WordPress is launching a $5 web hosting starter plan

WordPress introduces a new website hosting plan that combines a custom domain name, a generous amount of storage space, and the ability to accept payments on your website for as little as $5 a month.

It’s called WordPress Starter(Opens in a new window), and hosts your website on WordPress managed hosting along with a promise of unlimited website traffic. In exchange for your monthly $5, WordPress offers a custom domain name for free for the first year, as well as 6GB of storage for any photos and images needed on your site.

WordPress offers three options for accepting payments. The Donation Form Block allows you to accept credit and debit card payments for donations, contributions, and tips. The premium content block allows you to accept one-time, monthly, or yearly payments for exclusive original content of any type, including images, text, and videos. Finally, the Payment Button block allows you to accept payments and create paid subscriptions with the Stripe payment service.

WordPress also has Google Analytics built into the starter plan, which should allow you to keep an eye on how much traffic your site is getting, as well as insights into the types of content that are performing best.

WordPress Starter is a nice improvement over the free plan, which limits storage to just 1GB and doesn’t include a custom domain. If your site outgrows the Starter plan, the WordPress Pro plan is available for $15 per month. It increases the storage limit to 50GB, adds a full suite of ecommerce and payment tools, and unlocks a whole host of other features including premium themes, expert support, and the ability to earn ad revenue on your website.