Last updated: 28 September 2026
Short answer: a simple small-business or blog website costs roughly $250 to $600 a year to run in 2026 once introductory discounts end: about $11 for the domain, $130 to $200 for shared hosting at renewal price, around $85 per person for business email, plus optional premium plugins and backups. A static site can cost little more than the domain. Managed WordPress hosting or a website builder pushes the total to $500 to $1,000 or more. The biggest surprise for most owners is not the first year but the renewal.
Why is the first year misleading?
Almost every hosting company advertises a monthly price that applies only to the first term, usually paid several years in advance. The renewal price is often three to six times higher. On Hostinger's current web hosting page, for example, the Premium plan is $2.99 a month on a 48-month term but renews at $10.99 a month. Bluehost's WordPress Starter plan is $3.99 a month for 36 months and renews at $9.99. Free domains included with hosting usually last only the first year too.
So always budget with the renewal price. The tables below do.
The line-by-line budget
1. Domain name: about $11 to $25 a year
A .com domain's wholesale price is set by the registry, Verisign, and it is rising: $10.26 now, going to $10.97 on 1 November 2026, with further increases allowed in later years. Registrars add their margin on top:
- At-cost registrars such as Cloudflare Registrar, which charges no more than the registry and ICANN fees, and low-margin ones such as Porkbun ($11.08), cost about $11 a year.
- Large retail registrars often advertise a very cheap first year, then renew at $20 or more.
Tip: check the renewal price before registering, and consider renewing for several years before the November increase.
2. Hosting: $0 to $420 a year
| Type | Example (renewal price) | Yearly cost | Suits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Static site hosting | Cloudflare Pages free plan | $0 | Simple sites built with a static site generator |
| Budget shared hosting | Hostinger Premium, $10.99/month | about $132 | A blog or brochure site |
| Mid shared hosting | Bluehost Business, $13.99/month | about $168 | Several small sites |
| Managed WordPress | Kinsta Single, $350/year | $350 to $420 | Busy sites; less maintenance for you |
| Developer platforms | Vercel Pro, $20/month per developer | $240 | Custom web apps |
Two notes. Vercel's free Hobby plan is for personal, non-commercial use, so a business site needs a paid plan. And cheap shared hosting is fine for a new site with modest traffic; move up when the site is slow or busy, not before.
3. Website builder instead of hosting: $210 to $480 a year
Builders include hosting, templates and security in one price. Wix's plans range from $17.77 a month for Light to $39.77 for Business on annual billing, so roughly $213 to $477 a year. Squarespace is in a similar range. You pay more than for shared hosting but spend less time on maintenance, which is a fair trade for many small businesses.
4. Business email: about $12 to $170 per person a year
Email at your own domain (you@yourbusiness.com) looks more professional than a free address.
- Microsoft 365 Business Basic rose to $7 per user per month from 1 July 2026, so $84 a year per person. Business Standard, with desktop Office apps, is now $14.
- Google Workspace Business Starter is in the same range after Google's 2025 price rise, which bundled its Gemini AI features.
- Zoho Mail has a free plan for up to 5 users with 5 GB each, with limits, and very cheap paid plans.
For one person, email is often the second-largest cost after hosting.
5. SSL certificate: free
The padlock in the browser costs nothing. Let's Encrypt is a free, automated certificate authority, and nearly every host installs its certificates automatically. There is no need to buy a certificate for a normal small website.
6. Theme and plugins: $0 to $250 a year
The free versions of popular WordPress themes and plugins are enough for most small sites. Paid upgrades are subscriptions, and several have introductory prices too:
- Premium theme: for example, GeneratePress Premium at $59 a year.
- SEO plugin upgrade: Rank Math and Yoast premium plans cost roughly $100 to $120 a year. The free versions cover the essentials.
- Forms, caching, image optimisation: free tiers usually suffice for small sites.
7. Backups and security: $0 to $150 a year
Many hosts include daily backups; check how long they are kept and how to restore them. Paid backup services such as Jetpack VaultPress Backup discount the first year only, and renewals are at full price. Keep a copy of your site outside the host as well; the approach in my 30-minute backup setup applies to websites too. A free CDN and security layer such as Cloudflare's free plan adds SSL, caching and DDoS protection at no cost.
Free tiers have become smaller. Mailchimp's free plan now allows 250 contacts and 500 emails a month, and MailerLite's 250 subscribers. That is enough to start; expect $10 to $25 a month once your list grows.
9. Analytics: free or about $100 a year
Google Analytics is free. Privacy-focused alternatives such as Plausible start at $9 a month and avoid cookie banners in many cases.
10. Optional extras
- Stock images: Unsplash photos are free for commercial use.
- AI writing and editing tools: $20 a month is the typical individual price, for example Claude Pro. Treat this as a productivity cost, not a website cost; every AI-assisted article still needs a human fact-check.
Three sample budgets (renewal prices, per year)
| Item | Lean static site | Typical WordPress site | Low-maintenance site |
|---|---|---|---|
| Domain | $11 | $11 | $11 |
| Hosting or builder | $0 (static host) | $132 (shared hosting) | $350 (managed WordPress) |
| Email, 1 person | $0 (free tier) | $84 | $84 |
| Theme and plugins | $0 | $59 (premium theme) | $160 (theme + SEO plugin) |
| Backups | $0 (Git history + copy) | $0 (host backups + own copy) | $120 (backup service) |
| Newsletter and analytics | $0 | $0 | $108 (privacy analytics) |
| Total | about $11 | about $286 | about $833 |
These totals are well below the $600 to $6,000 a year that GoDaddy quotes for small business website maintenance, because they assume you do the work yourself. Paying a freelancer or agency for updates, security and content is where costs rise quickly.
How to keep the bill down
- Budget on renewal prices, and set a reminder a month before each renewal.
- Pay for longer terms only when the renewal price is also acceptable. A four-year prepay locks in the low price but also the host.
- Use free tiers until you outgrow them: SSL, CDN, analytics and newsletters all have usable free options.
- Audit subscriptions yearly. Plugins bought for one project often renew for years unused.
- Do not skimp on backups and security. Restoring a hacked site costs far more than prevention; my article on what cyber insurers require from small businesses lists the basic controls.
For a sense of how cloud costs scale beyond a simple website, see local vs cloud AI for small businesses, which applies the same renewal-price thinking to AI tools.
FAQ
What is the cheapest way to run a business website?
A static site on a free host with an at-cost domain costs about $11 a year, but needs some technical skill. For a non-technical owner, budget shared hosting at renewal price, about $130 a year plus the domain, is the cheapest practical option.
Is WordPress free?
The software is free and open source. You pay for hosting, the domain and any premium themes or plugins.
Why did my hosting bill jump in the second year?
Most hosts charge a discounted introductory price for the first term and a much higher renewal price afterwards. Check the renewal price on the plan page before you buy.
Do I need to pay for an SSL certificate?
No. Free Let's Encrypt certificates are standard and are installed automatically by most hosts.
