Insights — Shopify website cost
How much does a Shopify website cost?
A custom Shopify store from a studio typically runs from about $1,000 for a straightforward build to $15,000 or more for a large catalogue with custom functionality. On top of the build you pay Shopify's own subscription and transaction fees. Below is what sits inside those numbers, and what most quotes leave out.
What's included
- Build cost by route
- Shopify's own recurring fees
- What changes the price
- Costs quotes often omit
- How to compare two quotes
- When not to pay for custom
The build
What you pay to have the store made.
Do it yourself: $0 plus your time. A stock Shopify theme with your products in it is genuinely workable for a first store, and for some businesses it is the correct answer. The cost is the fortnight you spend on it and a storefront that looks like the other stores using that theme.
Freelancer: roughly $500 to $5,000. Wide range because the label covers everyone from a student customising a theme to an experienced developer. Cheapest route to something bespoke, with the most variance in outcome.
Studio or agency: roughly $1,000 to $15,000+. Our own projects start at $1,000. That buys design, build and launch on a defined scope. Larger figures reflect catalogue size, custom functionality, migration and how much brand and content work is included.
Enterprise: $50,000 upward. Shopify Plus, complex integrations, multi-region. If this is you, you already have a procurement process.
Shopify's fees
What you pay Shopify, regardless of who builds it.
The build is one-off; the platform is not. Shopify charges a monthly subscription and takes a cut of each transaction, and those fees are yours whether the store was built by an agency or by you on a Sunday.
Budget for the subscription, payment processing on every order, and any paid apps you come to rely on. Apps are the line people underestimate — three or four at $20 a month each quietly becomes a meaningful annual cost.
Check Shopify's current pricing directly rather than trusting any agency page, including this one. Plans and rates change.
What moves the number
Five things that actually change a quote.
A quote that does not ask about these is not a quote, it is a guess. The reason we scope before pricing is that the same brief can differ fivefold depending on the answers.
- Catalogue size — twenty products and two thousand are different jobs
- Custom functionality — anything the platform does not do natively
- Migration — moving from WooCommerce, Magento or an older theme
- Brand work — whether identity exists or needs building
- Content — who writes copy and produces product photography
The hidden costs
What quotes leave out.
Photography. The single most common gap. A storefront is only as good as its product images, and professional shoots are a separate cost that surprises people at the worst moment.
Copywriting. Someone has to write the product descriptions. If it is not in the scope, it is you, at midnight, the week before launch.
Post-launch changes. Ask what is included. One round of revisions is normal; unlimited revisions is not a thing anyone actually offers.
Ownership. Ask directly whether you own the theme code and whether the store runs on your own Shopify account. If the answer is complicated, the real cost is the day you want to leave.
Request an estimateComparing quotes
How to read two prices that differ by 4x.
Ask all three of these and the gap usually explains itself: what exactly is delivered, who owns the code at the end, and what happens when you want a change after launch.
A cheaper quote is not automatically worse. It is often smaller — fewer templates, a stock theme lightly customised, no migration, no content. That may be exactly right for where the business is. The problem is only when the difference is invisible until the invoice.
Related
If you are pricing a build.
Common questions
What is the cheapest way to get a Shopify store?
Build it yourself on a free or low-cost theme. For a first store testing whether a product sells, that is often the right call — spend the money on inventory and photography instead, and commission a custom build once you know demand exists.
Is a custom Shopify theme worth it?
It depends on whether design is doing commercial work for you. For a commodity product competing on price, probably not. For a brand where the storefront has to justify a premium or build trust with first-time buyers, it usually pays for itself.
How long before a Shopify store is live?
Most run three to six weeks from kick-off to launch. Large catalogues and migrations take longer. Anyone promising a serious custom store in a few days is describing a theme install.
Do I pay monthly for a Shopify store?
Yes — Shopify charges a subscription and transaction fees regardless of who built the store. The build cost from a studio or freelancer is separate and normally one-off.
Does THE AKYN publish prices?
Projects start at $1,000 and every engagement is scoped individually, because the same brief varies enormously depending on catalogue, functionality and content. You get a fixed scope and cost in writing before any work begins.
Next step
Want a real number for your project?
Tell us the product, the catalogue size and what you have already. We come back with a scope and a fixed cost — not a range.
Request an estimateAlso from the studio