If you are planning an online store, one of the first questions is simple: how much does a Shopify store cost? The honest answer is that it depends on what you need, but the costs always fall into the same few buckets. Once you understand them, you can budget with confidence and compare quotes fairly.
This guide breaks down every cost, explains what drives the price up or down, and shows where it makes sense to spend and where to save.
The short answer
A Shopify store has two kinds of cost:
- Running costs you pay every month: your Shopify plan, apps, transaction fees and your domain.
- Build costs you pay once: theme, design, development, product setup and any migration.
A simple store built on a ready-made theme can launch with a modest budget. A fully custom store with complex features, integrations and a large catalogue costs considerably more. The rest of this article explains where your store is likely to sit.
Shopify store price at a glance
These are typical ranges you will see in the US market in 2026. They are a guide for budgeting, not a quote: the right price for your store depends on your products, features and timeline.
| Cost | Typical range | Paid |
|---|---|---|
| Shopify plan | Check Shopify's pricing page (several tiers; annual billing is cheaper) | Monthly |
| Premium theme | A few hundred dollars | Once |
| Apps | $0 to a few hundred dollars, depending on how many you use | Monthly |
| Domain | Around $10 to $20 | Yearly |
| Professional store setup on a theme | Low thousands of dollars | Once |
| Custom theme design and development | Mid to high thousands, more for complex stores | Once |
| Migration from another platform | Depends on catalogue size and data | Once |
The biggest single variable is design and development: how much of the store is customised versus taken straight from a theme.
Example budgets
1. Starter store. A new brand with a small catalogue, a premium theme customised with its logo and colours, and a handful of essential apps. The lowest cost to launch, and a sensible way to test the market.
2. Growing brand. A customised theme with tailored product pages, a few custom sections, email marketing, reviews and conversion-focused design. The most common choice for brands that already have sales and want to grow them.
3. Established or complex store. A fully custom theme, large catalogue, integrations with inventory or ERP systems, subscriptions or wholesale pricing, and possibly a migration. The highest investment, built to support serious volume.
For a real example, see how we took a new beauty brand from idea to a branded Shopify store in our Beauties Breeze case study.
Monthly running costs
Shopify plan
Every store needs a Shopify subscription. Shopify offers several plans, from an entry-level plan for new stores up to Shopify Plus for high-volume brands. Higher plans add features such as more staff accounts, better reporting and lower card processing rates. Check Shopify's pricing page for current prices, as they change from time to time and annual billing is cheaper than monthly.
Most new and growing stores do not need Shopify Plus. It becomes worthwhile at high sales volumes, or when you need features such as checkout customisation, B2B wholesale or several storefronts.
Payment and transaction fees
If you use Shopify Payments, you pay a card processing fee on each sale, which is lower on higher plans. If you use a third-party payment provider instead, Shopify adds an extra transaction fee on top of that provider's charges. For most stores, Shopify Payments works out cheaper.
Apps
Apps add features such as product reviews, email marketing, subscriptions, upsells and advanced search. Many have free tiers, and paid apps typically charge a monthly fee. Apps are where running costs creep up unnoticed, so review them every few months and remove any you no longer use. A well-built custom theme can also replace some apps entirely.
Domain and email
A custom domain costs a small yearly fee. Business email (for example through Google Workspace or Microsoft 365) is usually charged per user per month.
One-off build costs
Theme
You can start with a free Shopify theme, buy a premium theme, or have a custom theme built.
| Option | Best for | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| Free theme | Testing an idea, very small catalogues | Looks like many other stores |
| Premium theme | Most new stores | Limited to the theme's layouts and features |
| Customised premium theme | Growing brands | Some development cost, much more distinctive |
| Fully custom theme | Established brands, unusual products | Highest cost, built exactly for your store |
Design and development
This is the biggest variable. It covers designing your home, collection, product and cart pages, building them in Shopify's Liquid templating language, and adding any custom features. What pushes the price up:
- Custom design instead of adapting a theme.
- Complex products, such as many variants, bundles, personalisation or product configurators.
- Integrations with inventory, ERP, accounting or fulfilment systems.
- Custom apps for functionality no existing app provides.
- Multiple languages or currencies.
Product setup and content
Adding products, writing descriptions, preparing photos and setting up collections takes time. For a small catalogue you may do it yourself. For hundreds of products, an import with properly structured data is faster and avoids mistakes.
Migration
Moving from WooCommerce, Magento, Wix or Squarespace adds cost for migrating products, customers and order history, and for setting up 301 redirects from your old URLs. Do not skip the redirects: without them, you can lose the search traffic your old store built up.
Hidden costs to plan for
- Photography. Good product images do more for conversion than almost anything else.
- Ongoing improvements. The best stores keep testing and improving after launch.
- Marketing. A store needs traffic. Budget for SEO, email marketing and ads.
- Your time. Running a store takes hours every week, from customer service to stock management.
How to keep costs under control
- Start with the essentials. Launch with the features you need now, and add the rest once real customers show you what matters.
- Choose the right theme. A premium theme customised to your brand is often the best value for a new store.
- Be selective with apps. Every app adds a monthly fee and can slow your store down.
- Plan migrations carefully. A cheap migration that loses your SEO rankings is expensive in the long run.
- Get an itemised quote. It lets you see exactly what you are paying for and decide what to phase.
Frequently asked questions
What is the average price of a Shopify store?
There is no single average, because stores range from a self-built shop on a free theme to a fully custom build. Most small businesses spend on two things: a monthly Shopify plan plus apps, and a one-off build cost for theme and setup. Use the table above to estimate both, and get an itemised quote for the build.
Are there hidden costs with Shopify?
The ones people most often miss are app subscriptions, transaction fees when not using Shopify Payments, product photography, and ongoing marketing. None are hidden by Shopify, but they are easy to forget when budgeting.
Can I build a Shopify store myself?
Yes. Shopify is designed for that, and a simple store on a free or premium theme is very achievable. A developer becomes worthwhile when you want a distinctive design, custom features, integrations or a migration that protects your search rankings.
How long does it take to build a Shopify store?
A store on a customised theme usually takes a few weeks. A fully custom theme or a large migration takes longer. The biggest factor is often how quickly content and product data are ready.
Is Shopify cheaper than WooCommerce?
WooCommerce software is free, but you pay for hosting, security, maintenance and many extensions, and you are responsible for keeping it all updated. Shopify bundles hosting, security and updates into its plan. For most businesses, the total cost is closer than it first appears, and Shopify takes less time to run.
Get a quote for your store
Every store is different, so the best way to know what yours will cost is an itemised quote based on your products and goals. Find out more about our Shopify store development services, or contact us and we will send you a clear, fixed price. Planning to grow traffic too? See our SEO and digital marketing services.