How Much Does It Cost to Start a Blog? Free, Budget and Pro Setups
You can start a blog for nothing. You can also spend £1,000 in the first month and have nothing to show for it. The useful answer sits in between, and it depends mostly on whether you want the blog to earn money or just to exist.
Below are three realistic setups with typical costs. Prices vary by provider and change often, so treat every figure here as a rough range rather than a quote.
The three setups at a glance
| Free | Budget | Pro | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Web address | Platform subdomain (yourblog.platform.com) | Your own domain, around £8 to £15 a year | Your own domain |
| Hosting | Included, with limits | Shared hosting, often £3 to £10 a month | Managed or higher-tier hosting, often £15 to £40+ a month |
| Design | Free templates | Free theme | Paid theme, often a one-off £30 to £100 |
| Email list | None, or a free tier | Free tier of an email tool | Paid email plan |
| Typical yearly total | £0 | Roughly £45 to £150 | Roughly £300 to £1,000 |
Most beginners who are serious about the blog should start in the middle column and move right only when something is genuinely holding them back.
The free setup
Hosted platforms with free plans let you sign up, pick a template and publish within an hour. For a hobby blog, a personal diary or a test run to see whether you enjoy writing, that's all you need.
The trade-offs are real, though:
- Your address belongs to the platform. If you leave, you start again with a new address, and any links or search rankings you'd built stay behind.
- The platform may show its own ads or branding on your pages.
- Some free plans restrict running your own ads or affiliate links. Check the terms before you plan to earn from it.
- Customisation is limited, and exporting your content can be awkward.
If there's any chance you'll want to make money, or you'd hate to lose what you build, skip the free plan and go straight to the budget setup. Moving later is always more work than starting right.
The budget setup
This is where most blogs that go on to earn money began: your own domain plus cheap hosting.
A .com domain usually costs around £8 to £15 ($10 to $20) a year. Basic shared hosting often starts around £3 to £10 a month, which is enough for a new blog with modest traffic. Most hosts include a free SSL certificate (the padlock in the browser bar) and a one-click installer for software like WordPress.
Add those together and a budget blog typically costs somewhere between £45 and £150 a year. Everything else at this stage can be free: a free theme, free image sites, a free tier of an email marketing tool and free analytics.
If you'd rather not deal with hosting at all, a paid plan on a hosted builder that lets you use your own domain is the alternative. These usually cost more per year than cheap shared hosting, but updates and security are handled for you. Our blogging platforms comparison covers the trade-offs.
The pro setup
Pro doesn't mean "for professionals". It means paying for things that save time or remove limits once the blog has proved itself. Typical upgrades:
- Better hosting, such as managed hosting with automatic backups and faster servers, often £15 to £40 or more a month.
- A paid theme or design, usually a one-off cost.
- A paid email marketing plan once your list outgrows the free tier.
- A paid SEO research tool, which can easily cost more each month than everything else combined.
That can add up to roughly £300 to £1,000 a year. It's worth it when the blog is already bringing in visitors or income and these tools let you do more of what's working. It isn't worth it as a way of feeling more serious on day one.
What's worth paying for early
Two things.
Your own domain, because it's cheap and it's the foundation of everything you build. Every link, every ranking and every bookmark points at it. See how to choose a blog domain name before you buy.
Decent hosting, because slow pages lose readers. You don't need the most expensive plan, but avoid the very cheapest if reviews mention frequent downtime or painfully slow sites. A reliable mid-range shared plan is fine for a long time.
Some people would add a professional logo to this list. It's nice. It isn't necessary. A clean name in a good font does the job for the first year.
What isn't worth paying for yet
This is the one most people get wrong, because spending money feels like progress.
- Blogging courses. Most of what a beginner needs is freely available, including Google's own guidance on creating helpful content. Expensive courses mostly repeat it.
- Premium plugins and add-ons. Install them when you hit a specific problem the free version can't solve, not because a list said "must-have".
- Paid SEO tools in month one. You have no data yet and few posts. Free tools, search autocomplete and Google Search Console will tell you plenty for the first several months.
- Paid traffic. Ads that send visitors to a blog with ten posts rarely pay for themselves.
- A premium theme before you have content. Design is easy to change later. Posts are what take the time.
The hidden and recurring costs
The first-year bill is rarely the real bill.
Renewal prices are the big one. Domains and hosting are often sold with a cheap introductory price, and the renewal can be noticeably higher. Before you buy, look for the renewal price in the small print and budget for that, not the headline offer. Long hosting contracts paid upfront can lock in a low rate, but only commit for years once you're sure you'll stick with the host.
Watch for checkout extras too. Some registrars charge for domain privacy, which many others include free. Paid SSL certificates are rarely needed now that free ones are standard with most hosts.
Email marketing tools usually price by the number of subscribers. The free tier covers a small list, then the monthly cost steps up as you grow. That's a good problem to have, but it's a cost that rises with success, so expect it.
Backups are free with some hosts and an add-on with others. Check which yours is, because losing a year of posts costs far more than the add-on.
Software licences vary as well. Some blogging tools charge a monthly subscription, some are free and open source but rely on paid add-ons, and some self-hosted tools are sold for a one-time price. Add up what you'd pay over three years, not just month one.
What about AI writing tools?
AI is optional, and the cost depends on how you use it. Subscription writing tools usually charge a fixed monthly fee. Using AI models directly through a pay-as-you-go account typically costs pennies rather than pounds per article for text, though prices vary by model and change often. Generated images add a small cost per image.
The cheaper bit is the software. The expensive bit is the editing time, because AI drafts need checking, rewriting and your own experience added before they're worth publishing. Our guide to AI blog writing covers what works and what Google says about it.
A sensible first-year budget
If you want one number: plan for around £50 to £150 for the first year, covering a domain and reliable basic hosting, and spend nothing else until the blog gives you a reason to. Put the money you didn't spend on courses and tools into time instead. Twenty good posts will do more for a new blog than any upgrade on this page.
FAQ
Can I really start a blog for free?
Yes. Free hosted plans let you publish without paying anything, but you get a platform subdomain, limited control and sometimes restrictions on ads or affiliate links. It's fine for testing whether you enjoy blogging.
What is the minimum cost to start a blog with my own domain?
Usually somewhere around £45 to £150 a year for a domain and basic shared hosting. Check renewal prices, as they're often higher than the first-year offer.
Do I need to pay for a theme?
No. Free themes are perfectly good for a new blog. A paid theme makes sense later if you need a feature or look the free options can't give you.
When should I upgrade my hosting?
When your pages are noticeably slow, your host warns you about resource limits, or traffic has grown to the point where downtime would cost you money. Not before.
Your next step
Before buying anything, write down the renewal price of the domain and hosting you're considering, and add them up for three years. If that number is comfortable, buy the domain today. If you haven't settled on a direction yet, start with how to start a blog and come back to the spending once you have.
