Free hosting exists. Cloudflare Pages has a Free plan with 500 builds a month and up to 20,000 files per site (Cloudflare, 2026). It suits a plain portfolio. It does not run WordPress. A VPS (a slice of a server you manage) starts at $4 a month on DigitalOcean for 512 MiB of RAM. Our cheap VPS hosting guide compares plans.
How much does a website cost on Squarespace?
Squarespace Basic costs $19 a month on a yearly plan, which is $228 a year. Core is $29 a month (Website Builder Expert, September 2026). Squarespace's own page showed rupees when we checked, so confirm the US price at checkout.
Wix lists Light at $17.77 a month and Core at $29.77 a month on yearly billing (Wix, 2026). Wix also has a $0 Free plan. A builder plan covers hosting, so you buy no separate server. Squarespace Basic adds a 2% fee on store sales (Squarespace, 2026).
Shopify Basic is $29 a month on yearly billing and $39 on monthly billing (Shopify, 2026). Shopify's own article puts prebuilt themes at $0 to $500. For a full comparison of the two big builders, read Squarespace vs Wix.
How much does a freelance website cost?
No named survey gives one price for a freelance website, so we only quote hourly rates. Clutch lists $25 to $49 an hour for website-builder specialists (Wix, WordPress, Squarespace, Webflow, Shopify) and $100 to $149 an hour for typical US, Canadian and Australian agencies (Clutch, 2026). UK firms list $50 to $99. Firms in India and the Philippines list under $25.
How much does it cost for a freelancer to build a website? Take a simple five-page site. If it takes 20 hours, which is our assumption and not survey data, the design fee is $500 to $980 at $25 to $49 an hour. Ask for a fixed quote and a list of what is included.
Clutch reports an average web design project of $38,105.39. That number covers projects of all sizes and includes a few very large ones. Clutch says most projects cost under $10,000. Do not use the average as a budget for a small site. We did not use flat agency prices from blog posts, because they do not name a survey. Treat any agency price for a small site as unverified until you hold a written quote.
How much does a website cost to maintain?
If you do the work, upkeep costs the renewals, any paid add-ons, and a few hours a month. WordPress is free software, and so is WooCommerce. Yoast SEO has a free version. Paid add-ons are optional.
Yoast SEO Premium costs $118.80 a year, billed annually, before tax (Yoast, 2026). Shopify apps charge a monthly fee, and we did not verify any app price. Business email is separate. Google Workspace Business Starter lists $7 per user per month on its annual plan, or $84 a year for one user (Google, 2026). Its flexible plan is $8.40.
Website maintenance cost for a small business rises if you hand updates to a freelancer. Say you pay for 2 hours a month. That is 24 hours a year. At $25 to $49 an hour, the bill is $600 to $1,176 a year. Both the hours and the rate range are examples, not a quote.
SEO costs depend on what you buy. Your own time and free tools cost nothing. We found no named survey for monthly SEO agency fees, so we leave that price out.
Hostinger as one hosting option
Hostinger sells shared hosting, WordPress hosting and VPS plans. Its Premium plan allows 3 websites and costs $1.99 a month on a 48-month term, which is $95.52 at checkout. It renews at $10.99 a month (Hostinger, 2026). Premium includes a domain free for 1 year and 2 mailboxes free for 1 year.
Unlimited costs $2.79 a month on 48 months, which is $133.92. It renews at $16.99 a month. Hostinger's WooCommerce page lists Unlimited as the starting plan for a store. The renewal price is higher, so check it before you buy. A 48-month Premium renewal at $10.99 a month is $527.52.
Hostinger is a good fit if you want the lowest first price and can commit for four years. It is the wrong choice in three cases. You may want month-to-month billing, because the plan cards we read show only the 48-month price. You may want the host to handle updates, which these shared plans do not promise. Or you may want a plain builder, where Wix or Squarespace is simpler. Bluehost Starter renews at $9.99 a month, which is below Hostinger Premium at $10.99.
If you want to look at current plans, see Hostinger's hosting page.
Hosting option for this guide
Disclosure: this link is an affiliate link. Tutorsbot may earn a commission if you buy, at no extra cost to you.
Who should not follow the cheapest route?
Do not buy a 48-month plan if you are unsure the business will last four years. Pick a monthly builder plan and stop any time.
Do not pick WordPress if nobody will update it. Old plugins are a risk, and a builder removes that work. Do not build a custom app when a $29 store plan does the job.
Free app plans have limits. Supabase Free pauses a project after 1 week of inactivity and includes 500 MB of database (Supabase, 2026). Check the terms of Vercel's Hobby plan before you take paying customers on it, because we did not verify its rules. Plan for the paid tier once real users arrive.
Last, hire help for the parts that cost you sales: product photos, page copy and checkout set-up. A cheap site with weak pages earns less than a plain site with clear ones.
Photo: Direct URL (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/Laptop_computer.jpg?width=1200) — verify license before use
Fazlur Rahman
