Pricing14 April 20267 min read
How much does an e-commerce website cost in 2026?
From €5,000 template shops to €100,000 headless storefronts — what online stores really cost in 2026, what drives the number, and the fees nobody mentions.
A professionally built e-commerce website costs €15,000–60,000 in 2026 for most businesses: template-based shops start around €5,000–15,000, custom-designed storefronts run €15,000–60,000, and headless or multi-market builds go from €40,000 upward. The platform decision shapes not just the invoice but every monthly bill after it — so the honest budget covers both.
The e-commerce price map
- Template shop on Shopify or WooCommerce, light customization: €5,000–15,000
- Custom-designed storefront on a standard platform: €15,000–40,000
- Headless commerce (custom front end, API-driven backend): €40,000–100,000
- Multi-market EU store (languages, currencies, VAT, shipping zones): add 30–60%
What actually drives the cost
Not the number of products — the number of moving parts. Catalog complexity (variants, bundles, B2B price lists), integrations (ERP, warehouse, invoicing, payment providers, shipping calculators), and checkout customization dominate e-commerce budgets. A 2,000-product store with clean data and standard checkout is cheaper to build than a 50-product store that needs live ERP sync and three shipping integrations.
The second driver is design ambition. Template stores look like template stores — fine for validating demand, limiting for brands competing on perception. Custom storefront design typically adds €10,000–25,000 and pays back through conversion and brand price tolerance.
The monthly bills nobody puts in the proposal
- Platform fees: Shopify from €39 to €2,300+/month for Plus; apps add €50–500/month quietly.
- Payment processing: 1.4–2.9% + fixed fee per transaction, varying by provider and volume.
- Maintenance: plugin-heavy WooCommerce stores need the same patch retainer as any WordPress site; headless static front ends need almost none.
- The speed tax: every 100ms of load time costs roughly 1% in conversions — on €1M annual revenue, a sluggish theme is a five-figure yearly leak.
How we approach it at iweb.eu
We size the platform to the business, not the other way round: standard platforms where they fit, headless storefronts where speed and multi-market SEO carry the revenue. Every quote is line-by-line — build, integrations, content, launch — with the monthly running costs calculated honestly next to it.
Frequently asked questions
Shopify or a custom headless store — which is right?
Shopify wins on time-to-launch and operational simplicity for standard shops. Headless wins when storefront speed, custom UX or multi-market SEO drive revenue — typically from ~€500k annual online sales, or in fiercely competitive niches where milliseconds convert.
What does it cost to migrate an existing store?
Typically 60–80% of a new build of the same scope: product and customer data migration, URL redirects to preserve rankings, and integration rebuilding are the bulk. Order history migration adds complexity but preserves the numbers your accounting depends on.
Can I start with €5,000?
Yes — a clean template store validating real demand beats a delayed perfect one. Spend the budget on product photography and copy rather than design tweaks, and plan the custom rebuild for when revenue proves the case.
Written by the iweb.eu studio — twelve years of building fast websites, sharp brands and search visibility. Talk to us about your project.