Key answer: In 2026 an online store with a custom storefront on a ready-made platform (WooCommerce, PrestaShop, Shopify) typically costs €6,000–17,000. A WooCommerce build is usually €6,000–15,000, Shopify €6,000–17,000, and tailor-made platforms start from around €20,000. On top of the build, budget for running costs – hosting or the platform subscription, payment and transaction fees, and technical care, usually €70–350 monthly.
Table of contents
The short answer
An online store with a custom storefront costs €6,000–17,000 on a ready-made platform (WooCommerce, PrestaShop, Shopify) in 2026, and a tailor-made platform starts from around €20,000. That's only half the answer to how much an online store costs, though. The other half is the running costs: hosting or a subscription, fees and technical care. Below we break both halves into components, so you know what you're actually comparing in quotes.
What does each platform cost to build?
The starting point is similar across the ready-made platforms; the differences show up in running costs and flexibility.
WooCommerce development cost: €6,000–15,000. A custom storefront design, payments and shipping configured, integrations with accounting or warehouse systems. Simpler builds on a refined theme can come in lower. The platform takes no commission on sales, so fixed costs stay low. PrestaShop builds price out similarly.
Shopify: €6,000–17,000. The build itself costs much the same as WooCommerce; the difference appears later – a subscription from about $29 monthly, transaction fees and paid apps. In return you get zero-maintenance infrastructure that withstands any traffic.
Custom platform: from ~€20,000. A tailor-made build (often headless, i.e. your own frontend plus specialised APIs) makes sense for non-standard processes: B2B sales with individual price lists, product configurators, deep ERP integrations. Allow 3–6+ months of build time.
If you're still choosing a platform, we've covered the decision criteria in a separate comparison. Here we stick to the money.
What actually makes up the build cost?
- Design: the biggest variable. A refined theme costs a fraction of the budget; a custom product page, basket and checkout is weeks of a designer's work that pays back in conversion.
- Integrations: payments, couriers, accounting, warehouse. Each one is hours of configuration and testing, and ERP integrations can raise the budget in steps.
- Data migration: products, customers, order history and a 301 redirect map that protects your Google rankings. When moving from another platform, it's a separate, quotable line item.
- Content: category and product descriptions plus photography. Often missing from quotes, yet without them the store neither sells nor ranks.
- Analytics: full e-commerce tracking (GA4 with purchase events, conversion funnels, abandoned baskets). Without it you'll never know which products and channels actually earn.
How much does it cost to run an online store?
On WooCommerce or PrestaShop, budget €70–350 monthly for hosting plus technical care, depending on scale and integrations – a few thousand euros over three years. Shopify has a different structure: a subscription from about $29 monthly, transaction fees and apps that can raise fixed costs noticeably as you scale. Payment provider fees apply on every platform. A custom platform has no subscription, but it needs a team to maintain and develop it.
So instead of comparing build prices, calculate the total cost of ownership over 3 years: build, subscriptions, fees, apps, care and development. A cheap start with high fixed costs is often the most expensive option in that table.
How do you read store quotes?
Compare scopes, not totals. Ask every bidder to itemise: how many templates are designed, which integrations are included, who migrates the data and prepares the content, what the analytics covers, what the running costs will be. Two quotes "for a store" differing twofold usually describe two different products.
Red flags: a price given without a conversation about your product range and logistics, no redirect map for a migration, "free SEO", silence about fees and about who maintains the store after launch.
When does a store pay for itself?
A €15,000 store that lifts conversion from 1% to 2% through a well-designed checkout doubles sales from the same traffic. A €4,000 store where customers abandon their baskets costs you daily. Start the budget conversation not with the build price but with your margin, average basket value and the number of orders at which the investment breaks even. We treat store development as an investment project: with analytics, conversion goals and a plan of systematic optimisation after launch.
Want the numbers for your product range? Write to us and we'll map the build and running costs over 3 years.