both work. the choice depends on whether you want to assemble a website or have one handed to you finished.
what wordpress actually costs
the software is free. everything around it is not.
a representative setup for a trade business: hosting, £8 a month. a domain, £12 a year. one email account, £6 a month with a one-year commitment. a theme, £50 once. seo, security, forms, and backup plugins combined, roughly £75 a year. costs vary by host and plugin choice — this is one realistic combination, not a fixed price.
year one total: £305. year two onward, with the theme already paid for: £255 a year.
what a computer web website costs
£249 in year one. domain registered, hosting included, one email account included, content written, site built for you. year two onward: £100 a year, covering domain renewal, ssl, email, and up to 15 minutes of edits a month.
the three-year comparison
wordpress is not cheaper in year one. it falls further behind every year after.
| year 1 | year 2 (total) | year 3 (total) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| computer web | £249 | £349 | £449 |
| wordpress (representative) | £305 | £560 | £815 |
none of this counts the time spent choosing a host, installing plugins, or fixing what an update breaks. the table above is just the invoices.
what most trade businesses get wrong
they hear "wordpress is free" and stop listening before the rest of the sentence. six months later a plugin update has broken the contact form, nobody noticed, and every enquiry since has gone nowhere.
free software is not the same as a free website.
what computer web charges
£249. built for you. content written. domain registered. hosting included for year one. one email account included. ssl active. most simple websites exist within 7 days.
based in mere, wiltshire. work anywhere.
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