Starting a WordPress blog is very inexpensive when you consider how much you'd need to pay a developer to build you an equivalent non-WordPress site. However, if your goal is to become a successful blogger and make money, you should be ready to spend a minimum of $250 to $500 during the first year. You can easily spend more than that. I'd recommend you hold off on making a big investment at first, until you spend some time blogging and decide whether or not it's something you really want to pursue. Also, your ideas about what your blog should be will almost certainly change over that first year, which means your tech and design needs might also change. Here's the bare-bones of what you need, and what you should expect to pay: Web hosting: A decent shared hosting plan will run you about $10 to $15 per month. Anything less than that might be insufficient, and anything more than that is probably overkill at first. Premium theme: You can absolutely use a free theme, but I think you'll discover that they tend to be free for a reason ⁠— whether it's an uninspiring design, limited functionality or buggy code. You can purchase very good themes for $50 to $100. Premium plugins: There's a free WordPress plugin for almost every purpose, and most of them work well enough to use. But chances are you'll find a couple things for which the free version just doesn't quite do the trick you're looking for. Most premium themes cost around $20 to $40, although the business model is rapidly changing to monthly or annual subscriptions (which usually means you'll end up paying more). My recommendation is to hold off on buying too many plugins at first, until you have a better idea about what you really want your blog to do.