First-year website cost: build, hosting and maintenance

The first-year calculation

First-year budget = development + content & migration + annual costs + (monthly costs × 12) + other costs

Here, “first year” means the build plus twelve months of the operating charges you enter. It is a planning convention, not a dated cash-flow forecast. Adjust for services that start before launch, partial-year billing and costs already included elsewhere.

Your first-year budget, USD

Enter your own quotes. Leave unknown items blank; enter 0 only when you have confirmed there is no cost.

One-time developmentOne-time content & migrationAnnual domain renewalMonthly hosting / platformMonthly amount × 12 in the totalMonthly apps & subscriptionsMonthly amount × 12 in the totalMonthly maintenance & supportMonthly amount × 12 in the totalOther annual costs / reserve

First-year subtotal of entered costs$0.000 of 7 items entered. Your budget is incomplete.

Recurring costs entered, per year$0.00

Domain, hosting, software and maintenance. Excludes the build, content, reserve and future changes.

What goes in each budget line?

Check the invoice or agreement behind each amount
Cost	What to include	What to check
Development	Agreed design, build, integrations, testing and handover.	One-time price, inclusions, revision limits and tax treatment.
Content & migration	Writing, images, translation, data entry and moving existing content.	Who supplies the material and whether this is already in the build price.
Domain	The applicable annual registration or renewal charge.	Introductory versus renewal pricing; domain ownership.
Hosting / platform	The selected hosting or website platform plan.	Billing term, usage limits, and whether hosting is included in the platform.
Apps & subscriptions	Paid extensions, email services and other software.	Account, seat or site limits and renewal commitments.
Maintenance & support	The agreed update, backup, monitoring and support work.	Included hours, response expectations and out-of-scope changes.
Other costs / reserve	Expected usage charges, additional work or a separately chosen reserve.	Document the assumption; do not count a fee in two categories.

A worked budget, with explicit assumptions

Start with the $2,900 freelancer model scenario for an adapted CMS business website with technical SEO. For this fictional example only, add $600 for content, $20 for the domain, $25 a month for hosting, $15 a month for apps, $100 a month for support and $250 for other annual costs.

$2,900 + $600 + $20 + ($140 × 12) + $250 = $5,450

Only the development amount comes from SiteCost’s model. Every other amount here is an assumed teaching input, not a provider quote or market average. The total excludes tax and any usage charges not entered. Replace every assumption with your own figures before using the planner for a decision.

Check the billing period before multiplying

If a provider displays a monthly equivalent but bills annually, record the annual commitment once. Convert it to a monthly equivalent for this planner only if you intend to include the full twelve months. Introductory discounts and renewal terms can make year two different.

Check the current plans and payment terms on Shopify’s pricing page and the relevant Site or Workspace plan on Webflow’s pricing page. A self-hosted WordPress site also needs a compatible environment; the official WordPress requirements explain that dependency. These sources describe services and technical requirements, not a development quote.

Provider references checked October 29, 2026. Use the terms for your region, account and billing date.

Model usage separately

Payment processing, email delivery, storage and AI services can charge by volume. Write down the expected units and applicable rate, then calculate an annual amount for each scenario. Add those amounts to “other annual costs” only if they are not already included elsewhere.

For a hypothetical service charging per transaction, the structure is transaction count × fixed fee + transaction value × percentage fee. Use the provider’s actual terms, including any other applicable charges; the planner does not infer them.

Put a scope behind the maintenance fee

A monthly allowance is useful only when it buys defined work. Ask who handles updates, backups, restore testing, monitoring and requests for changes. Confirm the response expectations and what triggers an extra invoice.

Read the maintenance cost guide to compare service scope, and the hidden costs checklist to catch missing work.

How to read an incomplete total

The calculator reports a subtotal of the costs you enter. Blank fields remain unknown; enter zero only for a confirmed zero cost. Even with all fields filled, review the actual contracts for taxes, usage limits, renewals and overlapping charges.

Still defining the build? Start with a website scope guide or inspect the development estimate methodology.

What does a website costin its first year?