How much does an ecommerce website cost to build?

Building an online store can cost anything from a few hundred euros to well over €100,000 — the spread is enormous because "ecommerce website" covers everything from a template Shopify shop to a bespoke platform. This guide separates the one-off build cost from the monthly running cost, gives real European SMB ranges for each route, and shows what actually moves the price. For the wider picture, see our pillar on how much a website costs in 2026.

Build cost vs running cost

Two very different numbers get muddled together when people ask what a store costs:

• Build cost — the one-off spend to get the shop live: platform setup, theme or custom design, product upload, and configuring features like payments and shipping.
• Running cost — what you pay every month afterwards: platform subscription, apps or plugins, hosting, and payment processing fees.

A cheap build can carry an expensive monthly bill, and vice versa. Both matter, so we cover them separately below. If you also want the full picture of stock, marketing and legal setup, our companion post on the cost to start an ecommerce business goes wider than the website alone.

Route 1: Hosted platforms (Shopify and similar)

Hosted platforms bundle software, hosting and security into one monthly fee, so the build cost is low — often just your time plus a theme. The trade-off is a recurring subscription and transaction fees.

Shopify's published plans (billed monthly) are Basic €27/mo, Grow €74/mo, and Advanced €384/mo, with roughly 25–30% off on annual billing; the enterprise Shopify Plus tier starts from around €2,100/mo. Card fees on Basic are 1.8% + €0.25 per online transaction using Shopify Payments, falling to 1.6% + €0.25 on Advanced. New stores get a 3-day trial then €1/month for the first three months. (Sources: Shopify pricing page.)

Realistic build spend on this route:

• DIY on a template: a paid theme is roughly €150–350 one-off, plus your own time. Total out-of-pocket build under €500.
• Freelancer or small studio setup: €1,500–6,000 to configure the theme, brand it, load the catalogue and wire up payments, shipping and a couple of apps.
• Agency build on a hosted platform: a polished, semi-custom Shopify or PrestaShop store typically lands at €10,000–35,000. (Source: European agency pricing surveys.)

The hidden cost here is apps. Subscriptions, advanced shipping rules, reviews, loyalty or upsell tools are mostly paid add-ons at roughly €5–50/mo each; three or four of them quietly add €40–150/mo to your running cost.

Route 2: Self-hosted open source (WooCommerce)

WooCommerce is a free, open-source plugin for WordPress — the software itself costs nothing, so the sticker looks cheap. The real spend is spread across hosting, a theme, and paid extensions.

• Hosting: budget shared hosting starts near €4/mo, but a store that needs to be fast usually sits at €10–40/mo on managed WordPress/WooCommerce hosting.
• Domain: roughly €10–20/year.
• Extensions: the big one is subscriptions or bookings — WooCommerce Subscriptions is around $199/year and Bookings around $249/year, with marketing tools like AutomateWoo near $99/year. A serious feature stack can run $500–2,500/year. (Source: WooCommerce.com extension marketplace and 2026 pricing breakdowns.)
• Payments: Stripe or WooPayments charge in the region of 2.9% + €0.30 per domestic card transaction, with surcharges for international cards and currency conversion.

Build spend on WooCommerce:

• Serious DIY store: a realistic first-year budget covering fast hosting, a premium theme and a few key extensions is €500–1,500.
• Professional build: €3,000–20,000+ depending on how much design and custom development you commission; a large, high-traffic custom marketplace can exceed €25,000.

Choosing between the two routes is a decision in its own right — we break down the trade-offs in Shopify vs WooCommerce vs custom.

Route 3: Fully custom builds

When an off-the-shelf platform can't handle your logic — complex B2B pricing, deep ERP or warehouse integrations, unusual product configurators — you move to a custom or headless build. This is where budgets climb: custom ecommerce platforms typically run €60,000–150,000, and top-tier consultancy engagements start higher still. European agency day rates sit around €45–100/hour in mid-market markets and €100–150/hour for specialist Shopify or luxury work, with Eastern European teams often €40–80/hour. (Source: European agency pricing surveys.)

Most SMBs never need this route. It's justified only when a feature you genuinely can't live without is impossible on a hosted or WooCommerce stack.

What actually drives the build price

Within any route, four things move the number the most:

• Catalogue size. Ten products is an afternoon; 5,000 SKUs with variants, translations and stock feeds is a project. Migrating an existing catalogue cleanly is often the single biggest line item.
• Design. A tweaked template is cheap. A bespoke, on-brand design with custom page layouts is where agency hours accumulate.
• Features. Simple card checkout is standard. Subscriptions, multi-currency, multi-language, marketplace/multi-vendor, and integrations (accounting, ERP, CRM, shipping carriers) each add build time and often a paid tool.
• Integrations. Every system your store must talk to — inventory, invoicing, a POS, a fulfilment partner — adds setup and testing.

To sketch your own figure against these factors, run it through our ecommerce cost estimator before you brief anyone.

Monthly running costs to budget for

Whatever you build, plan for the recurring bill, not just launch day. For a typical European SMB store:

• Platform / hosting: €0–74/mo hosted (Basic to Grow Shopify), or €10–40/mo self-hosted.
• Apps / extensions: €40–150/mo is common once you add subscriptions, shipping and marketing tools.
• Payment fees: roughly 1.6–2.9% + ~€0.25 per transaction — this scales with revenue, so at higher volumes it often dwarfs the subscription.
• Domain, email, security: €5–20/mo combined.

A modest, healthy store therefore usually runs €60–250/month all-in before payment fees, which then track your sales.

A realistic range for European SMBs

Pulling it together, typical build figures for European small businesses:

• Hosted DIY: under €500
• Hosted, done for you (freelancer/studio): €1,500–6,000
• Agency-built hosted or WooCommerce store: €10,000–35,000
• Fully custom platform: €60,000+

Most SMBs launching their first serious store land somewhere between €2,000 and €15,000 on the build, then €60–250/month to run it before card fees.

Where to go from here

The cheapest build isn't always the cheapest store — a low upfront cost can hide a heavy monthly bill or a platform you outgrow in a year. The right choice depends on your catalogue, your feature list, and how much you want to run yourself. If you'd like a straight answer for your specific case, see how we approach web development, or book a free consultation and we'll size it with you — no obligation.