How much does it cost to build a WordPress website?

A question often asked by novice users is: “Do I need to pay to use WordPress?” We will tell them that WordPress is free and open source software, and then novice will ask: “Why is WordPress free?”

In this article, we will discuss why WordPress is free and how much does it cost to set up a WordPress?

WordPress is open-source software, which is free at the level of free use, but it does not mean that using WordPress is completely free. You may ask what exactly does this mean?

Open source software itself is free to use, modify, build, and redistribute software at will without paying a penny.

However, there may be something to pay for elsewhere. Later in the article, we’ll discuss what it costs to use the open source WordPress software.

Why don’t they sell WordPress as software?

We’re often asked why the people or companies behind WordPress don’t sell it as a product. If WordPress is as good as everyone says it is, they’re sure to make a ton of money off of it.

If WordPress is developed by a company or an individual, then the above remarks may still make sense.

WordPress is an open-source community project, and countless programmers have made continuous contributions to make WordPress such a powerful software.

Project development is mainly led by a core development team, but anyone can submit code, fix problems, add features, suggest features, and more.

Not only that, but different versions may have different project leaders. If you are deeply involved in the community, you also have the opportunity to become a core contributor to WordPress.

The philosophy behind open source software

The idea behind the open source software movement is that software, unlike other tangible products, once developed, can be copied into more copies at enormous cost.

Let’s take a toy factory as an example. Every toy has many different parts, and each part has a cost. The factory can determine a reasonable profit margin for the product by calculating the production cost of these parts.

However, the cost of developing software is not the same as copying software. Some people think that as the software continues to be sold, the profit of the software becomes unfair.

How do people make money with WordPress?

The two main profit points of any open-source software are the products and services derived from the same open-source software.

People often confuse WordPress and WordPress.com, but they are really two different things. WordPress (often referred to as self-hosted WordPress or WordPress.org) is a free blogging platform and website builder.

WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg has a company called Automattic that offers free “feature-limited” blog hosting on WordPress.com, with paid upgrades that unlock premium features and remove ads.

Then, to get a full-featured WordPress experience on the WordPress.com platform, you need to sign up for their WordPress VIP service. The service costs $5,000 per month plus a one-time setup fee of $5,000.

Automattic has raised $317.3 million through seven rounds of funding. Their most recent financing was a venture capital investment on January 1, 2015. ( data source )

Other developers have also built multi-million dollar businesses based on WordPress, developing commercial paid plugins, and paid themes, and even offering WordPress hosting services.

Here are some success stories from million-dollar WordPress companies:

• WPEngine – A WordPress hosting company that has raised $290 million and also has a StudioPress business theme.
• Awesome Motive – Another million-dollar company based on the WordPress business started by Syed Balkhi. The company manages WPBeginner, OptinMonster, WPForms, MonsterInsights, SeedProd, and other popular WordPress plugins.
• Yoast – The company behind the WordPress SEO plugin used by 5 million websites.
• ElegantThemes – The company behind the famous drag-and-drop page builder Divi, they have a lot of other plugins too.

Good WordPress developers and consultants can also earn a decent full-time income by building custom WordPress-based websites, apps, and plugins for their clients. Many of them make more than six figures a year.

Is WordPress copyright protected?

Yes. It’s licensed in a way that allows everyone to use it, but every contribution to the software is copyrighted.

WordPress is released under the GPL agreement, so you are free to use, modify and redistribute its code. You own the copyright to the code that you make modifications to the software yourself, but not all the code.

The GPL requires you to abide by the GPL agreement when publishing or distributing any derivative works. You have the right to do whatever you want, and your derivative works will automatically inherit the GPL agreement, so others can use, modify and redistribute your code in any way they choose.

Does that mean that all premium WordPress themes and plugins must comply with the GPL?

According to an official post by WordPress.org, themes are also subject to the GPL. Images, CSS, and Javascript used in themes and plugins can be excluded, but all PHP and HTML files basically use WordPress functions, so they are also derivatives and must also comply with the GPL.

While some people disagree with this, most trustworthy WordPress businesses follow and abide by the Community Guidelines.

Content published with WordPress also integrates GPL.

No, you have the right to license your content however you like. Unless what you post is actually a derivative of WordPress or any other GPL-based work.

For example, if you share your articles, photos, or other creations on your blog, then you own full copyright to that content.

However, if you are writing an article that teaches people how to use WordPress features, with examples, then the permission of this blog is a bit different. The code used in the examples is actually a derivative work, so it should automatically inherit the GPL license.

WordPress Registered Trademark

The code of the WordPress software is released under the GPL agreement, but the words WordPress, WordCamp, and the WordPress logo are registered trademarks owned by the WordPress organization.

To distinguish official or community-run sites or resources, the WordPress organization asks users not to use the word “WordPress” in their domain names.

So that’s why our website is called WPxiaobai, not WordPressxiaobai. Any website, training course, or resource you see with WordPress in the domain name is basically run by someone who doesn’t know much about WordPress.

Most WordPress-based businesses are aware of the trademark policy and respect the terms.

The cost of using WordPress

As software, WordPress is free to download and use. However, to use WordPress on the web, you also need WordPress hosting.

You can try out WordPress.com to start a free blog, but it’s still a lot different than self-hosted WordPress.

The cost of using WordPress is relatively low, and it is suitable for running any other type of website. The only real costs are web hosting and domain names. Taking Baidu cloud service as an example, the annual cost of a .com domain name is about 60 yuan, and the monthly cost of a single-core 1GB memory 1M bandwidth VPS host is 70 yuan, which is less than 1,000 yuan a year. If you use cloud virtual hosting, the price will be cheaper. A cloud virtual host with 1GB memory and 2M bandwidth costs 599 a year.

Related recommendation: How to build WordPress on a blank VPS in 15 minutes

Other costs may be commercial WordPress themes, also known as premium WordPress themes. However, this is not necessary, because WordPress has more than 6,000 free themes that can be used.

People often use paid plugins, but it doesn’t have to cost as WordPress has over 54,000 free plugins available.

Hopefully, this article has answered your questions about WordPress licensing, how much it costs to run a WordPress site, and some of the businesses that revolve around WordPress.