WordPress might have begun life as a straightforward blogging tool. However, in recent years, it has evolved into a full-fledged CMS as well as the greatest blogging platform. Businesses that utilize WordPress as their web home include The New York Times, NASA, Mozilla, Meta, NGINX, and The White House.
Still, WordPress is the best of the best. BuiltWith reports that WordPress powers 19,922,280 online websites—and growing. It’s used by a lot of websites for a purpose. The founding firm, Automattic, decided to keep their enterprise-level CMS open source instead of charging for it. Thus, in a technical sense, it’s “free.” But nothing is really free. There are always expenses in some type.
A frequently asked question is: What is the Actual price of creating a website with WordPress?
The price of a website is totally determined by your goals and budget, even if the fundamental WordPress software is free.
We’ll dissect everything in this post in order to provide a definitive response to the query: What is the actual cost of creating a website with WordPress? We’ll also demonstrate how to keep expenses down and avoid going overboard while creating a website.
What is WordPress?
WordPress is an open-source, free content management system (CMS) for building blogs and webpages. In essence, WordPress is a platform that frees you from hand-coding PHP and JavaScript in order to create a website. With a drag-and-drop editor, block patterns, complete site editing, and other features, it offers an intuitive user experience.
With WordPress, you can create any kind of website you can think of, enhance its functionality with essential plugins, or give it a custom design.
WordPress makes it possible for anybody to create a website that looks professional without needing to be a tech wiz, which is one of the reasons it is so popular.
The Reasons WordPress Isn’t Totally Free
WordPress.org will inform you that it’s totally free. However, that’s not the case. It isn’t, at least not if you want your WordPress website to be an online presence with complete functionality. If so, you will require a few more items. The additional expense is related to the extras you’ll need to start up.
These additional expenses fall into the following categories:
- Domain
- Web Hosting
- Premium Themes
- Pro Plugins for higher functionality
- Hiring A Developer
- WooCommerce addons
I’ll go over each category with you and show you the true cost for each. WordPress is used by a lot of other internet businesses, but that doesn’t always mean it’s the best option for your company. Let’s examine each category so you can decide whether it is or not.
Domain
The cost of acquiring a domain is the first factor to take into account when calculating WordPress costs. The internet address of your website is its domain name. It serves as the signature of your website, making it simple for users to remember and enter in order to access your content.
Your domain name is a crucial component of your branding in addition to being an address. It should be unique and represent the specialty of your website as it is usually visitors’ first impression of your online presence. It may be used to strengthen marketing efforts, inspire trust, and assist raise brand awareness and credibility.
You would think that being a crucial component of creating your online persona would come at a high cost. Fortunately, it’s one of the less expensive parts of the puzzle. A domain name often costs between $10 and $20 a year, depending on the domain registrar and the particular domain extension you select.
In addition to offering privacy for your domain, a reputable domain registrar like Namecheap will also ensure that your personal information is protected online. You can get your perfect domain name at the cheapest price at namecheap.com.
They also provide a powerful search function, so you may go through the domains that are available and select the one that most appeals to you. All things considered, Namecheap simplifies and lowers the cost of domain name registration. It is a one-stop shop for all your WordPress needs, complete with SSL certificates and add-ons for WordPress hosting.
Web Hosting
Investing in a reliable web hosting package is another aspect that affects WordPress pricing. Email accounts, databases, and important files are all stored by web hosting firms together with the content of your website. Upon entering your domain name, a browser establishes a connection with the files hosted on the web server, enabling the user to access and view your content. Different plans with varying degrees of features and resources are offered by web hosting companies.
Hosting Types:
1. Shared Hosting:
The least expensive choice, ideal for newcomers with little websites. On a server, your website shares resources with other users. Plans ranging from $5 to $18 per month are offered by certain providers. There are two types of shared hosting:
- cPanel: Once you have a web hosting service, you can use the popular web-based control panel cPanel to manage your website. It provides tools to facilitate website hosting in addition to a graphical user interface. cPanel provides comprehensive functionality on a single platform, making it ideal for setting up email accounts, managing databases, and configuring website settings. Bluehost is best option for cPanel.
- Plesk: The best WebOps hosting platform for running, automating, and expanding websites, apps, and hosting companies is Plesk. Plesk is an OS-neutral software that powers over 380,000 servers and automates over 13 million mailboxes and 10 million websites. Plesk is presently partnered with 50% of the top 100 service providers globally and is available in more than 32 languages across 140 countries. The Sumo Cloud is the greatest option for it, costing only $1/m.
2. Virtual Private Server (VPS) Hosting:
With dedicated resources and more control, VPS hosting is more reliable than shared hosting. Plans start at $5 and go up to $40 per month, making them perfect for expanding websites with moderate traffic. A very cheap base package is available from IONOS for about $2 a month.
3. Dedicated hosting:
Perfect for complicated or high-traffic websites, dedicated hosting offers the highest levels of control, security, and speed. Monthly plans start at $50 and go up to $175.
4. Managed WordPress Hosting:
The best value is provided by this hosting. It manages backups, security, upgrades, and maintenance specifically for WordPress. With one-click installations, it is very user-friendly. There are several providers whose monthly fees range from $3 to $35.
Premium Themes
After securing web hosting, adding a domain, and taking care of security issues, the next expense to think about is a premium WordPress theme. For your website to make a good first impression and grab visitors’ interest, it has to have an attractive design. The WordPress repository has a ton of free themes, but most of them are generic in nature and require additional tweaking.
All users of WordPress may access a wide variety of themes. Some cost more than $200, while others are free. Although free WordPress themes are excellent for novices, professional company owners may find them lacking in functionality.
You may search through WordPress’ extensive theme library to locate what you’re searching for. The important thing is to choose a theme that complements the general style of your website, as you may alter it later using plugins. Do you want a straightforward website? Expert? Swift on the move? Pleasure? Captivating? A theme that embodies such spirit may be found for your website.
Additionally, you have the option to narrow down search results based on your vision’s features, layout, and subject. However, you are not limited to using one of WordPress’s pre-made themes. Premade website templates are available for purchase on other websites, such as themeforest.com, with costs ranging from $75 to $200 and many more websites.
However, some of you won’t find any of the themes to be satisfactory. If so, you might want to think about working with a web developer to make your own theme. How much it costs will depend on who you choose and might range from $700 to $10,000. In case your company is well-established and has several requirements, you can even have to consider a price range that is closer to $50,000.
You should definitely have some in-house developers who can assist you with future revisions if you decide to hire someone to create a custom theme for your WordPress website. Otherwise, your inexperience with coding will seriously restrict you.
Pro Plugins for higher functionality
The WordPress platform itself may be used to create websites, but in order to fully utilize its potential, plugins must be added. They improve the features and operation of your website like necessary add-ons. Thousands of paid and free plugins are accessible via third-party developers or the WordPress repository. Plugins are available for almost every purpose you can imagine, such as performance improvement, security, backups, and search engine optimization (SEO).
Even though there are a lot of free alternatives, most plugins have very restricted free versions that frequently require a paid subscription to access all capabilities. Additionally, minimal support is provided by free plugins, so you’ll have to handle conflicts, mistakes, and other problems on your own.
Additionally, not all free plugins are secure. It’s crucial to select plugins that have received positive feedback from real reviewers and/or other reliable sources like G2 and Trustpilot.
Essential Premium Plugins To Consider
A premium theme will require fewer plugins to operate. Nevertheless, a few more will be required based on your intended use of your website and the hosting company you select. You should consider a few of them in order to have a complete idea of the cost of WordPress:
- Plugins for search engine optimization (SEO): These will raise your website’s search engine rating. The three best are Yoast SEO, AIOSEO and Rank Math, which have annual prices of $99 for Yoast SEO, $49.60 for AIOSEO and $6.99 for Rank Math, respectively.
- Plugins for security: These plugins guard your website against viruses, hacker attempts, and brute-force assaults. Excellent choices include plugins like WP Rocket (single $59 and Plus $119), Word Fence (Premium $119/year) and Elementor ($59/year).
- Backup Plugins: For disaster recovery, make frequent backups of the material on your website. You may rapidly backup and restore your website with just one click by using plugins like UpdraftPlus, which costs $95, annually.
- Ecommerce Plugins: Using an e-commerce plugin is a great method to sell physical goods or digital downloads. It is simple to put up an online store in a matter of minutes with plugins like Easy Digital Downloads ($99.50 per year) and WooCommerce (free with premium add-ons).
- Plugins for social media: With Divi, you can use Monarch to share your content on social media, Blog2Social to set up blog post auto-publishing ($7 per month), and Spotlight to show Instagram feeds ($39 per year).
- Contact Form Plugins: WP Forms ($49.50 annually) and Gravity Forms ($59 annually) let you to construct personalized login and registration forms, while contact form plugins let visitors contact you via contact forms.
SEO plugins are important and useful for websites. If you want to read more about plugins, so here is the list of top15 SEO plugins.
It’s crucial to keep in mind that plugin prices differ based on the developer, the functionality provided, and the available license choices. It is common for plugins to demand an annual renewal, so keep that in mind. Typically, a premium plugin will cost you between $20 and $200 each year. Just be sure to assess your needs thoroughly. The free version could be sufficient for some people to get by.
Hiring A Developer
WordPress is an easy-to-use platform that offers an abundance of themes and plugins to assist you in creating a stunning website. Beyond the capabilities of these technologies, there may be instances in which you need the assistance of a specialist for your eyesight.
Here’s where it could be necessary to hire a web designer or developer. Assume, for instance, that you require CSS or other computer languages in order to create a highly personalized design. That’s where a developer will be useful. However, bear in mind that developers are expensive. Hiring The WP Galaxy team, you may locate a developer at a lower cost. You can contact us and we will share the exact cost & time depending upon your needs.
In order to help with technological integrations, a developer can also be required. You may integrate a live chat function, add accounting software, link to Calendly, or connect a CRM. Even though some of these connections, like Zapier, could just need a plugin or a bridge, those who don’t know how to accomplish these things will probably need to budget a few hours for a more polished look.
The going prices for designers and web developers vary based on experience level and geography, but for a junior developer, you should budget at least $50 per hour. complicated projects and more complicated coding jobs call for a more diverse skill set. In that scenario, budget at least $100 each hour.
WooCommerce addons
Although it may seem difficult, starting an internet shop doesn’t have to be difficult. Although WooCommerce functionality isn’t integrated into WordPress by default, there are plenty of options available to get you started.
1. WooCommerce Points and Rewards:
Give your customers points they may use to get discounts in exchange for purchases and other behaviors. Simply specify the number of points that consumers should accrue for every dollar they spend as well as the number of points that may be exchanged for a given discount. Points may be given out globally, by product category, or by level, and you have the ability to choose the maximum discount that can be applied when redeeming points.
The actual price of WooCommerce points and rewards is $179/year.
2. Woo Product Recommendations:
- Increase the intelligence of your cross- and up-sells or build your own rule-based recommendation engines.
- By strategically placing suggestions, you may enhance the overall shopping experience for customers throughout your whole business.
- With the use of comprehensive statistics, assess their influence and improve your tactics.
Block theme compatibility has not been tuned for Woo Product Recommendations: Block themes can cause recommendations engines to behave differently than they should.
The actual price of Woo product recommendations is $99/year.
3. WooCommerce Bookings:
Give clients the option to schedule appointments, make reservations, or rent equipment all from within your website.
Bookings enables you to provide your clients with whatever alternatives you choose:
- Specify alternatives that are predetermined, such as times for classes, appointments, or guided tours.
- Give clients the freedom to reserve whatever time window that suits them best, much as when they check into a hotel.
This will give you the opportunity to attend to other priorities and leave time in between bookings.
You can buy it at the actual price of $ 249/year.
4. Pinterest for WooCommerce:
People can find their next big idea on Pinterest. For millions of pinners, it’s a one-stop shop where they can find new items, ideas, and opportunities. It’s part marketplace, part collection. Similar to a visual search engine, it directs users to concepts, sources of inspiration, and goods that are ideal for them.
Pinterest for WooCommerce is free to install and used.
5. WooCommerce Shipping:
Right from your WooCommerce dashboard, print USPS and DHL labels to start saving money on shipping. You may utilize WooCommerce Shipping for free, and it will save you money and time.
You can used and install WooCommerce shipping because it’s also free to used.
6. WooCommerce Subscriptions:
Permit consumers to pay on a weekly, monthly, or yearly basis for your goods or services through subscriptions.
- There are several payment plans available to meet the demands of your shop.
- Integration for automated recurring payments with more than 25 payment gateways
- Supports both automated email bills and receipts and manual renewal payments via any WooCommerce payment method.
- Ensures that you never lose money by supporting automatic rebilling in the event that a subscription payment fails.
- Allow members to control their own plans, including downsizing or upgrading, so they won’t have to depend on you for assistance.
- There are never any surprises because of built-in renewal reminders and automated emails that inform you and your clients when membership payments have been received.
- You may monitor recurring revenue, the quantity of active members, and other information with detailed reports.
The actual price of installing and using WooCommerce subscriptions is $279/year.
There are many more WooCommerce addons that you can use for making websites. So, here you can find more WooCommerce addons.
What’s the Final Tally?
You will ultimately pay anywhere from $500 to $50,000. The functionality, speed, security, and volume of traffic that you want your website to be able to manage all affect how much it will cost. Put another way, the money you spend will have a direct impact on the functionality, quality & performance of your website.
It’s better to choose a professional only. Cheap designers may charge $500 but there are chances that quality may not match your brand.
Conclusion
WordPress is used by some of the most potent websites on the internet. Additionally, you are free to utilize it if they are. However, don’t let anyone fool you into believing it won’t cost you anything.
You must first find a location to host your website. Additionally, the hosting becomes better the more you spend. In order to claim your online space, you also need a domain name and a theme that aligns with the goals of your website. After that, you must add the appropriate plugins. Additionally, if you are managing an online business, you must invest more time, money, and effort into selecting the right e-commerce platform and installing the appropriate extensions.
All of those variables together will ultimately make your wallet slim. However, they will also make you more successful. Put otherwise, the money was wisely spent.
You may book a consultancy with us if you need assistance or have any questions about this; our WordPress Web Design experts will assist you at any moment.