Self-hosting WordPress cost
CMS / Blog
WordPress is the most widely used open-source CMS in the world, powering a large share of the web. Self-hosting it on a tuned LEMP stack with caching is inexpensive at small scale, and cost grows mainly with traffic, media storage, and database size.
The tables below show the recommended minimum specification for WordPress at each user scale, and the cheapest matching plan on each of our tracked providers. Prices are approximate monthly list prices in USD.
Up to 100 users
Recommended minimum: 1 vCPU · 2 GB RAM
For up to 100 users, a LEMP stack with full-page caching and a Redis object cache is plenty; enable OPcache and Nginx FastCGI cache. Bandwidth analysis: a CDN with long cache TTLs offloads image and asset egress, keeping you inside all three providers' allowances.
Up to 500 users
Recommended minimum: 2 vCPU · 4 GB RAM
At 500 users, add a Redis object cache and CDN, and tune the InnoDB buffer pool to 60–70 percent of RAM. Bandwidth analysis: Hetzner's ~20 TB inclusion is the most forgiving origin; on DigitalOcean and Linode a CDN is essential to avoid overage.
Up to 1,000 users
Recommended minimum: 4 vCPU · 8 GB RAM
For 1000 users, tune PHP-FPM and run external MySQL/MariaDB with a Varnish full-page cache. Bandwidth analysis: a cache-hit ratio above 90 percent means most bytes never leave the cache layer; route static assets through object storage plus CDN.
Up to 5,000 users (Enterprise)
Recommended minimum: 8 vCPU · 32 GB RAM
Enterprise: horizontally scaled PHP-FPM behind a load balancer, a managed primary-replica database with read-write splitting, Varnish plus a global CDN, uploads on object storage. Bandwidth analysis: at this scale egress is often the dominant cost — model GB/month against each provider's allowance and let the CDN absorb the long tail.
Prices are approximate list prices and may change at any time; verify on the provider's official site before purchasing. Specs are conservative single-node starting points. Deploy links may contain referral codes. Try the interactive calculator.