How much does an ecommerce website cost?

Ecommerce pricing is harder to pin down than brochure-site pricing because the real cost is split across three buckets: build, monthly platform/app fees and transaction fees. A store that looks cheap to build can quietly cost you £8,000 a year in app subscriptions and payment processing. Here's how the numbers actually shake out in 2026.

Build cost by platform

Shopify theme customisation (£1,500–£4,500): Pick a paid theme (£150–£350), customise colours, fonts, hero sections and product templates, configure shipping and tax, and you're live in 3–5 weeks. Great for first-time merchants with under 200 products.

Custom Shopify build (£4,500–£15,000): Bespoke design, custom sections, Liquid templating, app integrations and conversion-optimised PDPs. Worth it once you're doing £20k+/month and the theme stops keeping up with your roadmap.

WooCommerce store (£3,000–£12,000): WordPress + WooCommerce gives you near-total control with no transaction fees. Build cost is similar to Shopify but ongoing costs are roughly half. Best for content-heavy stores, subscription products, or anyone with serious SEO ambitions.

Headless / bespoke (£15,000–£80,000): Next.js, Remix or TanStack Start on the front, Shopify, BigCommerce or a custom backend behind it. Sub-second page loads, unlimited design freedom, and the engineering bill to match. Justified once revenue is £1m+ or page speed is a competitive moat.

Monthly platform fees

Shopify: Basic £19/month, Shopify £49/month, Advanced £259/month, Plus from £1,800/month. WooCommerce: technically free, but realistic managed hosting runs £30–£200/month (Kinsta, WP Engine, SiteGround eCommerce). BigCommerce: $39–$399/month. Adobe Commerce (Magento): from £15,000/year for the licence alone.

Transaction and payment fees

This is where the lifetime cost gap opens up. Shopify charges 0.5–2% extra on top of card fees if you use anything other than Shopify Payments. Stripe is 1.5% + 20p UK / 2.5% + 20p international. PayPal is similar but with worse dispute handling. On a store doing £500k/year, a 0.5% Shopify penalty is £2,500 you didn't see coming. WooCommerce takes zero platform cut — only the gateway's fee.

Apps, plugins and the long tail

A "real" Shopify store typically runs Klaviyo (£20–£500/month), a reviews app (£10–£60/month), an upsell app (£15–£100/month), a shipping rules app (£10–£30/month), a tax app for VAT (£10–£40/month) and a loyalty app (£25–£300/month). That's £100–£1,000/month before you've made a sale. WooCommerce equivalents are usually one-off licences renewing at 50% per year — cheaper but less polished.

Three-year total cost comparison

For a store doing £200k revenue/year over 3 years: Shopify (theme + apps + transaction fees): £18,000–£28,000 total. WooCommerce (custom build + hosting + plugins): £12,000–£20,000 total. Bespoke headless: £40,000–£90,000 total but typically delivers 15–30% better conversion. Pick based on your roadmap, not the upfront sticker price.