What are the running costs?
A typical small WordPress site pays about $347 a year once the first-year hosting discount ends:
- Hosting: SiteGround StartUp is $17.99 a month after the first year.
- Domain: a .com at Cloudflare is about $11 a year.
- SSL certificate: free with Let’s Encrypt.
- Page builder: Elementor Pro is $60 a year.
- Caching plugin: WP Rocket is $60 a year.
That adds up to about $347 a year.
Prices from each vendor’s pricing page, checked 11 November 2026.
What does the maintenance work cost?
- Do it yourself: $0, but it takes time every month and the risk of a bad update is yours.
- Pay per job: a fixed price or hourly estimate each time something breaks.
- Monthly plan: Survyc’s Essential Care is $99 a month, and Growth Care is $299 a month.
What is the yearly total?
About $347 doing it yourself, about $1,535 with Essential Care, and about $3,935 with Growth Care. A WooCommerce store, many plugins, or custom code push the cost up.
Recommended services
Monthly website maintenance packagesEssential Care at $99 or Growth Care at $299 a month, or build your own package.Learn more →Website management servicesOne team for hosting, updates, content, SEO, and monthly reports.Learn more →WordPress maintenanceUpdates tested on staging, restore-tested backups, and monitoring.Learn more →
Related questions