
This non-techy, step-by-step guide will show you how to start a WordPress website, including what costs to expect and exactly what you need to get started.
The thought of launching your own website may feel like an impossible task that will never get done. Or it may feel like something that’s way too expensive or techy to even bother.
But what if I said you can start a WordPress website in 10 minutes or less? You don’t need to be a tech wiz who knows how to code and you don’t need to hire a professional.

How To Start a WordPress Website
Before you even finish your first cup of coffee this morning, you can learn how to create a WordPress website. For real. I know we are all guilty of putting off tasks that feel too overwhelming, but this doesn’t have to be one of them.
Here are the exact items you need to start a WordPress website:
- Website Domain Name
- Subscription to a Web Hosting Service
- Free WordPress Software Installed on the Website
The Costs of a WordPress Website
WordPress is one of the more affordable website platforms available out there! It’s one of the reasons I love to create themes with WordPress.
Here’s what you can expect for annual, on-going costs for a WordPress website:
- Website Domain Name: $15 – $20 per year
- Subscription to a Web Hosting Service: $15 – $20 per month
If you are brand new to WordPress or switching web hosting companies, you can score some serious savings in the first year! It’s a huge help to save on website costs when you may have higher expenses getting your business up and running.
Many web hosting companies offer significantly reduced prices in the first year. They also offer a free year for registering your domain name with them.
To save on costs in the 1st year, I recommend buying the domain name and web hosting from the same company.
1 – Choose a Domain Name
A domain name is your website’s address on the internet. This is what users will type into the web browser to find your website (like pixandhue.com or google.com).
If you have an established business or you are using your own personal name, this will be a pretty easy step!
2 – Choose a Web Hosting Service
When you start a WordPress website, an on-going subscription to a web hosting service is required. All websites on the internet need a web host to store their website files. The web hosting service ensures actual website content exists at your domain name.
After 5+ years of launching WordPress themes, I have interacted with a number of web hosting companies. With all that time and experience, I’ve come to recommend two web hosting companies – siteground.com and elementor.com.
Hosting with SiteGround
The SiteGround plans offer some great features for launching a website:
- Super easy one-click install process to download WordPress to your website
- Daily automatic back-ups so you never have to worry about losing your site
- Amazing customer support – seriously so good! While many companies have a fast response time for support tickets, the quality of the response can be poor making it difficult and slow to get actual answers.
- Speed Optimizer plugin automatically installed to improve performance
- Security plugin automatically installed to ensure your website is safe
- Get free email accounts with your domain name (i.e. [email protected]).
- If you don’t have a domain yet, you can get your first year of the domain free!
What SiteGround Plan is Best for Me?
If you are just starting out, I recommend the StartUp plan. With a free domain, tons of space (10GB), and a free email account, you will have everything you need to get started in Year 1 for as little as $2.99/month.
Reasons to upgrade to the GrowBig plan include:
- Your business has multiple websites
- You already have an established business with consistent website traffic
- You want to use the staging site feature to make significant changes to your website in a development environment, separate from your live site.
Hosting with Elementor
The elementor.com plans also offer great features for a WordPress website. For me, the primary reason for considering elementor.com for web hosting over SiteGround is if you are planning to use the Elementor Pro plugin on your website.
Elementor Web hosting vs the Elementor Pro Plugin
The Elementor Pro plugin is a WordPress plugin that can be installed on any WordPress website. It is a plugin that adds a visual website builder onto any standard WordPress website. You can use the Elementor Pro plugin with any web hosting company.
Elementor.com also offers a web hosting service. Similar to SiteGround, it’s where your website files are stored. Elementor web hosting is optional and one of many, many web hosting companies available for WordPress websites.
Why Choose Elementor for Web Hosting? To Save Money!
There is an ongoing-subscription cost for both web hosting and the Elementor Pro plugin. If you are planning to use the Elementor Pro plugin when you start a WordPress website, you can save money by purchasing web hosting directly from elementor.com as one package.
The Elementor Pro plugin is included with the Basic plan (and above) of Elementor web hosting. Depending on the plan, that reduces your annual cost by $60-$80 each year!
What Elementor Plan is Best for Me?
When comparing the available web hosting plans, the primary considerations are 1) will you be using the Elementor Pro plugin and 2) will you have an online shop on your website?
3 – Start a WordPress Website with SiteGround
For this tutorial, I will show you how to launch a WordPress website with SiteGround.
Purchase Your Web Hosting (+ Domain Name)
Visit siteground.com and go to the WordPress Hosting tab at the top of the screen. Find your preferred plan, and click the Get Plan button.
If you are starting with a brand new domain name, type your preferred domain name into the Enter your domain box. When you click the Continue button, SiteGround will confirm if your preferred domain name is available for registration.
Otherwise, if you have a domain name that is already registered with another company, please check the button for Existing Domain. Type in the registered domain name in the Enter your domain box and click Continue.
On the next screen, enter in your information to complete payment.
Login to SiteGround + Launch WordPress
After completing your purchase, login to your SiteGround account. You will see a Get Started button. Click on it and follow the steps. The SiteGround Website Setup Wizard will help you easily set up your new website.
The Setup Wizard will automatically suggest the domain name that you provided when purchasing your web hosting plan.
To create your first website, click on the Select button below Start New Website. Please note you click on the pencil icon to change the location of the data center of your server.
Once you have selected Start a New Website, you can then choose an application. To start a WordPress website, click the Select button below WordPress.
And finally, under the Set up Login section, you want to enter in the email address and password that you will use to access the WordPress Dashboard. Click the Continue button to finish the setup of your new WordPress website!
Congratulations you have created your first WordPress website!! The next step is login to the WordPress Dashboard to actually build out your website.