WordPress itself is free to download and use — but running a self-hosted website involves real costs. A domain name, a hosting plan, and probably a theme or a handful of plugins all add up. The total is manageable, but it is worth knowing the figures before you start so you can budget accurately and avoid overspending on things you do not need yet.
This guide breaks down every cost involved in running a WordPress site, from the essential to the optional, including the ongoing costs people forget to budget for, with realistic figures for a typical small business or personal site.
Quick Answer
A basic self-hosted WordPress site costs roughly $100–$300 per year to run — covering a domain name ($10–15/year), shared hosting ($5–15/month), and optional theme or plugin costs. Building it yourself keeps the ongoing cost low. Hiring a developer to build it adds a one-time cost of $500–$5,000+ depending on the scope.
The WordPress Software Is Free
The WordPress software itself costs nothing. It is open-source, licensed under the GPLv2, and available to download and use without paying anyone. The costs involved in running a WordPress site come from the infrastructure you need to run it on — a domain name, a server, and optionally paid themes or plugins.
WordPress.com (the hosted service) offers a free plan with significant limitations and paid plans from around $4–$25 per month. This guide covers self-hosted WordPress (wordpress.org), which gives you full control and is what most site owners use when they say “I built my site on WordPress.”
What You Will Actually Pay For
Domain name — $10–$15 per year
A .com domain costs around $10–$15 per year from most registrars. IANA’s overview of domain name services explains how the global registration system behind that works, if you want the background. Country-specific domains (.co.uk, .com.au) vary but are in a similar range. Some hosting providers include a free domain for the first year as part of a hosting package. When choosing a domain, keep it short, memorable, and tied to your brand — see how to choose a domain name for the full process.
Web hosting — $5–$30 per month
This is usually the biggest ongoing cost. Shared hosting starts around $5–10 per month and is the right choice for most new sites — traffic is low, and the resource limits are not a problem. As your site grows, you might move to a VPS or managed WordPress hosting at $15–$30+ per month. For a detailed comparison, see shared hosting vs VPS vs managed WordPress.
Within “shared hosting,” the price range itself is wide, and what you get for it varies more than the sticker price suggests. A $3–5/month plan usually means a single site, limited storage, and no included backups. A $10–15/month plan typically adds multiple site allowances, daily backups, and better shared server resources — fewer other accounts crammed onto the same physical server competing for the same CPU and memory. For a single small site with modest traffic, either tier will run fine technically; the mid-range option is mainly buying you backups and headroom rather than raw speed.
SSL certificates, which encrypt your site’s connection, are included free with most hosting plans today. You should not need to pay separately for SSL.
WordPress theme — $0–$100 one-time
Thousands of free themes are available in the WordPress theme directory — many of them genuinely good. Premium themes typically cost $30–$100 as a one-time purchase. You do not need to buy a premium theme to build a professional-looking site, but a paid theme can save setup time if it closely matches what you are building.
Plugins — $0–$300+ per year
Most of the functionality you need for a standard WordPress site is available through free plugins — contact forms, SEO, security, caching, and image optimisation all have solid free options. Premium plugins become relevant when you need specific functionality that the free versions do not cover: advanced forms, WooCommerce extensions, membership systems, or certain analytics tools.
A realistic plugin budget for a new site is $0 if you start with free tools and upgrade only when you hit a specific limitation. Avoid buying multiple premium plugins upfront before you know what the site actually needs. When premium plugins do become worth it, typical annual costs look like this: a form builder with conditional logic runs $50–$60/year, a caching or performance plugin with advanced features runs $50–$100/year, and a security plugin with malware scanning and a firewall runs $100–$200/year. Very few sites need all three from day one — most start with none of them and add one at a time as a specific need appears.
Developer cost (if applicable) — $500–$5,000+
If you build the site yourself, using WordPress’s built-in block editor and free plugins, this cost is zero. If you hire a freelance developer or agency, a basic informational site runs $500–$2,000; a more complex site with custom design, WooCommerce, or bespoke functionality runs $2,000–$5,000 or more. Rates vary widely because freelancers price in different ways — some charge hourly, others per project — and the guide on how freelancers price web design services explains what typically drives the number a developer quotes you, which is useful context if you are comparing quotes. Once the site is built, ongoing maintenance is usually something you can handle yourself with standard updates and backups.
Ongoing Costs People Forget to Budget For
The domain-plus-hosting total covers the essentials, but a handful of smaller recurring costs tend to catch new site owners off guard because they only show up after the first year, or only apply once the site starts getting real traffic or attention. None of these are large individually, but added together they can roughly double a bare-bones budget, which is why the “realistic total” figures further down include room for them rather than assuming domain and hosting are the only line items.
- Domain privacy protection — $0–$15/year: Without it, your name, address, and phone number from domain registration are publicly visible in the WHOIS database. Many registrars now include this free; others charge a small annual add-on.
- Professional email — $1–$6 per mailbox per month: A domain-matched email address (you@yourbusiness.com) is not automatically included with hosting. Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, or your host’s own email service all charge per mailbox.
- Backups — $0–$100/year: Many hosts include basic backups free; a dedicated backup plugin or service with off-site storage and one-click restore typically runs $30–$100/year if your host’s built-in option is not sufficient.
- Domain and hosting renewal — often higher than the signup price: Both domains and hosting frequently renew at a higher rate than the first-year promotional price. Budget for the renewal price, not the introductory one, when estimating year two onward.
Cost to Add an Online Store
WooCommerce, the plugin most self-hosted WordPress stores use, is free to install. The costs come from what surrounds it: a payment processor typically takes 2.5–3% plus a small fixed fee per transaction, premium extensions for shipping or subscriptions run $0–$200/year depending on what you need, and stores with meaningful product catalogues usually need a step up from basic shared hosting to handle the extra database load. Budget an additional $100–$400 per year on top of the base costs above if ecommerce is part of the plan, more if you need several paid extensions.
The product count matters more than most people expect when estimating store costs. A handful of products with simple variations runs comfortably on the same shared hosting you’d use for a blog. A catalogue in the hundreds or thousands, or one using real-time stock sync with a supplier, usually needs a hosting plan built for WooCommerce specifically — these cost more than generic shared hosting but include server-level caching tuned for cart and checkout pages, which matters for both speed and conversion.
Typical Budgets by Site Type
The base domain-and-hosting cost is similar across site types, but what you add on top of it varies a lot depending on what the site is actually for.
- Personal blog or portfolio: $120–$200/year. Free theme, free plugins, basic shared hosting. No developer cost if you build it yourself.
- Small business site (services, no store): $150–$400/year, plus $0–$2,000 one-time if you hire someone to build it. Usually adds professional email and possibly a premium theme.
- Content or affiliate site publishing regularly: $150–$350/year. Similar base costs to a small business site, but often needs a step up in hosting sooner as traffic and post count grow.
- Online store (WooCommerce): $250–$700/year plus payment processing fees, and commonly $1,500–$5,000+ one-time if a developer builds the store rather than a template.
Realistic Total Costs
A DIY WordPress site with a free theme, shared hosting, and free plugins: $120–$200 per year ongoing (domain + hosting). One-time setup cost: effectively zero if you follow a step-by-step build guide.
A site with a premium theme, one or two paid plugins, and mid-range hosting: $200–$500 per year. One-time theme cost adds $50–$100 to year one.
A professionally built site (freelancer or agency): $1,000–$5,000 upfront, then $150–$300 per year ongoing. Installing WordPress yourself rather than paying someone to do it is one of the simplest ways to reduce that upfront number — see the step-by-step guide to building a WordPress website for the full process from domain to first post.
Practical Tips
Start with cheap shared hosting. The performance difference between a $5/month shared plan and a $30/month managed plan is irrelevant when your site has no traffic. Upgrade when you actually need to, not before.
Avoid long-term hosting contracts in year one. Some hosts offer heavily discounted rates for 2–3 year commitments, but those rates often jump significantly on renewal. Pay monthly or annually until you are confident in the host and the site is established.
Check the renewal price before you sign up for anything. Introductory pricing on domains, hosting, and premium plugins is designed to look better than what you will actually pay from year two onward — a quick search for “[host name] renewal price” before committing saves a genuinely unpleasant surprise later.
Keep a simple running list of every recurring cost as you add it — domain, hosting, each paid plugin, email, backups — with the renewal date next to each one. It takes a few minutes to set up and pays for itself the first time a renewal charge appears on a card statement without warning, which is a common enough experience that it’s worth avoiding deliberately rather than assuming you’ll remember every subscription a year from now.
Common Mistakes
- Buying a premium theme before knowing what you need: Most free themes are sufficient for a new site — wait until you have a clear reason to upgrade
- Signing up for annual plugin subscriptions you do not need yet: Free plugin versions cover most use cases; buy premium only when you hit a specific limitation the free version cannot solve
- Choosing hosting based on introductory price alone: Renewal rates are often 2–3 times the signup price — check what the host charges from year two before committing
- Paying for SSL separately: SSL is included free with most reputable hosts; if a host charges extra for it, that is a signal to look elsewhere
- Forgetting recurring add-on costs when budgeting: Domain privacy, professional email, and backup services are easy to overlook when estimating costs upfront, and they can add $50–$150/year on top of the base domain-and-hosting total
WordPress.com vs Self-Hosted WordPress
WordPress.com’s paid plans ($4–$25/month) include hosting and remove setup steps, but they restrict plugin installation on lower tiers and take a percentage of ecommerce revenue. Self-hosted WordPress costs a similar amount annually but gives you full control over plugins, themes, and monetisation. For most people building a business or content site, self-hosted is the right choice from the start.
Conclusion
Budget $100–$200 per year for a basic self-hosted WordPress site — domain and hosting are the only costs you cannot avoid. Everything else, including the ongoing extras people forget, is optional and can be added as the site grows and you know what you actually need.
Etienne Basson works with website systems, SEO-driven site architecture, and technical implementation. He writes practical guides on building, structuring, and optimizing websites for long-term growth.