How Much Does It Cost to Build a WordPress Website?

Since most people were interested in watching TV shows in the past, advertising business through TV ads was the ideal way to promote it. Now, except for one significant replacement, most of the advertisement’s meanings have remained unchanged. This is because the internet has replaced television.

According to recent studies, each person spends an average of 397 minutes (six hours and 37 minutes) online daily. Therefore, creating an internet presence will enable you to advertise your company more effectively than before. So, how do you expand your company into this digital world? By making a website.

Considering nearly 40 percent of the websites are based on WordPress, you might also want to use this platform. But one might argue that if WordPress is free, creating a website would also be cost-free.

This is not the case since you will also need a domain and a few other things before using WordPress services. Back to the main question. How much will it cost to build a WordPress website? Let’s get to the answer.

Requirements for a WordPress Website

You must get WordPress hosting first. You require web hosting to store your files to build a self-hosted WordPress site. Every internet-based website requires hosting. For all types of websites, there are several hosting options. You must choose one that meets your needs and your budget.

The domain name is the address that your website needs to have. Your users will enter this into their browser to access your website. Take a look at this article if you don’t know how to come up with a domain name.

Selecting a template and deciding whether you want a free or premium one is the third stage in setting up a WordPress website. Numerous free website templates for WordPress can be used to satisfy your basic needs. However, you can buy a premium template or have one designed just for you, increasing the cost if you want something more complex or customized.

Last but not least, plugins, which are once again offered in two versions—paid and free—let you add features to your website. For WordPress, there are more than 59,000 free plugins. These extensions and add-ons for your web pages add features like a contact form or a photo gallery to your website.

Since the WordPress platform is free and you can get templates and extensions for free, you will only need to pay for Hosting and domain if you are on a tight budget.

Hosting

The Hosting of your website significantly impacts the speed, security, and amount of work required to maintain the mentioned characteristics of your website.

A shared hosting plan is all you need to start your website. Your website can be hosted on a single physical server that serves other websites through shared Hosting, also known as virtual Hosting.

Some of the top hosts to get you started are listed below:

HostGator: $2.76/month

DreamHost: $2.59/month

A2 Hosting: $2.99/month

Subscribing for these plans will cost you less than 40 dollars a year, but there are also some premium hosts with better security and faster performance for those who can spend extra on the hosting service.

WP Engine: $23/month

Kinsta: $30/month

Nexcess: $12.67/month

Avoid limiting yourself to the suggested choices, and feel free to search the market for the hosting provider that best meets your needs.

Domain

If your budget is limited, you might be able to find a hosting service that offers a domain name for free with its plan.

But, keeping these services separate and purchasing a domain name from another website is typically preferable. The primary justification is that if you purchase your domain name from a domain marketplace rather than receiving it through your host, you will have many more options for your website name.

The domain extension and the place where you purchase the domain are two elements that affect the cost of the domain.

Purchasing the most popular domain extension, .com, through a domain registrar like Google Domains typically costs $10–12 per year. While some domain extensions, like .info, are less expensive, others, like.io, cost $30 or more.

Themes and Plugins

These two WordPress components are usually free, but you may need to pay for premium versions if you want to customize your website to stand out from other websites. Additionally, the premium version of themes has better security and gets frequent updates. Furthermore, the theme provider team usually offers support via live chat and documentation.

Themes are essentially your website’s design and its components’ visual presentation. Premium versions have unlimited customization options for colors, layouts, and fonts.

A premium WordPress theme costs around $60 if you want one. However, some themes are available for less. To access their premium themes for around a year, you may also sign up for a specific plan on theme marketplaces. Here you can lean how to choose the best WordPress theme.

Your website gains new functionalities thanks to plugins. They are comparable to web plugins allowing text translation, form autofill, and other functions. Since you can use unlimited plugins, they have the most variable costs of any WordPress website component.

Your site only needs one WordPress theme, but depending on what you want to accomplish with it, you may need 0 to 20+ premium WordPress plugins, such as contact forms or plugins for search engine optimization (SEO).

The $100 to $200 cost for plugins is a good place to start because most WordPress users will likely want at least a few premium extensions.

It’s also simple to go above if you’re building something other than a blog or brochure website, like an online store or an eCommerce site.

Even though the basic WooCommerce plugin is free, most WooCommerce stores must spend hundreds on a premium add-on to expand the basic plugin.

Other unnecessary but crucial investments

Depending on your business type, you may need to promote it on other websites until you develop a solid customer base or community. Once your website is up, it’s critical to increase traffic by investing in paid advertising and promotion. In 2022, new firms spent an average of $2500 to $12,000 on marketing. The general rule is to base your marketing ad expenditures on your prior year’s income.

However, you can reclaim this money by advertising other websites or employing Google Ad Services on your website. It resembles a cycle where attention is attracted, then directed to other websites to generate more revenue.

Developing your website is another element you might wish to invest money on. But unfortunately, the typical user has no idea how many hours and actual abilities are required in terms of web development. Because of this, you should hire an actual developer to do it for you if you don’t have the time.

The final area in which you should put some money is the security of your website. WordPress is sufficiently secure that you wouldn’t need additional security features. However, you can deploy a Secure Sockets Layer service to further increase your website’s security if you plan to build one that will store lots of login information and passwords. You may anticipate paying anywhere from $15 for a simple one to as much as a few hundred bucks.

Average Cost for Different Types of WordPress Websites

Different plugins and themes are used on different types of websites. Therefore, the website kind is the primary factor determining the actual cost of creating a WordPress website. The cost of developing a functional website for each WordPress type is listed below.

Blog Website ($100-$500)

Purchasing a domain name from one of the many domain registrars, such as Namecheap or GoDaddy, is the first step in creating a WordPress blog. A brand-new domain name can cost you roughly $10 to purchase. Nonetheless, some names can cost up to thousands of dollars. But choosing an expensive domain is not necessary for a new blog. Therefore, the domain typically costs $10 per year.

A starter hosting plan package would be sufficient for a brand-new WordPress blog. Most hosting companies offer several starter plans from which you can select the ideal one. You should pick annual hosting options if you want to keep costs down.

Hosting services for a blog typically will be around $30 per year.

Using a free theme will be fine if this is your first blog. A premium blog theme, however, will cost you $30 to $40, but it is well worth the money.

Since most blog plugins are free, like ElementsKit’s lite, there would be no expense. However, you can anticipate paying around $100 or more for the plugins if you want to add features like post-sharing or subscription.

A developer won’t be needed if you design the website yourself, but if you don’t have the time, hiring one will cost you more than $300.

Business Website ($1000-$3000)

The domain price will be the same as a blog domain, but the hosting service cost will not be the same. Managed web hosting services appropriate for business websites start at $20 per month and might vary based on the service providers. For example, the price may go up if you select a well-known hosting company. Therefore, you can expect that your hosting costs will be around $300 per year.

To customize your website, you would want a qualified page builder. The most fantastic page builder, Elementor Pro, costs $49 per year. Additionally advised are security plugins, which cost about $150 per year.

The business website should have the finest user experience and a beautiful appearance. For this website type, you must select a premium business WordPress theme. For under $40, you can purchase a good one, such as Induxo.

You would also require CRM software to track your company’s growth and website visitors. For this, HubSpot is a good option. However, HubSpot has a $45 monthly minimum price point. As a result, you might have to spend at least $540 annually.

The minimum cost for a business website would significantly increase if you wanted to hire a developer, who would require a minimum payment of $500.

eCommerce Site ($500-$2000)

The domain price will be the same as business and blog websites. eCommerce websites have tons of items and data on them. Good web hosting is necessary for managing these data and keeping track of the inventory.

You should select a managed Web hosting plan for eCommerce. An excellent managed web hosting service may cost roughly $20 per month, as was previously noted.

There are several WordPress eCommerce themes available, with prices averaging $40. here you can learn how to choose the right WooCommerce theme.

Installing the WooCommerce plugin is necessary to use WordPress to run an eCommerce website. WooCommerce has both free and premium versions. Even if you can complete most tasks with the free version, you can also check out the premium features.

You may think creating an eCommerce website is expensive. Yes, starting from scratch will cost you a lot. However, you can save time and money using plugins like ShopEngine or Elementor Pro.

You must pay a minimum of $59 and $49 annually for these plugins.

A transaction system will be like at an online store, so you might want to gain your client’s trust. SSL certificates show that everything will be safe and secure for a transaction. You will typically receive a free SSL certificate for the first year from hosting companies. After that, however, on average, an SSL certificate can cost you $10 to $15.

You can complete the full web-building project if you know how to work with page builders and themes. Alternatively, you can hire a WooCommerce specialist, which could cost you $500 to $1500. However, this is only the starting price; it will rise over time. You will need more knowledgeable personnel, which will cost more, especially if your business is growing.

Final Thoughts!

In conclusion, you may launch your website for as little as $100. There is no upper limit regarding website investment because there will always be luxurious themes that are pricey to use and expensive domain and hosting services that will give your customers the best experience with a website.

Remember that maintaining a website may be more expensive than building one, so you’ll need to find a means to make money from it to cover the expenses.

Then again, if you want to attract clients or viewers to your website, you will have to use unique themes, features, and layouts, which would cost you money. So, overall, the more money you spend on the website, the more you will get out of it, at least most of the time.