Does WordPress cost money? Time vs Money.

Does WordPress cost money?

WordPress doesn’t cost money. In fact, not only is WordPress free, but you can also use free WordPress templates and even have your WordPress website hosted for free.

How to use WordPress for free?

First, you can go to WordPress.com hosting and sign up for a free account. You will then be able to set up your WordPress theme and also get to know the WordPress dashboard. 

There are countless WordPress themes that you can use for free. You can also host them on WordPress.com for free. 

During this time you should also get to know how to use the WordPress dashboard and its functions. 

Getting to know the dashboard means: how to set up your categories, your menus, your page and site layout, colors, fonts, etc. 

You can also set up your permalink structure, meaning how you want your post and pages to look in a URL. 

In addition, the dashboard is also the place where you’ll find one of the most important features of WordPress that you will need to learn how to use. 

That is of course, the plugins. You can add all kinds of functionality through plugins. Plugins that are available through WordPress.org are free. 

You should also know that many of these free plugins also include premium or paid versions. So there is no free lunch. 

With that said, there is a lot you can do with free versions of plugins that you don’t need to pay for. However, a lot more can usually be done through the premium or pro plugin versions. 

Companies do offer plugins that aren’t available through the WordPress.org website, but they aren’t free. 

That’s because only free plugins or free versions of plugins can be offered on the WordPress.org site. Plugins that are strictly premium or paid versions cannot be offered on the WordPress.org site. 

If a plugin has a paid version, they would need to offer some version for free in order to be listed on the WordPress.org website as a plugin. 

In addition to free hosting on WordPress.com and free plugins, you can add for various functionality, you can also get a free theme through many WordPress developers right from your WordPress dashboard under Appearance>Themes. 

Developers also offer paid versions or upgrades either through their themes from your WordPress dashboard or on their own individual sites as well.

By using WordPress for free you can actually train yourself on many of the ins and outs of the WordPress ecosystem as well as host a website or blog. 

You can use this as an opportunity to basically train yourself for free on WordPress.

Situations where WordPress does cost money.

Now we’re getting into the brass tax of WordPress. There is a whole industry built around this open source platform and ecosystem. 

The three major areas of the WordPress ecosystem are WordPress Themes, WordPress Hosting and WordPress plugins, either paid or premium versions. 

Within these three main areas of WordPress, you will be able to create any type of website you see on the internet today. 

In fact, close to 30% of all websites on the internet today are powered by WordPress. 

However, don’t let the paid part of WordPress scare you. WordPress hosting, themes as well as some premium plugins that you may want to add are quite reasonably priced. 

Besides, considering how important they are in the functioning and appearance of your WordPress website, they will make your whole life on WordPress a lot more productive and enjoyable.

Why pay for WordPress, when I can get it for free?

If you decide to only stick with the free version of WordPress then your options are severely limited in what you can do with your website.

Themes.

If for example, you opt for a free WordPress theme, which surprisingly many webmasters do, then you will be very limited in how that theme functions and looks. 

Some themes may only have certain colors you can use or fonts or limited functionality etc. Many developers offer their WordPress themes for free, then offer you to upgrade to their premium versions. 

There’s nothing wrong with this, none of us want to work for free after all. In fact, the upgraded versions of free websites are often excellent in quality and functionality. 

Actually, learning on a developer’s free version of their WordPress theme is often a great way to get to know the theme, it’s functionality and get a good idea of what other types of functions you would like to have that theme do.

It’s also a great way to try out a developers support system. 

Many very popular themes that are highly marketed have poor support for example or are difficult to use. However, some have excellent support and excellent reputations.

Hosting and Monetization.

If you’re using a free WordPress hosting like on WordPress.com, you will be very limited as far as earning money through advertising and other means as well. 

Since WordPress.com is hosting your website and you’re not paying for it, they will be able to put their own display ads on your content and make money from it. 

WordPress.com in all fairness does have programs for webmasters to be able to share in some of those earnings though. Check out this link in order to find out more about monetizing your WordPress.com site. 

However, if you choose to have full control over your WordPress website, especially in monetization as well as the speed of your website, etc. then you will need to use a paid hosting provider to host your WordPress website. 

By using paid hosting you will have full control over how your content is presented and most importantly, what else appears on your website. You will also make 100% of anything that is sold on your website, whether that are affiliate products or display ads etc. 

If you would get enough visitors, i.e. traffic, you may be able to even approach companies themselves and offer to put a display banner of their product or services on your website. 

The monetization possibilities are endless, if you choose to pay for your own hosting for your WordPress website.

Plugins. 

WordPress plugins are at the core of how a WordPress website functions. Plugins allow you to add many features that themes aren’t built to do out of the box. 

It is through plugins that you can customize the functionality of your website to do what you need it to do. 

The beauty of using WordPress plugins is that little to no coding is required from you. 

All you need to do is decide what type of function you want to have performed on your website. 

Then search through the WordPress plugin database through your dashboard and it will pull up lists of plugins both free and premium versions. These can do most of the functions you want your website to do. 

You simply upload the plugin right into your WordPress dashboard and activate it. Of course, there are settings and other things you will need to adjust in the plugin. 

One of the reasons why WordPress is so popular is because it doesn’t require website owners to really know much about coding. You should note that plugins aren’t perfect however. 

Many plugins can’t do exactly what you would like them to do. Some of the functions you need the free plugins to do may only be possible through its paid version. 

Plugin developers are very good at providing the very basic functionality in their plugins in order to hook you in. 

Some developers only make the vital functions part of the paid version of their plugins. 

It’s not always the case of course. There are many free plugins you can still use that will perform many of the tasks you would like your WordPress website to do, for free. 

Like anything else, plugins basically help save you time. If a premium version will provide you with all the functionality with little hassle, then the price might be well worth it.

Plugins aren’t that expensive, even premium versions. 

Although some premium versions can be quite expensive, you will need to evaluate if the cost is worth it. Will the cost save you time and frustration? 

If so, then it would be well worth purchasing a free premium version of a plugin instead of trying to make the free version do what you want it to do. 

Of course, if you are an expert in coding, you can even make your own plugin for your website and perhaps, sell it to others on WordPress.

Does WordPress cost money, closing thoughts.

As you can see WordPress doesn’t have to cost you money. You can begin using WordPress today for free. 

However, if you want to go to the next level and truly have control over your WordPress website, then you are going to have to pay for it. 

But getting a WordPress host, using a WordPress theme whether free or paid and implementing functionality on your WordPress website through plugins, also either free or paid is easy. 

In fact, the cost of setting up a WordPress site doesn’t really cost a lot of money. I will leave you with this however. 

What’s more valuable to you, time or money? Because the cost of your WordPress website will depend directly on how you answer that question.