How much does an e-commerce website cost?

“Good evening, but how much does it cost to build an e-commerce website?” Hold on, everyone calm down. Because a lot of people ask us this (on LinkedIn, or through our contact form, even on the street!). But asking us that, meaning asking how much it costs to launch an e-commerce website is a bit like asking how much a house costs. Or rather, how much houses cost – in general. The correct answer is the most hated one. Which is: it depends.

It depends because – going back to the real estate comparison – a prefab studio apartment on the outskirts and a design villa in the historic city center don’t have the same price. Sure, both put a roof over your head, but (how shall I put it?) the user experience is slightly different.

Understood that, we can still talk about an e-commerce price range (which we can define, and set, in a quote if you’d like and if you write to us here). A price range that’s actually useful when you’re about to plan your next business investment and need a figure to work with.

This article, then, could be just what you need. Because we’ll be clear about the money to spend. And because – let’s be honest – there are still too many people on the web who, just to sell you a ready-made template, would tell you that with just a few bucks you’ll become the next Jeff Bezos. Spoiler: it won’t happen.

The costs of a DIY e-commerce website

We want to start here, with the DIY e-commerce website, because we know you want to save money. We don’t blame you for that, and in fact: if your business is still very small, we agree with you. Investing right away in an e-commerce website, no matter how well made, might not be the smartest move.

That said, a DIY e-commerce website can be costly in its own way, and we’re not just talking about money. Generally, those who choose the DIY route often opt for an “all-in-one” platform that – at least in the early stages – makes the work easier.

We’re talking about platforms like Shopify or SquareSpace, true giants of online commerce. Here, it’s true, the initial development investment is minimal. But there are several aspects you need to consider. Like the cost of the monthly subscription. If you’re wondering how much a Shopify e-commerce store costs, for example, know that the platform offers subscription plans ranging from 324 euros per year up to over 4,000 euros for twelve months.

Not to mention sales commissions. SquareSpace’s Basic plan, for instance, includes a hefty 2% transaction fee on every order – on top of credit card fees. A percentage that goes up to 7% for digital products. To eliminate this percentage, you have to switch to more expensive plans, which cancels out the savings.

Another typical cost of DIY e-commerce is the opportunity cost. In other words: how much is an hour of your time worth? Because if you spend your days figuring out how to center an image or why the shipping plugin won’t talk to the courier, you’re wasting time. And time (do we need to say it?) is money.

The investment in a professional e-commerce website

If your business is already solid enough, and you want to build an asset that generates revenue even in the long term, we need to shift perspective. Investing in a professional e-commerce website is – at this point – essential; in short, you can’t escape it.

Not only that: thinking in terms of possible savings can be counterproductive. Keep in mind that when you pay a web agency to build an e-commerce website, you’re not paying for software installation. The work behind it is far more complex.

Let’s put it this way: in a professional project, your money funds three pillars that DIY can’t even dream of. Which ones? These!

1. UX strategy (so your future customers don’t run away)

You can have the most revolutionary product of the century, but if the user takes more than two clicks to figure out how to buy it, you’ve lost them. You’ve lost them. UX strategy (which stands for User Experience) is meant to properly respond to users’ behaviors, their psychological reactions, and their habits.

The professional, therefore, designs an interface that guides the user by the hand – from catalog to checkout – eliminating any possible doubt or friction. And not only that: it’s an interface that, right from its structure, expresses your company’s values. So it will aim for clarity, if clarity matters to you. It will aim for exclusivity, if yours is a luxury brand that wants to offer customers a boutique-like experience. The possibilities are many.

That’s why a professional website converts, on average, a much higher percentage of users than a standard template. That difference – small on paper – translates, by the end of the year, into thousands of euros in additional revenue.

2. Architecture and ownership (in other words: your home, your rules)

When you choose to invest in a professional e-commerce website, you become, to all intents and purposes, the owner of that site. Not a tenant, as happens with Shopify and many others. But an owner. The site thus rightfully becomes part of your company’s assets. It’s truly yours.

With SaaS platforms (the subscription-based ones), if you stop paying the monthly fee, your store disappears. Poof, game over. With a professional site of your own, you hold the keys to everything: the code, the data, and the content. It’s an asset you can enhance, grow, or – why not? – sell along with the company.

This also means that no one can put a ceiling on your growth – as, for example, BigCommerce does, offering business plans with an annual revenue cap. It also means that no one can charge you sales commissions. The site is yours, do whatever you want.

You can customize it, invest in an internal order management system better suited to your needs, add any features you want to the e-commerce site. There are no limits, you’re free to manage everything however you see fit.

3. Performance, speed, efficiency

A professional e-commerce site doesn’t run on a server shared with ten thousand other sites selling yoga tutorials, cookie recipes, and the like. The investment, in short, also covers setting up an infrastructure capable of handling heavy traffic spikes (think Black Friday or a post that goes viral) without crashing.

Above all, a professional e-commerce site covers speed. In 2026, users’ patience is at an all-time low. And if your site takes too long to load, you’ve just handed a customer over to the competition. A web agency fine-tunes code optimization to guarantee you performance that a “closed” system could never offer.

So, how much would all of this cost you?

Let’s be clear: a professional e-commerce site that actually works almost never starts below a certain threshold. No one will ever sell it to you for a few hundred euros (and if someone did: run!).

A basic project can range from 5,000 to 10,000 euros. With this budget, you’d have access to an efficient website – maybe without any “elaborate” features, but still ready to start selling seriously and plan your business’s growth.

For something more customized, costs can vary and range between 15,000 and 30,000 euros. Here, though, we’re talking about already complex websites. There are integrations with your management software (ERP), automated shipping systems, an integrated marketing automation system. SMEs looking to scale up the market generally aim for this range.

Finally, it’s easy to exceed 40,000 euros when the goal is to build a self-contained ecosystem, with dedicated server infrastructure, complex integrations with physical warehouses, etc. This type of investment concerns, more than anything, the creation of a new marketplace, rather than an e-commerce site. But it’s still an interesting path, one that more established companies often consider.

There are costs you often won’t find in a quote

That said, there are still costs you won’t find in a quote. Not due to a lack of transparency, but because they only make sense within the context of a long-term collaboration with the web agency. At No Digital Brain, we prefer to make these clear right away, because we believe a successful project only works if it’s “followed” over time – not abandoned after the initial investment.

But what are we talking about? We’re talking mainly about three things:

• maintenance
• updates
• compliance

E-commerce sites, like websites in general, are – allow us the comparison – a living organism. One that must therefore constantly evolve. Also because it “lives” on the web, which changes its rules almost every day.

Maintenance is the beating heart of this operation. We’re not just talking about “fixing” certain aspects of the site, but about ensuring that the entire infrastructure keeps communicating properly with everything else: payment systems, logistics, management software.

Shifting this discussion to updates, we can clearly see that it’s not just a simple click on the Update button. Updating means testing that new software versions don’t create conflicts, or also that loading speed stays consistent and that every new security flaw gets closed before anyone can take advantage of it. A site that isn’t updated is a vulnerable site, and in online commerce, trust is the only currency that truly matters.

Finally, there’s the hurdle of compliance, which in 2026 has become a minefield. Between increasingly strict GDPR regulations, European directives on price transparency, and Cookie Law, staying compliant requires constant effort. A static document in the footer isn’t enough; you need a dynamic system that adapts to legislative changes and saves you from penalties that, very often, cost more than the entire website development.

The e-commerce website is a company asset

Ultimately, you shouldn’t look at e-commerce as an expense to cross off a list. As we’ve already said, it’s a genuine company asset. Because it’s a piece of your business, and it gains value every day – with every piece of data collected, every loyal customer, every successful sale.

If you invest little today, or rather: if you invest poorly today, the risk is that the investment will go to waste. The prospect of having to redo everything in eighteen months isn’t so far-fetched: it can happen, and it’s a mistake to avoid.

Do you have an e-commerce project in mind? At NDB, as you may have guessed, we love clarity. And if you really want to understand how much an e-commerce website costs, and don’t feel like beating around the bush or dealing with vague quotes, leave us a message.

Together, we can assess what to include and what to exclude, and therefore: how to optimize your e-commerce budget, aiming for maximum returns.

What do you think? We’re waiting for you!