When estimating the cost of building a WordPress website, the initial expenses often receive the most attention. These include essential steps like securing a domain name, getting hosting and paying for the website to be created. However, it’s important to keep in mind that the expenses don’t stop once your website is live. Considering the ongoing costs is just as important to avoid unexpected financial surprises down the line. WordPress itself is a free content management system (CMS), but building a site on this platform can still become costly. The extensive customisation options contribute to this. Additionally, various services necessary for running a website, such as hosting and security, can quickly add to the ongoing costs. Think of maintaining a WordPress site like maintaining a vehicle. Beyond the initial purchase, regular servicing is required to keep it running smoothly. Similarly, if you want your website to remain healthy and functional over time, ongoing care and investment are the key. So, what is the WordPress Maintenance Price for 2024?
Hosting
When considering the costs of hosting your WordPress website, it’s important to recognise that prices can vary widely based on your specific needs. Generally, shared hosting is the most affordable option, starting at £5-£10 per month. This is suitable for smaller sites with low traffic. For larger websites, a VPS (Virtual Private Server) hosting might be necessary, which can range from £20 to £80 per month. For the most robust performance, dedicated hosting can cost anywhere from £80 to several hundred dollars per month.
Potential cost: approx £170 per year
Backups as part of WordPress Maintenance Price for 2024
Website backups make sure if something happens to your site, you can get a copy of it back up and running in no time. A great way to do this is to set up an automated backup as this greatly reduces the amount of work involved. We recommend backing up your website depending on how often update the content in it. If you have a blog or e-commerce it is essential that you run daily updates. This will ensure you’re not missing any orders, blog posts etc.
Potential cost: BlogVault WordPress backup plugin – charged at approx. £80 per year
Security Plugins
Investing in security plugins as part of your WordPress maintenance 2024 is crucial to protect against threats and vulnerabilities. The costs for these plugins can vary based on the level of protection and features you need. Basic security plugins, which offer essential protection, can be free or range from £20 to £50 per year. For more comprehensive security solutions, premium plugins typically cost between £50 and £200 annually. These advanced options often include features such as real-time threat detection, malware scanning, firewall protection, and regular security audits. Ensuring your site’s security is paramount, so it’s wise to allocate a portion of your budget to a reliable security plugin that meets your needs.
Potantial cost: £50-£200 per year
Spam protection
Unfortunately, spam is a common issue for many website owners. Removing spam comments is crucial to maintain a professional appearance and protect your site’s credibility. Utilising a spam filtering plugin can simplify this task. These tools screen comments before they appear on your site, significantly reducing the time needed to delete unwanted content.
Potential pricing: Akismet charged at approx £108 per year
Updating Plugins
Very manual work requiring the whole website to be quality checked to make sure customers do not experience any unexpected bugs. You’re likely to spend at least 5-6 hours a month doing regular maintenance tasks such as performing updates, writing or producing new content, and updating some of the information there. And this doesn’t include any of the above-mentioned BAU WordPress tasks. That is why it is very common for website owners to hire a developer to perform those updates as they might cause a non-technical person a headache.
Whether you’re a business owner or a venturer managing a blog alongside a full-time job, you likely have countless other responsibilities demanding your attention. Although learning a new skill can be fulfilling, it’s crucial to consider the time and financial investment required when deciding whether to pursue it.
In summary, what is the WordPress Maintenance Price for 2024?
There are some benefits to managing your own website, especially if you are technically gifted. This might end up costing you as a business owner just around £400 yearly. However, for the average business owner, most of the tasks mentioned above might not be worth their precious time, which is why hiring a developer is a very good idea. For the sake of comparison our maintenance prices start at just £20 per month and give you the flexibility to upgrade to a higher package at any time. This might end up saving you a lot of money in the long run especially if you are planning to grow.
Whether you opt in for a maintenance package or not learning how to perform at least some of the tasks might end up saving you a lot of money.
If you would like a personalised quote on our affordable maintenance packages make sure to contact us. 🙂