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

Building a WordPress website has a cost, even though the core software is free. The total expense depends greatly on your budget and what you want to achieve with your site.

This article breaks down the costs associated with creating a WordPress website. We aim to clarify how much you might spend and why.

We will also offer tips on how to manage your spending. Learning to minimize costs without sacrificing quality is key to building an effective website.

Our guide will help you navigate the expenses of website creation, ensuring you get the best value for your investment.

This is a lengthy read, and that’s why we have added a table of contents. Here is what we will cover in this article:

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What Do You Need to Build a WordPress Website?

WordPress is free for anyone to download and use. It is open-source software that gives you the freedom 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. You need to pick 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, wpbeginner.com or google.com).

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

There are 59,000+ free plugins for WordPress. These are apps and extensions for your websites. Think of features like a contact form, gallery, etc.

So, while you can build a website with just the hosting and domain cost, based on your situation, you may end up paying for additional tools and services. That’s why it’s often confusing for people to find out the real cost of a WordPress website.

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, your cost to start a WordPress website can range from $100 to $500 to $3000, to even as high as $30,000 or more.

It’s important to know what type of website you are building and what you’ll need for it because that will directly affect your 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 61% 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. See our step-by-step guide on how to start a WordPress blog for complete instructions.

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 the appearance of your website.

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

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 adding a contact form, a photo gallery, a slider, etc. Don’t worry; there are more than 59,000 WordPress plugins available that will help you do that.

Plugins are like apps or extensions for your WordPress site. See our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Below is our selection of the essential WordPress plugins that you should install on your website. All of them are available for free.

Features

• WPForms Lite – Add contact forms to your WordPress site and accept online payments with Stripe.
• Shared Counts – The best WordPress social media plugin that doesn’t slow down your website and is fully GDPR compliant.
• SeedProd Lite – Easily build custom landing pages for your website without any code.

Website Optimization

• All in One SEO – Improve your WordPress SEO and get more traffic from Google.
• MonsterInsights (Free) – Helps you track visitor stats using Google Analytics.
• WP Super Cache – Improves your website’s speed by adding cache.

Website Security

• Duplicator or UpdraftPlus– Free WordPress backup plugins.
• Sucuri or MalCare – Free website malware scanners.

There are many more free WordPress plugins to add different features and extend your WordPress site. See our best WordPress plugins category, where we have reviewed hundreds of WordPress plugins.

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 will not be paying for anything that you don’t really need.

As you add more features to your website, your website cost 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, since you will be adding 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 go for a premium WordPress template for your site. Unlike free WordPress templates, these templates come with extra features and priority support. See our expert selection of the best responsive WordPress themes for some great premium templates that you can use.

For more website features, you need to use a combination of free + paid plugin addons.

Here are 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 the WordPress not sending email issue.
• Uncanny Automator – WordPress automation plugin that helps you connect your website with popular tools & services without any code.

Marketing

• Constant Contact – One of the best email marketing services.
• OptinMonster – Converts abandoning website visitors into subscribers. Powerful lead generation for WordPress.
• MonsterInsights Pro – See how visitors find and use your website.
• 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 – For automatic WordPress backups and safe cloud storage.
• Sucuri Firewall – Website firewall and malware protection.

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

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

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

A lot of people often 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 be using 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.

Keep in mind that you don’t add a full-fledged eCommerce store to your business website. In that case, see the next section in this article for a more accurate estimate.

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 will leave you with money that you can 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 good thing to have for a small business owner with no technical background.

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

You can choose a free WordPress theme. However, since it is a business website, we recommend you purchase a premium theme that gives you access to support and updates.

Now, let’s talk about plugins.

You will need to use a combination of free and premium plugins to control the cost. Following are some of the premium plugins that are absolutely essential for a small business website.

Features

• WPForms Pro – The premium version will give you access to all the features you’ll need for lead generation. 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 WordPress not sending email issue.
• Uncanny Automator – WordPress automation plugin that helps you connect your website with popular tools & services without 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 – The best Google Analytics plugin helps you see where your users are coming from and what they do on your website. This allows you to make data-driven decisions to grow your business.
• All in One SEO Pro – Improve your website’s SEO ranking.

Security

• Duplicator Pro – The premium version of the plugin comes with automatic backup scheduling, remote storage locations to keep 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. We recommend you first try the free version and see if that does the job for you. Many premium tools are available with the free trials, take advantage of those to see if you really need that tool.

As a business website, you would want to spend money to grow your business. We are not advising you against spending money when it makes sense, and you can afford it.

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. It 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.

The cost of building a WordPress eCommerce website can be 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 also need an SSL certificate, which costs around $69.99/year. SSL is required to securely transfer customer data such as credit card information, usernames, passwords, etc.

We recommend using Bluehost. 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 comes even close to WooCommerce. It is the most popular WordPress eCommerce plugin that allows you to build robust online stores to sell your products/services.

Next, you will need to install WordPress and WooCommerce on your website. We have a step-by-step guide on how to start an online store.

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

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. Choosing a premium or paid template gives you access to support and extra features.

We have a list of the best free WooCommerce addons, but depending on your needs, you may have 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 the WordPress not sending email issue.
• Uncanny Automator – WordPress automation plugin that helps you connect your website with popular tools & services without any code.
• FunnelKit – Create high-converting sales funnels, slide out carts, frictionless checkouts, 1-click upsells, order bumps, and more.

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.
• 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 – Automatic WordPress backups.
• Sucuri – 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 business 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 site.

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 also be paying the web developer that’s building your website. Depending on your need, 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 picks of the best places to hire WordPress developers.

Update: Since several of you asked for more details on this section, we have created a comprehensive guide on how much a custom WordPress theme costs and tips on how you can save money.

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 allows you to 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.

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 premium 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 as you start selling, you will find out exactly the tools that will help you and your customers.

Look for the best WordPress deals and coupons to get additional discounts whenever you can.

Even for robust WordPress sites, 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

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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