Having you own name and control over your digital presence does not come for free, but it might be cheaper than you think.

The domain

A domain is paid for a year in advance and some can be paid further in advance, up to 10 years. The cost varies by TLD (the part behind the last dot), in 2022 a .com or .net is $8.57 annually, a .org $10.11 with Cloudflare. Country domains are usually between $5 and $15 per year. Some companies to buy domains from (registrar) are Namecheap, GoDaddy, Porkbun and Cloudflare usually offering DNS (to point the domain to hosting) as well.

Hosting

Your space on the web where the files, such as images for the website, are located. In most cases includes databases to store text and other values for a CMS, such as WordPress. Cost for (shared) hosting varies by other features and location, some countries are cheaper than others. You should choose a location close to your audience at first. Realistic, basic offers start from about $2 a month, maybe cheaper when paid a year or more in advance.

Usually includes email mailboxes, in any form you want, like yourname@your-domain.com.

Packages

For convenience most companies offer packages of domain and hosting, with email and additional services to operate one or more websites.

SSL certificates

Basic certificates (example Let’s Encrypt) don’t cost money, those are enough for normal people and good hosting will include them.