How Much Does It Cost to Start an Online Store in 2026?

You can launch an online store for under $50 a month. You can also blow $500 before your first sale. The difference comes down to knowing which costs are essential, which are optional, and which are a waste of money at your stage.

Here's the real breakdown — no fluff, no "it depends."

Platform costs: your biggest monthly expense

Your e-commerce platform is where your store lives. It handles your product pages, checkout, and order management. Here's what the big three cost:

Shopify runs $39/month for the Basic plan. That gets you unlimited products, 2 staff accounts, and a solid checkout. It's the easiest option for beginners — you'll be live in a day.

WooCommerce is free to install. But you need WordPress hosting, which runs $5-20/month depending on the provider. SiteGround at $15/month is the sweet spot for most new stores. You get more control, but you manage the tech yourself.

Squarespace starts at $33/month for its Commerce Basic plan. Beautiful templates out of the box, but fewer e-commerce features than Shopify or WooCommerce.

Not sure which one fits? Read our full guide on choosing your platform.

Domain name: $10-15 per year

Buy a .com domain. Not .store, not .shop — .com. It costs $10-15 per year through Namecheap or Cloudflare Registrar.

Shopify offers a free yourstore.myshopify.com subdomain, but don't use it as your primary URL. A custom domain builds trust and makes you look legitimate. This is $1/month — just do it.

Theme: $0-80 (one-time)

Every platform comes with free themes. Shopify has over 10 free themes that look professional. WooCommerce has dozens through the WordPress theme directory.

Start with a free theme. Seriously. Premium themes ($60-80) look marginally better, but they won't make the difference between getting sales and not getting sales. Your product photos and copy matter 10x more.

If you do buy a premium theme later, stick with the official marketplaces. Shopify's Theme Store and ThemeForest for WooCommerce are the safest bets.

Essential apps and plugins: $20-50 per month

This is where costs sneak up on you. Every platform has an app store, and it's tempting to install everything. Don't.

Here's what you actually need at launch:

• Email marketing — Klaviyo free tier (up to 250 contacts) or Mailchimp free tier. Cost: $0 to start.
• SEO basics — Yoast SEO for WooCommerce ($0) or a Shopify SEO app ($0-15/month).
• Reviews — Judge.me free plan or Yotpo free tier. Social proof matters from day one.
• Analytics — Google Analytics 4 is free. Install it before you launch.

Budget $20-50/month for apps once you're past the free tiers. But at launch, you can run lean with free versions of almost everything.

Payment processing: 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction

Every sale costs you a processing fee. The standard rate across Shopify Payments, Stripe, and PayPal is 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction.

On a $50 product, that's $1.75 per sale. On a $20 product, it's $0.88 — which hurts more because the flat $0.30 fee takes a bigger bite.

Some things to know:

• Shopify charges an additional 2% fee if you use a third-party payment gateway instead of Shopify Payments.
• WooCommerce lets you use any payment processor with no extra platform fees.
• Higher Shopify plans reduce the processing rate slightly (2.6% on Advanced).

Learn more about your options in our payment provider guide.

The costs nobody talks about

Product photography — You can DIY with an iPhone and a $20 lightbox from Amazon. Or hire someone on Fiverr for $50-100. Either way, budget something for this. Bad photos kill conversions.

Shipping supplies — Boxes, poly mailers, tape, labels. Expect $1-3 per order depending on product size. Order in bulk to save.

Advertising — You don't need ads on day one. But when you're ready to test, start with $5-10/day on Facebook or Instagram. That's $150-300/month.

Your time — This is the biggest cost nobody puts on a spreadsheet. Building a store takes 40-80 hours if you're starting from zero. Factor that in.

Three realistic budget tiers

Bootstrapped: ~$50/month

• WooCommerce + shared hosting ($10-15/month)
• Free theme
• Free app tiers only
• Domain ($1/month amortized)
• DIY product photos
• No paid advertising

Best for: Side projects, testing a product idea, tight budgets. You'll spend more time but less money. Make sure you find good hosting so your store loads fast.

Standard: ~$150/month

• Shopify Basic ($39/month)
• Free or low-cost theme
• 2-3 paid apps ($30-50/month)
• Domain ($1/month)
• Basic product photography ($50 one-time)
• Small ad budget ($50-75/month)

Best for: Most first-time store owners. This gives you a professional setup with room to grow. You can launch in a weekend and start testing within a week.

Premium: $300+/month

• Shopify plan ($39-105/month)
• Premium theme ($80 one-time)
• 4-6 paid apps ($80-120/month)
• Professional product photography ($200+ one-time)
• Ad budget ($150+/month)
• Potentially a VA or freelancer for specific tasks

Best for: Serious launches with validated products. You've done your research, you know there's demand, and you're ready to invest.

The real answer: start lean, scale up

Here's what I'd tell you if we were sitting across a table: start at $50-100/month and increase spending only when you see traction.

Too many beginners blow $300/month on apps and ads before they've validated their product. That's backwards. Your first goal is getting 10 sales — and you can do that on a bootstrapped budget.

The stores that succeed aren't the ones that spend the most upfront. They're the ones that launch fast, learn from real customers, and reinvest profits into what actually works.

What to do next

Stop researching costs and start building. Pick your platform — we recommend Shopify for most beginners — and follow our step-by-step guide to choose your platform and get your store live this week.

Every day you spend planning is a day you're not learning from real customers. The $39-50 you spend this month is the cheapest business education you'll ever get.

Ready to go? Start the free ecom.biz course and launch your store in 26 steps.