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WordPress Cost Calculator

What does your WordPress site cost to run each year?

Hosting is a small part of the bill. Add the premium plugins, the developer hours and the retainers, and see where the money goes. It opens on an example business site on the higher plans. Every default price links to where it came from.

01 · Hosting
02 · Premium plugins

The example ticks a page builder, SEO, forms, caching, security and analytics, on the plans a larger business site runs. Untick what you don’t pay for, and change any price to yours.

  • a year
  • a year
  • a year
  • a year
  • a year
  • a year
  • a year
  • a year
  • a year
  • a year
03 · People
hours
an hour

The example has 10 hours a month. The rate is the US median web developer pay of $92,650 a year (BLS, May 2025) over 2,080 working hours. A freelancer or agency usually charges more.

a month

Default: WP Buffs Perform, $239 a month for updates, backups, edits, security, speed work and malware removal (WP Buffs). Type what you pay, or clear it if you pay nothing.

a month

Default: the survey average of $3,209 a month (Ahrefs, updated August 2024). Change it to yours.

What your site costs a year today

$53,556

This is the example site. Change any line to see yours.

Hosting
$4,800
Plugins
$2,035
People
$46,721

Our target is 80 to 90% lower. Book a free consultation for your number.

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Method

How does the calculator add it up?

Yearly cost = hosting + premium plugins + 12 × (developer hours × hourly rate + agency or maintenance plan + SEO retainer).

  • WP Engine Business: $4800 a year. From $400 a month billed yearly. WP Engine doesn’t show the renewal. Source.
  • WP Engine Essential: $336 a year. $28 a month billed yearly, 1 site. First-year price; WP Engine doesn’t show the renewal. Source.
  • Elementor Pro (page builder): $108 a year. Advanced plan, 3 sites, billed yearly. Essential is $60 for 1 site. Source.
  • Yoast SEO AI+ (seo): $358.80 a year. Yoast SEO Premium, WooCommerce SEO and AI Brand Insights, billed yearly. Premium alone is $118.80. Source.
  • Rank Math Pro (seo): $107.88 a year. Renews at $8.99 a month, billed yearly; the first year is on sale. Source.
  • Gravity Forms Elite (forms): $259 a year. Unlimited sites, billed yearly. Basic is $59 for 1 site. Source.
  • WPForms Pro (forms): $399 a year. Full price, 5 sites; the first year is $199.50. Source.
  • WP Rocket (caching): $120 a year. Plus, 3 sites, at the regular $10 a month; the first year is on sale. Single is $60. Source.
  • Wordfence Care (security): $590 a year. Wordfence sets it up, monitors it and handles incidents, billed yearly. Premium alone is $149. Source.
  • MonsterInsights Elite (analytics): $599 a year. Full price, 5 sites; the first year is $299.50. Pro is $399. Source.
  • WooCommerce Subscriptions (store subscriptions): $279 a year. 1 site, renews at 100% of list price. Source.
  • OptinMonster (popups): $210 a year. Basic, 1 site, at the $210 renewal price; the first year is $108. Source.
  • Developer hours: the example has 10 a month. Type what your site takes.
  • Hourly rate: $44.54 an hour, the US median web developer pay of $92,650 a year over 2,080 working hours. US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook.
  • SEO retainer: $3,209 a month, the average in a survey of 439 SEO providers.Ahrefs, SEO pricing survey (updated August 2024). The example has one; untick it if you don't pay an SEO agency.
  • Agency or maintenance plan: $239 a month, the published price ofWP Buffs Perform: updates, backups, edits, security, speed work and malware removal. WP Buffs.
  • What it leaves out: domain, email, theme licences, ad spend and the time your own team spends in wp-admin.

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