WordPress is one of the most commonly used and popular open-source software to create your own website or blog. The software is used by millions of people all around the world where every day, thousands of WordPress websites are created.
Now the most important question which needs to be addressed is how much does it cost to build a WordPress Website? The core WordPress website is absolutely free for all users around the world; however, there are multiple customizations that can be done to your WordPress website where you have to pay some amount of money. It entirely depends on the goals, outcomes, and budget of your website.
This article will cover all the important aspects of what the cost to build a WordPress Website could be and how you can minimize it when building your own website.
In this article, you will also get to know about how you can cut down the cost and avoid overspending on the building of a WordPress website.
Mentioned below are some of the most important pointers that will tell you everything about how much money is required to create your WordPress website and how you can do so on a low budget.
What All Do You Need to Build a WordPress Website?
WordPress is an open-source software where you can create a website or a blog for free. Yes, it is free to download and use WordPress for any of your business or personal goals.
Since it is an open-source software program, you have the freedom to install any kind of website and can get started with your idea on the internet.
The question arises that if the cost to build a WordPress Website is absolutely zero, then where does the extra cost come from? The entire cost needed for a WordPress website is divided into many categories. There are many features of WordPress that are paid and come with a price. All these are mentioned below.
- Your website’s domain name
- WordPress hosting
- The design and theme of your WordPress website
- Plugins
- Extensions
In order to build a self-hosted WordPress website, you will be required to purchase web hosting which will be used to store all the files. On the internet, it is required for every website to have website hosting as it works like your website’s home.
Surely there are various hosting plans which are made available to the users for all kinds of websites. You must select the type of hosting plan that perfectly suits your requirements and goals for your website, and also, it must fall within your budget.
The next thing which you will be needing for your WordPress website is a domain name. A domain name is an address for your website which appears on the internet, and this is which users will type in their browser to locate it.
With WordPress, you can get free website templates to use for your website. However, for a more advanced look, you can use premium templates that are paid to use. Plugins and extensions are like apps that you can add to your website for a more customized and polished look, and these are also paid.
Hence, the cost to build a WordPress Website comes from all these features which are used to make your website more personal, so that you can achieve your set goals.
What Could Be the Real Cost of Building a WordPress Site?
The total cost to build a WordPress Website majorly depends on your needs and requirements. To start a WordPress website, the cost may vary from $100 to $500 and go all the way up to $3000, depending on your needs and what you exactly want your website to be.
That is why, it is important to know what kind of website you want, what type of website you want to build, and what are your end goals to be achieved by your website. All these factors will immensely affect the cost of your website and can vary accordingly.
Nonetheless, there are various ways which you can consider while deciding what type of website you want, what budget you have to follow, and for your business scale, how much it will cost you. You can decide your budget according to different budget categories, which are:
- Building a low-budget WordPress website
- Building a WordPress website that involves many customizable features
- Building a WordPress website for your small business needs
Cost of A Low-Budget WordPress Website
You can build your own functional WordPress website with a budget as low as $100. You can break down the cost accordingly to get hosting, domains, and other features too.
For instance, for a WordPress website, a domain name will cost around $14.99 and in the case of web hosting, it will cost around $7.99 per month. The next step is to install WordPress on your hosting account and choose a design where you can initially use a free template for your website.
These templates are called WordPress themes which are designed to make your website look aesthetic. There are thousands of designs that are free to use and you can even customize them according to your preference.
After choosing the right design template for your WordPress website, you can add various features to your website such as a photo gallery, forms, a slider, etc. You can install as many plugins as you want for you get more than 59,000 of them using WordPress.
These are like extensions or apps for your WordPress site which give you the freedom to customize the site as per your needs.
Mentioned below are some of the free WordPress plugins which you must install to design a better WordPress website.
- WPForms Lite: It adds contact forms to your website
- SeeProd Lite: It helps you build custom landing pages for your site and you do not have to use any code to achieve that.
- All in One SEO: This plugin improves the WordPress SEO so that your site gets more traffic from Google
- MonsterInsights (Free): It helps you keep a track of your visitor stats where it uses Google Analytics to do so
- WP Super Cache: This plugin is installed to improve the speed of your website by adding cache
- UpdraftPlus: It is a WordPress backup plugin that is absolutely free
There are thousands of plugins available on WordPress which you can install to add different features to your website.
Using all these features, the cost to build a WordPress Website on a low budget will be approximately around $46 to $100 per year.
Cost Of a WordPress Website with More Features
It is always recommended to the users that always start small and then gradually add more features to your WordPress website.
This is one of the highly beneficial ways as you won’t be paying for all those things which you do not need for your website. More features will add up to the entire cost of your site, so it is advisable to go slow and start small.
If you want to build a WordPress website with a lot of features, you can also opt for a premium WordPress design template.
Although there are many free WordPress templates, they do not come with a lot of features which prevents the possibility for you to add more customizations to your website. Paid templates have a lot of in-built features and also come with priority support.
In order to create a WordPress site with more features, here are some important premium plugins which you can install to grow your site.
- WPForms (Pro): It is a premium plugin that adds a drag-drop builder to your website
- WP Rocket: A premium plugin to increase the speed of your WordPress website
- SeedProd Pro: It adds an option of drag and drops page builder to your site
- WP Mail SMTP: To improve the email deliverability of your website, you can install this premium plugin
- Uncanny Automator: This plugin helps you connect your WordPress website to a lot of popular tools, and that too without using any code
- OptinMonster: It is installed to convert abandoning website visitors into subscribers
- All in One SEO Pro: This plugin is used to improve your website’s SEO ranking so that it gets a lot of traffic
- HubSpot: This plugin is an all-in-one app as it offers live chat, sales tools, and other email marketing features
There are many other plugins that you can add to your WordPress website. With every paid plugin, your total cost to build a WordPress Website will increase which will range somewhere around $500 to $1000 per year.
Cost Of a Small Business WordPress Website
The total cost to build a WordPress Website depends on a lot of factors, among them your business scale is one of them. Whichever scale of business activities you perform and whatever your business needs, all these points will affect the cost of your WordPress website.
If you operate a small-scale business but want to build a full-fledged eCommerce website, stick to this article and find out all the accurate information.
If you have a start-up and want to showcase your products and services, you can start building a free website first and later on buy plugins to add more features to it. This starter plan will reduce your overall cost and you can spend your money on a lot of other tools which your business requires.
If you have a flexible budget, you can go for the premium version and buy attractive design templates to make your website look more appealing. Besides, you can install many plugins or extensions which will add more features to your WordPress website.
For picking up a theme for your website, go for a business template or any other that must match your requirements. Now for the plugins, you can use both free and paid plugins to control the cost. Some of the best plugins which may use for your website are mentioned below.
- WPForms (Pro): The premium version of this plugin will give you access to lead generation which includes international payments through PayPal and Stripe. Other than that, it will also give you other features such as conversational forms, email marketing integration, etc.
- WP Mail SMTP: It improves the process of email delivery and fixes all errors related to emails.
- Constant Contact: This plugin is one of the best email marketing services available on WordPress, especially for small-scale businesses.
- MonsterInsights Pro: It is one of the best Google Analytics plugins on WordPress that helps you see where your audiences are coming from, and what they do and look for on your website.
- UpdraftPlus (Pro): This plugin has incremental backups and automatic backups which perform before updates.
- Sucuri Firewall: It protects your WordPress website from malware
To grow your business online, you can choose as many plugins as you want and add many features to your website. Invest your money in the right direction, and your online business will eventually flourish.
Cost Of a WordPress Ecommerce Website
Being one of the most popular open-source software, WordPress controls millions of eCommerce websites from all over the world.
To build an eCommerce website, the cost is relatively high, but you can still manage to build a WordPress website by cutting down all the potential losses and overspending on unnecessary things.
For an eCommerce website, you will be needing an SSL certification along with your web hosting and domain. The certificate costs around $6 to $7 and is required to safely transfer the customer data that may include credit card information, passwords, usernames, and other personal details.
In addition to these things, you will also be needing several eCommerce plugins for your website that will allow you to build online stores in order to sell your services to people around the world.
The next step is to install WooCommerce on your website which is absolutely free to install. However, with WooCommerce, you will need to use various addons for additional features that are paid.
Here is a list of some paid services that you need to have for your eCommerce website, depending on your business needs and preferences.
- WPForms: This plugin is used to add customer inquiries and several other feedback forms for your website
- WP Mail SMTP: It enhances the overall quality of the delivery of your emails and also fixes all the email issues
- Uncanny Automator: It helps the website to connect with other popular tools and services. Using this plugin, you do not have to use any coding
- Soliloquy: It is installed to create beautiful products sliders on your WordPress website
- OptinMonster: This powerful lead generation add on is used to convert visitors into customers
- HubSpot: It is used for email marketing, live chat, etc., which are essential for an eCommerce website
- All in One SEP Pro: It improves your website’s ranking and generates more traffic
- BackupBuddy: It works for automatic WordPress backups
- Sucuri: To protect your website from malware and other issues
Building an eCommerce website will cost you around $1000 to $3000; however, you can still manage it by cutting down the additional expenses and only paying for the best-paid addons. The cost will go as high as the number of addons you add to your WordPress website.
Cost Of a Custom WordPress Site
When you hire a WordPress developer to create and design your site, it means you are planning to build a custom WordPress site. These types of websites are created by medium to large-sized businesses that can bear the cost.
Starting with a WordPress hosting provider with managed updates, strict security, premium support, multiple plugins, and developer-friendly tools to stand out your website from others.
In addition to your domain name and web hosting, you also have to pay for the web developer who you have hired to work on your website.
Hence, the total cost for a custom WordPress website will depend on what your requirements are for your business, how much you are ready to spend, what all features you want on your website, and what are the rates of the web developer or any agency you hire for building your website. If we look at a standard rate, it may vary around $5000, with hosting, domain, and all other plugins and addons.
How To Avoid Overpaying and Cut Down Extra Expenses
To conclude, the cost to build a WordPress Website entirely depends on your needs and what kind of website you want. Whatever your business plans are, it will affect the overall cost which you will be spending on the building of a website.
We always recommend people to start slow and gradually make customizations for your WordPress website. You may not need a lot of premium features at once, therefore, scale your site as it grows and make additions every now and then.
Always remember that your website may have a slow start, but things will figure out with time, leaving you with a better idea about what type of website you want and what additions you want to make to it.
Start with a budget website with free plugins and templates. Once you start attracting an audience, try to make your website a more enriching experience for your viewers by customizing it as per your needs.
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Sonal S Sinha is managing director of Shri Krishna Technologies. He has been writing about website designing, digital marketing and WordPress ecosystem for the past 15+ years. He handles the overall operations and in his free time writes suitable blog posts which are knowledgeable and informative.