WordPress.com plans in CAD
WordPress.com shows Canadian visitors prices in CAD (C$), excluding taxes. Yearly billing is a big discount here: up to 58% off the month-to-month price, and the 2- and 3-year terms go further (up to 70%, per its pricing page).
| Plan | Billed yearly | Billed monthly | Per year (yearly) | Per year (monthly) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Personal | $5 | $12 | $60 | $144 |
| Premium | $10 | $22 | $120 | $264 |
| Business | $33 | $54 | $396 | $648 |
| Commerce | $59 | $91 | $708 | $1,092 |
- Free sites show WordPress.com ads to visitors and use a wordpress.com address.
- Personal removes the ads, adds a free domain for the first year, 6 GB of storage, premium themes, and, per the current pricing page, plugins from the WordPress.com marketplace.
- Premium adds payment buttons (PayPal and Stripe), premium stats and video uploads, with 13 GB of storage.
- Business adds 50 GB, priority support, real-time backups and one-click restores, plus SFTP/SSH, WP-CLI and GitHub deployments for developers.
- Commerce is Business plus a full WooCommerce store.
Self-hosted WordPress (WordPress.org): the real costs
The software is free. Everything around it isn't. This is what a small business site actually needs, priced from Canadian sellers where possible:
| Item | What it costs | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Hosting | $59.88 to $275.88 a year | CanSpace as an example: $4.99, $9.99 or $22.99 a month, prices in CAD, servers in Canada. Its own comparison quotes the $9.99 plan on a 3-year term, so shorter terms may cost more. |
| .ca domain | $11.99 a year | CanSpace. Many hosts include a domain with annual hosting. |
| Theme | $0 to about $83 a year | Free themes are fine for many sites. GeneratePress Premium is US$59 a year, about C$83. |
| Forms, backups, SEO plugins | $0 to a few hundred a year | Free versions often do the job. Gravity Forms Basic, a common paid form plugin, is US$59 a year, about C$83. |
| Updates, backups, security | Your time, or a care plan | Core, theme and plugin updates come out every few weeks. Someone has to apply them and check nothing broke. |
What a small Canadian business really pays in a year
| Setup | Cost | What you're on the hook for |
|---|---|---|
| WordPress.com Personal (yearly) | $60 | Content only. Hosting and updates are handled. |
| WordPress.com Premium (yearly) | $120 | Same, plus payment buttons and better stats. |
| Self-hosted, lean (Starter hosting + .ca domain + free theme) | About $72 | Every update, backup and security fix. |
| Self-hosted with a premium theme and form plugin | About $238 | The same, plus two more renewals to track. |
On paper, WordPress is the cheapest of the three platforms. It's also the one where costs hide in maintenance. A self-hosted site that nobody updates is how most small-business hacks happen, and a cleanup costs more than years of hosting.
GST/HST and US-dollar charges
None of these prices include sales tax. Since July 1, 2021, foreign digital platforms have had to charge GST/HST to Canadian consumers (CRA), and the rate follows your billing address: 5% GST in Alberta, BC, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Quebec and the territories, 13% HST in Ontario, 14% in Nova Scotia and 15% in New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador and PEI (CRA rates). If your business is registered for GST/HST, how the tax on a business subscription is handled (charged and claimed back, or not charged at all) depends on your registration; ask your accountant. Canadian hosts like CanSpace charge GST/HST as Canadian businesses do. Themes and plugins priced in US dollars are billed in USD, so your bank's exchange rate and any foreign-transaction fee apply on top.
Which WordPress should you choose?
- WordPress.com if you want WordPress without running a server: no updates to apply, and you can still export everything and move later.
- Self-hosted if you want full control, specific plugins, Canadian data residency, or a developer who can work on it directly. Budget for upkeep, in time or money.
Either way, WordPress is the platform you can leave most easily: its export tool produces a standard file of your posts, pages, comments and users that any WordPress site can import. Our WordPress review covers the trade-offs, and Wix vs WordPress and Squarespace vs WordPress compare costs side by side.
When it's worth paying someone instead
We build and maintain WordPress sites, so weigh this with that in mind. Paying someone makes sense when:
- You'd rather run the business than run updates. A care plan covers updates, backups, security and small changes, with one person accountable.
- Your site is slow, was hacked, or has 40 plugins nobody remembers installing. Cleanup is a fixed job, not an ongoing cost; see WordPress development.
- You need a custom theme, bilingual content or proper accessibility, which are hard to bolt onto a bought theme.
Tell us what you have and you'll get a fixed price in CAD. The free website check shows the obvious problems on any WordPress site in about a minute.
Questions people ask
Is WordPress free?
The WordPress software is free. You pay for hosting and a domain, and often for a theme or plugins. WordPress.com also has a free plan, but it shows ads and uses a wordpress.com address.
How much does WordPress.com cost in Canada?
Billed yearly: $5 a month for Personal, $10 for Premium, $33 for Business and $59 for Commerce, in CAD and excluding taxes. Month-to-month billing costs $12 to $91 a month.
How much does a self-hosted WordPress site cost per year?
About $72 a year for basic Canadian hosting and a .ca domain with a free theme, and about $238 with a premium theme and form plugin. The bigger cost is upkeep: updates, backups and security, in your time or a care plan's fee.
Is WordPress.com or self-hosted WordPress better for a small business?
WordPress.com is simpler because hosting and updates are handled. Self-hosted gives you full control and any plugin, but someone has to maintain it. Both let you export your content and move later.
Sources
Each checked October 22, 2026. Platforms change prices often; their own page is the final word.
- WordPress.com: Pricing (CAD when viewed from Canada)
- CanSpace: Canadian web hosting plans (CAD)
- CanSpace: .ca domain pricing (CAD)
- GeneratePress: Pricing (USD)
- Gravity Forms: Pricing (USD)
- Bank of Canada: Daily exchange rates (USD/CAD 1.4057 on 2026-10-21)
- WordPress.org Documentation: Tools Export screen
- Canada Revenue Agency: GST/HST for digital economy businesses
- Canada Revenue Agency: GST/HST rates by province