WordPress  Pricing: An In-Depth Guide to Hosting Plans, Domain Names, Themes, and Plugins

WordPress costs: Guide to hosting plans, domains, themes & plugins

Setting up a WordPress website can be straightforward, but budget becomes a factor if you plan to use it for a business. How much does WordPress cost, exactly? 

WordPress pricing involves several factors, including:

  • Hosting
  • Domain names
  • Themes 
  • Plugins
  • web design

Let’s dive into each of these aspects and discuss their costs related to WordPress website pricing.

How much does WordPress cost, exactly?

Before you build a website, you have to decide whether you want to use WordPress.com or WordPress.org. Both are great options but serve different purposes. You’ll find WordPress website packages pricing varies greatly between the two options.

WordPress costs: Guide to hosting plans, domains, themes & plugins
The home page of WordPress.com

WordPress.com empowers you to create a WordPress website without having to buy a separate hosting plan. While you can purchase WordPress hosting plans through WordPress.com, you can’t monetize your website with ads or sell items or services via an online store unless you opt for the e-commerce plan. 

Most WordPress websites built on WordPress.com are for informational purposes. You also can’t extend your website’s functionality very much with WordPress.com, and you won’t be able to use any third-party plugins made for the self-hosted version of the platform.

WordPress costs: Guide to hosting plans, domains, themes & plugins
WordPress.org is an open source software that allows you to create websites, blogs and apps.

With WordPress.org, you can readily monetize your website in any way you’d like and use a wider range of features like plugins and shortcodes. You need to purchase your own web hosting to use WordPress.org, and there is a complex setup process - but the platform offers considerable flexibility. 

WordPress website pricing: Hosting plans & domains

Before you build a new website, you need to secure a hosting plan and a custom domain. Let’s discuss the specifics of different types of hosting offered by web hosts in a brief WordPress Hosting comparison

Costs for WordPress.com

WordPress costs: Guide to hosting plans, domains, themes & plugins

As mentioned above, WordPress.com is a great way to launch a Wordpress site for free. It offers an avenue to launch a website without having to invest a dime. 

However, should you wish to expand your website, WordPress.com offers premium plans.

The pricing plans for WordPress Premium include:

  • Personal 
  • Premium 
  • Business 
  • eCommerce 

It’s important to note it’s only at the Business tier and above that you can use plugins to extend your website’s functionality. And while you can accept payments at the Personal level, you don’t gain access to full monetization features until you reach the eCommerce level.

You will not have access to your website’s backend with these plans. Server-side development is out of reach with WordPress.com packages. Given that WordPress.com does not give you full control over your website’s files, it’s not the best choice for business or corporate websites. 

Shared WordPress hosting 

If you opt to use WordPress.org, you’ll need to find a web hosting service. Most people use shared hosting as a starter plan because WordPress pricing is typically low.

What is shared WordPress hosting?

Shared web hosting refers to a hosting plan where your site shares server space with other websites. This allows shared web hosting to be cheap.

A few advantages of shared hosting are:

  • The ability to use custom themes and plugins
  • The ability to edit your website’s code 
  • One-click WordPress installation

Some web hosting providers will even offer a free SSL certificate and a free domain name with their hosting plans. Shared hosting might also be described as a WordPress personal plan as they are typically used by individuals or businesses who are just getting started. Shared hosting is popular because of the low WordPress website pricing options. 

However, there are also a couple of downsides to shared hosting. For starters, your website’s performance depends on other websites that are on the same hosting server as you. If you share space with a popular website, chances are the popular site will use up all the available resources, resulting in your website loading slowly. 

Another downside of shared hosting plans is that if another site on the same server gets hacked, your WordPress website could get infected too.

Managed WordPress Hosting 

Managed WordPress hosting offers a greater depth of service than shared hosting. With it, you can expect a higher level of care placed on your website.

Managed hosting is often marketed to those who want to build a small business website, membership site or who otherwise want to maintain their website. This often includes plugin and theme updates. 

The result is that managed WordPress hosting eliminates many of the technical headaches associated with running a WordPress website. In other words, this plan is a great choice if you want to focus on content creation - and not worry about maintenance yourself. 

The cost of managed hosting for WordPress websites varies and depends on the amount of bandwidth and direct support you need. 

Raidboxes

WordPress costs: Guide to hosting plans, domains, themes & plugins

Raidboxes is an ideal choice for creating a custom website. Our managed hosting services offer fast and secure hosting. Website migration (also called migration) is even included free of charge. We have a variety of managed hosting plans - to suit all website needs. 

WordPress costs: Guide to hosting plans, domains, themes & plugins

The FULLY MANAGED plan costs €30/month and includes a single WordPress installation, an SSL certificate and regular updates to WordPress core, plugins and themes. Backups are also included. 

Raidboxes also offers bulkplans, which is perfect for agencies and freelancers looking for a reliable hosting provider for their clients. 

You can get started for free and work on websites for clients or opt for one of our bulk plans, for example the WEBDESIGNER S plan. This bulk plan allows you to host five WordPress websites with free SSL certificate, regular updates for the WordPress core and nightly WordPress backups. Bulk hosting plans start at €60/month. 

WordPress costs: Guide to hosting plans, domains, themes & plugins

Our WooCommerce hosting plans like the PRO WooCommerce plan are perfect if you have an online store and want to focus on developing new products and marketing strategies. Our WooCommerce plans start at €50/month for a single WooCommerce store. 

WordPress costs: Guide to hosting plans, domains, themes & plugins

If you have a website that gets a lot of traffic, our High Performance and Enterprise plans are for you. As with the other plans, a free SSL certificate, nightly backups and regular core updates are included in the cost of the hosting plan. High Performance plans start at €100/month.

WordPress costs: Guide to hosting plans, domains, themes & plugins

WordPress VPS hosting

Another option you should consider is VPS hosting. VPS stands for Virtual Private Server. VPS hosting providers use a physical server that behaves like multiple, separate servers. Each of these "separate" servers is an instance with its own share of server resources. Usually, each instance hosts one website, so you don't have to worry about other websites affecting performance. 

WordPress pricing for VPS plans is on the higher side but for good reason. VPS (virtual private server) hosting offers a dedicated server for your WordPress website, which means:

  • Faster loading times 
  • Greater website security 
  • Managed WordPress maintenance plans 

When it comes to VPS hosting plans, the biggest downside is that the hosting provider might not allocate the resources properly which may cause issues down the line.

Virtual servers are often overbooked with low-cost providers. For example, because they have more RAM and CPU allocated than is actually available. However, since not all VPSs are always running at full capacity, the VPSs share the performance.

An alternative to this are, for example, virtual dedicated servers. These are more expensive than VPS - but have a guaranteed performance of CPU and RAM and SSD/HDD.

How to choose the best WordPress pricing model for your needs

Now you know the differences between different hosting plans, here are a few tips that will help you choose the best WordPress pricing model for your site: 

  • Find out how many visitors you get per month: Almost all hosting providers will list those numbers for each hosting plan they offer. This will help you determine which plan is right for your WordPress website.
  • Consider what type of website you have and your personal preferences: If you don’t want to spend any time maintaining and managing your website, a managed hosting plan is a great choice. Similarly, a managed hosting plan is also great if you have a small business website so you can focus on growing and scaling your business.
  • Keep your budget in mind: There are different WordPress pricing options for shared, VPS, and managed plans. Pick one that suits your budget but also allows you to easily upgrade your plan as your site grows. 
  • Don't forget support: Make sure your chosen hosting provider has customer support that’s available around the clock so you can get help no matter when you might need it. 

In the end, you should select a WordPress pricing option that you can afford and that suits your business needs. Yes, of course, you can choose a cheaper hosting plan over higher-cost hosting, but keep in mind that you usually get what you pay for. As such, it’s worth paying extra for a hosting plan since your website is the most powerful asset you have.

Domains 

WordPress costs: Guide to hosting plans, domains, themes & plugins

Most web hosts include a domain name with your purchase of a hosting plan. However, if you want to buy one on your own, there are several places you can do so, including:

WordPress website design pricing

Once you have your web hosting, domain and WordPress installed, you need to take care of your website  design. You can use a theme or a website builder but you may prefer to hire someone to create a custom web design for you. 

WordPress pricing options for web design vary greatly depending on the size of the website and its complexity. A small website with just a few pages can cost under $500. A small business website runs in the $1,000 range. 

WordPress developers in charge of analytics, social media integration, and content management systems cost around $2,000. And small e-commerce websites are typically in the range of $3,000. 

WordPress themes and plugins pricing

If hiring a designer isn’t an option, then another factor related to WordPress pricing you must consider is which WordPress theme you’re going to use. 

You can use a free theme and many are in the WordPress theme directory. A lot of fantastic options offer a fair amount of customization. WordPress costs: Guide to hosting plans, domains, themes & plugins

You may find, however, that you need a wider range of features like contact forms, advanced e-commerce integration with WooCommerce and more opportunities to customize. That’s where premium themes come into play. 

There are many premium versions of themes in the directory available, as well as third-party theme developers. 

A few top premium WordPress theme developers include: 

  • Elegant Themes: In business since 2009, this developer offers the popular Divi, with accompanying Divi Builder. WordPress pricing for this theme is $89 for yearly access. 
  • ThemeIsle: Popular themes offered here include Neve and Hestia, with premium versions starting at $59 per year.
  • Themify: Most known for its Ultra theme, Themify sells each of its themes for $59, or you can pay $89 for access to all themes. Lifetime access costs $249.
  • StudioPress: Best known for its Genesis Pro theme, which is renowned for its extensibility and performance. 

Expanding functionality within WordPress is another priority. This is mostly done through the use of plugins. 

Several WordPress plugins can enhance your website’s features. To optimize for SEO, for example, try Yoast. If you want to track analytics, Jetpack is a good place to start. 

These plugins are accessible from within the WordPress dashboard and from the plugin directory

WordPress costs: Guide to hosting plans, domains, themes & plugins

However, sometimes a premium option is required. And in these cases, you’ll need to factor plugins into your WordPress website pricing budget. 

CodeCanyon is a good place to start for premium plugins. Plugins range in price from $20 to upwards of $90 and can add features like contact forms, analytics, appointment booking, and widgets to your website. 

WordPress costs: Guide to hosting plans, domains, themes & plugins

WordPress website pricing for one year

Now that you have a sense of the costs that make up WordPress website pricing, it’s time to add it up. 

You can use WordPress with entirely free options. WordPress.com warrants access to free themes, no-cost hosting, and a fair number of features. This would be great for a hobby blogger. 

But let’s say you go the starter professional website route for a freelancer. You can expect to pay around $36 for the cheapest web hosting plan with a domain name using free themes and plugins. If you add a premium theme, you’re looking at around $75-100 per year. 

If you need e-commerce support, you can expect to pay around $120 per year in hosting fees, $50-$100 on a theme, and around the same on premium plugins. That’s a website cost of $220-$320 per year. 

If you need a truly custom site built, you’re looking at an upfront cost of at least $500 for a designer and then an additional $200-300 per year in hosting. 

Final thoughts on WordPress pricing

WordPress pricing varies but one thing is certain: there’s a plan out there to suit every budget. 

When using free options, you might have to go through some trial and error to find the gems, but it is possible to set your WordPress website pricing so it’s affordable. 

Raidboxes offers managed WordPress hosting services that make it easy to set up a new website and enjoy the benefits of having maintenance done for you. You'll find that our WordPress website costs are affordable for both start-ups and agencies. Try our planstoday. 

WordPress pricing: Your questions

If you have further questions about WordPress costs or would like to share your own experience, feel free to use the comments column. Are you interested in new postsabout WordPress, web design and more? Then follow Raidboxes on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or via our newsletter.

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