WordPress 2026 pricing, explained - free to start, then the price climbs

WordPress is famously free, and that is true of the software. It is not true of a WordPress site. The software costs nothing to download, but a live site needs somewhere to live, a few things bolted on to make it work, and someone to keep it tidy and safe. And the part most people pay for, the hosting, has a habit of being cheap for a year and dear ever after. Here is what WordPress really costs in 2026, and what Bernard charges to take the upkeep off your hands.

What WordPress actually costs in 2026

There are two WordPresses, and it helps to keep them apart. WordPress.org is the free software you download and put on hosting of your own. WordPress.com is a separate, paid service from the company Automattic that runs the software for you, billed monthly, priced in US dollars. Most of the "WordPress is free" talk is about the first one, so that is the one worth following the money on.

The free software has three real costs hanging off it. The first is hosting, the rented space your site sits in, which is where most of the money goes and where the surprises live. The second is the bits and pieces: a theme to make it look right, and plugins to make it do things, many of which are free to start and then charge a yearly fee to keep working. The third is upkeep: the updates, the security, the backups, and the morning something breaks and needs fixing. That last cost is either your time or somebody's invoice, and it does not stop.

None of that is a reason to avoid WordPress. It runs a large share of the web for good reason. It is only to say that "free" describes the software, not the site.

The price that climbs at renewal

UK hosts have a habit worth knowing about before you sign up.

The price on the advert is almost always an introductory price, good for the first term only. When that term ends, the plan renews at the standard rate, which is routinely three to six times higher. A UK host's March 2026 price-check found SiteGround's entry plan going from £1.99 a month to £13.99 at renewal, and Fasthosts starting at 40p a month for six months before settling at £11.99. Other hosts jump harder still. The cheap number is the hook. The renewal number is the one you live with.

There is a second, quieter addition. UK hosts usually show their prices without VAT, so if you are not VAT-registered, and most individuals and small firms are not, the figure at the checkout is 20 per cent higher than the one on the page.

So the real running cost of self-hosted WordPress is the renewal price, plus VAT, plus whatever the plugins and the upkeep come to. Not the number in the advert.

So what does it really cost?

Taking one common entry plan as the example (SiteGround's StartUp, checked March 2026, before any plugins or upkeep), for a UK customer who is not VAT-registered:

The renewal-year figure is hosting alone. A theme, a few plugins on yearly licences, and either your own hours or a maintenance bill all sit on top of it. Bernard's number is £120, in pounds, the same in year one and year ten. This compares what you pay to keep the site running, not your web address, which is your own cost wherever the site lives.

How Bernard does it differently

Bernard charges £120 a year. That is the whole price, in pounds, and it does not change at renewal. There is no introductory rate that lapses and no standard rate waiting behind it. He is not big enough to be charging VAT yet, so there is nothing to add at the checkout - £120 is £120. The renewal price is the sticker price.

The move itself is included with the annual plan. Bernard measures up your WordPress site and rebuilds it clean and light, with the heavy plugin machinery that slowed it down left behind, and keeps the links working so nothing you have already earned gets lost on the way over.

And then he keeps it. The updates, the security, the backups, the things that used to be your Sunday afternoon or your maintenance invoice, are his job now, not yours. He does not sell you a web address, and he does not sell you email. Those stay where they are, in your name - the keys are yours.

He is honest about what he cannot carry. A simple WordPress site - a blog, a portfolio, a business site - he can move. A site built on heavy machinery - a membership area behind a login, a forum, a complicated shop with live orders - is a different thing, and he will measure up and tell you plainly if it is beyond him, before any money changes hands.

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Paste your current address and Bernard will measure up, free, and show you the new place before you decide anything.