How much does a WordPress website cost?
WordPress is free. A WordPress website is not. Here's where the money actually goes, what each range buys, and the ongoing costs nobody mentions at the quote stage.
Updated October 2026 · by the Good Work team, Bentonville, AR
The short answer.
A professionally built WordPress website costs $3,500–$4,500 for a small site on a premium theme, $4,500–$12,000 for a custom-designed business site with copywriting and local SEO, and $12,000 and up for complex sites with memberships, WooCommerce, or integrations. Ongoing costs are hosting ($20–$100 a month), optional premium plugins ($0–$50 a month), and maintenance — either a care plan from $250 a month or someone on staff doing updates. The biggest price drivers are custom design versus a theme, the number of pages and templates, and functionality beyond publishing.
Get a free quote- Small site
- $3,500–$4,500
- Custom business site
- $4,500–$12,000
- Complex / WooCommerce
- $12,000+
- Hosting
- $20–$100 / mo
- Maintenance
- From $250 / mo
- Timeline
- 2–6 weeks
What you're paying for
Four things: design (a theme set up well, or a custom block theme built for you), content (copywriting, photography, migration), the build (templates, forms, integrations, speed and SEO work), and the handoff (training, documentation, accounts in your name). Cheap quotes usually skip the content and the handoff; you find out when you try to edit the site.
2026 price ranges
| Project | Typical cost | Timeline | What it includes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Premium theme setup | $3,500–$4,500 | 2–3 weeks | Theme configured for your brand, 5–7 pages, copy, local SEO basics |
| Custom business site | $4,500–$12,000 | 3–5 weeks | Custom block theme, copywriting, 7–12 pages, schema, analytics, training |
| Content-heavy site | $9,500–$18,000 | 4–6 weeks | Custom theme plus resource library, blog architecture, search, categories |
| WooCommerce store | $9,500–$20,000 | 4–8 weeks | Store setup, product templates, payments/shipping, migration |
| Memberships, portals, integrations | $12,000+ | 6+ weeks | Custom functionality, user roles, third-party systems |
Ongoing costs
Managed hosting from a good host runs $20–$100 a month. Premium plugins (forms, SEO, backups) add $0–$50. WordPress needs updates every month — core, theme, and plugins — and a site that isn't updated eventually breaks or gets hacked. Budget a care plan from $250 a month or an hour of someone's time each month.
Elementor, Divi, and page builders
Page-builder sites are cheaper to start and expensive to live with: slower pages, harder edits, and a rebuild in two years. We build custom block themes instead, which cost more up front and nothing extra later. If you already have a builder site that's slow, a rebuild is usually the right call — see the redesign cost guide.
How Good Work prices it
Fixed price, quoted within one business day. Our launch site is $4,500 for seven pages with copy, local SEO, and analytics included. Bigger sites are quoted from the page list and functionality.
Questions people ask.
Short answers, no hedging.
Is WordPress really free?
The software is. Hosting, a domain, premium plugins, design, content, and maintenance are not. A good WordPress site costs about the same as a Webflow site to build and more to maintain.
WordPress or Webflow?
WordPress for content-heavy sites, memberships, and WooCommerce. Webflow for design-led marketing sites a team edits often. See the comparison.
Can I build it myself?
Yes, and for a placeholder that's fine. For a site that needs to rank and convert, a professional build usually pays for itself in the first few months of leads.
How do I get an exact price?
Send the free quote form with your page list and what the site needs to do. Fixed number within one business day.
Two free ways to start.
Either one costs nothing and comes with no sales call.
Free quote — within 24 hours
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