also want to see our list of legit ways to make money online with WordPress, and our AI-powered business name generator tool to come up with company name ideas.

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