A website's yearly running cost is made up of domain renewal, hosting, SSL, maintenance and updates, plugin and theme licences, business email, backups, and content and marketing. On a simple brochure site most of these can be kept low; on a plugin-heavy WordPress site or an online shop, and once marketing is added, the yearly bill grows noticeably.
This article covers recurring costs only; we explain what drives the initial build price in a separate post. Because prices change often with the provider, the exchange rate and promotions, we do not quote exact figures here. Instead we list the line items, their rough scale and the surprise invoices people run into most; any ranges we give are only there to offer a sense of proportion.
What are the yearly cost items of a website?
The yearly cost items of a website fall into two groups: infrastructure costs that keep the site online (domain, hosting, SSL, email, backups) and operating costs that keep it secure, current and visible (maintenance, licences, content, marketing). The infrastructure group is usually small and predictable; the operating group varies widely with the type of site and its goals.
- —Domain renewal: a .com typically costs roughly 10-20 US dollars a year at many registrars; .com.tr pricing varies by registrar.
- —Hosting: shared hosting is the cheapest tier; managed WordPress, a VPS or cloud hosting can cost several times more.
- —SSL certificate: free for most sites via Let's Encrypt or Cloudflare; paid OV/EV certificates are rarely needed by small businesses.
- —Business email: Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 charge per user per month; email bundled with hosting is cheaper but more limited.
- —Maintenance and updates: an agency maintenance plan or an in-house person's time.
- —Plugin and theme licences: premium WordPress plugins are usually licensed yearly, from tens to a few hundred dollars per plugin.
- —Backups: an external backup location in addition to the host's own backups.
- —Content and marketing: blog, SEO and ads; the most variable and often the largest item.
Why do domain and hosting prices rise at renewal?
Domain and hosting prices often rise at renewal because many providers sell the first year at a promotional rate and charge the list price from the second year on. A package that looks very cheap in year one can become noticeably more expensive in year two. When comparing offers, look at the renewal price and the commitment period, not the first-year price.
- —First-year discount: the promotional price may apply only to the first term or to multi-year prepayment.
- —Currency-based pricing: many global services are priced in dollars or euros, so a lira budget moves with the exchange rate.
- —Free domain with hosting: the bundled domain may be billed separately from the second year.
- —Forgotten renewal: if auto-renew is off, the domain expires and the website and email stop at the same time.
- —.com.tr domains: managed through TRABIS since 2022, with the document requirement removed; tracking the renewal date is still your responsibility.
Why is a domain registered to the agency a hidden cost?
A domain registered in the agency's name is a hidden cost because you depend on that agency's cooperation to see the renewal price, switch agencies or move your email provider. If the agency closes or the relationship breaks down, recovering the domain takes time, money and sometimes legal steps. The risk never appears on an invoice, but it is real.
The fix is simple: your company should be the domain's registrant, the registrar login should stay with you, and the agency should get only the access it needs. If hosting, domain and maintenance are offered as one bundled price, ask for each item to be listed separately, so you can see what you pay for each service and what changes at renewal.
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What determines maintenance, update and licence costs?
Maintenance, update and licence costs depend mostly on the technology behind the site. A plugin-heavy WordPress site needs regular core, theme and plugin updates, security checks and licence renewals. A static or custom-built site has no plugin licences; maintenance is mostly limited to dependency updates, monitoring and content changes.
As an example, 404 Ajans's own site is a React application prerendered to static HTML at build time and served from an OpenLiteSpeed host behind Cloudflare. That setup has no plugin licences or CMS updates and a small attack surface. The trade-off is that content changes are made by a developer rather than through an admin panel. Every stack puts its yearly cost in different places; what matters is knowing where up front.
- —Software updates, followed by a short check after each one.
- —Uptime monitoring and outage alerts.
- —Regular backups and a restore test a few times a year.
- —Checking that forms, phone links and WhatsApp links still work.
- —Tracking page speed and security warnings.
- —Small content changes up to an agreed number of hours per month.
When reviewing a maintenance offer, ask in writing which of these items are included, how many hours of changes per month are covered and how quickly you get a response in an emergency.
What should be planned for email, backups and security?
Email, backup and security costs look small but become the most expensive items the moment something breaks. Business email grows with the number of users; backups require copying the site and database to a separate location regularly rather than relying only on the host's copy. Cloudflare's free plan provides basic DDoS protection and SSL.
- —Email: calculate monthly fee per user × number of users × 12; closing accounts of people who have left lowers the cost.
- —Backups: at least daily automatic backups, a copy in a separate location and regular restore tests.
- —Security: up-to-date software, strong passwords, two-factor authentication and, where needed, a web application firewall (WAF).
Why should content and marketing be budgeted separately?
Content and marketing should be budgeted separately because the costs that keep a site running and the costs that bring customers to it do different jobs. Hosting and maintenance keep the site working; blog posts, SEO work and Google Ads get it found. Without the first the site goes offline; without the second it works but nobody sees it.
404 Ajans also offers SEO and Google Ads management. With services like these, remember that ad spend is paid directly to Google while the agency fee covers management work; seeing both on a single line makes yearly budgeting much harder.
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A checklist for yearly website costs
Planning yearly website costs properly only requires one table listing, for each item, whose name it is registered in, the renewal date, the renewal price and the billing currency. The checklist below lets you see most surprise invoices in advance and makes switching agencies or providers far easier when the time comes.
- —Is the domain registered to the company, and what are its renewal date and auto-renew status?
- —How different is the hosting renewal price from the first-year price?
- —Does the SSL certificate renew automatically?
- —How many business email accounts are active, and are all of them used?
- —Which paid plugin and theme licences exist, and when do they renew?
- —What is included in, and excluded from, the maintenance offer?
- —Is there an external backup, and when was a restore last tested?
- —Are content, SEO and advertising budgeted separately from infrastructure?
- —Has exchange-rate movement been allowed for on currency-based invoices?