The honest answer to “how much does an ecommerce website cost to set up” is a range that depends on the platform, the catalogue and how much you build versus install. This guide prices the three platforms most stores choose between — Shopify, WooCommerce and BigCommerce — line by line, then gives year-one budgets for three store sizes. It is platform-agnostic on purpose; the Shopify-only detail lives in the true cost of a Shopify store, the enterprise tier in Shopify Plus pricing, the step-by-step build in how to create a Shopify store, and the platform decision itself in BigCommerce vs Shopify.
The seven lines in every ecommerce budget
Whatever the platform, the money goes to the same seven places: the platform or software licence, hosting and security, the theme or design, development and setup work, apps or extensions, payment processing, and ongoing maintenance. Platforms differ in which lines they bundle and which they leave to you. Shopify and BigCommerce bundle hosting, security and updates into the subscription; WooCommerce gives you the software free and leaves hosting, security, updates and most features to you.
Platform and hosting
| Line | Shopify | WooCommerce | BigCommerce |
|---|---|---|---|
| Software | Basic $39/month ($29 billed yearly), Grow $105, Advanced $399 ($299 yearly); Plus from about $2,300/month | Free plugin on WordPress | Standard $39.95/month, Plus $105.95, Pro $399.95, Enterprise custom |
| Hosting, SSL, updates | Included | Your responsibility: managed WordPress or WooCommerce hosting, SSL, backups, plugin and core updates | Included |
| Transaction fees | None with Shopify Payments; 0.5–2% per sale on third-party gateways depending on plan | None from the platform; gateway rates only | None on any plan |
Plan prices are the platforms’ published monthly rates as of April 2026 and change; check the official pricing pages before budgeting. The WooCommerce line looks like zero and is not: hosting good enough for a store, a security and backup setup, and someone to apply updates every month are real recurring costs that Shopify and BigCommerce merchants never see as separate invoices.
Theme and design
All three platforms offer free themes that work and paid themes that look better and ship with more features. A paid theme is a one-off purchase in the low hundreds of dollars on any platform. Custom design is where budgets diverge: a designed and developed storefront costs the same order of magnitude everywhere because you are paying for people, not software. On our own Shopify projects, building a store typically costs between $3,000 and $12,000 for small and mid-size brands, and custom development runs from $2,000 to $20,000 or more depending on features. WooCommerce custom builds are similar for the design and often higher for development, because more of the store’s behaviour has to be coded or configured rather than switched on.
Development and setup work
Setup is the line most first-time owners underestimate. Products with variants and images, collections, navigation, shipping zones and rates, taxes, payment gateways, legal pages, email notifications, analytics and pixels, domain and DNS. On Shopify or BigCommerce a competent freelancer or agency does this in days for a small catalogue; on WooCommerce add the server, the plugin stack, caching and security hardening. If you are moving an existing store, migration is its own budget: our WooCommerce and BigCommerce to Shopify migrations typically range from $8,000 to $25,000, and Magento migrations from $15,000 to $50,000 or more, with small stores launching in 3–5 weeks and larger ones in 8–12 (see the migration service).
Apps and extensions
This is the recurring line that grows. Reviews, email marketing, subscriptions, loyalty, search and filtering, upsells, translation, returns: each is an app on Shopify (monthly, often free tiers), an extension on WooCommerce (often yearly licences), or partly built into BigCommerce on higher plans. A typical growing store carries several paid apps; on Shopify the monthly running cost including apps commonly lands between $100 and $500 for small and mid-size stores. BigCommerce’s built-in features (faceted search, customer groups, product options) can reduce this line; WooCommerce extension licences add up in the same way apps do, plus the plugin conflicts that come with them.
Payment processing
Card processing rates apply everywhere and are set by the processor, not the platform. The platform difference is the extra transaction fee: Shopify charges 0.5% to 2% per sale when you use a gateway other than Shopify Payments (and nothing with it); BigCommerce charges none; WooCommerce charges none. For a store that must use a particular gateway, this line alone can decide the platform; for a store on Shopify Payments it is zero.
Ongoing maintenance
Shopify and BigCommerce maintain the platform; you maintain the theme and apps. WooCommerce owners maintain WordPress core, WooCommerce, the theme, every plugin, PHP versions, backups and security — or pay a host or developer to. Budget either a monthly retainer or a realistic number of your own hours; the stores that skip this line are the ones that get hacked or break on an update.
Year-one budgets by store size
Starter: one founder, under 50 products
Shopify or BigCommerce entry plan, a free or paid theme, DIY setup with a few hours of paid help, two or three apps. Year one lands in the low thousands on any platform, with WooCommerce cheaper on software and more expensive in your time.
Growing: a small team, hundreds of products, marketing budget
Mid-tier plan, a customized theme, professional setup or migration, five to ten apps or extensions, some custom development. Using our Shopify figures — a $3,000–$12,000 build plus $100–$500 a month running — year one sits roughly between $5,000 and $20,000 on any of the three platforms, with the mix shifting between subscriptions and development depending on platform.
Scaling: seven-figure revenue, integrations, several markets
Advanced plans or Shopify Plus, custom theme, ERP or fulfilment integrations, a development retainer. Shopify Plus’s platform fee alone is about $27,600 a year on a three-year term, and for brands generating over $1 million in monthly revenue the overall Shopify cost including advanced integrations and custom features can reach $20,000–$100,000 or more per month. BigCommerce Enterprise is priced individually; WooCommerce at this scale means dedicated hosting and an engineering team. At this level the platform subscription is the smallest line and development is the largest, whichever you choose.
A worked example: a 200-product apparel brand
Take a brand with 200 products, a few thousand customers, two markets and a small team, and price year one on each platform with the lines above.
- Shopify. Grow plan at $105 a month, a paid theme customized in the editor, professional setup, five apps (reviews, email, search, returns, size guide), Shopify Payments so no transaction fee. Build in the $3,000–$12,000 band, running costs within the $100–$500 a month band including apps. Year one: roughly $5,000–$18,000 depending on how much of the theme is custom.
- BigCommerce. Plus plan at $105.95, a paid theme, professional setup, fewer apps because faceted search and customer groups are built in, any gateway with no platform fee. The subscription and app lines are similar or slightly lower; theme and setup work costs the same because it is people; year one lands in the same band.
- WooCommerce. No software fee, managed hosting and security as a monthly line, a paid theme, extensions on yearly licences for reviews, email, search and returns, and a developer for setup, caching and updates. Software is cheaper, development and maintenance are higher; year one is often the same total with more of it in labour and more of it recurring.
The point of the example is not that one platform wins on price; it is that at this size the platform subscription is under a fifth of the budget and the decision should be made on fit, not on the plan price.
Before a full store: the cheaper first step
If you are validating a product rather than launching a brand, you do not need the full budget yet. Shopify’s Starter plan at $5 a month sells through social media, messaging apps and link-in-bio pages with a simple storefront; marketplaces such as Etsy or Amazon give you customers without a site; and a single-product store on an entry plan with a free theme costs little more than the domain. Spend on the full store once orders prove the demand, and choose the platform then with the year-one sheet above.
Hidden costs to put in the sheet before you start
- Product photography and copy, which no platform includes.
- Domain, email hosting, and business tools that sit outside the store.
- Migration and redirects if you are replacing an existing site.
- Accessibility and privacy compliance work for the markets you sell in.
- The second theme or redesign eighteen months in, because the first one was chosen in a hurry.
How to keep the number down
- Launch on a good paid theme before commissioning a custom design; customize it in the editor first.
- Install apps only for problems you have, not problems you expect.
- Use the platform’s native payments to avoid transaction fees where you can.
- Pay for setup by someone who has done it before; fixing a wrong tax or shipping setup later costs more than doing it right.
- Choose the platform for the store you will have in two years, not the cheapest first month; a migration is the most expensive line of all.
If you want the sheet filled in for your catalogue and markets, send us the basics and we will return a year-one estimate on Shopify with the lines above, including where BigCommerce or WooCommerce would be cheaper for your case.
