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How much does it cost to create a WordPress website? Doing it yourself.
Forget about how much it costs to create a website. But, what’s the cost to you?
The answer is: time and energy (and not that much of either) versus thousands of dollars!
Creating a WordPress website yourself can save you thousands of dollars, and hours on end reading instructions on the internet.
Imagine if you had a gourmet steak dinner all by yourself. You can either spend $100 at a restaurant, or you can use that same $100 to buy all the ingredients yourself, and have a gourmet steak dinner for four at home.
DIY-ing a WordPress website is definitely worth it though!
When a friend started his own bakery business earlier this year I asked him how he planned on promoting his website.
He said, “I’m not really sure, I’m going to try Facebook, Google and Twitter ads. Maybe Reddit?“
Hmm, I thought. He’s a smart young guy and he has no idea how much this could cost him…”You know what you should do“, I said, “instead of wasting money on social media sites that aren’t even sure will help your business, why don’t you just write an article about your business that’s really long and detailed, then spend the money on getting it to the top of Google?“.
He had known that I already had a few websites up on the Web, but he had assumed that I knew how to code.
Once I confessed that I didn’t, I started to explain to him how WordPress worked. I also told him that he needed to self host in order to look professional and taken seriously.
But, I helped him get started on a Shared Hosting plan for less than $10 a month and also helped him buy a domain name.
Afterwards, I showed him how to redirect his Name Servers to his Hosting Account.
Then after a few minutes of getting acquainted with cPanel, we went ahead and downloaded WordPress through the “one-click”QuickInstall”.
Once WordPress was installed and he got all the necessary “Login” details, he picked out a free theme, we added a few plugins and he was good to go!
Finally, I told him, “Now go ahead and just write your article and put it on the internet! You see how easy it is and you can totally do this yourself!”
How much does it cost to create a WordPress website?
You can spend $1000 hiring somebody for an hour or two at a site like Fiverr, or you can spend almost $0 doing it yourself.
You might be thinking, “That sounds too good to be true”. And you’re right! It isn’t entirely free.
There are costs involved, but they’re minimal compared to the benefits of having a website that ranks high on Google and brings in leads for years to come.
So when somebody asks me how much it costs to create a website, I always answer the same way. “It depends on how much time and energy you want to spend, and it also depends on what your goals are. But my general answer is: “Almost nothing!”
Of course, you’d need to pay for hosting to get it up on the internet, but even that is very minimal. Heck, you can even get your hosting for free if you go on WordPress.com’s Free Blog Plan!
So you see, you can set up a basic WordPress website yourself for free, and with minimal effort too!
All you need is about an hour to get your website online.
What you need and how it will affect the cost of creating a WordPress website:
- Domain name.
- Web hosting.
- WordPress.
Why do I make it sound so easy? Because it is. The hard part is learning how to write great content for your website, and doing effective keyword research that will help you beat out the competition so you can rank high on Google.
But those things take time as well. And if you follow my lead, it’ll be totally worth it.
I have mentioned this before, but I just love telling people how they can “DIY” their own websites because the benefits are pure gold.
Save yourself time and money in creating a WordPress website by doing it yourself.
- You can choose how much time you want to spend on your website, and what your business goals are (entirely up to you).
- When you’re done with your research, go ahead and follow the instructions, don’t expect things to happen instantly. I know some people do that but if you want to make sure things are done correctly, take your time.
- If you run into something that doesn’t work the way it should, don’t freak out! “Google” has answers for everything…just type in what’s wrong and see what comes up. Google is your friend when it comes to Web Development. In fact, it’s one of the dark secrets most Developers will never admit to.
- Once you’ve done your research, you’ll have a better understanding of how much it costs to create a website. And if need be, you can put together a team that can help you do certain things that will save you time in the long run.
Why WordPress and not just start a website with Wix, Weebly or SquareSpace?
On the surface, Wix is an attractive option for creating websites. It’s “cheaper to start” than WordPress and you can apparently create a website in 5 minutes (although this claim neglects to mention that you need some skills as a web designer or developer).
However, there are several issues with using a closed source, proprietary CMS like Wix over WordPress which I will go into more below.
In the long run, creating a WordPress website is more cost-efficient.
WordPress is more cost-efficient because it has a huge and vibrant community that includes:
The WordPress Community has a lot of happy users who will help you with your WordPress issues
There are many WordPress developers and designers to choose from who offer their services anywhere from $10 an hour more or less to $100 an hour or more, to fix issues for you.
Why WordPress is more cost effective than its closed source CMS competitors.
WordPress has more plugins and themes that can be installed on your website than closed source CMS platforms like Wix, which can make your website more functional.
Wix.
In the long run, WordPress is cheaper than Wix because of how much it costs to maintain a Wix website over time.
Don’t forget, in order to have a WIx website you must also host it on their platform, rely on their support for your themes, plugins as well as hosting and any issues that may arise thereof.
You will be totally dependent on Wix who could change their terms of service, raise prices etc. What will you do then?
It’s not like you could switch Hosts, Themes, Plugins etc. Unlike with WordPress which gives you the control and freedom to do all three and more…
WordPress websites are faster and offer better performance.
Your users will appreciate the fact that your website doesn’t waste their time by loading slowly etc. and will stay on your site longer, and they’ll be more likely to come back as well.
WordPress is built for SEO optimization. WordPress sites rank higher in search engine results than Wix sites.
SquareSpace.
You can also start a website with SquareSpace if you want to “start fast” and don’t mind paying extra fees in addition to their regular monthly fees.
Although SquareSpace does have a lower learning curve than WordPress, it also has less functionality.
Weebly.
You can start with Weebly to build your website if your business is small and you don’t anticipate much demand for your products or services online.
With Weebly, you can start quickly for free but then pay in the long run because of the expenses involved with Weebly hosting.
Then there’s the issue of open source i.e. WordPress and closed source like Wix, Weebly and SquareSpace.
Open source CMS like WordPress is a better choice, here’s why.
You can download the files and view the code that runs your website, instead of being locked into their “walled garden” type system.
You retain control over your site. you aren’t forced to use a 1-800 number for support, or be subjected to other inconveniences.
In short, there’s no middle man that can break your website if they decide to discontinue support.
Your site is more secure because you have the ability to update your WordPress version whenever a new security update becomes available. Weebly, Wix, and SquareSpace will not always keep up with these.
WordPress is open source, which means thousands of developers are working every day to improve the software. WordPress is also being continuously developed and improved upon by hundreds of volunteers from around the world.
WordPress also has a huge community that you can tap into for support and guidance. If you have a problem, chances are someone else already had the same and figured out a solution.
If your website needs to be GDPR-compliant, then WordPress is the best option.
No other platform is as GDPR compliant as WordPress, so if you need to ensure that your website complies with this regulation, then WordPress is the only choice.
If you have a great deal of content or media on your site, then WordPress will be more suitable for managing it.
This is because WordPress has much better media management features than its competitors like Wix, Weebly and SquareSpace.
WordPress is more SEO friendly, and this means it will be easier for you to rank higher in search engine results.
This gives you a better chance of getting visitors to your site since most people use Google or Bing when searching for products and services online .
WordPress has more plugins and themes that can be installed on your website than Wix, which can make your website more functional.
Finally, WordPress is cheaper than Squarespace. This means you will save money over the long run by using WordPress instead of Squarespace.
The cost to create a WordPress website, DIY. Conclusions.
Building a WordPress website is not as costly or difficult as you might think.
You can build your own blog for free, and it’s easy to do with the help of some tutorials on YouTube, Google, and other websites. Your website will be up in no time!
So, what are you waiting for? Start thinking about how your WordPress site can be better without the costs. Because with WordPress, you can.
You don’t need to hire a designer or developer either. You have the power right in that computer of yours!
We’ve outlined some ideas on this blog post and it’s not hard to make changes if you’re willing to put in the time.
There’s no reason why your website should look anything less than stellar!
What do you think? Ready to get started with designing your own WordPress site?
