How Much Does a WordPress Website Cost in 2026? Build, Hosting and Maintenance

Contents9 sections

“How much does a website cost?” It is usually the first question clients ask us. The honest answer has two parts: what it costs to build, and what it costs every year to keep it online, secure and fast. Many quotes only cover the first part, yet over three years the second part is what makes the difference.

This guide breaks down WordPress website cost in 2026 line by line: build, domain name, hosting, plugins and maintenance. Every figure comes from a public source listed at the end, and our own prices are the ones published on our site. Two worked examples then show the real cost of a small business website over three years.

01The real price of a website: the build, then every year

WordPress is free, a WordPress website is not

WordPress runs 40.2% of all websites, and nearly 59% of sites whose content management system is known (W3Techs, September 2026). It is released under the GPL license, so anyone can install, change and use it for free. What you pay for is everything else: the design and build work, hosting, the domain name, sometimes premium plugins, and ongoing care.

WordPress.com or WordPress.org: two different price models

The name covers two things. WordPress.org is the free software you install with the hosting provider of your choice, and this self-hosted setup is what this guide prices. WordPress.com is a hosted service run by Automattic, with a free plan and paid plans. The free plan runs on a wordpress.com subdomain and shows ads to your visitors. Paid plans start at $4 a month billed annually for Personal ($2.75 a month over three years), then $8 for Premium, $25 for Business and $45 for Commerce. Every paid plan now allows plugins and includes a free domain for the first year.

WordPress.com is a simple option for a personal site or a small blog. For a business website, a self-hosted WordPress site gives you full control over the theme, plugins, hosting and speed, and makes it easy to change provider later.

Think in three-year cost

A build quote is paid once. The site itself costs money every year for as long as it stays online, a bit like a subscription. That is why we recommend comparing offers over three years: in that time, a well-built small business site usually does not need a redesign (more on that below).

02WordPress website cost by type of site

Price depends first on what the site has to do. A business website presents your company in a few pages, a blog publishes regularly, and a WooCommerce store sells online, with payments, stock and shipping. Here is what the market charges, according to the 2026 GoodFirms survey of more than 300 web design firms.

Type of project	Build price
Basic website (most firms)	$1,000 to $3,000
WordPress website	$3,000 to $40,000
CMS website (most firms)	$5,000 to $20,000
Ecommerce website	$5,000 to $50,000
Average web design project on Clutch	$38,105
Shinsei Studio: one-page / business website / store	$900 / $1,650 / $3,200 before tax

Sources: GoodFirms, Website Construction Cost Survey 2026 · Clutch, web design pricing (September 2026) · prices published on shinseistudio.com.

Freelancer, agency or studio

If you hire a freelance WordPress developer, the price mostly follows the hours worked. Codeable reports US WordPress freelancers at $25 to $40 an hour for entry level, $45 to $70 for mid-level and $75 to $120 or more for senior developers, while its own vetted experts charge $80 to $120. Agencies add project management, design and account management. Clutch lists a typical agency rate of $100 to $149 an hour, and most projects on its platform stay under $10,000.

What about the $0 website?

You can build a WordPress site yourself with a free WordPress theme and free plugins. You then pay in time instead of money, for setup, configuration, content, security and updates. For a personal site, that is a fine choice. For a business, the time spent and the risk of mistakes often cost more than hiring someone.

03Factors that affect WordPress website cost

Off-the-shelf theme or custom design

A premium or free theme shortens the build, but it imposes its structure, limits customization and often loads a lot of unused code. A custom WordPress design costs more upfront; in return, the site is lighter, faster and easier to evolve. Page builders such as Elementor sit in between, with their own subscription ($60 a year for Elementor Pro on one site).

Number of pages and content

Every page needs layout, copy and images. If the content is ready, the build moves fast. If it has to be written, translated or photographed, the budget grows accordingly, and that is the most underestimated line in most projects.

Languages and features

A site in two or three languages needs a translation tool, duplicate pages and real adaptation work. Each feature adds time too, whether it is bookings, a member area, a store or multi-currency payments. A WooCommerce store may also need premium extensions, such as WooCommerce Subscriptions at $279 a year.

Performance and sustainability

A fast, light site takes extra work during the build: optimized images, lean code, self-hosted fonts, well-tuned caching. That work pays off later with better rankings, a smoother mobile experience and less energy used on every visit. Our sustainable WordPress guide explains how.

04Recurring costs: domain, hosting, plugins and maintenance

Once the site is live, four costs come back every year. Headline prices are often first-year promotions or tied to long commitments, so look at the renewal price.

• Domain name (typical .com)$10–35
• Page builder plugin (Elementor Pro)$60
• SEO plugin (Yoast SEO Premium)$118.80
• Shared WordPress hosting (Hostinger, after promo)$131.88
• Managed WordPress hosting (WP Engine / Kinsta)$336–350

Sources: Forbes Advisor (domain range) · Elementor · Yoast · Hostinger · WP Engine · Kinsta, checked on September 27, 2026.

How to read this chart. These are tools only, not work: maintenance is compared separately below. Hostinger advertises $2.99 a month, but for a 48-month commitment; the renewal price is $10.99 a month. WP Engine and Kinsta prices are for their entry plans billed annually.

Domain name and hosting

A domain name usually costs $10 to $35 a year, according to Forbes Advisor. Some hosting plans include a free domain for the first year, so check the renewal price from year two. An SSL certificate (the padlock in the browser) is free with most hosting providers and should not be billed on top. Shared hosting for a small WordPress site renews at about $11 a month at Hostinger, or $131.88 a year. Managed WordPress hosts built for higher traffic start at $28 to $30 a month billed annually: $336 a year for WP Engine Essential, $350 for Kinsta’s entry plan.

Premium plugins

Many sites need none, since free plugins cover most needs, from contact forms to basic SEO. Others stack a page builder, an SEO plugin, a caching plugin and a few store extensions, each with a yearly subscription. At renewal, Yoast SEO Premium costs $118.80, WP Rocket $59.95 and Elementor Pro $60. Before signing, ask for the list of premium plugins and their renewal prices.

Maintenance

This is the most variable line, and the one people forget most often. The GoodFirms 2026 survey recommends budgeting 15 to 20% of the build cost every year, and 30% of firms charge $500 to $1,500 a month for retainers. Proper WordPress maintenance covers tested updates, off-site backups, a firewall, monitoring and help when something breaks. Without it, a site ages fast and the risk of being hacked grows month after month. Prices vary widely, depending on what is included:

• Do it yourself (your time not counted)$0
• Security and cleanup only (Sucuri)$229–549
• Budget automated plan$360–600
• Shinsei Studio, Peace of mind plan$660
• Managed care plan (Codeable Basic)$2,880

Sources: Codeable, WordPress maintenance pricing 2026 · Sucuri · Shinsei Studio, checked on September 27, 2026.

How to read this chart. Budget plans ($30 to $50 a month) usually run automated updates with weekly backups, often stored on the same server (Codeable). Sucuri covers security and cleanup only, not updates. Our Peace of mind plan, $55 a month, includes hosting (for websites we build), tested updates, daily off-site backups, a firewall, monitoring and hack repair. Codeable’s own managed care plan starts at $240 a month.

We see it with DIY District, our own WooCommerce store: when maintenance is not done every month, gaps open up between versions, especially since AI arrived and patches come out at a frantic pace. And that can break, for example, the checkout. E-commerce is really the most obvious case, and the most critical right now.

05Total cost over 3 years: two worked examples

Here is the three-year cost of a five-page small business website in two common scenarios, before tax. These are examples, not quotes, and your needs can move the total either way.

Example 1: a freelancer, then maintenance as a percentage

• Build: 32 hours at $70, the top of the mid-level US freelance range reported by Codeable, so $2,240. Thirty-two hours is our assumption for a five-page site with content supplied.
• Hosting: Hostinger at $2.99 a month, paid $143.52 upfront for 48 months.
• Domain name: $20 a year, the middle of the Forbes Advisor range, so $60 over 3 years.
• Maintenance at 15% of the build cost per year: $336 a year (about $28 a month), so $1,008 over 3 years.
• 3-year total: about $3,452 before tax.

Example 2: our starter package, hosting and maintenance included

• Build: $1,650 before tax, our starting price for a business website of up to 5 pages.
• Hosting and maintenance, Peace of mind plan: first 3 months free with the build, then $55 a month, so $1,815 over 3 years (33 months). The site is hosted by us: no hosting bill on top.
• Domain name, in your name: $60 over 3 years, as in example 1.
• 3-year total: about $3,525 before tax.

• Do it yourself (time not counted)$204
• Example 1: freelancer + 15% maintenance$3,452
• Example 1 with comparable care (budget plan + Sucuri cleanup)$5,051
• Example 2: Shinsei Studio, hosting and maintenance included$3,525

Shinsei Studio calculations based on Codeable, GoodFirms 2026, Hostinger and Forbes Advisor, Sucuri.

Do it yourself includes only hosting ($143.52 for 48 months) and the domain. It does not count your time, premium plugins, or repairs if something goes wrong. Example 1 with comparable care keeps the same build, hosting and domain, and replaces the 15% maintenance with a budget plan ($480 a year) plus Sucuri protection with cleanup ($389 a year).

With comparable care, our package costs less. Example 1 looks cheaper because $28 a month is budget-plan territory, usually automated updates and weekly backups. Our plan also includes hosting, a firewall, monitoring, a monthly report and repair if the site gets hacked. Add security and cleanup to example 1, with a budget plan and Sucuri protection, and it comes to about $5,050 over three years, some $1,525 more than our package. So compare what is included, not just the total.

06Website redesign cost: how much, and when

How often should you redesign?

There is no fixed rule. Orbit Media found that top marketing brands redesign their websites every 2 years and 1 month on average, while its own clients’ sites last 6 years and 4 months. For a small business, a well-built, well-maintained WordPress site can run four to six years without a full redesign.

What a redesign costs

A redesign usually costs about as much as a new build, since design, structure and often code are redone. Details are on our website redesign page. It is time to think about it when the site gets slow or hard to update, or when maintenance keeps getting more expensive. GoodFirms suggests considering a rebuild when yearly maintenance exceeds 30% of a rebuild estimate.

07Hidden costs: hacks, slowness and missing backups

A hack costs more than prevention

Patchstack recorded 11,334 new WordPress vulnerabilities in 2025, 42% more than in 2024. 91% came from plugins, and 46% had no patch available when they were disclosed. A site that is not updated almost always gets targeted eventually. Cleaning up after a hack takes a diagnosis, malware removal and sometimes a rebuild, not counting the days offline and the lost trust.

Specialist services price it accordingly: Sucuri’s protection plans, which include cleanup, cost $229 to $549 a year. That is why our WordPress maintenance plans include hack repair at no extra cost.

A slow site loses customers

A site that takes several seconds to load on mobile loses visitors before they read the first line, and Google ranks it lower. Building light from day one, then monitoring, saves you from paying for emergency optimization later.

No backup, no way back

An update that breaks the site, a wrong click, a hosting outage: without a recent backup stored away from the server, everything has to be rebuilt. A daily off-site backup costs little, while rebuilding a lost site costs as much as a new one.

08Our prices, and the questions to ask before you sign

What we charge

We publish our starting prices, then price each project precisely:

• One-page website, $900 before tax: a single, well-built page to present a business, an event or a launch.
• Business website, from $1,650 before tax: custom theme with no heavy page builder, up to 5 pages (more pages priced accordingly), responsive and accessible design, technical SEO, admin training. Multilingual and low-impact versions available as options.
• WooCommerce store, from $3,200 before tax: everything in the website package, up to 20 product pages, Stripe and PayPal payments, shipping, inventory and invoices.
• Hosting and maintenance, from $55 a month before tax ($165 for stores): hosting for websites we build, domain name in your name with renewals monitored, tested updates, off-site backups, firewall, monitoring, a monthly report and hack repair included. First 3 months free with the build, then no contract and a price guaranteed for 2 years.

Details are on our WordPress web design and WooCommerce store pages and on our maintenance plans. From our studio in Kyoto, we work with clients in the United States, Europe, Japan and beyond. We communicate in English or French, and in Japanese in writing.

Six questions to ask before you sign

1. Does the price include hosting and the domain name, and what do they cost at renewal?
2. Which premium plugins are planned, and what do they cost each year?
3. Who handles updates after launch, and at what price?
4. Are backups stored off the server, and for how long?
5. What happens, and what does it cost, if the site gets hacked?
6. Do you fully own the site: files, content, admin access and domain name?

Conclusion: compare the real cost, not just the quote

The price of a WordPress website adds up over several years. For a professional small business site, expect a few hundred to a few thousand dollars for the build, then about $150 a year for hosting and domain (with us, hosting is included in maintenance), plus serious upkeep. Over three years, our two examples land between about $3,450 and $3,530, maintenance included.

Have a project, or a site to take over? Tell us about it in three quick questions: we get back to you within two business days with a clear quote and no hidden fees.