How Much Does It Cost to Build an Ecommerce Website in 2026

Ecommerce continues to grow as more businesses move online and launch ecommerce websites. Building and maintaining an ecommerce website involves many costs that are often underestimated. As we move through 2025, understanding the real expenses of constructing an ecommerce platform helps you make informed financial decisions.

The ecommerce industry has seen significant growth in recent years. According to Statista, global ecommerce sales accounted for 21.8% of total retail sales in 2021 and were projected to grow to 24.5% by 2026. The shift toward online shopping has continued to accelerate.

More businesses are building their own ecommerce websites. However, constructing an ecommerce website involves several costs that must be evaluated thoroughly. Without understanding the real expenses, you can end up spending significantly more than budgeted.

This article provides a detailed understanding of the key costs associated with building an ecommerce website in 2025. It examines the major factors affecting expenses, breaks down the main costs, and explores how to estimate the total investment required based on your business needs.

Factors Affecting Ecommerce Website Costs

Building an ecommerce website requires evaluating several elements that significantly impact total costs. Here are the key factors you need to consider when calculating expenses:

An ecommerce website comprises many components and functionalities that come at a cost. The major expenses include:

• Hosting: Server space to store, manage, and process your website
• Domain registration: Your website’s domain name and URL
• SSL certificate: HTTPS/SSL protocol for security
• Ecommerce platform: Software framework for building your online store
• Payment gateway: Processing online payments
• Website design and development: Custom layout, visuals, and features
• Content: Product descriptions, blog posts, and guides
• Media: Product images, videos, and multimedia
• Marketing: Digital marketing for promotions, advertising, and SEO

Each element incurs expenses ranging from a few dollars to thousands of dollars annually. You need to account for these costs based on your specific website requirements.

Comparison of Ecommerce Platforms, Tools, and Add-Ons

The foundation of any ecommerce website is the platform or content management system (CMS) it’s built on. Popular options like Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento, and BigCommerce offer different pricing models.

Additional costs arise from integrations with payment gateways, email marketing tools, live chat services, and shipping plugins. The platform and supported integrations determine your website’s capabilities and expenses.

Variables like Web Pages, Design, Content, and Media

The number of product categories, web pages, product listings, images, videos, and content volume on your ecommerce site heavily impacts costs. Custom design and extensive copy require greater investment compared to using templates and minimal content. The overall size and complexity of your website dictate many associated expenses.

Business Size and Product Catalog

Larger ecommerce businesses with big product catalogs and high traffic volumes have higher costs for robust hosting, CDNs, dedicated developers, and enterprise ecommerce platforms.

Smaller online stores with fewer pages and products can operate with lower shared hosting plans, free open-source platforms, and limited design and content needs.

The Project Team

Hiring a full in-house team or specialized agencies for end-to-end development and post-launch management increases ecommerce website costs substantially. Opting for freelancers or limited professional help can reduce expenses significantly. Your team model choice affects pricing.

Major Expenses for Ecommerce Websites

Every ecommerce site needs web hosting for server space to store website files, deliver pages to users, and process transactions. Hosting incurs monthly or annual expenses based on the plans.

Popular hosting options and average pricing:

• Shared hosting ($5-$100 per month): For smaller ecommerce sites with low traffic, under 100K monthly visitors. Offers limited resources at lower costs.
• VPS hosting ($20-$200 per month): For medium traffic stores with dedicated resources virtually partitioned from the server. Flexible scalability.
• Dedicated hosting ($100-$500 per month): For larger ecommerce stores with high traffic, over 1 million monthly visitors. Offers an entire server’s dedicated resources.
• Cloud hosting ($10-$50 per month): Scalable and affordable hosting on public or private cloud infrastructure. Popular for ecommerce.

Other hosting-related costs like CDNs, caching plugins, and security extensions also need to be accounted for in the planning stages based on your business needs.

Domain Registration and SSL Certificate Expenses

A custom domain name purchase and annual renewal is essential for any online business. Domains cost between $10 to $50 per year depending on extensions like .com, .store, or .shop.

SSL certificates (starting from $60 per year) are mandatory for establishing secure HTTPS connections and building consumer trust. Let’s Encrypt offers free SSL certificates, though paid certificates may provide additional validation features.

Ecommerce Platform Costs

The ecommerce platform forms the backbone of your online store by providing the CMS, templates, hosting, and integrations. You can choose between open-source and software-as-a-service (SaaS) platforms.

Examples include:

• Open source (Free or one-time license cost): Magento Open Source, WooCommerce
• SaaS (Monthly/annual subscription plans): Shopify, BigCommerce, Squarespace, Wix

Shopify and BigCommerce are leading SaaS platforms with monthly subscriptions starting from $29 to $299 based on features and support. Open source platforms charge for licenses, extensions, and custom development.

Custom Design, Development, and Maintenance

While some ecommerce platforms provide templates and editing options, most businesses prefer custom design and development for their brand identity. Besides upfront building costs, ongoing maintenance expenses for new features, troubleshooting, security, and performance tuning are vital.

• Custom ecommerce site design: $5,000 to $28,000+
• Developer costs: $50 to $150 per hour
• Technical maintenance: $2,000+ per month

For a custom ecommerce site with advanced features, splash layouts, animations, dynamic interfaces, and custom functionality, development and maintenance costs can reach six figures over a few years.

Payment Gateway Fees

To accept online payments, ecommerce sites need to integrate a payment gateway like Stripe, PayPal, or Authorize.Net. These incur charges per transaction:

• Stripe charges 2.9% + 30¢ per successful card payment
• PayPal charges 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction

For businesses processing over $100,000 annually, enterprise plans with customized rates are available. Payment gateway charges are ongoing operational costs.

Digital Marketing Expenses

For ecommerce businesses, digital marketing is essential for customer acquisition and traffic growth. Typical costs include:

• Search Engine Optimization: $500 to $5,000 per month
• Pay-Per-Click Advertising: Minimum $1,000 monthly budget
• Social Media Marketing: $500 to $2,500 per month
• Content Marketing: $3,000+ per month
• Email Marketing: Up to $500 per month for tools and creation

Marketing consumes a large share of budgets for online businesses. Without effective digital promotion, even well-built ecommerce websites struggle to gain traction. These recurring costs must be accommodated.

Estimating Ecommerce Website Costs

How can you derive an accurate estimate for your business? Here are practical approaches:

Using Cost Calculators and Real Numbers

Many website design agencies and ecommerce platforms provide free online cost calculators to assess budget estimates based on your inputs. These provide reasonable approximations, but real-world costs can vary.

Validate calculator results with real price quotes from developers and designers to get accurate numbers. Account for extras like marketing, content, SSL certificates, and domains.

Understand Cost Range Based on Business Needs

Instead of looking for a fixed figure, understand the cost range where your ecommerce website would fall based on specific business needs:

• A simple 5-10 page online store with basic WordPress/WooCommerce setup, free themes, minimal products, and DIY content can cost $100 to $5,000.
• For a customized Shopify site with stock templates, 50-100 products, purchased media, and professional copy, expect to invest $3,000 to $15,000.
• Medium-sized ecommerce stores with hundreds of products, custom design, original content/media, and integrated tools can range from $10,000 to $50,000.
• Enterprise-grade platforms like Magento and Salesforce Commerce Cloud with high inventory, complex catalog, dynamic features, custom development, and dedicated maintenance can cost above $100,000.

This range gives you an indicative idea of where your business stands and the investment needed based on website specifications.

Consider Both Upfront and Ongoing Costs

When estimating your budget, calculate both initial setup expenses and recurring operational costs:

Upfront costs:

• Ecommerce platform license fees
• Custom design and development
• Domain and SSL certificates
• Initial digital marketing spend

Ongoing costs:

• Hosting, maintenance, and support fees
• Domain renewals and SSL
• Transaction charges
• Recurring marketing expenses
• New features and upgrades

Plan both types of expenses realistically based on long-term objectives beyond just launch. Recurring costs often catch businesses off guard.

Compare Estimated Costs for Business Size and Type

Let’s examine typical cost estimates for ecommerce websites based on business size and type:

1. Small Business Estimates

For a boutique shop with less than 100 products, a starter Shopify store with a purchased theme, 3-5 custom pages, minimal marketing, and using Shopify Payments, estimate around $3,000 to $8,000 in startup costs.

Add around $200 per month for recurring expenses like hosting, transaction fees, and digital promotions.

2. Medium Business Estimates

For a medium-sized ecommerce store with 500+ products, a BigCommerce site with custom design, expanded catalog, paid advertising, and integrations, estimate around $15,000 to $35,000 for launch.

Plan for around $1,500 monthly for hosting, maintenance, marketing, payment charges, and support.

3. Large Business Estimates

An enterprise-level ecommerce platform like Magento with thousands of products, complex B2B and B2C operations, a fully custom site, a dedicated team, and high security, expects over $100,000 in upfront costs.

Recurring overhead expenses can exceed $5,000+ per month.

These numbers illustrate how costs grow with the scale and requirements of ecommerce businesses. Use these estimates as a starting point for your planning.

Conclusion

Building an ecommerce website involves several costs that must be thoroughly evaluated. Key expenses to account for include hosting, domain, ecommerce platform, custom development, payment gateway charges, and marketing costs.

The total investment depends on your specific business size, product catalog, site features, platform choice, team model, and launch versus recurring costs. Small online stores can be built with limited budgets, while large enterprises require significant investment.

While calculating exact expenses is challenging, following this guide allows you to derive a realistic estimate of the budget required. Tracking both one-time and ongoing costs is vital. Use available cost calculators and real quotes to assess the range accurately.

With proper planning and cost considerations, you can make informed financial decisions when building your ecommerce website in 2025.