How much does a business blog cost?

To compare like with like, this table prices the same job: 4 articles a month of 1,300 words each, close to the 1,312-word average in Orbit Media's 2026 survey of 1,042 content marketers. The monthly and yearly figures are our arithmetic on published rates, checked on 1 November 2026, before tax. They are reference points, not quotes.

Each row rests on one public source, so you can check it or swap in a quote you received.

• You: Orbit Media's 2026 survey puts the average post at 3 hours 20 minutes. Four posts are 13 hours 20 minutes a month.
• Human content service: Verblio lists $0.16 per word with no platform fee. Its hybrid of AI and human editing is $0.06 per word plus $49.50 a month, which comes to about $362 a month for the same job.
• Freelance writer: the Editorial Freelancers Association's 2026 rate chart, based on more than 1,100 members, gives 25 to 45 cents per word for work-for-hire blog posts. These are experienced professionals, and plenty of writers charge less.
• Agency: WebFX, a US agency, publishes $150 to $600 per blog post. Its content marketing plans run $1,800, $3,600 or $6,000 a month, and its page puts agency retainers at $1,000 to $20,000 a month. A retainer usually covers more than writing, so ask what is inside it.
• Automated service: Uisdom costs €29.99 a month for 3 articles a week, about 13 a month.

Most prices cover writing and little else. Four other lines decide what the blog really costs.

• Your time. Someone has to explain your services, answer questions and approve drafts. If each review takes 30 minutes, an assumption you can replace with your own, four articles take 2 hours a month. Google also advises checking AI-written content for accuracy, so review time doesn't disappear with software.
• Topics. A writer paid per word won't always research what your customers search for. Check whether finding topics is included, or use the free blog content calendar and these post ideas for local businesses.
• Hosting. If your website already has a blog, this is zero. If it doesn't, WordPress.com plans run from $4 to $25 a month billed yearly, before tax. A subdomain of your own domain adds nothing: see which blog domain to use.
• Images. Free stock photos are fine if the licence allows commercial use. Check it, because an image copied from a search result can cost far more than a photo licence.

Writing the blog yourself looks free. Multiply the hours by what an hour of your work earns before you decide. At €50 an hour, 13 hours 20 minutes is about €667 a month and €8,000 a year, close to what a content service would charge.

That sum isn't an argument against writing. A physiotherapist explaining a shoulder injury knows things no outside writer knows, and that knowledge is what makes an article worth reading. The trouble is usually consistency: the blog stops in the first busy month, which is why how often you publish should match the hours you can really protect.

Start from what a new customer is worth, not from a price list. Take the yearly cost and divide it by the profit from one customer. That gives the number of customers the blog must bring in to pay for itself.

With €200 profit per customer, €360 a year needs 2 customers. €8,000 a year needs 40. With €5,000 profit per customer, as with some law firms or B2B suppliers, even a $15,600 budget can make sense. This is a way to size the bet, not a forecast: nobody can tell you in advance how many customers a blog will bring. Plan for a full year, because articles need time to be found, and read how to get customers from Google to see how the channel works.

1. Write down the profit from one typical customer.
2. Decide how many articles you can review each month. That sets your real volume.
3. Multiply the price per article by that volume, then by 12.
4. Divide by the profit per customer and ask whether that number feels reachable in a year.
5. If it doesn't, choose a cheaper option or publish less, rather than start and stop.

Price alone won't choose for you. A cheap article that repeats what ten other pages say is worth little, and so is an expensive one. Google's guidance is the same whoever writes: AI can help, but mass-producing pages that add no value may breach its spam policy on scaled content abuse. Whatever you buy, each article should contain facts from your business.

• Write it yourself if you enjoy it and can protect a few hours every week.
• Hire a freelance writer if your subject is specialised, a customer is worth a lot, and you can brief them well.
• Use an agency if you also need strategy and reporting, and the budget survives a full year.
• Use a content service if you want human writing on a modest budget and can write clear briefs.
• Use an automated service if the alternative is no blog at all, and you can spare time to review.
• Before you pay for any of these, make sure the blog has a home. If your website isn't ready, see how much a website costs and how to start a business blog.