Trade Comparison
Joomla vs WordPress — You will inherit a Joomla site — the question is what you charge
A new client has arrived with a Joomla site somebody built in 2019, and you have to decide whether you are maintaining it, rebuilding it, or declining it.
Straight answer first
Price maintenance on a site you did not build as an unknown until you have audited it, and quote a rebuild the moment the audit shows extensions nobody maintains — because inherited Joomla sites are usually a staffing question wearing a technical costume.
Nobody in this trade picks Joomla for a new client in the ordinary course of things. What happens instead is that a Joomla site walks through the door attached to a business you want to work with, and the commercial skill is deciding quickly what that site is worth to you.
Written by the Hosting Seller staff · Checked 24 August 2026
99.9%
Uptime commitment held
24/7
Cover behind your desk
Free
SSL on every client site
NVMe
Disks under the accounts
The comparison that matters here is not feature against feature. It is a question about your next two years: who on your side can maintain this, how easily can you replace them, and what does that make the retainer worth?
Both platforms are perfectly capable. One has a very large pool of people who know it and an ecosystem where almost anything has already been solved; the other is more structured out of the box and considerably harder to hire for.
Inheriting a stack you did not choose
Start with an audit rather than a quote. What version is it on, how far behind is that, which extensions are installed, which of those are still maintained, and what happens if one of them is abandoned tomorrow?
Charge for the audit. It is real work, it is genuinely useful to the client whatever they decide, and it prevents the far worse outcome where you quote a monthly figure blind and discover the situation afterwards.
Also find out who else has touched it. Inherited sites usually carry a history of small modifications made directly to files by people who have left, and those are the changes that break during an update.
Who can maintain it next year
This is the deciding question, and it is about people rather than software. If one person on your side knows the platform, your retainer has a single point of failure and your holiday cover is theoretical.
WordPress is easier to staff, easier to subcontract and easier to hand over. That is worth real money in a small business, and it is why the pragmatic recommendation for most agencies is to consolidate inherited sites onto the platform they already run at scale.
None of which means telling a happy client their site is wrong. A well-maintained Joomla site that does its job is not a problem to be solved; it is a client to be supported at a price that reflects the scarcity of the skill.
Quoting the rebuild honestly
If the audit points at a rebuild, quote it as a project with named stages: content migration, template rebuild, functionality replacement, redirect mapping, testing and launch. Vague rebuild quotes are how agencies lose money on work they were right to recommend.
The functionality replacement stage is where the surprises live. Anything the old site did through an extension needs an equivalent, and 'roughly equivalent' is a conversation you should have before the invoice, not after.
Redirect mapping is not optional either. The client's existing search visibility is an asset they are paying you not to break, and a rebuild that quietly drops a hundred URLs is a rebuild you will be arguing about in three months.
Hosting both while you decide
You do not have to choose the platform to take the client. Both sit happily on the same reseller account, in separate cPanel accounts with their own limits, both with free SSL, daily backups and Imunify360 watching them.
That gives you a sensible sequence: migrate the hosting in first — it is free, it is quick, and it puts the site somewhere you can see it — then audit properly, then advise. Being the host makes the audit easier and makes you the obvious choice for whatever comes next.
Softaculous handles either installation in one click when the time comes, so the eventual rebuild starts from a clean, standard base rather than an inherited one.
One shelf, whatever they arrive on
Client sites turn up on whatever the last agency chose. Reseller accounts hold all of them side by side — a cPanel account each, limits you set, and the same security and backup arrangements regardless of platform.
Migration in is free, so taking over the hosting for an inherited site costs you nothing and puts the site somewhere you can actually inspect before you quote anything.
- Any CMS, same account structure
- Free migration for inherited sites
- One-click installs for the rebuild
- Backups and security on every tier
Why Hosting Seller
On every plan, as standard
Take the client before the platform
Move the hosting in free, then audit at leisure with the site somewhere you can see it properly.
Same operations either way
Separate accounts, package limits, daily backups and malware watching regardless of what the last agency installed.
A clean base for the rebuild
One-click installs across 240+ applications, so a replacement site starts standard rather than inheriting anyone's habits.
Staging for risky updates
Test an update on a copy first, which matters most on a site whose modification history you do not know.
Escalation while you learn it
Real people answering you at any hour, which is worth having when the stack is not one you chose.
Predictable hosting cost
Free setup and a renewal price matching the order price, so an inherited client's hosting line is stable from day one.
Price Tags Compared
How we compare with the household names
Typical sign-up and renewal prices across the market, set next to ours — the second number most comparison charts leave off.
| Line item | Hosting SellerBest seller | Typical big-brand host | Typical budget host | Typical loss-leader |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Entry price / mo* | $2.42/mo | $4–$6 | $2–$4 | $1–$3 |
| Price at renewal / mo | $2.42/mo | $10–$15 | $8–$12 | $4–$6 |
| Renewal price on the entry plan is unchanged | ||||
| SSL on every plan | ||||
| Site migration included | ||||
| The entry plan uses NVMe storage | ||||
| Entry plan gets a backup daily | ||||
| Live human support, 24/7 |
*The number in our column is the cheapest plan on our shelf, priced on an annual term and pulled live from the very catalogue that feeds the pricing page, so it cannot drift out of date. Other columns show the ranges shared hosting tends to advertise inside each bracket: introductory rates that normally ask for a one-to-four-year commitment, then climb once that term expires. Naming individual competitors and printing their prices is something we have stopped doing. A figure we cannot re-check on the day you read it has no business sitting in front of you. So compare us with whoever you are genuinely weighing up, and read the renewal line first. That line tells you more than the headline ever will.
First Steps
From choosing to live
- 1
Charge for the audit before you quote anything
Version, extensions, maintenance status, modification history. It is real work, it is useful to the client either way, and quoting blind is how retainers go wrong.
- 2
Migrate the hosting first
Free, quick and low-risk. Being the host makes every subsequent decision easier and makes you the obvious candidate for the rebuild.
- 3
Name who covers it when someone is away
A retainer that depends on one person knowing an unusual platform is not a retainer, it is an exposure.
- 4
Quote rebuilds in named stages
Content, template, functionality, redirects, testing, launch. The functionality stage is where the surprises are, so price it explicitly.
In the Box
Packed with every plan
- A separate cPanel account for every inherited client site
- Free migration in, whatever platform the site arrives on
- One-click installs across 240+ applications for the rebuild
- Staging copies for testing updates on a site you did not build
- Daily backups with restores you can run at account level
- Imunify360 on guard on every client site
- Free SSL issued and reissued on every site you host
- Package limits you set, so an inherited site cannot overrun a neighbour
- Private nameservers so a later move needs no client involvement
- Free setup, with the renewal price matching the order price
Across the Counter
Things people ask us all the time
A new client's site is on Joomla. Do I quote maintenance or a rebuild?
Neither until you have audited it, and charge for the audit. Look at the version gap, the installed extensions, whether those are still maintained and what has been modified directly in files. A well-kept site is a supportable client; an abandoned extension stack is a rebuild wearing a maintenance quote.
How do I price a rebuild onto another platform?
In named stages: content migration, template rebuild, functionality replacement, redirect mapping, testing and launch. Price the functionality stage explicitly, because everything the old site did through an extension needs an equivalent, and 'roughly equivalent' is a conversation for before the invoice.
Can both platforms live on the same reseller account?
Yes, in separate cPanel accounts with their own limits, and with the same free SSL, daily backups and malware watching on each. That is what lets you take over the hosting immediately and decide about the platform later, which is nearly always the right sequence commercially.
What do I say to a client who wants to keep Joomla?
That it is a reasonable choice, and that the retainer reflects a scarcer skill and slower cover. Do not manufacture a technical argument for a commercial preference. Price it honestly, say who maintains it and what happens when that person is away, and let the client decide with real information.
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