A HubSpot CMS website usually looks more expensive up front because the platform bundles costs that are often hidden elsewhere. Think security, hosting, updates, and some operational tools, too. But the right question shouldn’t be what’s the cheapest, but what’s your total cost of ownership over three years.
Quick note: HubSpot CMS Hub is now packaged as Content Hub. When people say HubSpot CMS today, they usually mean Content Hub.
Platform (Content Hub subscription): from $/month up to $1,500/month depending on tier and seats
Website build (design and development): this can typically be in the thousands, depending on the scope and complexity of your website and the platform you use
Ongoing maintenance: HubSpot often reduces cost and risk here compared to other platforms, where you need to purchase separate plug-ins in what becomes an ‘assemble it yourself’ stack
HubSpot CMS can look more expensive up front because it’s a platform where costs are shown line by line. There’s nothing hidden. Everything is transparent. With alternatives like WordPress, many costs are distributed across hosting, security, plugins, maintenance, emergency fixes, and specialist developer time. So you don’t always see the total until year two or three.
The key reframing here is that while some platforms like WordPress feel cheaper to buy, HubSpot CMS feels cheaper to own. That doesn’t mean HubSpot is always cheaper, though. It simply means comparisons only make sense when you compare total cost of ownership, not just the subscription price.
When you’re considering investing in HubSpot’s Content Hub for your website, think of it in three layers.
HubSpot positions Content Hub as:
When you’re involved in HubSpot website costs, this is what you need to watch out for:
This is where tens of thousands in design and development costs can become real. But the build cost isn’t driven by a comparison between HubSpot and platforms like WordPress, but more by what you’re actually building.
Believe it or not, most teams don’t actually overpay for HubSpot. The underscope governance and component quality, and then pay for it later when they experience friction.
These are the hidden line items. Ongoing costs are where your finance and RevOps team will focus most, as they affect:
When marketing teams can’t safely update pages on time, they queue endless tickets. This creates:
This is where HubSpot CMS/Content Hub shines. You get a drag-and-drop editor experience that completely flips the dependency model. You can create and update pages without developers stepping in, test and iterate faster, and reduce the number of small changes that consume developer time.
This is a key operational cost level and shouldn’t be treated as a nice-to-have.
On platforms like WordPress, some of the hidden costs you typically pay for in some form include:
Even if those costs fall to IT or are part of a retainer, they’re still costs you end up paying that you didn’t initially budget for.
With open source CMS setups, security responsibility, and therefore the costs, often sit with you.
While it’s fine to accept higher software costs if they reduce risk exposure, the downside is that the trade-off is rarely clearly explained.
Another area where costs are underestimated outside HubSpot is the fragmented tech stack. These create friction costs through:
Even if each tool seems cheap, the overall operating model becomes expensive.
The choice typically comes down to a HubSpot CMS website or a WordPress website. Taking a long-term view of your HubSpot website can often show moderate to huge savings compared to a WordPress alternative.
The table below outlines five key ways HubSpot CMS/Content Hub helps you save money over the typical three-year lifespan of your website. That’s because you aren’t paying for security costs, there’s reduced need for added development, you don’t need to pay for plugin subscriptions, you get free hosting, and there are no maintenance requirements.
|
HubSpot |
WordPress |
Annual saving |
3-year saving |
|
|
Security cost As WordPress is open-source, the website owner needs to manage the security, which can cost between £200-£800 per year. HubSpot CMS/Content Hub manages this for free. |
£0 (included) |
£200-£800 |
£200-£800 |
£600-£2,400 |
|
Ongoing dev costs HubSpot is built for marketers with a no-code solution, meaning development needs are limited to new module requirements. Depending on requirements, ongoing development with a WordPress website can cost thousands per year. |
£0-£2,000 |
£0-£10,000 |
£0-£800 |
£0-£24,000 |
|
Plugins HubSpot is an all-in-one solution that requires no plugins. WordPress websites usually require plugins, many of which have monthly or annual fees. |
£0 (included) |
£0-£800 |
£0-£800 |
£0-£2,400 |
|
Hosting Hosting is included out of the box with HubSpot CMS/Content Hub vs other CMS options. |
£0 (included) |
£50-£300 |
£50-£300 |
£0-£900 |
|
Maintenance WordPress requires regular maintenance, including backing up, updating plugins, and installing new WordPress versions. None of this is required with HubSpot CMS/Content Hub. |
£0 (not required) |
£600-£6,000 |
£600-£6,000 |
£1,800-£18,000 |
|
Totals |
£850-£15,900 |
£2,550-£47,700 |
Based on the costs of both HubSpot CMS/Content Hub and WordPress, you can save up to £15,000 annually, or even £47,700 from a three-year savings perspective.
Remember, these are typical cost ranges you’re likely to see in the market. Not promises and not universal. These can vary depending on your needs. Plus, these costs often sit in different budgets, from IT and marketing to external agencies, which is why the total cost often gets underestimated.
Also, volatility matters. Websites on platforms like WordPress have costs that are usually fine, until they aren’t when you consider urgent fixes, incident response, rushed rebuilds, and so on.
With a website on HubSpot CMS/Content Hub, you often avoid or reduce spending on:
While this doesn’t always mean it’s £0 forever, it does make the cost model more predictable and less fragmented.
When choosing a website CMS, you should be able to say no with confidence. While HubSpot CMS/Content Hub is a strong option if you value speed, governance, and operational clarity, it’s not the right choice for you if:
If your website rarely changes, it won’t influence your pipeline, and you have no plans to scale digital activity, then paying for a more capable CMS like HubSpot Content Hub may not be the best use of your budget, as you won’t leverage HubSpot’s operational advantages.
If you won’t use, or aren’t planning to use, HubSpot’s CRM platform, marketing automation, or reporting in any meaningful way to get the full connected system value, then you’ll end up paying for a complete system that you won’t leverage.
If the primary KPI is to build the cheapest website possible, HubSpot may feel misaligned and will lose on paper, even if it wins on ownership cost and risk reduction over three years.
A practical way to evaluate your CMS investment is to separate the software cost from the ownership cost.
A CMS decision should go beyond the first year because most organisations live with the operating model for multiple years. Think of it like this:
Speed has a price. If a new product or service page takes three weeks instead of three days, that delay has a cost:
Software is just one line item. Ownership also includes:
When you finally consider all of the above, this is where many ‘cheap’ websites suddenly become expensive. While WordPress often looks cheaper at the start, HubSpot often looks cheaper, or at least more predictable, over time.
If you’re debating between HubSpot CMS/Content Hub and another CMS, don’t judge it by cost alone. Judge it by what it costs you to run a reliable, secure, and high-performing website for the next three years.
Also, think about aspects like developer dependency, maintenance overhead, and the cost of delay when your team can’t move quickly. Once you view the decision through that lens, the upfront cost becomes a clear tradeoff between fragmented costs and predictable ownership.