How Much Does a WordPress Website Cost in the UK?
Co-Founder
A WordPress website in the UK typically costs £1,500–£3,500 for a small brochure site on a ready-made theme, £3,500–£8,000 for a custom-designed business site, and from about £5,000 for a WooCommerce shop. After launch, expect to pay for hosting, a domain, plugin licences and maintenance every year.
The WordPress software is free. What you pay for is the design, the build, the hosting and the work to keep the site updated. This guide shows UK price ranges by type of site and by who builds it, what the price should include, and how to check a quote.
Prices at a glance (UK, 2026)
| Cost | Typical UK range | Paid |
|---|---|---|
| Build: brochure site (4–6 pages) | £1,500–£3,500 | Once |
| Build: custom-designed business site | £3,500–£8,000 | Once |
| Build: WooCommerce shop | From about £5,000 | Once |
| Managed WordPress hosting | £15–£60 a month | Monthly or yearly |
| Domain name | £10–£20 a year | Yearly |
| Premium plugins | £30–£200 per plugin a year | Yearly |
| Total yearly running cost (hosting, maintenance, improvements) | £2,000–£4,000 | Yearly |
How Much Does a WordPress Website Cost by Type?
The type of site sets most of the price: a 5-page brochure site costs a fraction of a shop with hundreds of products and a stock-system integration.
| Type of site | What it usually includes | Typical UK build cost |
|---|---|---|
| Brochure site | 4–6 pages, a ready-made theme, contact form | £1,500–£3,500 |
| Business site | Custom design, blog, basic SEO set-up | £3,500–£8,000 |
| WooCommerce shop | Product catalogue, basket, checkout, payments | From about £5,000 |
| Complex WooCommerce shop | Subscriptions, several payment gateways, CRM integration | £15,000–£20,000 |
| Custom web application on WordPress | Member portals, bookings, complex user accounts | Above £20,000 |
Intelivita's WordPress projects cost £1,500–£3,500, excluding VAT, depending on the factors below.
Is WordPress Free?
Yes, the WordPress software is free. WordPress.org software is open source under the GNU General Public Licence (GPL), so there is no licence fee. You still pay for hosting, a domain name, any premium themes or plugins, and the time to design, build and maintain the site.
WordPress.com is different: it is a hosted service run by Automattic. It has a free plan with limits and paid plans from US$4 a month billed yearly; plugins can be installed only on paid plans (WordPress.com pricing, checked 14 October 2026). Most business websites use self-hosted WordPress.org, because it gives full control over the code, plugins and hosting.
What Is Included in a WordPress Website Price?
A full WordPress website price should cover 7 parts of the work. When a quote is much lower than others, one of these is usually missing.
- Discovery and planning: agreeing pages, features, users and integrations.
- Design: page layouts and visual style, from a ready-made theme or a custom design.
- Development: building the theme, setting up plugins and writing any custom code.
- Content: adding text and images, or moving content from an old site.
- SEO set-up: page titles, meta descriptions, redirects from old URLs and an XML sitemap.
- Testing: checking forms, speed and layout on phones, tablets and desktops.
- Launch and handover: going live, training your team and handing over admin access.
Hosting, the domain name, plugin licences and maintenance are usually charged separately, every year.
What Affects the Cost of a WordPress Website?
Four things set the price of a WordPress build: how many page templates it needs, whether the design is a template or custom, which features and integrations it has, and how much content must be written or moved.
Number of page templates
A template is a page layout, such as the home page, a service page or a blog post. Ten service pages that share one layout cost far less than ten pages that each need their own design. Count layouts, not pages, when you compare quotes.
Template or custom design
A ready-made theme is the cheapest start, because the layout already exists. A custom design is drawn for your brand and then built as a theme, which adds design and development time. Choose a template when speed and budget matter most; choose custom design when the site must look and work differently from competitors.
Features and integrations
Each feature beyond pages and a contact form adds build and testing time: bookings, memberships, multi-language content, or a connection to a CRM, stock system or accounting tool. A plugin can cover a standard feature cheaply; a custom integration costs more but fits your exact process. What WordPress development involves, from themes to custom plugins and blocks, explains where this time goes.
Content and migration
Writing copy, sourcing images and moving pages from an old site take time that many quotes leave out. Moving to WordPress from another platform also needs 301 redirects from every old URL, so the new site keeps its search rankings.
DIY, Freelancer or Agency: How Do Costs Compare?
Who builds the site has a large effect on the price: building it yourself costs the least in money and the most in your time, and an agency costs the most but supplies a full team.
| Route | Typical UK cost | Suits | Watch for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Build it yourself | £100–£1,000 (hosting, domain, theme) | Simple sites, tight budgets, owners with time | Your own time; no one to fix problems |
| Freelancer | £1,500–£8,000 | Brochure and small business sites | One person's availability and skills |
| Small agency | £5,000–£20,000 | Custom design, integrations, WooCommerce | Check who does the work and what support follows |
| Specialist or bespoke agency | £15,000–£75,000+ | Large or complex sites | Scope must match the budget |
How Much Does a WordPress Website Cost to Run Each Year?
A WordPress website typically costs £2,000–£4,000 a year to run, covering hosting, maintenance and improvements. The software itself has no fee.
| Running cost | Typical UK range | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Domain name | £10–£20 a year | Renew it in your own name |
| Managed WordPress hosting | £15–£60 a month | Shared hosting costs less; larger sites need more |
| SSL certificate | Usually free with hosting | Free certificates give the same encryption as paid ones |
| Premium plugins | £30–£200 per plugin a year | Free plugins cover many standard features |
| Maintenance | £75–£500+ a month | Updates, backups, security checks and fixes; price follows the hours included |
The cost of website maintenance depends on how often the site changes and how many plugins it runs.
Which Type of Hosting Do You Need?
Most business sites need managed WordPress hosting. Shared hosting puts many sites on one server, so it is cheapest but can slow down when traffic rises. A virtual private server (VPS) gives your site its own share of a server. Managed WordPress hosting adds automatic updates, backups and caching, which removes routine work from your team.
How Much Does a WooCommerce Website Cost?
A WooCommerce shop typically costs from about £5,000 to build, and £15,000–£20,000 when it needs subscriptions, several payment gateways or a CRM integration (MoneyMagpie, July 2026). The WooCommerce plugin is free; the cost comes from design, product set-up, payment and delivery integrations, and testing the checkout.
Running a shop adds costs a brochure site does not have: payment providers such as Stripe and PayPal charge a fee on each transaction, and extensions for subscriptions, bookings or advanced shipping usually charge a yearly licence. WooCommerce development covers these integrations, and the wider cost of an eCommerce website compares WooCommerce with other platforms.
How Much Does It Cost to Redesign a WordPress Website?
A WordPress redesign usually costs close to a new build of the same scope, because the design and templates are rebuilt. It costs less when the content, page structure and plugins stay, and more when content must be rewritten or moved and every old URL needs a redirect. Ask for the redesign to be quoted against the same 7 parts of work as a new build.
Why Do WordPress Website Quotes Vary So Much?
Quotes vary because suppliers price different scopes, not because WordPress costs differ. One quote may include discovery, custom design, content entry and testing; another may cover only installing a theme. Differences in team, location of the work and support after launch add to the gap.
How Do You Compare WordPress Website Quotes?
Compare quotes line by line against the same scope. Check that each one states:
- the number of page templates and pages included;
- whether the design is a ready-made theme or custom;
- every feature and integration, by name;
- who adds the content and moves the old site;
- what testing covers, and on which devices;
- the timeline, payment stages and whether prices include VAT;
- who owns the domain, hosting account, design files and custom code;
- what support and maintenance cost after launch.
How much is a 5-page WordPress website?
A 5-page brochure site on a ready-made theme typically costs £1,500–£3,500 in the UK (MoneyMagpie, July 2026). A custom design for the same pages costs more, usually from about £3,500.
How long does it take to build a WordPress website?
At Intelivita, a WordPress website typically takes 4 to 12 weeks to build, depending on its size, design and features. We confirm the project timeline after reviewing your requirements.
How much does WordPress maintenance cost?
WordPress maintenance typically costs £75–£500+ a month in the UK. The price follows the hours included: updates and backups sit at the lower end; regular changes, monitoring and support sit at the higher end.
Is WordPress cheaper than Wix or Squarespace?
Not always at the start. Wix and Squarespace charge a monthly plan that includes hosting, so a simple DIY site can cost less in year one. WordPress has no platform fee and gives you full control of the code and hosting, which matters more as a site grows.
Do I own my WordPress website?
You own your content, and the WordPress software is free to use and modify. Ownership of the design and custom code depends on your contract, so check that it transfers them to you. Register the domain and hosting in your own name.
Can I build a WordPress website myself?
Yes. A DIY WordPress site costs about £100–£1,000 for hosting, a domain and a theme (Yellow Peach, 2026). You supply the time to set it up, add content and keep it updated.
To get a price for your own site, list your page templates, features and integrations, then ask our WordPress development agency for a scoped estimate.