The Real Cost of "Free"

"Free" is the most expensive word in web development.

WordPress is free to download. That's true, and it's one of the reasons it powers such a large share of the web. But the download is where "free" ends. The ongoing cost of running a WordPress site properly is something most business owners don't find out about until they're already committed.

This isn't a complaint about WordPress. It's a practical guide to what a typical SME site actually costs per year, so there aren't any surprises.

The annual costs most people don't budget for

Premium plugin licences. Most of the plugins that make WordPress usable for a business site aren't free. Yoast SEO Premium, WP Rocket, Gravity Forms, Wordfence Premium, a cookie consent plugin with Consent Mode v2 support. Each one typically costs between £50 and £150 per year. A site running five or six premium plugins can easily hit £400 to £700 annually in licence renewals alone.

Managed hosting. Budget shared hosting might work for a personal blog, but a business site needs managed WordPress hosting for acceptable performance and security. That typically runs between £150 and £400 per year depending on the provider and the traffic level. Cheaper hosting creates its own problems: slower load times, limited support, and a higher risk of downtime.

Quarterly updates. WordPress core, your theme, and every plugin need updating regularly. Updates aren't just about new features. They patch security vulnerabilities and fix compatibility issues. But any update can break something. A plugin update might conflict with another plugin or with the theme. A core update might break a plugin that hasn't been updated to match. This means someone needs to run the updates, test the site afterwards, and fix anything that's broken. If you're paying a developer to do this quarterly, budget £200 to £500 per year depending on the site's complexity.

Security monitoring. WordPress is the most attacked CMS on the internet, and small business sites are targeted just as often as large ones. At minimum, you need a security plugin monitoring for malware, brute-force attempts, and file changes. If something goes wrong, you need someone who can respond. A basic security retainer or monitoring service runs £100 to £300 per year. Recovering from an actual breach costs significantly more.

Developer time for troubleshooting. This is the hidden cost. A plugin conflict after an update. A form that stops sending emails. A page that suddenly loads slowly. A widget that looks fine on desktop but breaks on mobile after a theme update. None of these are big jobs individually, but they happen regularly enough that most WordPress site owners end up paying for ad-hoc developer time several times a year. Budget at least £200 to £400 for the inevitable.

Adding it up

A rough annual total for a properly maintained WordPress business site:

• Plugin licences: £400 to £700
• Managed hosting: £150 to £400
• Quarterly updates: £200 to £500
• Security monitoring: £100 to £300
• Ad-hoc troubleshooting: £200 to £400

That's roughly £1,050 to £2,300 per year to keep a WordPress site running properly. And that's before any new content, design changes, or feature additions.

These numbers aren't inflated. They're based on what we actually see across the WordPress sites we maintain. Some sites cost less, some cost more. But the point is that "free to download" doesn't mean "cheap to run."

What a lighter platform costs to maintain

On a platform where SEO, security, caching, forms, cookie consent, and redirects are all built into the core, a significant chunk of that annual overhead disappears. There are no plugin licences to renew. No plugin conflicts to troubleshoot. No quarterly update cycle where seven separate components each need testing against each other.

The hosting still costs money. The content still needs managing. But the platform itself requires less intervention because there are fewer moving parts. Our CMS demo at ilovemotley.co.uk/cms shows what this looks like in practice.

That doesn't mean the right answer is always a different platform. A properly maintained WordPress site is far better than an abandoned one, and for some projects WordPress genuinely is the best fit. The important thing is going in with your eyes open about what "properly maintained" actually costs.

The maintenance conversation

The reason this matters is that ongoing maintenance isn't optional. An unmaintained WordPress site is a security risk, a performance problem, and eventually a compliance liability. Plugin vulnerabilities get exploited. Outdated PHP versions lose support. Cookie consent rules change and the plugin you installed two years ago hasn't kept up.

If your current developer or agency isn't offering a maintenance plan, that's a question worth asking. And if you're budgeting for a new site, make sure the annual running cost is part of the conversation from the start, not a surprise six months after launch.

If you're not sure what your site actually costs to maintain, or if you're paying for maintenance and not sure what you're getting, get in touch. We're happy to take a look and give you an honest picture. You can also see how we approach web projects and what ongoing support looks like.