Developing and hosting a website is definitely rewarding and sometimes comes as a gainul use of spare time and a great way to express yourself to the world. However, many of us hesitate to undertake the project mainly considering it to be costly project, and few do not try on it thinking website development to be technology-intensive affair.

I have explained the basic requireemnts of a website and how anyone can develope a website using WordPress in my article on “How I developed my First WordPress Website? I am neither a Techie nor a Coder“.

I have also described the “Best and economical source to buy a .in Domain” and “Reliable and Economical Web Hosting for Non-Techies and Non-Coders“.

In this article, a clear picture of the financial implication of owning and maintaining a Personal Website is discussed.

By this time, you already know that a website requires a Domain and a Web Hosting which need to be purchased. Of course, WordPress and many of its Themes and Plugins come free.

To analyse the financial implication, we will segregate the project of owning and maintaining a website in short run (to experiment and exerience before underaking it in the long run) and also in the long run (either if you are determined to start is big or decide to continue and make it big after a short period). We will consider one year as the short period and three to five years as the long period.

Cost of Owning and Maintaining a Website for the First Year:

The cost of owning and maintaining a website for the first year will include the cost of registering the chosen Domain for the first year and the cost of hosting for the first year. Though, the total cost for the first year may be less, but the effective cost for the first year may be considerably high compared to per year effective cost, if you go for three to five years at a time. This is mainly because of the following reasons:-

  • Cost of Domain Registration may come at a discounted price for the first year only with a two/three years purchase at a time. For example, first year prce may be Rs. 399/-, while it may be just 99/- with three-years registration, i.e. Rs. 897/- for three years, making the effective price per year at Rs. 299/- (less by Rs. 100/- per year).
  • Similrly, charges for web hosting for the first year as well as subsequent annual renewals cost much higher than the effective price per year for a wen hosting plan of three to five years purchased at one go. For example, effective monthly price of one year premium hosting plan on Hostinger is Rs. 219/-, while the effective monthly price of four year premium hosting plan on Hostinger is Rs. 119/-, costing almost 50% lesser.

There are many local web hosts who offer very cheaper web hosting plans, few as low as at Rs. 39/- per month. However, for this article, I have not considered those in view of their overall service and performance.

Thus, the first year cost of owning and maintaing a great personal website may come to be around Rs. 3,000/- for both the Domain and a reliable web hosting.

Cost of Owning and Maintaining a Website in Long Run:

Domain registration comes at a cheaper price with multi-year registration, as many registrants provide a discount on the first year price on a multi-year registration. In the same way, web hosting service providers also provide gradually increasing rate of discount on their multi-year hosting plans.

Though a Domain may be registered for 10 yaers at one go, unfortunately web hosting companies do not provide such a long period hosting plan. Hostinger provides the hieghest period of four years at a time and few other players provide for a five year plan.

Domain registration price for a four years is about Rs. 1,900/- and four year premium hosting plan on Hostinger is about Rs. 6,750/-. Thus, total cost of owning and maintaing a great personal website for four years may come to be around Rs. 8,650/- for both the Domain and a reliable web hosting.

Conclusion:

Considering the first year cost of about Rs. 3,000/- and four year cost of about Rs. 8,650/- which comes to Rs. 2,160/- per year effectively, it is advisable to go for at least a four year or five yaer plan in the beginning itself. Besides, registering a domain for a longer period makes it more reliable to the readers and taking a longer period plan keeps you serious and active with your project.