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Cost of WordPress: A Quick View At The Real Costs Of Running A Blog Or Web Site

When I just started to use WordPress, I was wondering what the real cost of WordPress was. As you might know, WordPress is open source software and free to use. But does free really means “free”? What are the other costs? Are there any hidden costs?

That’s why, after building several web sites for my clients, I’m writing this overview. So you’ll also get a better insight of the costs of running a WordPress blog or site.

WordPress Software

Let’s start with the basics: the WordPress software. This really is free to download and to use. No hidden costs. Period.

You can download WordPress at www.wordpress.org

Domain name and web hosting

Once you downloaded the WordPress software, you have to put it somewhere so your visitors can visit your blog or site. That’s what we call web hosting. You also need a domain name (www.mydomain.com). These costs are annual.

There are really a lot of different web hosting companies, offering different sorts of web hosting plans. If you’re running a normal blog, then a basic web hosting plan will do. Go for an established web hosting company. If you don’t know where to start, contact us. We offer fast, reliable WordPress hosting starting as low as $6,95 / month, including a domain name.

Templates (Design of your blog/website)

Next thing that really can cost you a lot of money is a template. A template is the design of your blog / site. There are several free templates of good quality out there. If you know some html / css / php, you can even change them the way you like.

You can also consider to buy a premium template. Premium templates mostly come with more options then free templates and professional support. Prices are relative cheap (less then $100). The downside is that they are used by several sites and blogs wolrdwide. But, to be honest, I use a premium theme for this blog, and there are so many options that it’s possible to create a more personal theme. For several reasons my personal favourit is WooThemes.

Plugins

I’ll start with the good news: most plugins are for free or have a free (limited or basic) version. So if you just start blogging you can keep the cost of WordPress very low. However, for some plugins (like Askimet) you have to pay a fee if you run a professional website or blog. Other plugins are premium plugins and will cost you some money. But premium (or commercial) plugins come with better support and most of them also come with refund options.

Tip: when you find a plugin and you have to pay for it, you can also look for a free alternative. Sometimes the free alternative will meet your demands, sometimes it won’t.

Cost of WordPress:overview

  • WordPress software: $0
  • Domain name and web hosting: starting at $6,95 / year
  • Templates: a lot of free templates, commercial templates will cost less then $100 (like WooThemes), or you can use Artisteer (as low as $49 for the Home version)
  • Plugins: most of the plugins are for free.

Conclusion

I hope that after reading this article, it’s a little more clear to you how much WordPress costs. As you can see, it all depends on you. It’s certainly possible to keep the cost of WordPress very low, but as you can see it isn’t that difficult to pay a lot too. If you think about other costs that come with WordPress, or other costs you had, please let me and the other visitors know and leave comment.

 

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