WordPress pricing in 2026 comes in two forms. WordPress.com, the hosted service, costs $4, $8, $25 or $45 a month on yearly billing for its Personal, Premium, Business and Commerce plans, or $9, $18, $40 and $70 month to month. Self-hosted WordPress from WordPress.org is free software, but a working business site on it costs roughly $120 to $420 a year once you add hosting, a domain, a theme or page builder and plugins, before anyone is paid to build or maintain it. Every WordPress.com figure below was read from wordpress.com/pricing from a United States connection on September 28, 2026 and checked again on October 12, 2026, when every plan price and renewal was unchanged.
The number on the plan card is rarely the number you pay for long. WordPress.com prints its yearly rates as first year prices and states the renewal underneath in small type, and on self-hosted WordPress the hosting company does the same thing on a bigger scale. So this guide gives you three columns for every option: what you pay today, what it renews at, and what three years actually add up to. If you are pricing WordPress because you need a business site live soon, the comparison against an AI agent that writes and builds the whole site is at the end.
How much does WordPress.com cost?
WordPress.com has a free plan and four paid plans. The free plan puts WordPress.com ads on your site and uses a wordpress.com subdomain, which rules it out for a business. The paid plans below are the US prices as served on September 28, 2026.
| Plan | Month to month | Billed yearly, first year | Yearly renewal | 3 year term | Storage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Personal | $9/mo | $4/mo ($48) | $5/mo ($60) | $2.75/mo | 6 GB |
| Premium | $18/mo | $8/mo ($96) | $9/mo ($108) | $5.50/mo | 13 GB |
| Business | $40/mo | $25/mo ($300) | $28/mo ($336) | $17.50/mo | 50 GB |
| Commerce | $70/mo | $45/mo ($540) | $50/mo ($600) | $31.50/mo | 50 GB |
All four paid plans include a free domain for the first year, no ads, unlimited pages, posts, users and visitors, and access to the plugin marketplace. Premium adds all premium themes, payment buttons for PayPal and Stripe, video uploads and full stats. Business adds 24/7 priority support, 250 GB of VideoPress storage, the built in AI assistant and a free business email account for the first year. Commerce is the store plan. Extra storage on Business is sold in 50 GB steps starting at $50 a month billed yearly.
Two details are easy to miss. The yearly price is a first year price: Personal goes from $4 to $5 a month at renewal, Business from $25 to $28, and the renewal line is printed as "Auto-renews at" directly under each plan. And the multi year terms are prepaid, so the $17.50 Business rate on the three year term is a single charge of $630 today. That is a real saving if you are sure about the platform. It is a lot of money to lock in if you are not.
WordPress.com renewal prices on 1, 2 and 3 year terms
The discount on a longer term is real, but each term also has its own renewal price, and the plan card only shows it in small type under the button. These are the first term and renewal rates per month as printed on the US pricing page on October 12, 2026. Each term is billed in full up front.
| Plan | 1 year, then renews at | 2 years, then renews at | 3 years, then renews at | Month to month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Personal | $4, then $5 | $3.25, then $4 | $2.75, then $3.50 | $9 |
| Premium | $8, then $9 | $6.50, then $7.25 | $5.50, then $6.33 | $18 |
| Business | $25, then $28 | $20, then $21 | $17.50, then $19 | $40 |
| Commerce | $45, then $50 | $36, then $40 | $31.50, then $35 | $70 |
Two things fall out of this table. The month to month price is more than double the yearly one on every plan, so paying monthly only makes sense for a short test. And the three year term renews at a lower rate than the one year term (Business at $19 instead of $28), so a business that is certain about WordPress.com pays the least over six years by taking the longest term both times. The catch is the up front charge: Business on the three year term is $630 today.
Which WordPress.com plan do I need for a business?
For a service business that wants a custom domain, no ads and a professional look, Premium at $8 a month billed yearly is the realistic floor. Choose Business at $25 if you need 24/7 priority support, more storage, the AI assistant or the included email account, or if you plan to install a lot of third party plugins and want room to grow. Commerce only makes sense if you sell products online. Personal works for a one person site that does not need premium themes or payment buttons.
How much does self-hosted WordPress cost?
WordPress.org software costs nothing. Everything around it does. These are the line items for a small business site, with the prices read from each vendor's own page.
| Cost | Published US price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Domain name | About $10 to $20 a year for a .com | Often free for year one with a hosting plan, then the normal rate |
| Budget shared hosting | Hostinger $2.99/mo on a 48 month term, $143.52 up front, renews at $10.99/mo | Read August 31, 2026. The low rate only exists on the four year prepay |
| Managed WordPress hosting | WP Engine Essential $336 for the first year, billed annually | Read September 27, 2026. Backups, staging and support included |
| Premium theme | Astra Pro add-on $69/yr; Astra Pro + AI $99 first year, renews $149; Divi $89/yr or $249 lifetime | Read September 28, 2026 |
| Page builder | Elementor Pro $60 to $204 a year by number of sites | Read September 9, 2026. Renews at the same rate |
| Maintenance plan | WP Buffs $89 to $359 a month | Read September 27, 2026. Updates, backups and security, not content |
Put together, a lean self-hosted site on budget hosting with a premium theme costs about $120 to $200 a year while the introductory hosting rate lasts. A more careful setup on managed hosting with Elementor Pro runs about $420 a year before a domain. The full breakdown of the page builder side is in our Elementor pricing guide, and the hosting renewal math is in the Hostinger pricing breakdown.
How much does WordPress cost per month?
Between $4 and $70 a month on WordPress.com depending on the plan and billing term, and between about $10 and $35 a month for a typical self-hosted small business site once hosting, a theme or page builder and the domain are averaged across the year. Add $89 to $359 a month if you pay someone to maintain it. Those figures cover software and hosting only. None of them includes building the site or writing the pages.
How much does a WordPress website cost per year?
A WordPress website costs about $96 to $540 a year on WordPress.com billed yearly (Premium to Commerce), or roughly $120 to $420 a year self-hosted, before anyone is paid to build or maintain it. With a developer, year one typically lands between $3,000 and $10,000 because the build is billed up front, and later years drop back to hosting, licenses and any care plan you keep.
The yearly figure moves after year one in both directions. WordPress.com and most hosts renew a little or a lot higher than the first year rate, while the one time costs (the build, a lifetime theme license, setup) disappear. That is why the three year table further down is a fairer comparison than any single year.
How much does it cost to have someone build a WordPress website?
WordPress.com sells its own build service, and its prices are a useful floor for what done for you WordPress costs. Express is a $499 one time design fee plus the Premium plan at $108 a year, for a basic five page site delivered within four business days of receiving your content. Express Store is the same $499 plus the Business plan at $336 a year, adding the essential WooCommerce pages. Custom Development through its agency network starts at $5,000, with hosting priced separately. All three were read from wordpress.com/website-design-service on October 12, 2026.
| Option | Up front | Yearly after that | Pages | Who writes the content |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| WordPress.com Express | $499 plus $108 Premium plan | $108 | 5 | You. Delivery starts when you send it |
| WordPress.com Express Store | $499 plus $336 Business plan | $336 | 5 plus shop, cart, checkout and account pages | You |
| WordPress.com Custom Development | From $5,000 | Hosting quoted separately | Scoped per project | Agreed with the agency |
| Freelance or agency WordPress build | $2,500 to $10,000 for a small business site | Hosting, licenses and care plan | Usually 5 to 15 | Usually you, unless copywriting is quoted |
| AgentSite Starter | $588 for the first year, no build fee | $588 | A complete multi-page site | The agent writes every page |
Read the fine print on Express before you buy it. Revisions are not included (you edit the finished site yourself in the WordPress editor), and the four day clock starts when your content arrives, so the text for every page, the photos and the logo are still your job. That is the part most small businesses get stuck on. The freelance range comes from our WordPress website development cost breakdown.
Is WordPress really free?
The software is free and open source, and you can download it from WordPress.org without paying anyone. A site the public can visit is not free, because it needs hosting and a domain, and a business site almost always ends up with a paid theme or page builder and a few premium plugins. WordPress.com also has a free plan, but it shows ads and uses a wordpress.com address, so most businesses treat it as a trial rather than a home.
What does WordPress cost over three years?
This is the comparison that settles most decisions, because it includes renewals and the work, not just the first invoice. The figures below use only the published prices above for an ordinary eight page service business site. They exclude taxes and the domain, since every route needs one.
| Route | Year one | Three year total | Who builds and writes the pages |
|---|---|---|---|
| WordPress.com Premium, billed yearly | $96 | $312 | You |
| WordPress.com Business, billed yearly | $300 | $972 | You |
| Self-hosted, Hostinger plus Astra Pro | $213 | $351 | You, plus updates and backups |
| Self-hosted, WP Engine plus Elementor Pro | $420 | $1,260 | You, plus updates |
| Same, built by a developer from $2,500 with a $89/mo care plan | $3,988 | $6,964 | The developer builds, you still write the copy |
| AgentSite Starter, billed yearly | $588 | $1,764 | The agent plans, writes, builds and hosts |
The Hostinger row uses the $143.52 four year prepay, which covers all three years, plus Astra Pro at $69 a year. The WP Engine row assumes the first year price holds, which it may not, plus Elementor Pro Advanced at $84 a year. The developer row adds a $2,500 build, the lowest published starting price from the vetted marketplace in our WordPress website development cost breakdown, and WP Buffs' $89 entry plan.
Read the last column before the middle one. WordPress is the cheapest route in the table when your own time is free, and WordPress.com Premium at $312 for three years is a genuinely good deal for someone who enjoys building and writing. The picture changes the moment you count hours. Planning the pages, writing a services page that sells, setting titles and descriptions, and keeping plugins updated is where small business WordPress sites stall, and it is the part none of these prices include.
Is WordPress cheaper than Wix or Squarespace?
On software alone, usually yes. WordPress.com Premium at $8 a month billed yearly undercuts Wix Core at $29 and Squarespace Core at $29, and lean self-hosted WordPress is cheaper still. What you give up is convenience. Wix and Squarespace include hosting, security and updates in one bill, while self-hosted WordPress makes each of those your job or a separate invoice. Teams also weighing a marketing platform should know the gap is far wider there: HubSpot Content Hub pricing starts at $450 a month on Professional. If you are weighing all of them, our website builder cost comparison puts nine platforms side by side, and the WordPress alternative page covers who should skip WordPress entirely.
Can I get a refund on a WordPress.com plan?
Yes, within a short window. WordPress.com refunds annual, two year and three year plans within 14 days of purchase or renewal, and monthly plans within 7 days. Domains are different: a registration or renewal is refundable only if the domain is cancelled within 96 hours, so a plan bought with a domain and refunded on day five gets the plan money back but not the domain. Add-ons, premium plugins and partner themes follow the same 14 day and 7 day split. These terms were read from WordPress.com's refunds support page on October 12, 2026.
Hidden WordPress costs that show up in year two
The renewal steps are the obvious ones: budget hosting that was $2.99 becomes $10.99, a theme bundle that was $99 renews at $149, and WordPress.com's first year discount steps up by a dollar or three a month. The less obvious ones are premium plugins, which are priced per site per year and add up quietly (forms, SEO, backups, security and caching can each carry a license), and the free business email that WordPress.com includes for the first year only. When everyone on the team has an address at your domain, it is also worth setting one consistent signature for the whole company rather than letting each person improvise one. Finally there is time: plugin updates, the occasional conflict after an update, and restoring from backup when something breaks.
When WordPress is the wrong purchase
WordPress is the right tool if you want full control, plan to extend the site with custom functionality, or have someone on the team who likes running it. It is the wrong purchase if what you actually need is a finished business website this month and nobody has the evenings to plan it, write it and maintain it. That is the job AgentSite does. You describe the business in plain language and the agent plans the pages, writes every word, sets titles and a sitemap, and launches with hosting and SSL included, for $49 a month billed yearly ($588 a year), with changes made by chatting. It costs more than WordPress.com Premium and less than any route where someone else builds the site, and hosting and your custom domain connection are part of the plan rather than separate bills.
WordPress pricing FAQ
Does WordPress cost money?
The WordPress software is free, but a business site on it is not. WordPress.com charges $4 to $45 a month billed yearly for an ad free site on your own domain, and self-hosted WordPress needs paid hosting and a domain, typically $120 to $420 a year with a theme or page builder. Building and writing the site is a separate cost.
What is the cheapest WordPress.com plan for a business?
Personal at $4 a month billed yearly is the cheapest plan with a custom domain and no ads, renewing at $5. Most service businesses choose Premium at $8 a month billed yearly, renewing at $9, because it adds premium themes, payment buttons and full stats. On a three year term Premium drops to $5.50 a month, paid as one charge up front.
How much is the WordPress.com Business plan?
Business is $25 a month billed yearly for the first year ($300) and renews at $28 a month ($336). It is $40 month to month, $20 a month on a two year term and $17.50 on a three year term. It adds 50 GB of storage, 24/7 priority support, the built in AI assistant and a business email account free for the first year.
Do WordPress.com plans include a domain?
Every paid WordPress.com plan includes a free domain for the first year when you pay yearly or longer. From year two the domain renews at its normal registration price on top of the plan. Self-hosted WordPress hosts often make the same first year offer, so compare the renewal price of the domain, not just the plan.
Is WordPress cheaper than a website builder that writes the site for you?
On software, yes. WordPress.com Premium is $96 for the first year against $588 for AgentSite Starter. Once someone has to plan the pages and write them, the order flips: WordPress.com's own Express build is $499 plus the plan and still needs your content, and a developer built WordPress site usually starts around $2,500.
The short version
WordPress.com costs $4, $8, $25 or $45 a month billed yearly in the first year, renewing at $5, $9, $28 and $50, or $9 to $70 month to month. Self-hosted WordPress is free software that costs about $120 to $420 a year to run for a small business, before development and maintenance. Over three years the cheapest honest WordPress site is around $312 to $351 if you do all the work yourself, and around $7,000 if you hire a developer and a care plan. Price your own hours before you pick, because on a business site they are the biggest line item on the bill.
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