Building a WordPress website can cost anything from a few hundred euros for a DIY site to €40,000 or more for a complex, multilingual platform. The WordPress software is free, but a professional website still needs design, development, hosting, plugins and maintenance, and those are what you pay for.
The biggest variable is the approach. A DIY site uses an off-the-shelf theme and your own time. A template-based site pays a professional to set up and adapt an existing theme. A custom WordPress website is designed and built around your brand, content and goals. This guide covers all three and the recurring costs that follow launch, drawing on our own WordPress website development work for organisations across Europe. If you already have a site and want to replace it, our guide to website redesign costs covers that case.
In short: Building a WordPress website can cost from a few hundred euros for a basic DIY setup to €5,000–€15,000 for a professionally designed custom website. More complex WordPress projects involving advanced functionality, integrations or multilingual requirements may exceed €15,000. Additional expenses include hosting, premium plugins, security and ongoing maintenance.
How much does a WordPress website cost?
How much does a WordPress website cost in practice? The table below gives indicative budgets for the initial build by development approach. Hosting, licences and maintenance are recurring costs and are covered later.
| Approach | What it typically includes | Indicative budget |
|---|---|---|
| DIY WordPress website | An existing theme, minimal customisation, set up by the owner | €100–€1,000, excluding your time |
| Template-based business website | Professional setup, theme customisation, standard pages and contact forms | €1,500–€5,000 |
| Custom WordPress website | Bespoke UX/UI design, custom templates, responsive development, performance optimisation | €5,000–€15,000 |
| Complex WordPress website | Advanced functionality, multilingual content, integrations, custom development | €15,000–€40,000+ |
These are market ranges, not price lists or Morpheon quotations. Scope, functionality and design expectations matter far more than the number of pages: a ten-page site with a product configurator and a CRM integration costs more than a forty-page site built from three templates.
Morpheon does not publish a fixed price for WordPress websites, because each one is quoted on its scope. For reference, our brand and digital ecosystem projects, which align positioning, design and the website, typically start from €20,000. Our work therefore sits in the custom and complex bands, not at the low end of the market.
What factors influence WordPress website development costs?
The WordPress website development cost of a project comes down to four variables. Understanding them makes quotations easier to compare.
Custom design vs pre-built themes
A pre-built theme gives you a tested design for a modest licence fee and a fast start. The limits appear later: you adapt your content to someone else's layout, competitors may use the same theme, and heavy multipurpose themes often load code you never use.
A bespoke design costs more upfront because every layout is designed for your content and audience. In return, the site reflects your brand, carries only the code it needs and is easier to extend in a consistent way.
Website size and page templates
Effort depends on the number of unique layouts, not the number of pages. A site with 60 pages built from four well-designed templates can take less work than a 12-page site where every page is a one-off composition.
Content types and languages add to this. Case studies, team profiles, events or products each need a structure, fields and listing pages, and every language version multiplies content entry and testing.
Features and integrations
Contact forms and newsletter sign-ups are inexpensive. Booking systems, CRM integrations, membership areas, custom dashboards, payment systems and multilingual or multi-currency setups each add design, development and testing time. Anything that needs custom code rather than a configured plugin moves a project up a band.
For Alpeor, a Swiss skincare brand, we built a premium WooCommerce store in French, English and German with prices in CHF and euros, custom product pages and filtering by skin type or routine. That level of tailoring required more than 80 custom scripts, which is what places a project firmly in the complex band.
SEO and performance optimisation
Technical SEO, site architecture, Core Web Vitals, responsive performance, accessibility and analytics configuration all belong in the build, not after launch. Fixing a slow theme or a poor URL structure later usually costs more than getting it right the first time.
On our WordPress projects we target an "A" score on GTmetrix and configure analytics before launch. Where search visibility is a priority, our SEO optimisation work covers keyword research, technical SEO and on-page foundations.
How much does custom WordPress website design cost?
A custom WordPress website cost includes a design phase that template-based projects largely skip. Professional UX/UI design usually covers:
- Discovery and business objectives
- Information architecture
- Wireframes
- Visual direction
- Custom page templates
- Responsive design
- Interactive prototypes
WordPress website design cost is best seen separately from development. Design decides what the site should do and how it should look; development makes it work in WordPress. A clear design phase reduces development cost, because layouts, components and edge cases are settled before anyone writes code.
Custom design makes most sense when brand differentiation matters, when user journeys are complex or when the site has to convert visitors into enquiries or sales. A small consultancy with a clear offer may be well served by a carefully adapted theme. If your brand identity also needs work, decide that first; our article on brand refresh vs rebrand helps you choose the right scope.
How much does WordPress hosting cost?
WordPress website hosting cost depends on the type of hosting and on what your site needs from it. There are four main options:
- Shared hosting: the cheapest tier. Suitable for small sites with modest traffic, but resources are shared with other sites, so performance can vary.
- Managed WordPress hosting: costs more, and includes WordPress-specific caching, automatic backups, staging environments and security monitoring. Often the best value for business sites.
- VPS or cloud hosting: dedicated resources that scale, for high traffic, heavy media or custom server configuration. It needs technical management.
- Dedicated infrastructure: for large platforms with strict performance, security or compliance requirements.
Read the renewal price, not only the introductory offer. Many providers advertise a discounted first term and renew at a significantly higher monthly rate.
Also budget for the domain name, SSL certificates where not included, backups, a CDN, email hosting and premium security services. Expensive hosting is not automatically better: the right tier follows traffic, media weight, security and technical complexity. The JustMarriedBooth website, a cinematic site with full-screen video and 3D built with GSAP and Three.js, runs on Google Cloud for that reason; a ten-page corporate site does not need the same set-up.
How much does WordPress website maintenance cost?
WordPress website maintenance cost depends on the site's complexity and the support level you need. Routine maintenance covers:
- WordPress core, theme and plugin updates
- Security monitoring and backups
- Performance monitoring
- Compatibility testing after updates
- Bug fixes and technical support
Keep maintenance separate from new features, redesigns and content updates. Maintenance keeps the site secure and stable; improvements extend what it does and should be planned as their own work.
What are the hidden costs of building a WordPress website?
The quotation for the build is rarely the full cost of a WordPress website. Items businesses often overlook:
- Premium themes and plugins, and their annual licence renewals
- Content creation and copywriting
- Photography and video
- Translation and multilingual setup
- Third-party integrations and their subscriptions
- Security and backup services
- SEO services after launch
- Future improvements
- Website migration from an existing platform
Evaluate the total cost of ownership over the life of the site, not just the launch budget. On plugins, our approach is to use free plugins or licences we already hold, and to tell clients in advance if a project requires a paid one.
Is it cheaper to build a WordPress website yourself or hire an agency?
The cost to build a website on WordPress yourself is lower in cash terms, but not necessarily in total.
- DIY development: the lowest direct cost, but it takes time, technical knowledge and ongoing responsibility for updates and security. Reasonable for a personal project or a first site with simple needs.
- Freelance development: suitable for many smaller projects. Costs and capabilities depend on the individual, and you coordinate design, content and testing yourself.
- Professional WordPress agency: design, development, testing and often SEO handled by one coordinated team, with one point of accountability.
The right choice depends on the site's complexity, its importance to your business and your internal resources. At Morpheon, each project is led by a dedicated contact supported by designers and developers. For JustMarriedBooth in Paris, we delivered the booth application and the cinematic WordPress website that sells the experience, as described in the JustMarriedBooth case study.
WordPress vs custom website development: Which is more cost-effective?
WordPress suits corporate websites, content-driven websites, blogs, marketing websites and many e-commerce projects through WooCommerce. Récif'All in Switzerland is one example: our e-commerce work for the brand included multilingual WordPress development in French, English and German with an interactive 3D integration.
Custom web development makes more sense for products with highly specialised workflows, application-like functionality or an architecture that does not fit WordPress well, such as a marketplace or a SaaS platform.
The two are not mutually exclusive. A WordPress website can involve extensive custom development, and a custom platform can sit alongside a WordPress marketing site. The choice is about what the website has to do, not the label.
How do you get an accurate WordPress website quotation?
A clear scope makes quotations accurate and comparable. Before contacting an agency, prepare:
- Business objectives: what the site should achieve and how you will measure it
- Approximate number of pages and the main page types
- Required functionality: forms, booking, shop, member areas
- Design expectations: adapted theme or bespoke design, with reference sites
- Multilingual requirements
- Content availability: who writes, photographs and translates
- Integrations: CRM, ERP, payment, newsletter
- SEO requirements, including any existing rankings to protect
- Expected timeline
- Available budget, even as a range
If you are replacing an existing site, add its traffic and the pages that perform well, so the website redesign protects them. Not sure whether you need a new site yet? Read when to redesign your website first.
When quotations differ widely, check whether each covers the same design phase, templates, content entry, testing and SEO. A lower figure often means a narrower scope.
Frequently asked questions
Is WordPress free to use?
Yes. The WordPress software from WordPress.org is open source and free to download and use. A website built with it still has costs: a domain, hosting, and usually a theme, plugins, design and development. Maintenance and security updates are ongoing. WordPress.com is a separate hosted service with its own paid plans.
How much does a small business WordPress website cost?
A professionally built small business WordPress website typically costs €1,500–€5,000 when based on an adapted theme, and €5,000–€15,000 with a custom design. The main variables are the number of unique page templates, the functionality required, multilingual needs and whether content is ready. Hosting and maintenance come on top.
How much does a custom WordPress website cost?
A custom WordPress website usually costs €5,000–€15,000, and more complex builds with integrations, multilingual content or e-commerce often exceed €15,000. The budget covers discovery, UX/UI design, custom templates, responsive development, performance optimisation and testing. The more custom functionality you need, the higher the cost.
How much does WordPress hosting cost per month?
It depends on the tier. Shared hosting is the cheapest and suits small sites. Managed WordPress hosting costs more but includes caching, backups and security. Cloud, VPS and dedicated infrastructure cost the most and suit high-traffic or demanding sites. Compare renewal prices, not introductory offers.
Is WordPress suitable for large corporate websites?
Yes, when it is planned properly. Large WordPress sites need a sound content architecture, carefully chosen plugins, appropriate hosting, a staging environment and a maintenance plan. Suitability depends on requirements: content-heavy corporate and institutional sites fit well, while application-like workflows may call for custom development.
How long does it take to build a WordPress website?
A template-based site typically takes two to six weeks. A custom WordPress website usually takes two to four months, including design. Complex projects with integrations, multilingual content or e-commerce can take four to six months or more. Content readiness is often the deciding factor.
Planning a WordPress website?
Whether you’re launching a new website or replacing an outdated one, the right approach depends on your business objectives, design requirements and technical needs. At Morpheon, we create custom WordPress websites combining thoughtful design, reliable development and performance optimisation.
