The Short Answer
Most people searching for WordPress pricing are comparing two products that only share a name. WordPress.org is free software you install on hosting you buy. WordPress.com is a paid hosting service that runs that software for you, with restrictions that loosen as you move up the plan ladder. You cannot meaningfully compare their prices without first deciding which one you are buying.
For a business site in India in 2026, the practical question is narrower than it looks: do you need to install plugins? If yes, you need the Business-tier WordPress.com plan or self-hosting. If no, a mid-tier plan is genuinely sufficient and cheaper than assembling the equivalent yourself.
What Each Plan Tier Unlocks
Automattic renames its tiers periodically, so the labels below describe what a tier does rather than what it is called this quarter. The rupee figures are annual-billing equivalents and should be treated as approximate — see the note on pricing volatility further down.
| Tier | Approximate cost | What it unlocks |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Nothing | A site on a wordpress.com subdomain, limited storage, and Automattic's advertising shown to your visitors. No custom domain. |
| Entry (Personal) | Roughly ₹400 – ₹700 per month | Custom domain, advertising removed, basic support. Still no plugin installation and no custom themes. |
| Mid (Premium / Explorer) | Roughly ₹700 – ₹1,200 per month | Design customisation, premium themes, basic monetisation, style editing. Adequate for a brochure site that will never need third-party functionality. |
| Business (Creator) | Roughly ₹2,000 – ₹3,500 per month | The threshold that matters. Plugin installation, custom theme upload, SFTP and database access, real staging. This is the first tier at which a developer can actually build you something. |
| Commerce (Entrepreneur) | Roughly ₹4,000 – ₹6,500 per month | WooCommerce and the payment, shipping, and inventory extensions around it. |
Notice what happens between the mid and Business tiers: the price roughly triples, and it triples because of one capability. Everything below Business is a closed system. Everything from Business upward is ordinary WordPress that somebody else keeps online for you.
The Plugin Line Is the Whole Decision
Almost every project that outgrows WordPress.com does so for the same reason. A requirement arrives — a specific SEO plugin, a booking calendar, a CRM connection, a payment gateway that works properly with Indian cards, a custom post type your developer needs — and none of it is possible below the Business tier.
This is worth deciding before you subscribe rather than eight months in, because migrating a site that has accumulated content and links is a project in itself. If there is any prospect of custom functionality, price the Business tier from the start and compare that number against self-hosting, not the entry tier.
What Self-Hosting the Same Site Costs in India
Self-hosting means WordPress.org software on hosting you choose. The components are priced separately, which makes it look more complicated and often works out cheaper.
| Component | Typical annual cost in India |
|---|---|
| Shared hosting, adequate for a brochure site | ₹2,500 – ₹8,000 |
| Managed WordPress hosting, adequate for a business site with traffic | ₹10,000 – ₹40,000 |
| Domain registration and renewal | ₹800 – ₹1,500 |
| Premium theme, one-off or annual | ₹4,000 – ₹8,000 |
| Essential premium plugins (forms, SEO, backup, security) | ₹5,000 – ₹25,000 |
| Maintenance retainer, if you do not want to do updates yourself | ₹18,000 – ₹1,20,000 |
A self-hosted business site with a maintenance retainer typically lands between ₹40,000 and ₹1,00,000 a year all-in. The Business tier on WordPress.com plus a domain lands in a similar band, with maintenance included but control reduced. That is the real trade, and it is not primarily financial.
The full picture of what building the site itself costs — as opposed to running it — is covered separately in our WordPress website cost breakdown for India, and the ongoing side in our annual running costs guide.
When WordPress.com Is the Right Answer
- You will never need a plugin. A writer, a portfolio, a small brochure site with a contact form. The managed tiers are genuinely good at this and remove a category of work you do not want.
- Nobody on your side will do updates. An unmaintained self-hosted WordPress install is the single most common way small Indian businesses get compromised. If the honest answer is that no one will patch it, paying someone to is the cheaper outcome.
- You want one bill. Hosting, backups, security, and CDN arrive as one line item rather than five vendors.
When It Is the Wrong Answer
- Anything custom is planned. Below the Business tier a developer cannot help you, and at the Business tier you are paying managed-hosting prices for a platform you could run anywhere.
- Performance is a priority. WordPress with a page builder and a stack of plugins is difficult to make fast, whoever hosts it. If Core Web Vitals matter commercially, the honest comparison is not between WordPress hosts — it is between WordPress and a purpose-built site. We have written about how the platforms compare on that axis.
- You are already at the Commerce tier. At that spend, Indian managed hosting with a competent maintenance partner usually gives more for the money.
The Costs That Appear Later
Three things reliably surprise people on the invoice after the first year.
- Promotional first-year rates renew at full price. Budget the renewal number, not the signup number.
- The domain renews separately and often at a higher rate than the introductory registration.
- Plan upgrades are not prorated the way you expect. Moving up mid-cycle to unlock plugins is a common and avoidable expense — decide the tier up front.
A Note on These Prices
Automattic reprices plans regularly and runs regional and promotional rates that differ from list price. Every rupee figure above is a planning estimate, not a quote. Confirm the current number on the official pricing page before committing. The plan structure — and specifically where the plugin line sits — changes far more slowly, and that is the part worth making a decision on.
Deciding Without Regretting It
Write down the functionality your site needs in twelve months, not today. If that list contains anything a plugin or a developer provides, you are choosing between the Business tier and self-hosting, and the entry tiers are irrelevant to your decision. If it genuinely does not, a mid-tier plan is a reasonable purchase and you can stop reading comparison articles.
If the answer is somewhere in between, or the site is doing commercial work where speed and search visibility carry revenue, it is worth a conversation before you commit to a platform. Tell us what the site needs to do and we will tell you honestly whether WordPress is the right place for it.