One of the most frequently asked questions almost everyone asks when it comes to staring a WordPress blog is: how much does it REALLY cost to build a WordPress blog? Well, the truth is that the cost depends entirely on your personal budget and goal.
However, in this post let’s take a look at what tools do you need to build a blog and how much does building a typical blog cost to you.
Read: How To Start A Blog On A Small Budget
What are the basic requirements for building a WordPress blog?
No matter what type of blog you want to build, there are several things you need.
- Domain name
- Web hosting
- WordPress theme
Let’s discuss them one by one.
Domain Name ($10 per year)
What is a domain name?
A domain name is the name of your blog. Also, we call it as the address of your blog. For example, Google.com and Facebook.com.
There are plenty of domain name marketplaces. Namecheap and GoDaddy are popular, among others. Most of domain name registrars now offer domain privacy protection for free.
Some web hosting providers offer special discounts for customers who purchase their web hosting packages. A domain name will probably cost you about $10 a year.
Web Hosting ($1 per month)
What is web hosting?
Web hosting is a space on the Internet, where you store the contents and files of your blog. And your domain name will provide the address to the server which you are hosting your blog.
There are plenty of web hosting service providers out there. Choosing the perfect web hosting is vital for the success of your blog. Hostinger provides affordable web hosting to empower your blog online. They offer a special discount on domain names with their web hosting package.
Usually, web hosting from Hostinger will cost you $1 per month. Which means $12 per year.
In addition to paid web hosting providers, there are some free web hosting services out there. But they limit your resources and place their ads on your blog. If you want to try before starting a blog, free web hosting is the way to go. Our recommendation is to start with a reputable paid web host.
WordPress Themes (Free or Premium)
When it comes to the design or theme of the blog, you have several options to choose from.
- Free themes
- Premium themes
- Custom theme
WordPress repository contains thousands of themes for its users. Some of them are free and others are $20 to $200. If you are a complete newbie and looking to start a regular blog with limited options, free themes are the way to go. But if you are going to build something big, you need a premium WordPress theme.
When you choose a theme, make sure you choose a responsive WordPress theme. Responsive themes offer better readability and usability based on the screen size and resolution. Users can view your blog various devices without any hassle. This is called as the user experience. Furthermore, user experience is a key factor of Google’s algorithm.
If you are going to build a unique, well-established brand, you will not be satisfied with any theme you find. At this point you need to hire someone to design a custom WordPress theme for your blog. But your price tag will be much higher. It may range from $5000 upwards.
Conclusion – What’s the cost of a low budget WordPress site?
Without any doubt, some of the most powerful website on the Internet use WordPress as its CSM. Understanding the cost of building a WordPress blog is very important, especially if you are building your first blog. No need to overpay.
First, you need a domain name and a place host your blog. Also, you need a theme to design and add functions to your site.
If you want to start a blog with basic functions but limited with budget, you can easily get started with a free theme. The total cost is about $22 per year.
Web hosting ($12) + Domain name ($10) = $22
Otherwise you can start with a premium theme. But the cost will be around $100 – 150 a year.
Now, you know how much does it cost to build a WordPress blog.
Hi Nilantha Jayawardhana,
Great post indeed!
You are right, Its very easy to start a WordPress blog now a days, I am using WordPress from last 5 Years.
Its very informative post for new blogger.
Thanks for sharing such basic information for us.
Regards:
Rana Irfan.
Nice work Team, Thanks for sharing the information. keep it up. I always read your blogs
I Just start my WordPress blog also. can you please write a blog on SEO?
Nice work Team, Thanks for sharing the information. keep it up. I always read your blogs
I Just start my WordPress blog also. can you please write a blog on SEO?
HI Nilantha Jayawardhana!
I have created 2 wordpress blog, but I use free themes. Then I realize that I should buy premium themes, because they are so easy to make them as my ideas. THe free themes are very difficult to customize and some functions are missing.
I mostly agree with your conclusions, blogging does not have to start expensive. But I would rather stick with a free WordPress theme – there are so many to choose from that you will be able to find a suitable one – and instead invest in better hosting, which does not even have to be that much more expensive. But that is just based on my personal experience with cheap hosting providers that provide really cheap customer service as well 😉
Susanna
Hi Nilantha,
Such a nice article from scratch and I hope soon you will post an article on affiliate marketing strategies for newbies. Thanks
It’s nice to see someone sharing real figures for WordPress site financial costs. The other thing I’d add, is that some types of sites may need paid plugins to achieve the functionality they need. For instance, if you want to accept paid bookings online, your best bet is a paid booking plugin because there aren’t any free ones that do a good enough job.
The cost of running a wordpress blog is cheap. the main work comes after you have set it up and you start building links, optimizing posts and other things.
It’s so cheap that anyone can do it! 🙂
Wow its so cheap, i used to think it costs around 1000 dollars to start.
I really love the way you describe here, to use a cheap plan is good enough to start it.
Very informative and useful… Thanks for sharing… Following you now
Hi Nilantha,
Most beginners think that it is expensive to start a blog, but it is not. Great article and quite informative. Once you start a blog though the real challenge is to drive and then increase traffic to your blog.
Hi
Really gained a valuable knowledge about WordPress
Thanks for sharing the information
Hello
WordPress is a wonderful platform and i want to switch from blogger to wordpress so I was searching the web , then i recently came across this article and found it very helpful as it provides detailed information about all the sections in wordpress.This article is gem for beginner.
Thanks for sharing
Best Regards
Falak
Currently my blog is on Blogspot and I want to move it to WordPress…Do it effect seo rank and traffic on my website??? – yoyotechtips
Thanks for sharing these wondeful informations. Before, i used to think its very costly. But reading your article has provided me a useful information. Besides, I like the way you have described it. Keep up the good work.
Great post. Most beginners are stuck here. They never start because they have a wrong notion about how much it could cost. I was worried about it too. But then I did some research and realized that there are some pretty good domain hosting services that cost around $100-150, so really not that much. I went for bluehost.
Hi Nilantha,
Very informative and useful article… Thanks for sharing