A small online shop in Europe costs €0 to about €10,000 to build, then roughly €25 to €100 a month to run, plus 1.5–3% of every sale in payment fees.
That is the honest range for ecommerce website cost in 2026. Where you land depends on who builds it, how many products and variants you have, and which countries you sell to.
For a small EU shop doing €60,000 a year, our worked example below comes to about €4,500 in year one with a studio build on Shopify. Year two drops to about €2,100. Payment fees end up larger than the platform fee.
Here is where the money goes, tier by tier, with real platform prices.
The four price tiers
Every online shop sits in one of four tiers. The platform is often the same. What changes is how much design, setup and custom code you pay for.
| Tier | Upfront cost | Monthly running cost | Good for |
|---|---|---|---|
| DIY on Shopify or Wix | €0, plus your time; half of paid Shopify themes cost about €190–€322 one-off | Plan from €24–€32, plus apps | Testing demand with a few products |
| Theme + setup by a freelancer | About €800–€2,500 (our estimate) | Plan + apps | A tidy shop on a stock theme |
| Studio build | From €2,400 at ASFARI; often €2,400–€10,000 across the market (our estimate) | Plan + apps | A brand that needs product pages, payments and shipping set up properly |
| Custom or headless | €15,000 to €60,000+ (our estimate) | Hosting, developer retainer, plan | Configurators, B2B pricing rules, unusual catalogues |
The freelancer, market and custom ranges are our estimates from quoting and scoping shop projects. They are not survey data. Treat them as orientation, not a quote.
DIY: €0 upfront, but not free
Shopify's Basic plan costs €24 a month billed yearly, or €32 billed monthly, on its euro pricing page. New stores get three days free, then €1 a month for three months.
Wix also sells shop plans. Its prices vary by country, so check the plans page from where you are.
Free themes exist. Paid Shopify themes are a one-off purchase. A tracker of 322 paid themes puts the median at $300 (about €268), with half between roughly $210 and $360 (about €190–€322).
The hidden cost is time. Product photos, descriptions, shipping zones, tax settings, legal pages and payment testing take days, not hours.
Theme plus setup
A freelancer installs a theme, adds your products and connects payments. You get a working shop with stock layouts.
This works when your products are simple and your brand can live inside a template.
Studio build
You pay for design decisions, not just setup. Product page layout, navigation that matches how people shop, photography direction, shipping and tax rules across markets, and a checkout tested before launch.
Our own online shops start from €2,400 excl. VAT on Shopify or WooCommerce, with scope agreed up front. The online shop service page lists what is included.
Custom or headless
Custom means code written for your shop: a product configurator, trade pricing per customer, or a catalogue a theme cannot express. Headless means a custom front end on top of a commerce back end.
It costs more to build and more to keep. Our post on Shopify or a custom shop covers when it earns its price.
Shopify website cost per month
The plan is the smallest part of the bill for most small shops. Here are Shopify's euro prices.
| Shopify plan | Billed yearly | Billed monthly | Staff accounts |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | €24/month | €32/month | Not included |
| Grow | €69/month | €92/month | 5 |
| Advanced | €289/month | €384/month | 15 |
| Plus | — | From €2,100/month | Unlimited |
Source: Shopify's pricing page in euros (Ireland), October 2026. Shopify lets merchants in most EU countries pay their bill in euros.
Most small shops start on Basic. Move to Grow when you need staff logins or the lower card rate pays for the difference.
Apps
Apps are where monthly costs creep. Reviews, email marketing, translation, product filters, subscriptions and bundles each tend to carry a fee.
We budget about €20–€60 a month for a small shop's apps. That is our estimate, and it depends heavily on which features you need. Some apps are free up to a limit.
Domain and email
A domain costs a few euros to a few tens of euros a year, depending on the ending. Business email is a separate subscription. Neither changes the total much.
Shopify fees per sale
This is the line people underestimate. Every card payment carries a percentage and a fixed fee.
| Shopify plan | Standard online card (Shopify Payments) | International or Amex card | Extra fee if you use another payment provider |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | 2% + €0.25 | 3.1% + €0.25 | 2% |
| Grow | 1.7% + €0.25 | 2.7% + €0.25 | 1% |
| Advanced | 1.5% + €0.25 | 2.5% + €0.25 | 0.6% |
| Plus | 1.4% + €0.25 | 2.4% + €0.25 | 0.2% |
Rates as listed on Shopify's euro pricing page, excl. VAT. Your rates can differ by country, so confirm them in your Shopify admin.
Two details matter in Europe.
First, Klarna through Shopify Payments costs 4.99% + €0.35 on the first three plans. Offering it is a business decision, not a default.
Second, if you use a different payment provider, Shopify charges its own extra fee on top. That applies even when Shopify Payments is switched on. In Estonia this is common, because many shoppers pay by bank link through providers such as Montonio. Our Shopify vs WooCommerce comparison runs the numbers.
WooCommerce for comparison
WooCommerce itself is free, with no monthly subscription. You pay for hosting and extensions instead.
WooCommerce lists hosting at $25–$350 a month for most stores (about €22–€313) and extensions at $29–$299 a year each (about €26–€267). A small shop can sit at the low end. An Estonian host such as Zone lists WordPress-ready plans from €9.95 a month on annual billing. For a shop we would pick a tier with more memory, such as its €16.90 Business plan.
WooPayments, WooCommerce's own payment option, charges an Estonian merchant 1.5% + €0.25 for European cards. Non-European cards add 2%.
A one-year total cost for a small EU shop
Here is a worked example. The shop is based in Estonia, sells to EU customers, has about 80 products and takes 1,000 orders a year at €60 each. That is €60,000 in revenue.
Assumptions: Shopify Basic billed yearly. Every payment at the standard card rate. Apps at €30 a month. All figures excl. VAT.
| Cost line | DIY Shopify | Studio-built Shopify | Studio-built WooCommerce |
|---|---|---|---|
| Build | €0 + your time | €2,400 | €2,400 |
| Platform or hosting, 12 months | €288 | €288 | €203 (Zone Business, annual) |
| Theme | €0 (free theme) | Included in build | Included in build |
| Apps or extensions | €360 | €360 | €150–€300 (estimate) |
| Domain | ~€15 | ~€15 | ~€15 |
| Payment fees on €60,000 | €1,450 | €1,450 | €1,150 (WooPayments) |
| Year one | ≈ €2,113 | ≈ €4,513 | ≈ €3,918–€4,068 |
| Year two onwards | ≈ €2,113 | ≈ €2,113 | ≈ €1,518–€1,668 |
The payment line is calculated: 2% of €60,000 is €1,200, plus €0.25 × 1,000 orders. WooPayments is 1.5% plus the same fixed fee.
WooCommerce looks cheaper on paper. It is cheaper only if someone keeps WordPress, plugins and backups up to date. Budget for that time or a maintenance plan.
International cards push fees up. If a quarter of your orders came from outside Europe, the Shopify payment line would rise by roughly €165 on the same revenue (our calculation from the rates above).
An ecommerce website cost calculator you can do on paper
You do not need an online calculator. You need five numbers.
- Build cost. Your quote, or €0 for DIY.
- Monthly platform cost. Plan or hosting, times 12.
- Monthly apps. Add up every paid app, times 12.
- Card percentage. Your expected revenue times the rate for your plan.
- Fixed fee per order. Expected orders times €0.25 (or your provider's fixed fee).
Year one equals all five added together. Year two drops the build cost.
Then run it twice. Once at your hoped-for revenue, once at half. If the shop only makes sense at the optimistic number, simplify the build.
What pushes the price up
The service page lists four factors, and they match what we see when scoping.
- Products and variants. Ten products are an afternoon. Four hundred with sizes, colours and materials need structure, imports and filters.
- Markets. Selling across the EU means VAT rules, shipping zones and often translations. Shopify allows up to 20 languages on the Basic to Advanced plans.
- Platform choice. Shopify, WooCommerce or custom each move the build and running costs differently.
- Photography and content. Product photos and copy are usually the slowest part. Plan them early.
Smaller things add up too: a returns flow, gift cards, B2B price lists, product bundles, subscriptions.
In the lab we built two shop concepts that show where design time goes. Oak & Form, a furniture shop, lets people shop by room and switch fabric swatches on the product page. Audiokind, an audio shop, puts similar products side by side in a comparison table. Neither needed custom code. Both needed careful decisions about how people choose.
What you can safely skip at the start
A first shop does not need everything.
- A custom theme. A good stock theme, set up well, sells.
- Ten apps. Start with the two or three that earn their fee.
- Every payment method. Cards, Apple Pay or Google Pay, and the method your market expects are enough. In Estonia that is bank links.
- A blog, loyalty scheme or wishlist. Add them when there is traffic to use them.
What you should not skip is the checkout. Read our checkout checklist before launch. A cheap shop with a confusing checkout is the most expensive option.
