Last updated: 2026-10-19
There is no single price that applies to every five-page website, so we will not invent one. What you can do is make two quotes comparable: name every page, name who writes the copy, name whose account holds the domain, and get the renewal price in writing. The build is usually a one-time project; the platform fee is recurring and may be billed monthly or for a longer term.
Disclosure: This guide contains affiliate links. If you buy through them, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. You can read our editorial policy to see how we choose what we link to.
Are You Asking About the Build, or the Hosting Bill?
One purchase, then a bill that keeps coming
A build fee and a platform fee are not the same kind of money. The build is a project: one scope, one page list, one date.
How to tell which number you are holding
A quote comes with a page list. A bill comes with a renewal date. Two of the three closest search suggestions for this phrase are about hosting, not builds, so this page separates them first.
Two purchases hide under one question.
| What you are paying for | How often it is charged | Where this page covers it |
|---|---|---|
| The build: layout, words, photos, set-up | Once, as a project | The audit, and the self-build price |
| Running costs: plan, domain, HTTPS | Every year, or every month | Our yearly cost page |
| Extras: email, themes, plugins | Per year or per user | Our yearly cost page |
If the number in front of you has “/month” or “renews” next to it, you are holding the second row, not the first.
Why We Won’t Give You a Range
The pages that rank for this question do not agree with each other
For the same five-page scope, the quoted figures on the pages ranking for this question differ by more than tenfold, and none names a primary source. That is not a range; it is a set of opening positions.
A number without a source is not a benchmark
So you get two things instead of a midpoint: fourteen lines to check the quote in your hand, and one published price for the other path, with the page and month it came from. Before either matters: whether a website is the right spend at all.
The Quote Audit: 14 Lines to Check Before You Pay
A quote is not a price; it is a list of promises. Two quotes at the same total can cover different work.
Print it and mark each line: ✓ written down, ✗ not, ? cannot tell. The ?s are the lines to ask about; three or more and the two quotes are not the same product.
Fourteen lines to check in a website quote.
| # | Line to check | What “written down” looks like | If it is only verbal |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scope: what you are buying | |||
| 1 | The page list, by name | Five named pages, not “up to five” | No sixth-page price |
| 2 | Who writes each page | “Client supplies” or “we write it” | Builds stall |
| 3 | Photos: who supplies, who owns | “Client supplies” or a licence line | Images you cannot keep |
| 4 | What is explicitly not included | An exclusion list, with add-on prices | A change order later |
| Ownership: what you keep if you leave | |||
| 5 | Whose name the domain is registered in | The registrant: you, or them | Moving is their decision |
| 6 | Whose account the plan sits in | The account holder, and who pays | It stops being yours |
| 7 | The admin login you get at handover | Your own admin account | Not ownership |
| 8 | Whether and how the site exports | The export format, in writing | Most quotes skip it |
| Money: what you pay now, and later | |||
| 9 | The total, and what changes it | Per-extra-page, per-language prices | Every change is a negotiation |
| 10 | The deposit, and its milestones | Amounts tied to milestones | Milestones beat size |
| 11 | What the monthly fee covers | Hosting, updates, backups, edits, hours | “Maintenance” means four things |
| 12 | The renewal price, in writing | The number after term one | You learn it late |
| After launch: who answers when it breaks | |||
| 13 | Revision rounds, and one more | A round count and per-round rate | Not a quantity |
| 14 | Who fixes a broken form in month two | A named party, a response time, a rate | It matters then |
Fourteen lines, no prices. On purpose: they make two quotes comparable and cost nothing to ask. If you can only ask three, ask 1, 2, and 5.
Ownership and Handover: The Part Most Quotes Leave Out
Whose name is on the domain
“Managed by” is not “registered to”. On WordPress.com a domain has a named registrant and one price for registration and renewal (domain pricing page, reviewed October 2, 2026). If the registrant is not you, moving later is their call.
The account, the login, and the export
Ask whether you get your own admin account or a role inside theirs. Plugins install on every WordPress.com paid plan, Personal included (plugins guide, reviewed August 11, 2026), so a site’s capability comes from the platform, not a private server. Ask whether the site can be exported, and in what format.
Four details to confirm before the deposit
Who is the domain registrant? Whose account is the plan in, and who pays? At handover, do I get my own admin login, and can the site be exported? We give no standard deposit percentage: we found no source.
The Monthly Fee Is the Part That Outlives the Project
A one-time build fee and a recurring fee are different promises
The build fee buys a delivered project. The monthly fee buys the site staying online.
Where the first-year price comes from
WordPress.com’s pricing page states it plainly: “Monthly plans do not include a free domain.” The same page lists a free domain for the first year on annual and multi-year plans (pricing page, October 2026). Same plan name, different list: a scope difference, not a discount.
What the cheaper monthly price gives up
Month to month costs more and drops the domain from the list. A longer term is cheaper per month but commits you longer. Which fits depends on how likely you are to stop: what happens when a payment is missed.
The Same Five Pages, Priced on the Self-Build Side
Comparison needs a fixed scope: Home, Services, About, Contact, Reviews, a contact form, mobile-friendly, basic on-page SEO, your domain, HTTPS.
What the software costs, from the pricing pages
Priced from published pages. Every figure can be checked; the last row is empty.
| Line | What you are buying | Published price | Source, and when we checked |
|---|---|---|---|
| Platform plan | Unlimited pages, plugins, no ads (Personal, yearly) | US$4 per month; about US$48 for 12 months (our arithmetic) | wordpress.com/pricing — October 2026 |
| Domain (.com) | The address | Free for the first year with an annual plan; the standard .com registration and renewal price is US$13.00 a year. Renewal prices for existing domains may differ depending on their original pricing | domain pricing page — October 2026 |
| HTTPS / SSL | The padlock | Included | HTTPS and SSL guide — August 2026 |
| Basic on-page SEO | Built-in SEO tools | Included | wordpress.com/pricing — October 2026 |
| Your hours | Layout, words, photos, set-up | No citable figure; fill it in | — |
This is one platform’s published price, not the cheapest option on the market. We did not price the others, so we are not ranking them.
Year one is about US$48 in software for this scope. That is our arithmetic on US$4 × 12, not an annual total WordPress.com prints. We cannot give you a year-two total, because we do not have a renewal figure we can cite — your own checkout screen is where that number appears.
For the full yearly picture — email, extra storage, lines left out here — see what the same site costs to run, year by year.
A three-year term shows US$2.75 per month but commits you longer and costs more up front (WordPress.com, October 2026). The plan is here: WordPress.com’s published plans (affiliate link). Confirm the price there before you buy.
What has no price on it: your hours
We found no source for how many hours a five-page site takes, so that row stays blank. Anyone filling it in without one is guessing.
Fill in your own number
Your hours at whatever your time is worth, plus the software line. We are not doing that sum: the hours are the part only you know. To see how far hours alone can get you, we walked through building it yourself starting from zero.
When Paying the Quote Is the Right Call
There are cases where the quote is the cheaper decision, and we would rather say so than protect the half of this comparison we get paid on. If you are still deciding whether to pay anything, start with where a free plan stops covering you.
Copy, photography, and strategy are labor, not subscriptions
If the quote includes writing every page, you are not comparing a US$48 subscription with an invoice; you are comparing the hours in the quote with the hours you would spend, and we have a citable figure for neither. A plan gives you a tool. It does not decide what your homepage should say. Photography is the same: travel, equipment, and a licence are not inside any plan.
A deadline is a cost too
If the site has to be live before a date you cannot move, the deadline is part of what you are buying. Our reading: money is the only thing you can spend to buy back time, and a missed date costs sales you never invoice.
The honest version: we earn from the self-build side
We may earn a commission if you buy a website plan through our links. That is the side of this comparison we get paid on — and we are still telling you that paying a designer is sometimes the cheaper decision. If that sounds like a strange thing for us to write, it is the reason our editorial policy exists.
So ask what the quote includes. If it includes labor you would otherwise supply from your own evenings, the comparison is not US$48 against an invoice but two amounts of time, one already spent.
What Official Wage Data Can—and Cannot—Tell You
What BLS measures
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the median annual wage for web and digital interface designers at US$104,000 and for web developers at US$92,650, as of May 2025. Across both occupations the median is US$99,520 a year, or US$47.85 an hour (BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook).
Why a salary is not a quote
That is what employees are paid. It is not a price: it excludes overhead, software, insurance, and profit, and it does not cover self-employed designers. Do not multiply it by hours to check a quote.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much should I pay for a website?
We found no source we can cite for one: pages ranking here quote figures for the same five-page scope that differ by more than tenfold. Make two quotes comparable instead: every page named, who writes the copy, whose account holds the domain, and the renewal price.
How much should I pay for website hosting?
It is a different purchase: a recurring bill, not a project fee. On WordPress.com the entry paid plan is US$4 per month billed yearly; monthly plans exclude the free domain annual plans include (WordPress.com, October 2026).
How much does a typical website cost?
We would rather say we cannot than invent one. For a five-page site, the quoted figures on pages ranking for this question differ more than tenfold, and none names a source.
How much should I pay for a good website?
“Good” usually means three things no subscription includes: copywriting, photography, and decisions about what the site should say. A quote that covers them is not comparable to a plan subscription.
Is it free to get a website quote?
Whether a quote is free is a term each provider sets, so there is no general rule. Once you have one, mark the fourteen lines here and ask for the page list, the copywriting responsibility, and the domain registrant.
Do I own my website if someone else builds it?
That depends on the contract, and we will not give you a legal answer. Get four things in writing: whose name the domain is in, whose account the hosting sits in, your own admin login at handover, and whether the site exports.
How much does a website cost per month after it’s built?
It depends on the plan and term, not the build. On WordPress.com, Personal is US$4 per month billed yearly and US$2.75 on a three-year term (WordPress.com, October 2026). We will not quote a renewal figure we cannot verify: check your checkout screen.
Sources
Built from published pages and labelled interpretations. We did not conduct hands-on tests. Prices in US dollars.
- Plan prices, built-in SEO tools (“SEO and analytics tools”), and the monthly-versus-annual domain line: pricing page, October 2026.
- Domain price and renewal for standard-priced domains: domain pricing and available extensions, reviewed October 2, 2026.
- Plugins on every paid plan: plugins guide, reviewed August 11, 2026.
- Automatic certificates: HTTPS and SSL guide, reviewed August 27, 2026.
- Median wages, May 2025: BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook.
- Quote comparison: 14 pages ranking for quote-related searches, reviewed 2026-10-19; only pages naming a five-page scope were compared.
- Search suggestions: our own check, October 2026 — wording, not demand.
- How we choose links: our editorial policy.
Next Step
Ask for lines 1, 2, and 5 in writing today. If you build it yourself and want email early, Kit publishes its plans: See Kit’s plans (affiliate link).
We may earn a commission from links on this page. See our editorial policy.