What a Shopify store really costs to run

I don't publish a flat price for a store, because I'd be lying — a €3,000 project and a €30,000 project have the same name. What I can describe are the line items a price is made of. Once you know them, you can read anyone's quote and work out what's missing from it.

If you are still at the stage of working out whether any of this is avoidable, what you can genuinely do for free is worth reading first.

Running costs you pay forever

The Shopify plan

The base line, monthly or annually at a discount. Which plan to choose is mostly a transaction-fee calculation. If you are still deciding whether Shopify is the right platform at all, read this first. Annual billing saves a meaningful amount, so if you're confident in the platform, pay yearly.

The platform transaction fee

If you use an external gateway instead of Shopify Payments — because it isn't available in your country, or because you chose differently — Shopify charges a percentage on every transaction on top of what the gateway takes. The percentage falls as the plan goes up, which is why merchants on external gateways reach the point of upgrading sooner than they expect.

Work this out against your turnover. At €30,000 a month the difference between plans is hundreds of euros monthly. There's more detail in choosing a payment gateway.

The gateway itself

A percentage plus a fixed amount per transaction. With a low average basket the fixed part dominates; with a high one, the percentage does.

Apps

This is where costs quietly accumulate. Reviews, feeds, loyalty, upsell, discounts, translation, shipping — each €10–40 a month. Five apps and you're above the cost of the platform itself.

It's also where the most can be saved. Some apps are replaced by one custom feature or a theme change; the audit for that takes an afternoon and often pays for a year of development.

Domain, email, and any billing service

Small, but they belong in the budget.

One-off launch costs

The theme

If you are weighing Shopify against WooCommerce on cost alone, that comparison is here. A bought theme is a one-off in the low hundreds. A custom theme is an order of magnitude different, but you get exactly what you want with none of the ballast — the trade-off is laid out in custom theme vs bought theme.

Setup and content

Products, categories, copy, photos, policies. If you do it yourself it's your time. If a supplier does it, it's a line that surprises people with large catalogues.

Migration

Data transfer, URL mapping, redirects. The price scales with catalogue size and with how untidily the data was kept before — see migrating without losing SEO.

Integrations

Warehouse, ERP, accounting. The single biggest item if you need it. An off-the-shelf connector is a fraction of the cost of a custom integration — try it first.

Costs people forget

• Photos and content. The most common reason a launch slips by months.
• Legal texts. Terms, returns policy, privacy. Don't copy them from a competitor.
• Analytics. GA4, conversion tracking, feeds. Without them you don't know whether the investment is returning.
• Maintenance after launch. Not an hour a month, but a sensible allowance for small changes. A store nobody touches for a year goes nowhere for a year — which is where a retainer or a standing arrangement comes in.

How to read a quote

When a quote arrives, look for four things. If any is missing, ask:

1. Does it include URL mapping and redirects, if this is a migration?
2. Does it include analytics and feed setup?
3. Does it include testing and a post-launch fix period?
4. Does it include handover — documentation and code ownership?

A quote that's a third cheaper is usually cheaper by exactly those four things. You'll pay for them later, for more, under pressure. What drives developer rates explains the rest of the spread.

The most expensive store is the one that has to be built again a year later.