WordPress vs Custom Website in 2027: Costs and Rule

What does a WordPress site cost to run each year?

Hosting alone is about £132 a year, and the big variable is whether you pay someone to maintain the site. Krystal’s WordPress hosting page lists Amethyst at £7 a month, Ruby at £11 and Emerald at £19. The table uses Ruby. Prices were read on the vendors’ own pages on 2 November 2026. Yoast says its price is ex VAT. VAT status is unclear on the others.

Yearly running costs, in each vendor’s own currency

Item	Low	High	Source
Hosting, Krystal Ruby	£132	£132	£11 a month, Krystal
Theme or page builder	$0	$89	Divi $89 a year (or $249 for life); Elementor from $60 a year
Speed plugin, WP Rocket Single	About €40	About €50	€3.33 a month for the first year, €4.16 list price, billed yearly
SEO plugin, Yoast Premium	£0	118.80 a year	Free version; Premium ex VAT, currency not named
Care plan: updates, backups and fixes	£360	£1,800	A rough range of £30 to £150 a month, not a quote

Nothing here is converted between currencies. Hosting plus a care plan alone comes to £492 to £1,932 a year, before licences. For comparison, a site built by me costs £29.99 a month with hosting included, or £199 once plus hosting at £19.99 a month.

Is WordPress less secure than a custom site?

It has more known weak points, almost all in plugins. Patchstack’s State of WordPress Security 2026 counted 11,334 new vulnerabilities in the WordPress ecosystem in 2025, up 42% on the year. 91% were in plugins and 9% in themes, and only 6 were in WordPress core. 46% had no patch available when they were disclosed, and 17% were high severity. For flaws that attackers exploited heavily, the median time to mass exploitation was 5 hours.

Counting flaws is not counting hacked sites, and every plugin you add is one more thing to keep updated. A custom static site, which is plain pages with no database or plugins, has fewer moving parts, though its hosting account and forms still need protecting.

WordPress vs custom website: when does WordPress win?

WordPress wins when you or your staff edit daily, need plugin features such as a members area, or already have a working site. A custom static site suits a service site that changes a few times a year, where speed and fewer plugin risks matter most. Work down the three questions.

Decision rule: WordPress or custom

1
Who edits the site?
Do you or your staff change it every week or more?
- Yes: WordPress suits you. Pay for maintenance.
- No: Go to the next question.
2
What does it need to do?
Do you need plugins, such as a members area or several writers?
- Yes: WordPress suits you.
- No: Go to the next question.
3
What do you already have?
Is there a working WordPress site?
- Yes: Keep it and add updates and backups.
- No: A custom static site fits a few edits a year.

My rule, built from the cost, speed and security figures above. It does not predict results for any single site.

Can I move my content out of WordPress later?

Partly. WordPress’s export tool gives you an XML file of your posts, pages, comments, custom fields, terms and users. Its help page does not list media files, themes or plugins. Expect your words to travel and the design to stay behind. Ask any developer to confirm in writing what you receive if you leave.