WordPress pricing: Should I opt for Free, Personal, Business or beyond?

WordPress offers a variety of pricing plans, starting with a free option. Pricing gradually increases in line with the number of features, until it reaches beyond the everyday and enters Enterprise territory for the serious big-time users.

This means WordPress has a hosting plan to suit all budgets and needs, and the Free option is ideal for those looking to get an online presence quickly. Alternatively, you can use it as a test bed to try new features or even to improve your WordPress skills.

However, those wanting to move up to the next level and produce a professional-looking website that’s free of ads will need to invest in one the five paid plans, all of which offer something a little different. So which option is best for you? Here, we help you make the right choice.

WordPress pricing: What makes WordPress a good choice?

WordPress is one of the biggest CMSes on the planet, and is the basis for more than 40 million websites. The latest version, WordPress 6, is a power-packed website builder that can be extended, upgraded and enhanced to put together a site that works well for startups and singletons, right through to online stores and big business.

As a fully fledged content management system, WordPress contains all you need to build a contemporary website. Using its advanced Gutenberg editor, each piece of content (text, list, images and so on) is placed in its own block, allowing it to be reordered and reformatted to produce a new layout in seconds. A gentle learning curve means you’ll be producing seriously good-looking and functional sites in no time at all.

Alongside a sophisticated, easy-to-learn CMS, you also get access to a huge ecosystem of plugins and themes. Install a new theme and you can change the design and layout of a site in seconds. Then you can tweak and customise it until you get exactly what you want. Need a new feature or extra functionality? Then visit the WordPress plugin directory and you can choose from nearly 60,000 plugins. Improve your site’s SEO, add an online store, speed up page loading, introduce a stylish image gallery, integrate interactive maps and much more. If there’s something you want to add, you’re sure to find a plugin for it.

WordPress hosting plans offer competitively priced options for whatever type of site you’re looking to create. And the best bit is they’re set up to work with WordPress, so you know they will come with the right back-end to enable you to get the best from the CMS.

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WordPress pricing: How much does it cost?

WordPress pricing starts at the lowest point possible – nothing at all. To use the Free tier, no money will need to change hands to get yourself a WordPress-based website that’s hosted on the WordPress servers.

While the free plan offers a great starting point for newcomers, you‘ll need to upgrade to the Personal or Premium plan if you want to be taken seriously. Prices for the Personal plan start at a mere £3/mth, while the Premium plan is yours for £7/mth – both if paid annually. Pay monthly and you’ll be shelling out £8/mth and £17/mth respectively. A key difference between the two is that the Premium plan offers more than double the storage space.

If you’re a developer, or want more storage space, the Business plan is a good choice. This unlocks installation of plugins and themes; but it’s nearly three times the price of the Premium plan at £20/mth. Those looking for an integrated ecommerce solution will definitely want to be investing in the Commerce plan, which offers everything you’ll need – but will cost you £36/mth.

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WordPress pricing: What WordPress plan do I need?

Here we take a closer look at the four main paid plans and what they have to offer. For more information on the Free plan, check “What are the pros and cons of the WordPress Free hosting plan?” below.

WordPress Personal: £3/mth (paid annually) / £8/mth (paid monthly

This plan is ideal for a landing page, brochure site, brand portfolio or a small blog that doesn’t include very many images or videos. It comes with a free custom domain to promote your brand, and the 6GB storage limit will be sufficient for text-based content with optimised images. But, support is only available via email, and there’s no real-time backup feature or access to developer tools.

WordPress Premium: £7/mth (paid annually) / £17/mth (paid monthly)

Premium is similar to the Personal plan, but with a few added extras – specifically, more storage space. You get more than double the amount at 13GB, which makes this plan ideal for those blogs and websites that are regularly updated and heavy on images. You get access to premium themes if you want to change the design of your site quickly, plus support over live chat.

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WordPress Business: £20/mth (paid annually) / £32/mth (paid monthly)

This plan has all the features of the Personal and Premium plan but with 50GB of storage, access to plugins, premium themes, real-time backups, plugin auto-updates, developer tools and ecommerce options via free and paid plugins that you install yourself. The extra storage and features makes this an ideal option for any type of site that doesn’t need extensive ecommerce solutions.

WordPress Commerce: £36/mth (paid annually) / £55/mth (paid monthly)

This is the perfect plan for those who want to jump straight into a ready-to-go ecommerce solution. You get all the features and options of Personal, Premium and Business, alongside a host of ecommerce solutions, which include premium store themes, store design tools, unlimited products and integrations with top shipping carriers.

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WordPress pricing: What are the pros and cons of the WordPress Free hosting plan?

The most obvious advantage of the Free hosting plan is that it’s free and it doesn’t come with an expiration date, which means you can build a website and it will be yours forever. This makes it an ideal choice for a landing page, a simple site that gives out basic information about you or your brand, or a place to play and learn WordPress before you upgrade to another plan.

However, while it’s a fast and convenient starting point for getting online, the Free plan doesn’t include a lot of the elements that make a website look professional. For example, there’s no custom domain name; you’ll have to make do with a subdomain that includes wordpress.com in the URL. This is neither a good starting point if you’re trying to establish a brand, nor is it great for SEO.

Storage is limited to 1GB, which you’ll make your way through super quickly if posting regularly. There’s no access to Premium themes and style customisation, either, which can give a site a real smart look. Nor do you have real-time backup, so you’ll need to do this manually. Plus, there’s a distinct lack of marketing, growth and ecommerce tools and options, and you’ll have no control over the WordPress advertising that will automatically appear across your site.