Your own website is not just 'a place on the internet'. For a small brand, studio, photographer, creator, service provider, or online store, it can be one of the most important customer touchpoints.
It's where someone first checks if your brand looks professional. If it inspires trust. If it clearly states what you do. If it facilitates the decision to collaborate or make a purchase.
WordPress remains one of the most popular systems for building websites. The system itself is free and open source, but in practice, a website based on your own WordPress requires several constant elements: hosting, a domain, a theme/template, sometimes paid plugins, and—most often—the work of someone who can help plan, design, and implement it all effectively.
How much does a WordPress website cost?
HOSTING
Hosting is where your website is stored—files, photos, content, database.
For a simple business card website, hosting costs can be relatively low, but for a more extensive site, blog, store, or a site with many photos, it's worth looking beyond just the price. Speed, security, backups, and support quality also matter.
The cheapest hosting might be enough to start, but if the website is an important sales tool, it's better to treat it as an element of your brand's infrastructure, not a place to seek the greatest savings. The hosting I personally use and recommend to my clients is Hash Magnet*
DOMAIN
A domain is your website's address, e.g., yourbrandname.pl or yourbrandname.com.
Its cost depends on the operator, the extension, and renewal terms. It's worth paying attention not only to the first-year price but primarily to the renewal cost, as these fees can vary depending on the registrar. It's most convenient to buy a domain in the same place as hosting*. Often, buying them as a bundle is financially beneficial. A domain with a .pl extension can usually be purchased for as little as a dozen zlotys per year.
WORDPRESS
WordPress itself is free. However, you pay for everything needed around it: hosting, domain, paid plugins, theme, security, updates, configuration, and design.
WordPress offers great flexibility, but you need to take care of updates, security, and the technical condition of the site.
Theme, design, and implementation
You can start with a ready-made theme, but for a brand that wants to look professional and cohesive, a template alone is rarely enough.
A website should stem from the brand's identity: its style, communication, offer, and customer journey. Therefore, the biggest cost of a website is often not the technology, but a well-thought-out design: structure, content, visual direction, user experience, and implementation.
However, if we look strictly at technical costs, a ready-made theme is usually an expense of around $50–100 (approx. PLN 200–400) for a one-time license. Sometimes there are also fees for extending support or updates.
The problem with themes, however, is not their price, but their limitations. A ready-made template is designed 'for everyone,' so it's inherently not perfectly suited to any specific brand. This often leads to workarounds, circumventing limitations, and trying to adapt the business to the website layout, instead of the other way around.
At Krysztofiak Studio, we don't work with ready-made themes. We build websites from scratch for a specific brand and its needs, using the Divi Builder*.
For our clients, this does not mean additional costs. We work on a developer license, so access to the tool is included in the collaboration price.
If, however, you want to build a website yourself, access to Divi* costs:
- approx. $89 annually or
- approx. $249 one-time (lifetime)
The advantage of this approach over a ready-made theme is primarily flexibility. It doesn't confine you to a predetermined layout. You can create exactly the structure your offer needs, adapt the site to the customer journey, and develop it with your brand without having to rebuild everything from scratch.
Summary
Running a WordPress website can cost little if you want to do it yourself. However, if it is to be part of a professional image and a real sales tool, it's worth treating it as an investment in your brand.
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