How Much Does a Website Cost in 2026? Builder and Hosting Prices

A website in 2026 can cost as little as $4 a month on a builder such as WordPress.com, or well over $100 a month on premium store and business plans, before domain renewals, apps and payment fees. We checked the official pricing pages of Wix, WordPress.com, Shopify, Hostinger and Namecheap on 10 November 2026 to show what you will actually pay. All prices are in US dollars, and local prices and taxes can differ.

What makes up the cost of a website?

Almost every website pays for the same few things:

• A platform or hosting plan – a website builder (Wix, WordPress.com, Shopify) or web hosting where you install WordPress yourself.
• A domain name – often free for the first year with an annual plan, then charged every year.
• Payment and transaction fees – if you sell online.
• Extras – premium themes, apps, email inboxes or a designer.

WordPress.com’s own cost guide, published on 2 October 2026, warns that year two is often more expensive than year one because free domains and introductory prices end.

Website builder prices compared (as of 10 November 2026)

Platform and plan	Billed yearly (per month)	Billed monthly	Free domain	Best for
WordPress.com Personal	$4	$9	First year, annual plans	Blogs, simple personal sites
WordPress.com Premium	$8	$18	First year, annual plans	Portfolios, small business sites
WordPress.com Business	$25	$40	First year, annual plans	Sites needing plugins
WordPress.com Commerce	$45	$70	First year, annual plans	Online stores
Wix Light	$17	Not listed	First year, yearly plans	Simple sites
Wix Core	$29	Not listed	First year, yearly plans	Small businesses taking payments
Wix Business	$39	Not listed	First year, yearly plans	Growing businesses and stores
Wix Business Elite	$159	Not listed	First year, yearly plans	Larger sites
Shopify Basic	$29	$39	Not stated	Solo store owners
Shopify Grow	$79	$105	Not stated	Growing stores
Shopify Advanced	$299	$399	Not stated	Larger stores

Wix lists prices per month for yearly plans paid in full, before tax, and says prices vary by location. Its plans page showed different local prices including tax when we checked.

Wix: easy drag-and-drop, mid-range price

Wix offers a free plan and four paid website plans. Light ($17 a month yearly) includes 2GB of storage, while Core ($29) adds 50GB and the ability to accept payments with basic ecommerce. Business ($39) moves to 100GB and standard ecommerce. Paid yearly or multi-year plans include a one-year domain voucher for a new domain, which must be redeemed within 60 days.

Pros: drag-and-drop editor, thousands of templates and hosting included. Cons: more expensive than WordPress.com’s entry plans, and month-to-month pricing is higher than the yearly rates shown.

WordPress.com: cheapest entry plans, fees on lower tiers

WordPress.com has a free plan with 1GB of storage and paid plans from $4 a month billed yearly. Personal includes 6GB, Premium 13GB and Business and Commerce 50GB. The pricing page lists plugin access on all paid plans. Monthly billing costs more: Personal is $9 billed monthly, and monthly plans do not include the free domain.

Watch the fees on payments and paid subscriptions: WordPress.com lists 8% on Personal, 4% on Premium, 2% on Business and 0% on Commerce, on top of Stripe’s processing fees.

Pros: lowest builder entry price we found, multi-year discounts (Personal drops to $2.75 a month on a three-year plan). Cons: platform fees on payments for cheaper plans; store features need the $45 Commerce plan.

Shopify: built for selling

Shopify’s Basic plan costs $29 a month billed yearly or $39 billed monthly, with online card rates of 2.9% plus 30 cents. Using a third-party payment provider instead of Shopify Payments adds a 2% transaction fee on Basic. Shopify currently offers a three-day free trial with no credit card, then $1 a month for three months. It also lists a $0-a-month Agentic plan for selling only in AI channels, where you pay when a sale happens.

Pros: strong store features, checkout and apps. Cons: costly for a site that does not sell, and fees add up. For a deeper look at store costs, read our Shopify vs WooCommerce comparison.

Self-hosted WordPress: low start, renewals matter

You can also buy web hosting and install the open-source WordPress software yourself. Hostinger’s Premium plan, for example, starts at $1.99 a month on a 48-month term paid upfront, about $96 for four years, with a free domain for the first year. It renews at $10.99 a month, and prices exclude VAT. Its Cloud Startup plan starts at $7.99 a month and renews at $25.99.

Pros: full control, the lowest first-term price, and any theme or plugin. Cons: long upfront terms, much higher renewal prices, and you handle updates, backups and security.

What does a domain name cost?

If your plan’s free domain ends, or you buy one separately, budget for it every year. Namecheap changed its regular .com prices on 1 November 2026 to $15.98 for a new registration and $19.98 for a renewal, excluding the ICANN fee. Prices for other endings, such as .pk or .co, differ by registrar.

What about hiring a designer?

Costs for freelancers and agencies vary too widely to give a fair average, and we could not find a reliable published survey. As one example, WordPress.com’s own website design service starts at $499 for a five-page site, plus a Premium plan. Ask any designer for a fixed quote that lists pages, revisions and who pays the hosting. If you plan to design it yourself, our Canva vs Adobe Express vs Figma guide compares tools for graphics and mock-ups.

Example first-year budgets

Using the prices above, with yearly billing and a domain included for year one:

• Personal blog or portfolio: WordPress.com Personal, $48 for the year.
• Small business site: Wix Light, $204; or WordPress.com Premium, $96.
• Online store: Shopify Basic, $348 plus card fees; or WordPress.com Commerce, $540.
• Do-it-yourself WordPress: Hostinger Premium, about $96 upfront for four years, then renewal rates.
• Large site: Wix Business Elite, $1,908 for the year.

How to choose: quick steps

1. Decide what the site must do – share information, take bookings or sell products.
2. Compare year-two costs, not only the introductory price.
3. Add domain, app and payment fees to the plan price.
4. Start on the smallest plan that fits; most platforms let you upgrade later.
5. Check the official pricing page on the day you buy, as offers change often.

Squarespace is not included in this comparison because we could not access its official pricing page on 10 November 2026 to verify current prices.