How Much Does It Cost to Build a WordPress Website in 2023?

Of course cost depends on the scope of your project and how much work is involved.

A professional 10 page informational website with standard customization is going to cost less than a highly customized 50 page site with all the bells and whistles.

The cost to build a website for a small business could be less than $1,000 to over $10,000.

That’s a huge price range! So let’s break things down a bit so you can get a realistic estimate for what it will cost to design and develop your website.

For professional web designers that list their prices, we found the going rate to build a modern, professional small business website was typically $3,000-$6,000 but could be as much as $20,000 (or more) depending on the number of pages on the site and the amount of customization required. This typically includes design and development.

Specific Factors Affecting the Price of Building a Small Business Website:

# of Pages:  A 10-page website package may run $3,000, but if your site needs 20 pages — how much extra will that cost? A good rule of thumb is to add about $100/page for each basic page over and above what’s included in the standard website package.

Customization:  Every website starts with a theme or template of some kind now.  Templates and themes are a major reason that a professional small business website can be created in the $3,000-$6,000 range.  The more customization and coding required above what the theme provides, the greater the cost.

Images | Graphics: Custom images and graphics can give your site a one-of-a-kind look, but it comes at a price. Sophisticated visual effects often require special editing software, not to mention the talent of a custom graphic design specialist. Consider will you be providing the images and graphics or does the designer need to provide them?

Stock photos –  If you have high-quality images for your site, then you’re all set, but you may need to purchase some images to enhance your site a bit. We recommend BigStockPhoto.com, iStockPhoto.com and burst.shopify.com (free). They have many high-quality, royalty-free images at reasonable prices. In many cases, you can probably get all you need for $50-200. IMPORTANT: We dont recommend copying images from other online sources onto your site without permission, because it’s possible to get sued.

Custom Logo: Although not required, a custom logo is a nice addition to any website. A custom logo builds trust/credibility. To get a professionally designed logo expect to pay in the $500-$1,000 range.

Custom Programming: Often a WordPress plugin provides the functionality you need right out of the box,  other times, getting your site to do what you want requires trial/error and testing which adds to cost.

Design Revisions: Most website projects start with an initial concept design, then it’s common to have 1 or 2 design revisions to get everything right. Every design iteration adds to the overall cost of the project.

Content Development: Solid content is the foundation of any great website. If you’re launching a new site but don’t have any content yet, it needs to be developed. If you have an existing site but the content is weak, stale or outdated, it’ll need to be enhanced … maybe even overhauled. I’ve discovered the #1 obstacle to launching a successful website is content development.  Yes, you want your website to look modern and stylish, but it’s your website’s content that moves the needle.

Before getting into WordPress Website Cost, I’ll first cover some basics.

1. WordPress.com vs WordPress.org

With WordPress.org, YOU host your own website, with WordPress.com, you don’t.

Using WordPress.com your domain will, by default, include “WordPress.com”, and can’t upload any custom themes, plugins or modify the PHP code behind your site.

Using a self-hosted version of WordPress with WordPress.org means you can use your own domain name, upload and install themes and plugins, edit the code behind your site and have access to your site’s database (or files). Most of the showcase sites you see on the WordPress site showcase are the self-hosted version of WordPress, since many of them have unique functionality or a custom-made design.

Therefore WordPress.com  does not work for me or my clients, and this article is entirely written for self hosted websites using WordPress.org.

2. What Is Needed to Build a WordPress Website?

WordPress is open source software free for anyone to download and use and the cost of a WordPress site can be broken down into the following categories:

• • Website Hosting 
  • Domain Name
  • Design & Development
  • Plugins & Theme

Web hosting is needed to store your files. Website hosting costs range from about $100/year for standard web hosting from companies like BlueHost or HostGator to $300-$500+/year for more robust web hosting from companies like WPengine or SiteGround.

Domain Name is your website’s address on the internet.
With WordPress, there are many templates available to speed up the process, however if you want something more custom, a premium template / theme may be needed which will raise the cost.

There are 45,000+ free plugins for WordPress. These are applications and extensions for your websites such as a contact form, gallery, etc.

3. WordPress Website Cost Considerations

Dramatic Price Range

WordPress websites can range from $500 to $100,000 +.

On the high end of the spectrum, companies like The Wallstreet Journal, Forbes , LinkedIn, NFL, Mercedes etc  use WordPress and have invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in their websites.

Large companies may have a team of designers and developers working for 6 months or more to a build a single website on WordPress.

On the low end of the spectrum, an individual can put up a page on WordPress.com for free.

4. Cost of a WordPress Website Low Budget –DIY

First, you will need a domain name and web hosting.
Domain name costs about $15 year, and cheap web hosting normally costs $60 -$100 yr.

WordPress Website Hosting Cost

Next, WordPress needs to be installed on the hosting account.  There is a cost associated with WordPress website hosting. Once WordPress is installed, a template/theme needs to be chosen and installed.

There are thousands of free and professionally designed templates available for WordPress that you can install.

Once a WordPress template is chosen and installed, plugins needs to be chosen and installed such as a contact form, a photo gallery, a slider, security etc. There are more than 40,000 WordPress plugins to choose from.

Plugins are  application or extensions for your WordPress site.

Some examples of popular WordPress plugins are shown below:

Contact Form 7 – Add contact forms to your WordPress site
Yoast SEO – Improve your WordPress SEO and get more traffic from Google
WP Super Cache – Improves your website’s speed by adding cache
Website Security
UpdraftPlus – Free WordPress backup plugin

Don’t forget to maintain your WordPress website, keeping it updated and backed up on a regular basis or it will break and be expensive to repair!

Cost of a DIY WordPress Website

If you can do the work yourself, you can have a self hosted website for as little as $100 per year.

Total Cost of DIY Low Budget WordPress Website: under $100 per year

A More Typical Cost Breakdown

A typical breakdown of expenses required to get up and running might look something like this:

• Domain: $12/year
• Hosting: $10/month – $30/month
• Premium Theme: $50-$200
• Premium Plugins: $15-$200 (each; some are one-time purchases, others are monthly/annual licenses.)
• Rough Totals: $200-$1,000+

5. Cost of a Turnkey WordPress Website

The next step up ….. let an expert setup and design your small business WordPress site.

The typical WordPress basic small business website package might be charged hourly or have a fixed price and might look something like below:

• Hourly: $50-$100 per hour
• Flat Rate: $500-$1000+
• Monthly: $30-$50/month (in addition to the initial hourly or flat rate fees)
• A-la-cart Extras: $100, $200, etc. per strategy document, training course, and so on.
• Rough Totals: $500-$2,500+ (plus possible monthly or a-la-cart services)

For the right person this sort of service package will provide a lot of convenience, peace of mind, and a smoother navigation of the WordPress learning curve.

Expert WordPress website designers have developed a specific small business WordPress website niche, with tight constraints (on time, number of edits, tools, add-on services, etc.), and can take a client from an idea to a fully functioning website in a short amount of time, and can deliver a basic, professional site for $1,000 to $3,500.

If the site requires additional functionality such as membership only areas, eCommerce, online payment,  multiple pages, extensive content creation, and SEO work, the build time substantially increases as does the cost  $3,500 – $7,000.

6. Custom WordPress Website Cost

When turnkey solutions don’t work, expert WordPress Developers and Designers proficient in PHP, CSS, Javascript, and MySQL may be needed to create a design and build a Custom WordPress Website. They’ll write code that is light, clean, and easy for others to work with in a design that is uniquely yours. These sites typically start at $7,500 and the sky is the limit.

Custom WordPress Website | Must Haves

Your custom WordPress website needs the following:

Visibilty – When we say visible, we mean it needs to display prominently in Google organic search
Mobile friendly – 52% of all US online traffic now comes from smartphones and tablets
Secure SSL Certificate– Your website needs to be HTTPS instead of HTTP. Even if you don’t plan to sell things directly from your site, you’ll still want to secure your site with HTTPS protocol. You can get an SSL certificate for as little as $10/year or as much as $200-300/year. Some web hosting companies such as Siteground now offer a free SSL certificate as an incentive to host your site with them.
Fast – Website visitors need to pages to display in under three seconds
Optimized for user experience – Once your page loads, users form an opinion in 0.5 seconds so make sure the content is helpful and easily navigated

7. WordPress Website Builders

WordPress Website Builders, commonly referred to as page builders, provide the ability to create, edit, and customize website layouts without writing any code. There are many good drag and drop page builders available for WordPress. I often build sites using a drag and drop interface so later it’s easy for my clients to create their own content and make their own edits.

1. Beaver Builder is a premium drag and drop page builder plugin for WordPress. It is the best WordPress page builder in the market and the one I use most often.

2. Divi is a drag and drop theme and WordPress page builder plugin that is easy to use and comes with 20+ layouts/templates for different kind of websites. It is extremely fast and comes with a built in on-boarding tour to help you quickly familiarize with their interface.

3. Elementor is another powerful drag and drop WordPress page builder plugin.It’s a live page builder plugin which means you get to see your changes as you edit. Simply start by creating sections and select the number of columns for each section.

8. WordPress Website Cost Summary

Pricing a WordPress website is difficult, and will be based on several factors such as:

Experience of the web developer

An experienced web developer/designer will cost more but the results will be worth the investment. Do your homework and find a pro to build your site and help you promote it online.

Premium Website Theme

Most sites in the $10,000 and under price range are using a premium theme with varying degrees of customization.  How much customization needed will determine if your site will cost closer to $10,000 or closer to $1,500. Then it becomes a question of how much time someone will spend setting the site up, instead of developing it. A custom theme will cost a lot more money and time to build.

I urge you to spend a few bucks and get a quality theme such as Avada. Don’t skimp here. You’ll thank me later. We’ve experimented with many website themes over the years and a premium theme with great design + solid coding is preferred.

Determine How Much Content is Needed and Who provides It

If you have good quality content already, it makes the developer’s job a lot easier. If you don’t have content, this would be an added cost.  The developer can help determine who your audience is, and craft the perfect message and copy for you.

Create a list of must-have website features

WordPress has a lot of plugins available. An experienced WordPress developer will know what’s good, what isn’t and what needs custom development. If you list the things your site absolutely needs, developers can get a good idea of how long the site will take to make.

Will you need someone to host and manage your website?

This can be another added cost, but good website maintenance worth the investment. If you need someone to update and maintain your website to keep it secure, that will be another up-front cost. It can also save you money in the long run.

Cost Of Website Maintenance (Updates, Upgrades, & Licenses)
Just like buying a home, you’ll need to invest time, effort and money to maintain it. You’ll have annual hosting & maintenance fees and possibly annual licensing fees for premium plugins and services. It’s likely you’ll purchase new images as you upgrade and expand your site.

You might add staff or hire freelancers to assist you in creating new custom web content or videos to boost your marketing efforts. Your site also requires ongoing technical maintenance to install updates and security patches to WordPress core files and WordPress plugins to protect your site from being hacked.

If you try performing these updates yourself sometimes routine updates break your site, so you need to know what to do when this happens. You also need an offsite backup system so your website can quickly be restored in the event of catastrophic hardware or software failure  If you prefer not to deal with the technical upkeep of your site, you can purchase a website maintenance plan for $40-$300/month depending on the services you need.

What is your timeline for completion?

Rush jobs cost more.

WordPress Website Cost Tip

Find an experienced local website designer/developer with great reviews and you will reap the rewards of an amazing lead generating website at an affordable cost.

9. How To Keep Costs Low and Avoid Over Spending!

We recommend to start with a great foundation and scale the site as your business grows. Often, you won’t need all the bells and whistles you see on many well-established websites in your industry.

If you get the foundation laid properly, it’s easy to build according to your needs as time progresses.

If you’re on a tight budget, use free plugins and a great template. We can always add premium features like email marketing, paid plugins, business phone services, live chat, and most important, build out high quality content.

Even for robust WordPress sites, you don’t always need to hire a developer, if you have the ability and time to do it yourself, go DIY.