How Much Does it Cost to Start Your Own WordPress Site?
Anyone can create their own website and tap into endless opportunities in the cyber world these days. You don’t need to be a programmer or know anything about HTML coding to set up your own website, although that would sure come in handy in many situations.
Fully automated website building and content management systems enable even the least technically skilled to launch and manage a website with minimal effort.
One of the most popular choices of those is the WordPress content management system. Despite being an open-source and free-to-use software, starting a new WordPress website does cost some money.
So, what are the things you’ll have to bear the cost of, and how much should you expect to pay in total to have your website up and running on the web?
The Basic Costs of Building a WordPress Website
There isn’t a one-size-fits-all answer as to how much it’ll cost to set up a WP website, because that depends on the type of website you’re talking about and the required design and functionality specifications.
But let’s just look at the most common and basic components you’d need and see how all the costs add up.
The Domain Name
You will need a domain name for your website, which you can buy from any domain registrar for a yearly fee that varies from one TLD (extension) to another.
A .com domain will normally cost between $10 to $20 per year.
The Hosting Service
Shared hosting is the most affordable type of web hosting, and it’s what most websites use. For a brand new WordPress website, shared hosting would generally be the most favorable choice.
The cost of a web hosting plan depends on various factors and features. A decent entry-level plan should run you about $10 per month.
Note: Most web hosting companies offer massively discounted prices for new customers. Such discounted prices usually only apply to the first invoice, after which you’ll be billed the full price of the plan. Make sure you are aware of the plan’s regular/renewal price to avoid any unpleasant surprises later.
The Theme
The design and look of a WordPress website is controlled by its theme. There are thousands of WordPress themes out there made for all sorts of purposes. Many of them are free and many others come at a price.
For a personal website or blog, you probably want to go with a free theme. However, for a small business, e-commerce, or a professional website, you should consider using a premium theme with advanced customization options.
The cost of a premium theme can significantly vary from one developer/vendor to another, but in general, most of the good ones range in price between $50 and $100.
Additional Customization Expenses
One of the major attractions of WordPress is its extreme customizability. You get full access to the source code and from there you can do pretty much whatever you want with both the back-end and the front-end.
More likely than not, whatever you may want to change or add to the standard feature set of WordPress, you’ll be able to find one or more third-party plugins to help you achieve it.
There are many commonly used plugins that are free to install on any website. On the other hand, there are also many premium plugins that usually offer more comprehensive features, such as those intended for e-commerce, page building, and security.
But in some cases, what you have in mind can’t be achieved by using any of the ready-made themes or plugins out there, which means hiring a developer to create a custom design for your site may be the only option. Depending on the complexity of the project, a custom design may cost you 50 bucks or 5,000 bucks!
Conclusion: What’s the average cost of setting up a WordPress website?
Well, for someone like me who knows a few things about website development, all I need is a domain name and a reliable web hosting service. That will usually cost about $100 to $150 per year.
I’d likely pick a free theme plus a few essential free plugins and do all the necessary customizations myself.
But if you want a fancy premium theme with technical support, be prepared to fork out an additional $50 to $100 (and sometimes a little more). This may be either a yearly subscription or a one-time payment.
How about a few premium plugins for whatever necessary (or not that necessary but still cool) extra features and functionalities? These can easily double your total bill, but still won’t hurt your wallet as much as custom theme/plugin development would.
