How much does a website cost per year? All running costs

The short answer: every year you pay at least for a domain name and hosting. On top of that come maintenance and sometimes licences. In the worked example below, a small WordPress site costs $142.96 a year if you do the maintenance yourself, and $382.84 a year with our Basic maintenance plan. We don't charge VAT on our invoices. Hostinger and Porkbun don't say whether tax is included in their prices.

One-off costs and running costs

A website costs you money in two ways. Once to build it, and then every year for everything that keeps it online and secure.

• One-off: design and build, texts and photos, and maybe an extra page later.
• Every year: domain name, hosting, maintenance and sometimes licences for paid plugins.

This article is about the second group. With us, you pay for the build once, at a fixed price: $299.99 for a one-pager and $499.99 for a site of up to 5 pages. You'll find what's included on our pricing page. Want to know how much time the build takes? Read how long it takes to get a website online.

Torn between paying once and an all-in monthly subscription? Our comparison of one-off and monthly payment works it out for 1, 3 and 5 years.

All prices in this article are in US dollars, as the providers show them on their English-language sites. If you pay in another currency, the amount at checkout can differ.

Domain name: cheap to start, so check the renewal

Your domain name is your address on the internet, such as yourbusiness.com. You don't buy it, you rent it per year. The first year is often almost free. After that you pay the regular renewal price, for as long as you keep the name.

What does a .com domain cost per year? Two examples:

• Porkbun: $11.08 a year, for both registration and renewal. Porkbun says ICANN and other fees are included. It doesn't say anything about tax.
• Hostinger: with the Premium hosting plan, you get a free domain for the first year if you take the plan for at least a year. We couldn't find the .com renewal price on Hostinger's site, so check it before you order.

Running a business in the Netherlands and want a .nl domain? Dutch providers sell those in euros. Compare the renewal price there too, not the first-year price.

The providers in this article are examples. Hostinger is the only company in this article we work with: we are a Hostinger partner (see below).

Always register your domain name in your own name or your company's name. If it's in your web designer's name, you'll need them whenever you want to switch. We don't sell domain names or hosting ourselves. You buy them from a hosting provider of your choice, in your own name.

Hosting: look at the renewal price

Hosting is space on a server where your website lives. For a small business site, shared hosting is usually enough: you share a server with other websites, which keeps it affordable.

Why does hosting cost more after the first term? Many hosting providers give new customers a promotional price for the first months or years. After that, the regular price applies. Two examples of plans for a small site:

SiteGround shows its prices excluding VAT. Hostinger's English plan page doesn't say whether tax is included, so check the total at checkout. Hostinger gives the renewal price per month, but doesn't say on the plan page for which term you renew.

So budget with the renewal price. A plan at $10.99 a month costs you $131.88 a year, even if you pay less at first.

Also check what's in the plan. Both include a free SSL certificate and email. Hostinger Premium has 2 mailboxes per website, free for the first year. Backups differ: Hostinger Premium makes a weekly backup, SiteGround StartUp a daily one.

Why we recommend Hostinger

We're a Hostinger partner and have a referral link (see below). We use Hostinger ourselves for client sites. We find it easy to use and innovative. That's our opinion, not an independent test. This is what we base it on:

• Its own control panel. You manage your hosting in hPanel, the control panel Hostinger built itself.
• WordPress in one click. There's a 1-click installer for WordPress.
• Free SSL, and a free domain for the first year if you take the plan for at least a year.
• Free migration. Already have a website? Hostinger moves it to your new plan for free.
• AI tools, such as the AI Builder for putting a site together yourself. You don't need them for a WordPress site we build.

Two things to keep in mind:

• The $2.49 a month only applies if you pay 48 months upfront: $119.52. After that, it renews at $10.99 a month.
• Premium makes a backup once a week. Daily backups come with the Unlimited plan: $3.49 a month if you pay 48 months upfront, then $16.99 a month. If you take our maintenance, we also make our own backup every week.

See Hostinger's plans. We're a Hostinger partner: with our referral link you get 20% off a new plan of 12 months or longer. The discount applies only to the first term, not to renewals.

SSL certificate: usually included

An SSL certificate secures the connection between your site and your visitor. You can tell by the https in the address. Without one, browsers warn your visitors that the site isn't secure.

Do you have to pay for SSL? For a regular business site, usually not. Hostinger and SiteGround both include free SSL with their plans. Paid certificates exist, but a small site rarely needs one. If a quote includes a yearly charge for SSL, ask what it's for.

Business email

An email address on your own domain, such as hello@yourbusiness.com, often comes with your hosting plan.

With Hostinger Premium, the 2 mailboxes per website are free for the first year. The plan page doesn't say what they cost after that, so ask before you order.

Prefer Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace? Then you pay a separate subscription for that. You'll find the prices on the provider's site.

Maintenance: do it yourself or hand it over

A WordPress site isn't a brochure you print once. WordPress and plugins get regular updates, often to fix security holes. Maintenance means:

• updating WordPress and plugins;
• making regular backups;
• checking the site for security problems and malware.

Do you need maintenance, or can you do it yourself? Doing it yourself is fine. It costs you no money, but it does cost time. You log in regularly, install the updates, check that everything still works and make sure there's a recent backup. If an update breaks something, you fix it yourself or call someone in.

If you'd rather not think about it, you can hand it over. What does maintenance cost per year? We have three plans, and you can cancel any month:

• Basic: $19.99 a month, $239.88 a year. WordPress and plugins kept up to date, a weekly backup, a security check and a malware scan.
• Plus: $39.99 a month, $479.88 a year. Everything in Basic, plus 1 hour of small changes a month and an alert if your site goes offline.
• Complete: $59.99 a month, $719.88 a year. Everything in Plus, plus 2 hours of changes a month, priority support and a speed check with optimisation.

Read more about the plans on our page about maintenance and security.

A website builder like Wix works differently: you pay a yearly subscription and the platform handles the technical side. What that means for your costs, and for who owns your site, is explained in WordPress vs Wix.

Licences for premium plugins and themes

Plugins add features to WordPress, for example forms or better visibility in Google. Many plugins and themes come in a free and a paid version. For a small business site, the free version is often enough. If you do need a premium plugin or theme, you usually pay per year for updates and support.

A few examples, with the prices as the makers show them:

• Yoast SEO Premium (search visibility): $118.80 a year, excl. VAT.
• WP Rocket Single (speed, 1 site): $3.49 a month if you pay the first 3 years upfront. The regular price is $5 a month. WP Rocket says taxes may apply depending on your country.
• Gravity Forms Basic (forms, 1 site): $59 a year.

These are the amounts shown when we checked. What a renewal costs can differ.

If your site uses paid plugins, ask who pays for the licence and whose name it's in. If the licence is in your web designer's name and you stop working together, that plugin may no longer get updates.

Worked example: a small WordPress site per year

This is an example, not an average. A small WordPress site with a .com domain from Porkbun and hosting with Hostinger Premium at the renewal price. We use Porkbun for the domain because we couldn't find Hostinger's .com renewal price. No paid plugins and no separate email plan. Hostinger and Porkbun don't say whether tax is included in their prices, so we show their prices as listed.

You do the maintenance yourself

• .com domain name, renewal: $11.08
• Hosting, Hostinger Premium (12 × $10.99): $131.88
• SSL certificate: $0, included with the hosting
• Maintenance: $0, but it costs you time
• Total: $142.96 a year

With Basic maintenance

• .com domain name, renewal: $11.08
• Hosting, Hostinger Premium (12 × $10.99): $131.88
• SSL certificate: $0, included with the hosting
• Basic maintenance (12 × $19.99): $239.88. We don't charge VAT on our invoices.
• Total: $382.84 a year

Not included: licences for paid plugins, email after the free first year, and changes to your site.

During the first 48 months you pay less for Hostinger, because of the upfront deal. We use the renewal price because that's what you'll pay in the long run.

Do these amounts include VAT? That differs per item. We don't charge VAT on our invoices, so the maintenance amount is what you pay us. For Hostinger and Porkbun, which don't say, check the total at checkout. Whether you pay VAT on your domain and hosting, and how much, depends on where your business is based and how it's registered. In the Netherlands, for example, the standard rate is 21%. If your business is VAT-registered, you can usually reclaim the VAT on business costs such as hosting. If it isn't, for example because you use a small business exemption or your services are VAT-exempt, that VAT is a real cost for you. What our invoices mean for your own VAT return is something to check with your accountant.

Costs you don't have every year

• Small changes, such as new opening hours, a price or a photo. In WordPress you can do that yourself. If you'd rather have it done, Plus includes 1 hour and Complete 2 hours of changes a month.
• An extra page costs $49.99 with us, one-off.
• A slow site. That can often be fixed without rebuilding everything. First read why your website might be slow.
• An outdated site. If your site no longer fits your business, or works badly on a phone, you can have your website redesigned. That's a one-off cost, priced per project.

What to check in a quote or hosting plan

Ask these questions up front:

• What does the renewal cost after the first year or the promotional period?
• Are the domain name, hosting and licences in your name?
• What's the notice period, and are you tied to an annual contract?
• What exactly is included in maintenance: updates, backups, security, changes?
• Are the prices excl. or incl. VAT?

With those answers, you know up front what your website costs you each year. Want to know what your site costs to build? See our fixed prices.

Prices from Hostinger, SiteGround, Porkbun, Yoast, WP Rocket and Gravity Forms checked on 25 October 2026. Providers change their prices regularly, so check their own sites for the current amounts.