Hosting is only ~20% of the real bill. This calculator adds premium plugins, backups, security, your time, and the emergencies that always come. Built by an agency that runs weekly maintenance on 150+ WordPress sites — so the numbers match what we actually see, not what a host's landing page claims.
You + shared/VPS host
$8,193
over 3 years
≈ $228/mo effective
Kinsta / WP Engine + you
$5,327
over 3 years
≈ $148/mo effective
WebCare Studios plan
$3,934
over 3 years
≈ $109/mo effective
Cheapest for your inputs
Done-for-you saves you $4,259 over 3 years vs DIY.
That's before you count the time you get back or the outages you don't have to think about.
| Line item | Year 1 | 3-yr total |
|---|---|---|
Hosting Bluehost, SiteGround entry, Hostinger | $138 | $414 |
Premium plugins & licences Backup, security, forms, SEO | $308 | $924 |
Off-site backups | $90 | $270 |
Security & malware scan | $120 | $360 |
Your time (36 hrs/yr @ $50) Updates, testing, break-fix | $1,800 | $5,400 |
Emergency recovery (1/yr) Freelancer or agency call-out | $275 | $825 |
| Total | — | $8,193 |
| Line item | Year 1 | 3-yr total |
|---|---|---|
Managed hosting (bundled backups + security) Kinsta / WP Engine / Flywheel | $480 | $1,440 |
Premium plugins & licences Some CDN/backup bundled | $216 | $647 |
Your time (22 hrs/yr @ $50) Updates + content changes | $1,080 | $3,240 |
Emergency recovery (0/yr) Host support covers infra; plugin conflicts still on you | $0 | $0 |
| Total | — | $5,327 |
| Line item | Year 1 | 3-yr total |
|---|---|---|
WebCare Studios plan Hosting, updates, backups, security, edits | $1,188 | $3,564 |
Any premium plugins you own Core stack is bundled | $123 | $370 |
Your time Zero — you email us, we fix it | $0 | $0 |
Emergency recovery Included in plan | $0 | $0 |
| Total | — | $3,934 |
Estimates use published 2026 pricing from Bluehost, SiteGround, Hostinger, Cloudways, Kinsta, WP Engine and Flywheel plus average premium-plugin renewals. Your mileage varies with plugin count, traffic, and how much dev time your site actually needs.
Published 2026 pricing for a small business site (one install, single region). Renewal price shown, not intro rate. Hidden costs = the extras a bare host doesn't include but you need anyway.
Choice Plus (renewal)
Basic hosting only. Email extra ($36/yr), no daily backups, no WAF.
+$2,900 more than our done-for-you over 3 yrs
Business WP (renewal)
Cheap host, no bundled security/WAF, weekly backups only.
+$3,008 more than our done-for-you over 3 yrs
GrowBig (renewal)
Daily backups + basic WAF included. Plugin costs still on you.
+$1,643 more than our done-for-you over 3 yrs
Starter
Bundled backups, staging, CDN, uptime monitoring. Managed WP.
+$926 more than our done-for-you over 3 yrs
Startup
Bundled backups + Genesis themes. Higher renewals than Kinsta.
+$866 more than our done-for-you over 3 yrs
Care ($99/mo)
Hosting, backups, updates, security, edits, uptime — all included. Zero hours from you.
Prices reflect published 2026 renewal rates and public reviews. "Hidden costs" = premium plugins, off-site backups, WAF, and 3 hrs/mo of admin time at $50/hr — the stuff a bare host doesn't include but every real site needs.
Pulled from published 2026 pricing across the three tiers most WordPress owners actually pick. Shared hosts hide the renewal price behind an intro rate — the calculator uses the honest second-year number.
A realistic small-business stack: a backup plugin, a security plugin, an SEO plugin, and a forms plugin. Renewals are usually full price after year one. Shops and membership sites carry heavier stacks.
Off-site backup storage (BlogVault, UpdraftPlus Vault) plus malware scanning (Wordfence Premium, MalCare, Sucuri). These are optional line items you can bundle into a maintenance plan.
The biggest hidden cost. Even a small business site burns 1.5–3 hours a month on updates, testing, and small break-fixes. Priced at your own hourly rate, this is usually the line item that flips the whole math.
One malware clean-up or white-screen recovery from a freelancer typically runs $200–$400. We assume one per year for most business sites — feel free to slide it to zero if you've never had one.
We default to 3 years because that's the honest lifecycle for a business website before major redesign pressure kicks in. Slide it to 5 to see the compounding effect of licence renewals.
The hosting bill is only ~20% of the true cost. A typical small-business WordPress site runs $180–$420/year in hosting, plus $150–$600/year in premium plugins, $60–$180 in backups, and 3–6 hours/month of maintenance time. 3-year TCO usually lands between $3,500 and $9,000 for DIY.
For sites that make money, usually yes. Managed hosts bundle backups, caching, security, and staging — services you'd otherwise buy or configure separately. For hobby sites, shared hosting plus a free backup plugin is fine.
If you value your time above ~$30/hr, a maintenance service is almost always cheaper than DIY. The calculator makes it obvious — DIY looks free until you price your hours.
Four biggest ones: premium plugin renewals (auto-renew at 100% year two), staging environments, time fixing update-related breakage, and emergency recovery when something goes wrong.
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