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How Much Does WordPress Cost per a Year

How Much Does WordPress Cost per a Year

The time has come! You are on the verge of creating your first ever WordPress powered website and, naturally, you couldn’t help but wonder how much will this little venture of yours cost and will you be able to finance it all the way through. When starting a new project, it is imperative you take into consideration all the possible costs if you wish to have a positive result, and creating a website is no exception.

From the one-time expenses, to the services you’ll need as long as you want your website up and running, there is a wide range of things to think about and take into consideration when calculating your budget. When creating a WordPress website one thing is sure – the biggest investment will happen at the very beginning ‘cause the truth is, if you wish to have a functional website, you’ll need to pay for the basics straight away. The amount of money you’ll have to spend in this precise moment does not come to a single price but it will rather depend on many different factors such as your needs and wishes which will most certainly have an impact on the final cost of the website you want to build.

There are 3 crucial categories without which you cannot create a website and we define them as:

If we take all of these 3 aspects into account, we’ll see that each and every one of them comes with plenty of possibilities and price variations so it is mostly up to you to decide if you want to start low budget or go pro from the very beginning.

If you are new to this and still not sure how powerful of a website you need at the very beginning, we imagine you could use a little introduction to what certain options and prices offer to you and if they’ll be sufficient for your needs. Luckily for you, in this article we’ll try to give you an overview of all the possible charges you’ll encounter while building and maintaining a WordPress website. In addition to this, we will also try to instruct you on how to keep your costs as low as possible and choose the right option for your business by taking into consideration your company’s size and type of industry. So, without further ado, let’s get down to elaborating every single expense a WordPress website requires.

WordPress Website Domain & Hosting

Domain and hosting

First things first, there can be no website if you don’t have domain and hosting for it. If you are someone who’s completely new in the WordPress industry, here’s a simple explanation for these two terms. Let’s say that creating a website is just like decorating a house. First you need to find an actual place to live in and place all of your things. That is precisely what hosting is all about – a place where all of the content you want on your website is going to be stored. This place is what allows your website to be available to the public and why your visitors can have access to it. On the other hand, domain is what would be the address of your “house”, an actual URL address (that usually terminates in .com, .org, etc. depending on the type of your business) that will lead your visitors to your site, or in simple words, a place where they can find you.

So what are the costs of these 2 essential things? Of course, even in this case, there isn’t a single price that can be applied to every possible provider. On the contrary, the prices can vary significantly, given the fact that different kinds of websites require more or less powerful hosting. That is why you will find providers that offer hosting services with prices ranging from $2.75 up to the unbelievable $730 per a month.

If you just wish to start a blog and want to see where it will take you, purchasing a shared hosting with a price between $2.75 and $15 per a month is more than fine. It is only after your blog gains popularity and you see where it is headed to that you will need a more powerful and therefore a more expensive hosting. However, if you own a big business and you need a site that is already expected to have numerous visitors, a much powerful hosting is needed straight away and in this case, the price will vary from $25 to $150 per a month. Lastly, the extremely expensive hosting which price arrives up to $750 per a month is intended for massive businesses that possess worldwide online shops, thousands of users etc. Anyway, let’s say that for an average size business that has just started a normal cost of $7.99 for hosting is more than adequate.

On the other hand, fortunately, the philosophy behind the domain name is not as complicated. A domain name typically costs between $10 and $15 per a year. However, if you wish to purchase some extra services such as privacy protection, this cost can slightly increase, but nothing out of the ordinary. Having said all of this, if you are looking to build an average website, not too weak, not too powerful, a price you’ll need to pay for domain and hosting per a year will be around $100.

Website’s Design

Design

Ok, so this one brings the big guns into the game. Designing a website can cost a fortune, however, there are also some ways to cut down the expenses significantly. The one sure positive side in it is that it is a one-time cost so, once you are done with it, you won’t have any additional expenses (of course, that is if you don’t wish to change your website’s design from time to time). Anyhow, there are different ways for you to design your website. The first and the most expensive one is to hire a web-designer/developer who will do all of the job from scratch. This service will most probably include the costs of all the three categories we have mentioned earlier, nevertheless it will still represent a huge investment given the fact that the starting price would be around $1000 with a big possibility to get even higher. If you’re reading this article, we imagine that you are looking for something that is more of a DIY kind of a website, so here are some of the other options that will remarkably diminish the overall price.

One of the most efficient ways to cut down the costs is by downloading a specially designed WordPress theme. WordPress themes or templates come with a certain design and features and are usually customizable so you can add some of the things you need which don’t come with them, or, on the other hand, take away superfluous elements. If we mention that decorating house metaphor again, themes or templates would represent the concept of your home’s interior design – it defines what your site/home will look like and how functional it will be. Anyway, there are two “versions” of these themes – free and premium. Once again, if you are looking to establish a simple blog and don’t need anything more complex, a free WordPress theme will do the job so, in this sense, your costs will be brought down to zero.

However, if you need a site for your business, or a site that requires higher performance, premium WordPress themes are a must. The price of these themes also varies, so you can find super cheap ones for less than $20, but their price can also arrive up to $200. Of course, the bigger the price the more options and features you will get, so make sure that the theme you choose has all of the functionalities you need for your website. Anyhow, even if you find a perfect theme that lacks some of the functions you need, there is also the possibility to buy additional plugins that will make up for them.

Nevertheless, keep in mind, that it may be better to pay a higher price when purchasing a theme (since it’s a one-off cost) than to later spend hundreds of dollars on single extensions. All in all, if you need a theme that will cover some of the most useful features alongside a modern, neat design you can get one for an average price of around $60.

Plugins and Extensions

Plugins

Finally, we have come to the last step and that is deciding on which plugins and extensions you need in order for your website to function perfectly. Plugins and extensions are some sort of website apps that bring additional functionalities to your pre-existing ones that come with the theme you buy. They basically represent tiny tools and ornaments that upgrade your site’s performance and in addition to that provide your website’s visitors with an outstanding user-experience.

There are hundreds of plugins you can find on the web that cover a wide array of functions – from the basic ones like contact forms and galleries up to much more complex features that allow you to keep track of your online sales, upgrade your marketing strategy etc. Just like WordPress themes, these plugins can be completely free of charge (and those are usually the basic ones) or you can get premium ones that are subject to payment. Many plugins, however, can come as an integrative part of a WordPress theme you’ll buy, but even so, getting additional ones can’t hurt. Once again, the price of a single plugin depends of course on the “service” it will provide you with.

Anyhow, most of them require an annual renewal so, when calculating your yearly budget, make sure you have these costs in mind too. The fact is, there are some plugins that you pay for only once, however, these are more of an exception rather than the rule. So what is the actual cost of the plugins you’ll need? As we’ve mentioned earlier, top performing plugins can even reach a price of $1000 per year, but once again, we’re guessing you’re still not in the need of those. If your website is more of an aspiring blog or generally a low cost website that needs only the basic performance, you can get plugins such as WPForms Lite (adds contact forms to your site), Yoat SEO (improves your WordPress search engine optimization), UpdraftPlus (helps you get a backup of your data) and you can get them all for free. On the other hand, if you’re thinking of creating a more demanding website, these plugins won’t be sufficient for your needs, so you’ll have to turn to the premium ones. The most popular plugins for this type of websites are definitely WP Rocket (caching plugin that speeds up your site – $49- $249 per a year), Constant Contact (provides you with email marketing service – $20 – $45 per a month), and many more. Of course, the most expansive packages these plugins offer are dedicated and created for websites with thousands of visitor, websites that probably also include online stores etc., so if you are not into that kind of business, basic packages with lower prices will be more than suitable.

In Conclusion

So, now that you’ve seen every step you need to take when building a website and, more importantly, the charges that come with them, we’re hoping that you have a clearer vision of the budget you need to set aside for this little venture. All in all, if you need a simple blog or a really basic website for your business, your yearly costs can be brought to around $100. If, on the other hand, you need more of a professional website that requires a more powerful hosting, theme and additional plugins, its annual cost would be somewhere between $500 and $1000. And finally, if you really need to go pro from the very start and expect your website to have a huge audience, its annual worth will most definitely exceed $1000. Anyhow, now that you have all the information, we hope that it will help you sort out which type of website is your perfect match and that you’ll be able to start calculating your budget immediately.

We hope this article was helpful. If you liked it, feel free to check out some of these articles as well!

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