By Philip Yiga | July 11, 2017

Most people often ask how much it costs to build a WordPress-website but this question is actually a bit tricky because the cost of building a WordPress-website depends entirely on your goals and budget. In fact, the core WordPress-software is free but the domain-name, hosting-services and some advanced-plugins need to be purchased in order to achieve a complete WordPress website/blog. So, in this article I will show you what’s needed and how much it really costs to build a WordPress website/blog.

Section-1: What you will need to build a WordPress website:

• WordPress software: WordPress is actually open-source software that anyone can download and use on his/her domain-name. In fact, WordPress can be installed on any kind of website but you will need to acquire a domain-name and hosting-space before installing WordPress.

 

• WordPress hosting: in order to create a self-hosted WordPress website/blog, you will need to pay for web-hosting so that the website-files can be stored on your hosting-space. In fact, a web-hosting company is like your website’s home on the internet. On the other hand, there are many web-hosting companies on the today but the best companies include Bluehost and iPage because they provide the user with the best hosting and support services. For example, Bluehost offers its customers with web-hosting services starting from $3.95 per month for the Basic-plan, $5.95/month for the plus and prime plans while the GoPRO-Plan is at $13.95/month.

 

• Domain-name: you will also need to buy a domain-name because it acts as your website’s address on the internet. In fact, internet-users will have type in the domain-name into the browser in order to reach your website. On the other hand, there are many companies today selling domain-names but GoDaddy is one of the best whereby it sells all types of domains like; .com, .co, .org, .us/.uk/etc and all these are priced under £ 1. However, most web-hosting companies like Bluehost and iPage offer a free domain-name after paying for web-hosting and you can also get a free sub-domain within WordPress incase you don’t have the money to buy an independent domain-name.

 

• Website templates and designing: WordPress actually features several free website-templates that can be used to design your website. However, in case you want a template that is custom and more-advanced then consider purchasing a premium-template from Themeforest.com starting for $10 and above or you can go for a custom-made theme which is a bit expensive.

 

• Plugins and Addons (Extensions/Apps): WordPress also features thousands of free plugins and Addons. In fact, plugins act as Apps/extensions for website and they will help you add features like; contact-forms, tables, galleries, Buttons, SEO-optimization and a lot more to your website. However, although most WordPress-plugins are free, some plugins need to be upgraded in order to use all the features but only after paying some money.

Note: although you can build a great website with just web-hosting and domain costs, you may also need to pay for additional services and tools in order to achieve the best out of your website. All in all, it’s actually very confusing for someone to find out the cost of building a WordPress-website because the total cost depends on what your website is all about.

 

SECTION-2: Estimating the Cost of Building A WordPress Website:

The cost of building a WordPress-website can range from anywhere between $100 and $3000 or even higher depending on your website-needs. So, it’s very important to know the type of website you want to build and what it will do for you because this will directly affect your cost. All in all, I’m going to break-down for you the different types of websites and budget categories so that you can be able to choose website-type that fits within your budget.

1. Building a Low-Budget WordPress website:

You can actually build a fully-functional WordPress website for yourself just under $100 and below is the cost break-down of this low-budget WordPress-website.

• Buy a cheap Domain-name and web-hosting: a good domain-name may cost you about $10 or higher per year while web-hosting may cost you about $4/month. However, if you want to reduce on the cost of your domain-name and web-hosting then consider going the Bluehost because it provides cheap web-hosting services and free domain-names. For example, Bluehost provides the user with different web-hosting plans which include; basic-plan at $3.95/month, plus and prime plans at $5.95/month and the GoPro-plan at $13.95/month whereby all these plans include a free domain-name. All in all, Bluehost offers the best website-building deals at a low-cost and it’s even the official WordPress recommended hosting-provider.

 

• Install WordPress onto the hosting account by yourself: if you don’t want to spend a lot of money on setting-up your WordPress-website, then consider installing WordPress onto your hosting-account by yourself. This installation-process is easy in case you follow the right instructions.

 

• Use a free template to design your website: after installing WordPress onto your domain-name, you will now need to choose a template-design for your website. So, consider using a free WordPress template/theme to design your website if you don’t want spend a lot of money on purchasing premium themes/templates. All in all, just search and install a free WordPress-theme that looks professional on your website.

 

• Install free plugins/Addons onto your website: plugins act as a apps/extensions for your WordPress website and this implies that in case you want to add certain features to your website like; Contact-forms, Buttons, photo-galleries, tables, SEO-optimization etc then you just need to go to your WordPress Dashboard >> Plugins >> Add New and after search for any type of plugin you want to be installed onto your WordPress website at no-cost.

Conclusion: a low-budget website will cost you around $48 to $100 per year and this is actually a great price for beginners in website-building.

 

2. The Cost of building a WordPress website it more advanced features:

When you want to add more features to your website, then its cost will start to increase. However, it’s recommended to start small and then add more features to your website as it grows so that you don’t waste money on anything that you don’t really need within your website. So below are some of the things you will need to do in order to build a WordPress website with more features but at an affordable price.

• Buy Web-hosting and domain-name from Bluehost: Bluehost actually offers great web-hosting plans coupled with a free domain-name. So, in case your already using Bluehost then continue using it in order to enjoy its low-cost web-hosting plans plus a free domain-name but just try to go for a more advanced Plan like GoPro which provides more advanced features such as; a Dedicated-IP, SSL-Certificate, Domain-Privacy and Site-Backup Pro. However the GoPro webhosting-plan will a little more although it provides you premium-features.

 

• Install a premium WordPress theme/template: unlike free WordPress-templates, premium-templates are equipped with extra-features coupled with great-support. So, just go to themeforest.com/ in order to purchase a great, responsive and premium WordPress theme for your website. In fact, good premium-themes cost about $15 to $100 or higher.

 

• Use free and paid plugins within your WordPress website: if you want your website to get multiple great features then you will need to use a combination of free and paid plugins/Addons. In fact, some free-plugins require a payable-upgrade in order to access and use other advanced features. For example, if you have been using the WPForms-plugin to create forms within your posts/pages but when you want to access other advanced features within the plugin, then you need to pay some little money to upgrade to WPForms-Pro which includes other advanced features. So, the same will apply to other installed plugins that require an upgrade in order to use all their features.

 

Conclusion: the price of building a WordPress-website with more features will depend on the cost of the premium webhosting-services, plugins, themes and other services that you want to add into your website. All in all, a WordPress-website including most advanced features is estimated to cost about $500 to $1000 per year.