Web Development
How much does an ecommerce website cost?
Written by: Tomas Pocius
Published: September 7, 2024
Key takeaways
Total setup costs for a basic ecommerce website, including SEO optimization for one year, by an inexpensive agency
Shopify - $6,853, Wix - $6,824, WooCommerce(WordPress) - $6,547.88, Squarespace - $6,836, Ecwid - $6,505, OpenCart - $7,213, Magento - $6,570.88, Weebly - $6,625, and BigCartel - $6,649.
Total setup costs for a basic ecommerce website, including SEO optimization for one year, by an Upwork freelancer
Shopify - $1,653, Wix - $1,624, WooCommerce(WordPress) - $1,347.88, Squarespace - $1,636, Ecwid - $1,305, OpenCart - $2,013, Magento - $1,370.88, Weebly - $1,425, and BigCartel - $1,449.
Total setup costs for a basic ecommerce website, including SEO optimization for one year, when you do it yourself
Shopify - $353, Wix - $324, WooCommerce(WordPress) - $47.88, Squarespace - $336, Ecwid - $5, OpenCart - $713, Magento - $70.88, Weebly - $125, and BigCartel - $149.
Minimal Requirements for an E-commerce Website
• Custom domain • Hosted on a server or through the e-commerce platform • Several products added • SEO-optimized pages (with continuous optimization over the course of a year) • Backlinks added (new backlinks consistently added throughout the year) • Admin dashboard with the ability to manage products and view orders • Functional e-commerce website enabling customers to place orders and make payments
Price calculations
Domain
Hostinger offers domain names for $4.99 for the first year if the domain is not included with a yearly platform subscription.
Hosting
If a subscription plan does not include hosting, the most affordable alternative on Hostinger will vary slightly in price depending on the e-commerce platform used to build the store.
Yearly subscription
The cheapest subscription plan or plugin on the platform to meet the minimal e-commerce website requirements stated above.
Design & development
If you're willing to handle the design and development yourself, it could cost as little as $0. Many platforms and plugins offer a wide selection of free e-commerce themes, with plenty of tutorials and resources available to help you customize them. Alternatively, you can hire someone on freelancing platforms like Upwork for as little as $100 to handle the development. However, keep in mind that, in most cases, they'll simply change colors and add your logo to a template, with minimal further customization. For a more personalized approach, you may need to hire someone more expensive. If you're looking for better client support and more customization, hiring a freelancer or agency offering more comprehensive services is a better option. The most affordable agency I found starts at $500, which typically covers the bare minimum to launch an e-commerce website. Additional functionalities are usually needed to make the store more efficient and scalable.
SEO
An e-commerce page is useless if people can’t find it. While using Google or Meta ads is common, combining ads with SEO is ideal. Since SEO can be done yourself for $0 and ad costs involve many variables, I’m focusing only on basic SEO costs. You can hire someone on Upwork to handle on-page SEO for around $50 and purchase backlinks for another $50. I’ve estimated $100 per month, as you would likely need to add new content or products regularly and build new backlinks to improve Google rankings. However, these backlinks are often of lower quality, and the on-page SEO might not be very thorough. For higher-quality work, you’d need to hire an agency or a more advanced freelancer. They typically offer better link-building strategies and more comprehensive on-page SEO services, starting at a minimum of $500 per month.
Total costs
As with everything, even the cheapest option depends on how much time you want to invest and the quality of the e-commerce website you need. The minimal price covers just the launch and basic SEO optimization. If you want to add plugins for extra functionality and run ads to be discovered from the start, the price would be significantly different.
Breakdown of total setup costs by an inexpensive agency
| Platform | Domain | Hosting | Yearly subscription | Design & Development | Yearly SEO | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shopify | $5 | $0 | $348 | $500 | $6000 | $6853 |
| Wix | $0 | $0 | $324 | $500 | $6000 | $6824 |
| Woocommerce(WordPress) | $0 | $47.88 | $0 | $500 | $6000 | $6547.88 |
| Squarespace | $0 | $0 | $336 | $500 | $6000 | $6836 |
| Ecwid | $5 | $0 | $0 | $500 | $6000 | $6505 |
| OpenCart | $5 | $708 | $0 | $500 | $6000 | $7213 |
| Magento | $5 | $65.88 | $0 | $500 | $6000 | $6570.88 |
| Weebly | $5 | $0 | $120 | $500 | $6000 | $6625 |
| BigCartel | $5 | $0 | $144 | $500 | $6000 | $6649 |
Breakdown of total setup costs by an Upwork freelancer
| Platform | Domain | Hosting | Yearly subscription | Design & Development | Yearly SEO | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shopify | $5 | $0 | $348 | $100 | $1200 | $1653 |
| Wix | $0 | $0 | $324 | $100 | $1200 | $1624 |
| Woocommerce(WordPress) | $0 | $47.88 | $0 | $100 | $1200 | $1347.88 |
| Squarespace | $0 | $0 | $336 | $100 | $1200 | $1636 |
| Ecwid | $5 | $0 | $0 | $100 | $1200 | $1305 |
| OpenCart | $5 | $708 | $0 | $100 | $1200 | $2013 |
| Magento | $5 | $65.88 | $0 | $100 | $1200 | $1370.88 |
| Weebly | $5 | $0 | $120 | $100 | $1200 | $1425 |
| BigCartel | $5 | $0 | $144 | $100 | $1200 | $1449 |
Breakdown of total setup costs when you do it yourself
| Platform | Domain | Hosting | Yearly subscription | Design & Development | Yearly SEO | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shopify | $5 | $0 | $348 | $0 | $0 | $353 |
| Wix | $0 | $0 | $324 | $0 | $0 | $324 |
| Woocommerce(WordPress) | $0 | $47.88 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $47.88 |
| Squarespace | $0 | $0 | $336 | $0 | $0 | $336 |
| Ecwid | $5 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $5 |
| OpenCart | $5 | $708 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $713 |
| Magento | $5 | $65.88 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $70.88 |
| Weebly | $5 | $0 | $120 | $0 | $0 | $125 |
| BigCartel | $5 | $0 | $144 | $0 | $0 | $149 |
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