A Shopify store usually costs between $8,000 and $20,000 to have a senior team build, plus Shopify's own monthly fee, which starts at $29 on the Basic plan. A custom or headless store runs $20,000 to $45,000. If you only need a few products and a clean theme, you can build it yourself for far less. The rest of this guide shows what moves the price so you can tell which category you are in.
The two costs: Shopify and the build
Your spend splits into two parts that people often mix up.
Shopify's fees (paid to Shopify). On its pricing page on November 3, 2026, Shopify listed these plans:
| Plan | Monthly price | Card rate from |
|---|---|---|
| Basic | $29 | 2.9% + 30 cents |
| Grow | $79 | 2.7% + 30 cents |
| Advanced | $299 | 2.5% + 30 cents |
| Plus | From $2,300 | 2.25% + 30 cents |
Prices and card rates change, and Shopify shows them under a billing toggle, so check Shopify's pricing page before you decide. Most small stores start on Basic or Grow.
The build (paid to a designer, developer or agency). This is where the range is wide, and the rest of this guide is about it.
What the build typically costs
These are typical US ranges for a senior team. A call turns a range into a fixed quote.
| What you need | Typical range |
|---|---|
| Online store on Shopify or WooCommerce | $8,000 to $20,000 |
| Custom or headless online store | $20,000 to $45,000 |
The first row covers a theme set up and adjusted to your brand, your products loaded, checkout and shipping configured, and the pages a store needs. The second row is for stores where the storefront is custom code and Shopify runs behind it, usually because the design or the speed goals cannot be met with a theme.
What moves the price
Each of these can push a store toward the top of its range:
| Add-on | Typical range |
|---|---|
| Migrating an existing site or store | $1,500 to $5,000 |
| Quiz, quote builder or product visualizer | $3,000 to $8,000 |
| Memberships or customer accounts | $2,500 to $6,000 |
| A second language | $2,000 to $5,000 |
| Each extra integration (shipping, ERP, CRM) | $1,500 to $4,000 |
Two other things matter more than people expect. The first is catalog size: loading 30 products is an afternoon, and loading 3,000 with variants and images is a project. Shopify can import products from a CSV file, but its own help page warns you to back up your product data first and to test large imports on a small batch. The second is design: a polished custom design costs more than adjusting a theme, and for many small stores the theme is the better buy.
Theme or custom: how to decide
Start with a theme unless you can name a specific thing it cannot do. A theme is faster to launch, cheaper to change, and Shopify keeps it working as the platform updates. Move to a custom or headless build when one of these is true:
- Your product pages need a configurator, visualizer or quiz that no theme or app provides.
- You sell in several regions with different catalogs, currencies or languages and a theme cannot hold the logic.
- Page speed is a measured problem that a lighter theme and fewer apps have not fixed.
- Your brand needs a storefront that a template cannot reproduce.
If none of these apply, the lower range is the realistic one. A custom build is a bigger commitment to maintain, so choose it for a reason, not for polish alone.
When you do not need to hire anyone
You can build the store yourself if you have a small catalog, you are fine with a theme that looks like a theme, and you do not need custom features. In that case your real cost is Shopify's monthly fee, a domain, and your own time. Hire help when the store is your main revenue, when you are moving from another platform and cannot lose search traffic, or when you need integrations that you cannot set up in the Shopify admin.
Monthly costs to budget after launch
The build is not the last bill. Plan for:
- Shopify's monthly plan and card processing fees.
- Paid apps. Many apps bill monthly, so list them before you commit and drop any you do not use.
- A domain, renewed each year.
- Updates and fixes. Budget for small changes after launch, such as new collections, banners for sales and bug fixes.
- Marketing. A store with no traffic earns nothing, so set aside money for search and ads separately from the build.
How to keep the quote honest
Before you sign, ask these:
- What is in the price: design, product upload, migration, integrations, training?
- Which Shopify plan does the quote assume?
- Who owns the store and the theme code when the project ends?
- What does a change request cost after launch?
- Which apps does the build depend on, and what do they cost each month?
If you want a quick number to start from, our website cost calculator gives a realistic range for your store in a minute. If you already have a clear list of what you need, book a 30-minute call and we will turn the range into a fixed quote. You can read more about what we build on our Shopify development page, and if delivery dates are a question for your customers, see how to add an estimated delivery date on Shopify.