Ask ten people what a Shopify website costs and you will get ten different answers. One person quotes the $29 a month plan. Another quotes a $10,000 agency build. Both can be right, because they are talking about different parts of the same bill.
Building a Shopify store has three separate costs: the monthly plan, the one-time build, and the running costs like apps and card fees. This guide breaks down each one with real numbers, so you can budget honestly before you start.
The short answer
A basic store you build yourself costs $29 a month on yearly billing, plus a domain name, so about $360 a year before apps and card fees. That is the cheapest honest starting point.
A small store built by a developer starts around $400 one time for the build here at Globe Skillz, which puts a realistic first-year total at roughly $750 to $1,500 once you add the plan, a domain, and a couple of apps. Larger stores with custom design, many products, and paid apps can run into several thousand dollars in year one. The rest of this guide shows where each dollar goes.
The monthly plan: $29 to $399
Shopify charges by the month, and the plan is the only cost every store pays. As of late 2026, the US prices are: Starter at $5 a month, which sells through social links and has no full online store; Basic at $39 a month, or $29 a month when billed yearly; Grow at $105 a month, or $79 a month when billed yearly; and Advanced at $399 a month, or $299 a month when billed yearly. Shopify Plus, for high-volume stores, starts at about $2,300 a month.
Most new stores start on Basic. It includes a full online store, unlimited products, and Shopify's checkout. Grow adds staff accounts and lower card rates, which matters once your sales grow. Advanced adds lower rates still and features like third-party calculated shipping. You can upgrade or downgrade any month, so there is no reason to overbuy on day one.
Card fees sit on top of the plan. With Shopify Payments in the US, online card sales cost 2.9% plus 30 cents per order on Basic, 2.7% plus 30 cents on Grow, and 2.5% plus 30 cents on Advanced. If you use a payment provider other than Shopify Payments, Shopify adds a further fee: 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow, and 0.6% on Advanced. On $1,000 of online sales, that means roughly $29 in card fees on Basic, before the 30 cents per order. Prices change from time to time, so check Shopify's pricing page before you commit.
The one-time build cost
The build is the one-time cost, and it is where prices vary the most. Doing it yourself costs nothing but your time: pick a free theme, add your products, and launch. A premium theme from the Shopify Theme Store usually costs $100 to $500 as a one-time payment, and it buys you a more polished design than the free themes.
Hiring help is where the market ranges get wide. A simple theme-based setup from a freelancer often runs $500 to $3,000, depending on how many products, pages, and small customizations are involved. A custom design with development work from an agency often starts around $3,000 and can pass $10,000 for a larger store. Treat those as market ranges, not quotes: every store is different, and a fixed quote after a short call beats any range on a blog.
For comparison, store builds here at Globe Skillz start from $400 for 5 to 8 templates, with a typical timeline of 2 to 4 weeks, and the on-page SEO baseline is included so the store is ready to rank on launch day. Theme customization and smaller fixes are available from $35 an hour. See the Shopify store development page for the full breakdown, or the theme customization page if your store already exists and just needs work.
The costs most guides skip
Three smaller costs catch new owners by surprise. First, the domain name: roughly $10 to $20 a year for a .com, and it renews every year. Second, apps: many useful apps cost $5 to $50 a month each, and three or four paid apps can quietly add $100 a month to your bill. Audit your apps every few months and remove the ones you no longer use.
Third, the content and marketing that actually bring sales. Product photos, a logo, and written descriptions all cost time or money, and none of them are included in the plan price. Search visibility is the same: a Shopify SEO audit starts from $200 and shows you exactly what to fix, and a monthly SEO program starts from $500 a month. None of these are required on day one, but budgeting for at least one of them is what separates stores that launch from stores that sell.
DIY vs hiring a developer
Build it yourself if your budget is tight, your catalog is small, and you have a weekend to learn the admin. A free theme, your own product photos, and a few hours of patience can produce a perfectly good store, and you will understand your own setup better for it.
Hire a developer when the store has to look like your brand rather than a default theme, when you need custom sections or features the theme does not offer, or when your time is worth more spent on products and customers than on learning Liquid. A developer also handles the parts that are hard to undo later: the site structure, the URLs, and the schema that search engines read. Getting those right at launch is cheaper than fixing them after the store ranks.
Either way, keep ownership of everything: your domain, your theme, and your store login. A good developer hands all of it over on day one.
A realistic first-year budget
Here is what year one looks like for a small store, using Globe Skillz rates for the build. The Basic plan on yearly billing is $348. A domain is about $15. A store build starts from $400. Two small apps at $10 a month each add $240. That totals roughly $1,000 for the first year, before card fees and before any marketing.
The DIY version of the same store is about $363: the plan plus the domain, with your own time doing the building. The bigger-store version, on the Grow plan with a custom build and several apps, is usually $3,000 to $6,000 in year one. Whichever budget fits you, the rule is the same: the plan is the smallest line on the bill, so do not pick your budget by the plan price alone.
Frequently asked questions
Can I build a Shopify website for free?
Not quite. Shopify usually offers a short free trial, but keeping a store live needs a paid plan, starting at $29 a month on yearly billing for the Basic plan. The cheapest real setup is that plan plus a domain, about $360 a year, with a free theme and your own time doing the build.
Do I need to pay for a Shopify theme?
No. Shopify includes several free themes that work fine for a new store. Premium themes in the Theme Store usually cost $100 to $500 as a one-time payment, and they buy you a more polished design and more layout options. Start free, and upgrade the theme only when the free one limits you.
What is the cheapest way to start selling on Shopify?
Take the Basic plan on yearly billing at $29 a month, use a free theme, buy a domain for about $10 to $20 a year, and add your products yourself. That is roughly $360 a year plus card fees of 2.9% plus 30 cents per online order. Add paid apps and marketing only after the first sales come in.
How much should a small business budget for a Shopify store in year one?
Roughly $750 to $1,500 covers a small store with a professional build, using Globe Skillz rates: a build from $400, the Basic plan at $348 a year, a domain, and a couple of small apps. A DIY store costs about $360 a year plus your time. Larger stores with custom design should budget $3,000 or more.
Does Globe Skillz build Shopify stores?
Yes. Store builds start from $400 for 5 to 8 templates, with a typical timeline of 2 to 4 weeks and on-page SEO built in from the start. See the Shopify store development page for details, or start with a Shopify SEO audit from $200 if your store already exists.
Saqib Ali runs Globe Skillz, a Shopify SEO studio with development built in. Since 2019 he has worked on 180+ projects for merchants in 42 countries. More about Saqib →