What a Website Really Costs
A basic website costs the sum of a domain registration, a hosting plan, and optionally a professional email service, renewed annually. The first-year total is almost always lower than subsequent years because hosting introductory pricing expires and renewal rates apply. The calculator on this page lets you enter your real line items and see the honest multi-year total.
Total over
That is a month on average, against an intro price of .
- Year 1the year the advert is about
- Three years
- Five years
- The intro price is this much of the total of billed at the promo rate
- Renewal price, as a multiple
Year 2 costs more than year 1. That is the renewal, not a price rise — it was in the terms when you signed up.
Totals assume the renewal price holds and no plan change. Hosts do raise renewal prices between terms, so treat this as the floor of what the years ahead cost, not a quote.
Effective monthly
Monthly jump at renewal
Hosting, over the term
Domain + mailboxes
Year by year
| Year | Hosting | Domain | Mailboxes | Year total | Running total |
|---|
Swipe the table sideways to see every column.
The Line Items Most People Miss
Domain registration is a yearly fee. It is the smallest recurring cost and the most predictable. Hosting is the largest variable: shared plans start low but renewal rates can run two to four times the introductory figure. The renewal trap catches site owners who budget only for year one.
SSL certificates for basic domain validation are available at no cost from Let's Encrypt, a nonprofit certificate authority. You only pay for SSL if you need organisation validation or extended validation, which display your legal entity name in the certificate and are relevant for institutions that want visible trust indicators. Most small businesses and personal sites never need a paid certificate.
Professional email on your domain is a separate service. Free options exist with usage limits; paid plans charge per mailbox per month. Over three years, email can cost more than hosting if you have multiple team members. Factor it in from the start.
First-Year Price vs Real Annual Cost
Hosting providers price aggressively for the first term. A plan that appears to cost one amount per month during the sign-up period will cost two to four times that when the introductory window closes. The longer the initial commitment, typically 12 or 36 months, the lower the per-month rate looks, but it locks you in before you know whether the service meets your needs.
Maintenance costs accumulate quietly. WordPress theme and plugin updates, security monitoring, content backups, and occasional troubleshooting require either your time or a professional's fee. A site that is set up and never maintained becomes a security risk within months.
The calculator on this page breaks the total into domain, hosting (intro and renewal), email, SSL, and maintenance. Enter your specific figures and it returns a one-year, three-year, and five-year projection. Compare it against a website builder scenario to see which approach costs less over your intended timeframe. The numbers often surprise people.
Prices vary by provider and change at renewal. Always check the current renewal rate on the provider's checkout page, not the promotional banner, before committing.
Next in this cluster
Related guides and tools
Sources
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Renewal-to-intro pricing multipliers documented across hosting community forums (2024-2026). Let's Encrypt free DV certificates per letsencrypt.org. Domain registration as annual cost per ICANN registrar standards.
- Every figure in the calculators on this site is typed in by you. No price, allowance or renewal rate is stored in the page.