How Much Does WordPress Really Cost for a Small Business?

A website that looks inexpensive can become expensive quickly — when it fails to bring in enquiries, creates doubt about your professionalism, or needs to be rebuilt a year later.

So, how much does WordPress cost for a small business?

The honest answer: WordPress itself is free.

What costs money is everything around it — and how much depends heavily on which version of WordPress you’re actually using, since “WordPress” means two genuinely different things.

WordPress.org vs WordPress.com — these are not the same product

This is the single most common source of confusion in any conversation about WordPress pricing.

WordPress.org — free, self-hosted software

WordPress.org is the open-source software itself — free to download, free to use, with no license fee ever.

But it needs somewhere to live.

You choose your own hosting provider, install WordPress yourself (or have someone do it), and you own full control over plugins, themes, and customisation.

This is the version used by the vast majority of professionally built small business websites — including every WordPress site built here at SR Web Marketing.

WordPress.com — a hosted subscription service

WordPress.com is a separate company’s commercial product, built on the same open-source software but sold as an all-in-one hosted subscription.

Hosting is bundled into the price, which simplifies setup, but you’re working within their platform’s rules, pricing tiers, and feature gates.

As of April 2026, WordPress.com changed its policy to allow plugin installation on all paid plans, not just the top tier.

A meaningful improvement that narrows the gap with self-hosted WordPress.org somewhat, though real differences in control and flexibility remain.

What does owning a basic WordPress.org site actually cost?

If you self-host, the only unavoidable costs are:

• Domain name: roughly €15–€30/year
• Hosting: roughly €100–€300/year for hosting genuinely suitable for a small business site — cheap shared hosting exists for less, but it typically comes with slower performance and weaker support

That’s it, for a bare-functioning site.

No subscription fee to WordPress itself, ever.

What does owning a WordPress.com site cost?

As of today, the current pricing is:

• Free: subdomain, ads shown, no plugins, 1GB storage
• Personal ($4/month billed annually): custom domain, ad-free, 6GB, now includes plugins
• Premium ($8/month billed annually): 13GB, premium themes, custom CSS, basic analytics
• Business ($25/month billed annually): 50GB, staging environment, daily backups, SFTP/SSH access
• Commerce ($45/month billed annually): full WooCommerce store functionality

For most small service businesses, the Personal or Premium tier covers the basics — but genuine flexibility (custom themes, advanced plugins, developer-level access) still sits at the Business tier and above.

So why do professional WordPress websites cost so much more than that?

This is where the real cost of a small business website actually lives — and it has very little to do with which version of WordPress you choose.

What does professional design and strategy actually add?

A bare WordPress installation, even a beautifully coded one, is not a business asset on its own.

What turns it into one:

• Strategic positioning and page structure — knowing what to say, and where
• Professional copywriting — the difference between a page that exists and one that converts
• Custom design — built around your specific business, not a generic template
• Premium plugins — for forms, compliance, SEO, security, and performance
• Local or foundational SEO — built into the structure from the start for local queries
• Professional photography or imagery

The full breakdown of what a professionally built WordPress website actually costs in Italy covers this in depth.

The honest range for a specialist-built small business site runs from roughly €1,000 to €3,000, depending on scope, with agency pricing considerably higher.

Is this cost specific to WordPress.org?

No — this is exactly the same cost whether you build on WordPress.org or WordPress.com.

A WordPress.com Business plan subscription does not include professional copywriting, strategic positioning, or custom design any more than a cheap hosting plan does.

The platform fee and the professional-quality-work fee are two entirely separate costs, regardless of which version of WordPress you choose.

Don’t forget the ongoing cost of maintenance

Launching a site is not the finish line for either version.

On WordPress.org, you (or someone on your behalf) are responsible for keeping WordPress core, themes, and plugins updated, backed up, and secure.

The full breakdown of WordPress maintenance costs covers this properly.

Realistic ongoing maintenance for a small business site runs roughly €30–€100/month for basic coverage, or €100–€400/month for a more comprehensive managed plan.

On WordPress.com, much of this technical maintenance (core updates, basic security) is handled by the platform itself as part of your subscription — one genuine advantage of the hosted model.

But content updates, SEO improvements, and strategic changes to your site still require either your own time or professional support, exactly as they do on WordPress.org.

Which one should a small business actually choose?

Choose WordPress.org (self-hosted) if:

• You want full control over design, plugins, and functionality
• You’re planning to invest in a professionally built, strategic website
• You want the flexibility to switch hosts or developers without losing anything
• Your business will grow in complexity — multiple services, multilingual content, local SEO

For most independent professionals and growing small businesses, the flexibility and long-term cost-effectiveness of self-hosted WordPress.org — paired with the right hosting and professional setup — tends to be the better long-term foundation.

Choose WordPress.com if:

• You want the simplest possible all-in-one setup with hosting bundled
• Your needs are genuinely simple and unlikely to grow significantly
• You’re comfortable working within a single provider’s platform and pricing structure

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What does your small business actually need from WordPress?

WordPress itself was never the expensive part. The question worth asking is not “how much does WordPress cost” but “what does my business need the website to actually do — and what does that genuinely require?”

At SR Web Marketing, I build self-hosted WordPress websites for independent professionals and small businesses across Abruzzo, Pescara, and remotely across Italy, Spain, and Europe — with transparent costs and no platform subscription fee eating into your budget every month.

If you’d like a clear, honest picture of what a professional WordPress website would cost for your specific small business, get in touch for a free initial conversation.

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Frequently asked questions

Is WordPress really free for a small business to use?

The WordPress.org software itself is completely free, with no license fee, ever. What you pay for is hosting (if self-hosting) or a subscription (if using WordPress.com), plus any professional design, copywriting, premium plugins, or maintenance you choose to invest in. “Free” describes the software — not the complete cost of running a credible business website.

What is the difference between WordPress.org and WordPress.com?

WordPress.org is free, open-source software you install on hosting of your choice, giving you full control over plugins, themes, and customisation. WordPress.com is a separate commercial company’s hosted subscription service built on the same underlying software, with hosting bundled in but more restrictions depending on your plan tier. The vast majority of professionally built small business websites, including those built by web designers and agencies, use self-hosted WordPress.org.

Can I install any plugin I want on WordPress.com now?

As of April 2026, WordPress.com allows plugin installation on all paid plans — Personal and above — which is a meaningful change from the previous policy that restricted plugins to the Business tier and higher. That said, the Business plan and above still offer more advanced developer features like staging environments, SFTP/SSH access, and daily backups, which matter for a more complex small business site.

How much does it cost to have a professional website built on WordPress?

This cost is the same regardless of whether you use WordPress.org or WordPress.com, since it reflects design, copywriting, and strategy rather than the platform itself. For a specialist-built small business website in Italy, the realistic range is €1,000 to €3,000, covering design, copy, local SEO, and the first year of hosting and maintenance. See the full website cost breakdown for a detailed comparison across DIY, freelancer, and agency pricing.

Does WordPress.com include maintenance, or do I still need to budget for it?

WordPress.com handles core platform updates and basic security as part of your subscription, which is one genuine advantage over self-hosting. However, content updates, SEO improvements, and strategic changes to your site are not included and still require your own time or professional support — the same as with self-hosted WordPress.org. For a full breakdown of what ongoing WordPress maintenance actually involves, see the WordPress maintenance cost guide.

Sergio Stanga WordPress Web Designer & SEO Specialist · SR Web Marketing I help independent professionals and SMBs across Italy, Spain, and Europe build WordPress websites that generate long-term organic leads and AI search visibility — without depending on social media. About Sergio LinkedIn