WordPress Website Design Cost: Real Table by Site Type
Last updated: November 2026
Picture a shop owner who sees a hosting banner at $1.99 a month and assumes the WordPress website design cost is about $24 for the year (an illustrative example, not a real customer). Twelve months later the renewal invoice reads $131.88. The gap between those two numbers is where most website budgets go wrong.
A typical WordPress website design cost for a five-page brochure site is about $135.51 in the first year for the domain, hosting, a paid theme and one business mailbox, rising to $243.51 at renewal, before you add the fee of whoever builds it.
This guide separates what you pay to providers every year from what you pay a person to design and set up the site. Prices were read from the providers' own pages on 5 November 2026 and are shown in US dollars first and euros second.
How these prices were gathered
Every figure in this article comes from a public price page read on 5 November 2026, or is calculated from those pages. Where a price was in euros, I converted it at the European Central Bank reference rate of 1 EUR = 1.1267 USD (dated 4 November 2026) and rounded each line to the cent. Totals are the sum of the rounded lines, so you can re-add them yourself.
A few honest limits apply:
- Some providers blocked automated reading of their pricing pages, so Bluehost, SiteGround, Namecheap, GoDaddy and the Kadence theme are not priced here. Check their pages yourself before comparing.
- Several first-year prices are promotional. I mark them and always show the renewal price next to them.
- Where a page did not publish a renewal price (Divi, Elementor, WPML), I assumed the renewal equals the first-year price. Treat those lines as estimates.
- Costs in your local currency will move with the exchange rate, because these providers charge in dollars or euros.
Who actually gets paid when you build a WordPress site
The WordPress software itself is free. According to W3Techs, WordPress runs 58.2% of websites whose content management system is known, and 39.5% of all websites. Free software does not mean a free website, though, because three different groups send you invoices.
- Infrastructure providers charge for the domain name, the hosting server, the email service and the security certificate.
- Licence sellers charge yearly fees for premium themes, page builders and plugins (small programs that add features).
- The person or team building the site charges for labour: choosing a layout, building pages, setting up forms and training you.
Most price lists you find online mix these three together, which is why a $30 offer and a $3,500 quote can both claim to be the cost of "a WordPress website". They are not pricing the same thing.
Source: Wikimedia Commons, WordPress Foundation (GPL)
If you want to see the build itself before looking at prices, this walkthrough on how to create a WordPress website covers the process from start to finish. The six steps below add the money side to it.
Step 1: Choose the site type before asking for a price
A price only means something once you know what is being priced. These four types cover most small-business requests, and each one changes the bill in a different way.
| Site type | What it usually contains | Why the cost changes |
|---|---|---|
| Brochure site | 5 pages: Home, About, Services, Portfolio, Contact; a contact form; basic search setup | Smallest hosting plan and few plugins |
| Business site | 10 pages: adds News or Blog, Team, FAQ and separate service pages; about 3 mailboxes | More pages, more email accounts, often a paid search plugin |
| WooCommerce store | Product pages, cart, checkout, shipping and policy pages; 20 to 50 products as an example | Stronger hosting, backups, security and payment fees |
| Multilingual site | 5 pages in 2 languages, a language switcher, right-to-left layout if one language needs it | Translation plugin and double the pages to manage |
The store and multilingual rows are where quotes diverge most. WooCommerce, the free shop plugin, has more than 7,000,000 active installations on WordPress.org, so it is well proven, but a shop still needs more server power and more safeguards than a brochure site.
Write down your type and your page list before you contact anyone. It is the single most useful thing you can bring to a quote conversation.
Step 2: Price the domain and hosting using the renewal figure
The domain is your web address, such as yourcompany.com. Hosting is the rented server that keeps the site online. Both renew every year, and the renewal price is the one that matters.
.com domain prices read on 5 November 2026:
| Registrar | Year 1 | Renewal | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cloudflare Registrar | $10.46 | $10.46 | Sold at wholesale cost, so registration equals renewal |
| Porkbun | $11.81 | $11.81 | Price taken from its public pricing data |
| Hostinger | $0.01 (promotion) | $19.99 | The $0.01 offer applies with a 3-year hosting plan |
Hostinger WordPress hosting, 12-month terms, read on 5 November 2026:
| Plan | Year 1 | Renewal per year | Renewal compared with year 1 |
|---|---|---|---|
| WordPress Premium | $23.88 ($1.99 a month) | $131.88 ($10.99 a month) | about 5.5 times |
| WordPress Unlimited | $33.48 | $203.88 ($16.99 a month) | about 6.1 times |
| Cloud Startup | $119.88 | $311.88 ($25.99 a month) | about 2.6 times |
The page also lists a 48-month Premium term at $95.52 paid once, then $10.99 a month afterwards. A longer term postpones the jump rather than removing it. Hostinger's page states that WooCommerce is included at no extra cost and that annual plans include a free domain for the first year under conditions, so read those conditions before relying on them.
I use Hostinger as the worked example because its page shows both prices clearly, not because it is the only good choice. The same pattern of a low first term and a higher renewal appears at most hosts. For a comparison across providers, see this guide to the best WordPress hosting for beginners and the explanation of how EasyWP plan prices change at renewal.
If you would rather not manage hosting at all, WordPress.com sells managed plans. Its plans interface listed Starter at €60 a year (about $67.60), Pro at €180 (about $202.81), Business at €300 (about $338.01) and Commerce at €540 (about $608.42). That data is tied to the location of the request, and the public pricing page itself would not load for me, so confirm on the page before you budget.
Step 3: Add the theme, page builder and plugin licences
A theme controls the look of the site, and a page builder lets you arrange pages by dragging blocks. WordPress.org has a free theme directory, and many good sites run on a free theme with free plugins. Paid options add layouts, support and updates for a yearly fee.
Source: WordPress.org Theme Directory
Themes and builders, prices read on 5 November 2026:
| Product | Year 1 | Renewal | Covers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free theme from the directory | $0 | $0 | One site, no support contract |
| Astra Pro with AI | $99 (discounted from $149) | $149 | Up to 3 sites |
| Divi (Theme and Builder) | $89 billed yearly ($7.42 a month) | Not stated on the page | Divi theme and builder |
| Elementor Essential | €60 (about $67.60) | Not stated for this plan | 1 site |
| Elementor Advanced Solo | €84 (about $94.64) | Not stated for this plan | 1 site, includes store features |
| GeneratePress One | $149 | $149 | Up to 10 sites |
Plugins that businesses commonly pay for:
| Product | Price | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Yoast SEO Premium | €118.80 a year (about $133.85) | Search setup helper, billed yearly |
| Rank Math Pro | about €67.08 in year 1 (about $75.58), then €107.88 (about $121.55) | Search setup helper, year-1 price is a promotion |
| WPML Blog, CMS, Agency | €39, €99, €199 (about $43.94, $111.54, $224.21) | Multilingual sites; includes one year of support and updates |
| Polylang | Free version, 900,000+ active installs | Multilingual sites; Pro price could not be verified |
| WP Rocket | €30 in year 1 (about $33.80, promotion until 28 November 2026), then €49.92 (about $56.24) | Speed |
| UpdraftPlus Premium | $83.30 for 2 sites ($113.05 for 10) | Backups |
| Wordfence Premium | $149 | Security |
| Sucuri Basic Platform | $229 | Security |
Two details save money. First, WPML's cheapest Blog tier does not support WooCommerce or String Translation, so a store in two languages needs the CMS tier or higher. Second, a licence is tied to an account, so ask who owns it. If the designer buys it under their name, you may lose updates when you part ways.
Yoast SEO has more than 10,000,000 active installs and UpdraftPlus more than 4,000,000, so both are common, but that does not mean you need them. A simple brochure site often works well with the free versions.
Step 4: Add SSL, email, backups and maintenance
These are the small items that people forget until the quote arrives.
SSL certificate. This is the padlock that shows your site is encrypted. Let's Encrypt issues free, automated certificates, and many hosts install them for you. A separate paid certificate is not a cost you should accept without a reason. If you register a domain with a provider that sells privacy or certificate add-ons, this explanation of domain privacy and SSL at Namecheap shows what those add-ons are.
Business email. An address like [email protected] looks more credible than a free webmail account. Two common options, with prices read on 5 November 2026:
| Service | Price | Per mailbox per year |
|---|---|---|
| Zoho Mail Lite | €0.90 per user per month, billed yearly | €10.80, about $12.17 |
| Google Workspace Business Starter | €6.80 per user per month, billed monthly | €81.60, about $91.94 |
Google lists a 50% discount for the first three months for new customers. If you are comparing hosts that bundle email, Bluehost's domain and email options are covered in a separate guide.
Backups. A backup is a saved copy of your site you can restore if something breaks. UpdraftPlus Premium costs $83.30 a year for two sites, and some hosts include backups in the plan. Ask where backups are stored and whether you can download one.
Maintenance. This means regular updates, security checks and fixes. Prices vary enormously:
- WP Buffs lists plans at $89, $179, $239 and $359 a month. The $89 plan includes weekly updates, backups four times a day and round-the-clock monitoring.
- Hostinger's guide gives market ranges of $5 to $25 a month for a personal site, $25 to $75 for a blog, $35 to $300 for a larger company site and $150 to $1,500 for a small or medium store. Hostinger sells hosting, so treat these as a commercial reference, not a neutral survey.
The lean and typical scenarios below leave maintenance out, because many owners run updates themselves or ask their designer for a one-off check. The heavy store scenario includes the $89 plan, which is $1,068 a year.
Step 5: Add payment fees if you will sell online
A store has one more cost that is not a licence. Payment processors keep a share of every sale. The fee is a percentage plus a fixed amount per transaction, and it depends on the country of your business and card.
| Processor | Fee (read 5 November 2026) |
|---|---|
| Stripe, standard cards, US page | 2.9% + 30 cents |
| Stripe, European Economic Area cards | 1.5% + €0.25 |
| WooPayments, United States | 2.90% + $0.30 |
| WooPayments, Austria | 1.50% + €0.25 |
| WooPayments, United Kingdom | 1.50% + £0.25 |
| PayPal Checkout, United States | 3.49% + a fixed fee |
WooPayments lists no setup fee and no monthly fee. Fees for businesses in Nigeria, India, the Philippines, Pakistan, Brazil or Indonesia can differ from these pages, so open your own gateway's price page for your country.
Illustrative arithmetic (not a real order): a single $1,000 order at 2.9% + $0.30 costs $29.00 + $0.30 = $29.30. Ten separate $100 orders cost 10 × ($2.90 + $0.30) = $32.00. The fixed part hurts small baskets more. On a €100 card payment in the European Economic Area at 1.5% + €0.25, the fee is €1.50 + €0.25 = €1.75.
These fees come out of your sales, not out of a website budget, which is why the cost tables below show them separately. If your plan is a store on a shared host, the guide to running a WooCommerce store on Bluehost walks through that setup.
Step 6: Agree the designer's fee and what it covers
This is the step where most owners get stuck. Provider costs are published, but the labour fee is a conversation, and a low number often hides what is left out. A custom design built from scratch starts around $3,500 in the market reference Hostinger publishes, with maintenance of $500 to $1,000 a month for custom sites. A template-based build is far cheaper because the design work is smaller and the scope is fixed.
If agreeing the scope is the part you would least like to do alone, Truescho's WordPress business website service has two package prices: €399 (about $449.55) for 5 pages in one language, and €649 (about $731.23) for 10 pages or 5 pages in two languages. Each covers a licensed ready-made WordPress theme customised with your branding, a mobile-friendly layout, a contact form, basic SEO setup (titles, descriptions and a sitemap) and a one-hour training session. Hosting, domain, paid-plugin licences and writing content from scratch are not part of it.
Whoever you hire, a good quote answers these ten questions in writing before you pay.
| # | Item | Why it matters | Question to ask |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ownership of domain and hosting | The account holder controls the site | Are the domain, hosting and admin email in my name, and do I get full passwords at handover? |
| 2 | Theme and plugin licences | Many renew yearly, such as Astra at $99 then $149 | Which paid items are used, who buys them, what do they cost each year and whose name is on the licence? |
| 3 | Pages, languages and delivery date | One extra page or language changes the price | What are the exact page names? Is translation and the language switcher included? What is the delivery date? |
| 4 | Revision rounds | Prevents disputes later | How many rounds are included and what does an extra round cost? |
| 5 | Content | Empty pages delay launch | Who writes the text and supplies the images, and by what deadline? |
| 6 | Search setup | Defines what is and is not promised | Does it cover only titles, descriptions and a sitemap, or also keyword research? |
| 7 | Speed and mobile | Most visits come from phones | Is the site tested on a phone, with which tool, and what result is acceptable? |
| 8 | Training and handover | You will edit it yourself | How long is the training, is it recorded and what files do I receive? |
| 9 | Backups | Without one you cannot restore | Where are backups kept, how often, and do I get a full copy at handover? |
| 10 | Support and maintenance after launch | Updates and security continue | How many days of free support follow handover, and what does monthly care cost? |
Source: Wikimedia Commons, WordPress Foundation (GPL)
Item 1 deserves extra attention. If the domain and hosting are registered under the designer's account, the site is theirs in practice, even if you paid for everything. Ask for the administrator login and the registrar login in your own name.
WordPress website design cost by site type: the full table
Now the pieces come together. The table below shows owner costs paid to providers, year 1 and renewal, in three scenarios. Designer labour is added in the second table.
What each scenario contains:
- Lean: a Cloudflare .com domain ($10.46), Hostinger Premium (or Unlimited for the store), a free theme, free plugins and free SSL, with no business email.
- Typical: the lean domain, a paid theme or builder, business email through Zoho Mail Lite and, where the site type needs them, a search plugin, backups and speed tools.
- Heavy: a $19.99 domain, a stronger hosting plan, Astra Pro, Yoast Premium, UpdraftPlus, WP Rocket and Google Workspace email, plus WPML for the multilingual site and Wordfence with the $89 monthly care plan for the store.
Typical scenario, line by line (USD):
| Line | Brochure | Business | Store | Multilingual |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Domain (Cloudflare .com) | $10.46 | $10.46 | $10.46 | $10.46 |
| Hosting, year 1 | $23.88 | $23.88 | $119.88 | $23.88 |
| Theme or builder | $89.00 (Divi) | $89.00 (Divi) | $94.64 (Elementor Advanced Solo) | $89.00 (Divi) |
| Business email (Zoho) | $12.17 (1 mailbox) | $36.51 (3) | $36.51 (3) | $12.17 (1) |
| Search plugin (Rank Math Pro) | none | $75.58 | none | none |
| Multilingual plugin (WPML CMS) | none | none | none | $111.54 |
| Backups (UpdraftPlus) | none | none | $83.30 | none |
| Speed (WP Rocket) | none | none | $33.80 | none |
| Total year 1 | $135.51 | $235.43 | $378.59 | $247.05 |
| Hosting at renewal | $131.88 | $131.88 | $311.88 | $131.88 |
| Search plugin at renewal | none | $121.55 | none | none |
| Speed at renewal | none | none | $56.24 | none |
| Total at renewal | $243.51 | $389.40 | $593.03 | $355.05 |
The renewal row assumes the theme, builder, backup and WPML prices stay the same, as those pages did not publish a different renewal figure.
Source: WPML
Owner costs by scenario, year 1 / renewal (USD):
| Site type | Lean | Typical | Heavy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brochure, 5 pages | $34.34 / $142.34 | $135.51 / $243.51 | $495.36 / $738.20 |
| Business, 10 pages | $34.34 / $142.34 | $235.43 / $389.40 | $679.24 / $922.08 |
| WooCommerce store | $43.94 / $214.34 | $378.59 / $593.03 | $1,798.76 / $2,063.20 |
| Multilingual, 5 pages in 2 languages | $34.34 / $142.34 | $247.05 / $355.05 | $606.90 / $849.74 |
Payment fees are not included in the store row. The heavy store figure includes $1,068 of monthly care. Without it, the heavy store would be $730.76 in year 1.
The multilingual lean figure assumes the free version of Polylang. I did not test whether it fits every language setup, so confirm with your builder before relying on that number.
Adding the designer's fee. Using the €399 and €649 package prices from Step 6, the first-year total for the three site types that package covers looks like this:
| Site type | Designer fee | With lean owner costs | With typical owner costs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brochure, 5 pages | €399 = $449.55 | $483.89 (€429.48) | $585.06 (€519.27) |
| Business, 10 pages | €649 = $731.23 | $765.57 (€679.48) | $966.66 (€857.96) |
| Multilingual, 5 pages in 2 languages | €649 = $731.23 | $765.57 (€679.48) | $978.28 (€868.27) |
The store is not in this table because that package page prices a shop separately and shows no figure for it. If a quote already includes a licensed theme, remove the theme line from the typical column to avoid paying twice.
Mistakes that inflate the bill
Comparing a first-year promotion with a full quote. The $23.88 hosting price and a $450 design fee are not on the same footing. Always compare year-1 plus renewal.
Paying for a theme the designer already licensed. Ask who holds the licence, and whether it is already in the quote.
Letting the designer register your domain. If the account is in their name, you cannot move the site without their cooperation.
Leaving content until the end. Empty pages delay launch, and delay is paid for in extra revision rounds. Write your text while the design is being built.
Buying plugins "just in case". Each paid plugin renews every year. Add them when a real need appears.
Treating a one-off price as the whole price. A site is a small ongoing service. Budget for hosting, domain, email and updates every year.
Expecting visitors on day one. A new site takes time to appear in search results, and no price buys instant traffic. This 90-day plan for a new website in Google explains what to do after launch.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a WordPress website cost per year?
For a small brochure site, owners pay roughly $34 to $142 a year to providers with a lean setup, about $136 to $244 with a paid theme and email, and nearly $500 to $740 with premium tools. Designer labour is a separate one-off cost. A store costs more, and payment fees depend on sales.
Is WordPress really free?
The WordPress software is free to download and use, but a working website is not. You still need a domain, hosting and an SSL certificate (which can be free), and you may pay for a premium theme, plugins, email and maintenance. The software is free; the services around it are what cost money.
How much does a simple five-page WordPress website cost to build?
For the provider side, the typical scenario in this guide is $135.51 in year one. For labour, a fixed-scope template build can be priced at around €399, about $449.55, so a first-year total is about $585.06. A fully custom build is a different, higher-priced job, starting around $3,500.
Why did my hosting renewal cost so much more?
Hosts discount the first term to win customers and bill the regular price afterwards. On Hostinger's WordPress Premium plan, 12 months starts at $23.88 and renews at $131.88 a year, about 5.5 times higher. Check the renewal price before buying, and note it in your calendar.
How much does a second language add to the cost?
In this guide's typical scenario, a five-page site with a paid translation plugin (WPML CMS, about $111.54) rises from $135.51 to $247.05 in year one. On the designer side, the package prices in Step 6 go from €399 for 5 pages in one language to €649 for 5 pages in two languages.
Is a WooCommerce store much more expensive than a brochure site?
Yes, mainly because a store needs stronger hosting, backups, security and payment fees. The typical store scenario here is $378.59 in year one and $593.03 at renewal, compared with $135.51 and $243.51 for a brochure site. WooCommerce itself is free, and the labour for a store is priced separately.
Do I own my site if the designer set it up?
You do only if the domain, hosting and administrator login are in your name, with full passwords handed over. If the designer registered everything under their own account, control rests with them. Ask for this in writing before paying, and confirm that you can log in to each account yourself.
Checklist before you pay
- Write your site type and page list, plus the languages you need.
- Ask for the domain, hosting and admin login to be in your name and on your account.
- Get year-1 and renewal prices for hosting, domain, theme, builder and every plugin.
- Confirm who buys each licence, and in whose name.
- Check how many revision rounds are included, and what extra rounds cost.
- Decide who writes the text and supplies images, with a deadline.
- Ask what the search setup includes, and be wary of any promise of rankings or traffic.
- Ask where backups are stored and whether you receive a full copy at handover.
- Confirm training, handover files and the free support period afterwards.
- For a store, check your payment gateway's fees for your country.
- Total everything for year 1 and for year 2, then compare quotes on that basis.
Want someone to handle this step for you?
Truescho, a platform for students and professionals around the world, offers a WordPress business website service: €399 for 5 pages in one language or €649 for 10 pages or 5 pages in two languages, with hosting and domain on your own account and full administrator access for you. See the WordPress business website service.
Sources
- WordPress.org: WooCommerce plugin page for active installation counts
- W3Techs: WordPress usage statistics for market share figures
- Let's Encrypt for free, automated SSL certificates
- Cloudflare Registrar for at-cost domain registration
- Hostinger WordPress hosting for year-1 and renewal hosting prices
- Hostinger: WordPress pricing guide for custom-build and maintenance ranges (commercial source)
- Stripe's official pricing page (read November 2026) for standard card processing fees
- WooCommerce: WooPayments fees for WooPayments rates by country