Once you add it all up, keeping a WordPress site running properly usually costs a small business somewhere between a few hundred pounds and well over a thousand a year in money, plus a steady drip of your own time, or a monthly bill if you pay someone else. The build might be a one-off, but WordPress is never finished: hosting, premium plugins, updates, security and backups are ongoing, and the biggest hidden cost is the hours you spend keeping it all working. Figures below are typical ranges as of 2026, not fixed prices, and not Page Forge prices.
Why is the build only the start?
The common mistake is treating a WordPress site as a one-off purchase. You pay for the build, and assume that is that. WordPress is a system you run, not a product you own outright, and running it costs money and time every year. The quoted build price is the beginning of the spending, not the end of it.
This is the same trap as any website that looks cheap on day one. The real cost is what you keep paying, and what you keep doing. A designer who hands you a login and disappears has not finished the job. They have handed you an operating system.
If nobody owns the updates, they do not happen. If nobody owns the backups, you find out on the wrong morning. That ownership is the maintenance cost, whether it appears on an invoice or not.
What are the money costs as of 2026?
Here is where the ongoing pounds go. These are ranges people typically pay as of 2026. They vary a lot with host, theme and how many paid add-ons you stacked.
Hosting. Anywhere from around £5 a month for budget shared hosting to £30-plus for decent managed WordPress hosting. Cheap hosting often means a slow site, which we cover in why is my WordPress site so slow. You save on the invoice and spend it again in lost enquiries.
Domain name. Your .co.uk or .com, renewed yearly. Usually a modest annual fee. Not the expensive part, but easy to forget until a reminder lands.
Premium plugins. The free versions often stop where you need them to start. Serious SEO, security, backup, form and page-builder plugins frequently charge annual licences. I will not invent a typical plugin bill as an exact figure, because it depends on which products you picked. What you can count on is that they stack, and they renew.
Premium theme. Many good themes carry an annual licence too. Miss a year and support, and sometimes updates, stop.
SSL certificate. Sometimes included with hosting, sometimes an extra. A small line, but another one.
None of these is huge alone. Added together, and renewed every year, they are more than most people expect when they pictured a “one-off” website. The software is free. The stack around it is not.
What does the time actually cost?
The money is only half the story. WordPress needs regular attention, and that attention is either your time or someone else’s invoice.
Updates. WordPress, the theme and every plugin update constantly. Applying them, and checking nothing broke, is a recurring job. Some months it is ten minutes. Some months a clash takes an afternoon.
Fixing what updates break. Sometimes an update fights another plugin or the theme, and the layout shifts or a form dies. Now you are troubleshooting, or paying someone who is.
Security and backups. Making sure both are still working, and dealing with it if something goes wrong. A backup plugin that silently failed six months ago is a common nasty surprise.
General upkeep. The small ongoing tinkering a live system needs: a PHP version warning from the host, a plugin that wants a new key, a cookie banner that needs a tweak after a legal change.
For a busy owner, that time has real value. An hour spent wrestling a plugin conflict is an hour not spent on paying work. This is the cost that never appears on an invoice and is often the largest of all.
What do WordPress care plans usually charge?
The alternative to spending your own time is a WordPress maintenance retainer, where a developer or agency handles updates, security and backups for a monthly fee. Typical WordPress care plans are quoted in the £20 to £80 a month range as of 2026, sometimes more if WooCommerce or a lot of plugins are in the mix. That is a market range people quote. It is not a Page Forge product. We do not retain WordPress. We replace it.
A care plan buys you peace of mind if you are staying on WordPress. It is also an ongoing cost on top of hosting and plugin licences, and you are now dependent on that firm for changes too. Read the small print: some plans only apply updates, and some charge extra the moment something breaks.
So the honest total is hosting, plus plugin and theme licences, plus either your time or a monthly retainer in that £20 to £80 band (or higher). Compare that against the alternative before you assume WordPress is the cheap option.
How does a managed site compare?
The reason many small businesses move away is not that any single WordPress cost is outrageous. It is the scatter of them, and the time. A managed, purpose-built site rolls the lot into one predictable figure.
Ours is £99 to set up and £29 a month, or £299 a year, with the domain, UK hosting, SSL, updates, security and a set number of content changes included, and no plugins to license or maintain. You can see exactly what is covered on our pricing page. After a move, care of the new site is ordinary website maintenance, not a WordPress retainer. The wider case for leaving the CMS sits on our WordPress alternative page.
For many businesses that works out cheaper than a properly maintained WordPress site once time is counted, and it is far simpler. We are not cheaper than an unmaintained WordPress site that nobody updates. That option is only cheap until it is not.
We do not offer to “just look after your WordPress”. If you want us involved, the job is a replacement.
Frequently asked questions
Isn’t WordPress free?
The WordPress software is free, but running a WordPress website is not. You still pay for hosting, usually premium plugins and a theme, a domain, and either your own time or a maintenance retainer to keep it updated and secure. “Free” refers only to the software itself.
How much should I budget for WordPress maintenance a year?
As of 2026, plan for hosting, plugin and theme licences, and either a chunk of your own time or a care plan typically quoted at £20 to £80 a month. The total varies widely. Treating it as a one-off build with no ongoing cost is the mistake to avoid. I will not invent a single plugin bill that pretends every site is the same.
Is a managed website cheaper than maintaining WordPress?
Often, yes, once you count your time. A managed site bundles hosting, security, updates and changes into one predictable fee with nothing to license or maintain yourself. Whether it is cheaper in pounds depends on your WordPress setup. It is almost always simpler.
Does Page Forge offer a WordPress care plan?
No. Typical WordPress care plans in the £20 to £80 a month range are what other firms quote. We do not retain WordPress or patch plugins. We build a replacement site and look after that instead.
What is included in Page Forge pricing?
A one-page site is £99 to set up and £29 a month, or £299 a year. Domain, UK hosting, SSL and content updates sit in that figure. Multi-page sites are quoted. There is no separate plugin stack to renew.
Can I keep WordPress and just pay less?
You can strip plugins, move to cheaper hosting, and do the updates yourself. That lowers the money cost and raises the time cost and the risk. It does not remove the maintenance job. If the job is what you want rid of, cheaper WordPress is the wrong lever.