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How much does it cost to open a Shopify store?

Estimate what it takes to open and run a Shopify store for a year, from the subscription plan and the paid apps you rent by the month, through a premium theme and any custom setup, your domain, the opening inventory you buy before the first sale, the launch marketing, and the payment processing that takes a cut of every order. See the first-year total, a realistic range, and how much of it is recurring rather than one-time.

§ 01 Your numbers

Change anything. The answer updates as you type.

How many months of the store's running cost to fold into this total. Twelve gives you a full first-year picture, which is the honest way to compare a cheap opening with high monthly costs against a pricier setup that runs leaner. Set it lower if you only want the opening cost, but remember the plan, the apps and the processing do not stop: a store is a thing you keep paying for every month it is online, so a figure that ignores that understates what the store really costs to own.
What your Shopify plan costs each month. Plans step up in price as they add staff accounts, lower processing rates and reporting, so the tier you need depends on your volume rather than on your ambition. An annual commitment usually cuts the monthly price, and a higher plan can pay for itself once its lower processing rate beats the extra subscription. Set the monthly price of the plan you would actually pick and let the months above multiply it.
The monthly fees for the apps you bolt on for the features the base platform leaves out: reviews, email and SMS marketing, upsells, subscriptions, advanced shipping, page builders, loyalty and the rest. This is the line owners underbudget the hardest, because each app looks cheap on its own and the bill compounds as the store grows into a stack of them. Add up the monthly fees of the apps you actually need at launch, and treat this as a figure that tends to climb rather than a fixed one.
A one-time premium theme licence if you buy one, rather than running on a free theme. A paid theme gives you a more polished layout and more built-in sections without a developer, and it is a single purchase rather than a subscription. A free theme pulls this line to zero at the cost of a more generic look and more setup work on your part. Decide which you are pricing before you set the custom-setup line below, because a good theme reduces how much custom work you need.
A one-time quote for a developer or agency to customise the theme, set up your product catalogue, configure shipping and taxes, and get the store launch-ready. A do-it-yourself setup drives this toward zero and trades it for your own hours; a bespoke storefront from an agency raises it well above the default. Price the route you are taking, and remember that a heavier app stack and a good theme both cut how much custom development the store needs.
Registering your own domain name for the first year, rather than trading on the default checkout subdomain. A custom domain is what makes the store look like a real business and lets you keep the address if you ever move platforms, and it renews every year for a small fee. Buy it through the platform or a registrar; either way it is a minor line next to the plan and the inventory, and one worth having from day one.
The stock you buy before you can sell anything, which for most product stores is the largest opening line by a distance. Set it against your product cost and how deep you want to go on each item at launch: a lean store opens with a tight range and reorders as it sells, while a broad launch ties up far more cash in shelves that may sit. If you dropship or sell digital goods you can pull this toward zero, which is a real difference in how much capital opening the store demands.
The initial ad spend, influencer or content budget, launch promotion and the discounts that get the first orders in the door. A store that launches without any of this can look finished and still get no traffic, because a new domain has no audience and no search presence yet. Fund at least a modest launch budget so the store has a chance to make its first sales, and treat this as the start of an ongoing marketing cost rather than a one-time push.
What you expect the store to sell in its first year, used only to size the payment processing line below. This is a guess for a new store, so set it conservatively: the processing cost scales directly off it, and it is better to be surprised by lower fees than to plan against sales that do not arrive. It does not add revenue to the total; it only drives the fee the processor takes on the orders you do make.
The percentage a payment processor takes on each order, which on a Shopify store depends on your plan and whether you use the platform's own payments or a third-party gateway. A higher plan usually buys a lower rate, and using an outside gateway can add an extra platform fee on top of the processor's cut, so the effective rate is worth checking against your plan. This line multiplies your expected first-year sales above, so it grows as the store does and belongs in every year's budget, not just the first.
Estimated cost
$8,908

Typical range $2,672 – $26,724

  • Subscription plan$468
  • Paid apps$960
  • Premium theme$300
  • Custom design & setup$1,500
  • Domain$20
  • Opening inventory$3,000
  • Launch marketing & ads$1,500
  • Payment processing fees$1,160
  • Total$8,908
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$3,000 to $12,000 for the first year is where a typical store lands: a plan, a premium theme, a working app stack, some custom setup, a real opening inventory and a launch budget. The inventory and the recurring subscription and processing cost carry most of it, and the first-year view is what keeps them honest.

What this assumes, and where it could be wrong

Every one of these is a place the number could be off. They are here because you should be able to check our working, not because we are hedging.

EVERY NUMBER HERE IS YOURS, BECAUSE A PLAN PRICE AND AN APP FEE ARE PRICES AND NOT STATISTICS.
The subscription plan, the apps, the theme, the design quote, the inventory and the processing rate are all prices or rates somebody sets, and they differ so widely between a bare do-it-yourself store and a designed build with a wall of paid apps that a national average would mislead you rather than help. There is no federal series to look them up in, so we would rather itemise our own model in front of you than dress it up as a measurement. Every default above is ours and every one is editable. Check the plan tier you would pick, add up the apps you actually need, price your opening stock, and type those in.

The plan and the apps are rent, not a purchase. A Shopify store is not something you buy once and own: the plan bills every month, and each app you add bills on top of it, so the running cost compounds as the store grows into a stack of subscriptions. That is why this ledger rents them by the month rather than counting them once, and why the recurring figure it reports matters more than the opening one. Carry the monthly subscription and app cost into your operating budget, because it is the part owners most reliably leave out when they price only the launch.

Opening inventory is usually the largest opening line, and it is the one that ties up cash. For a store that ships physical products, the stock you buy before the first sale can dwarf the plan, the theme and the setup put together, and it is money sitting on a shelf until it sells. A lean launch with a tight range and quick reorders demands far less capital than a broad opening catalogue. If you dropship or sell digital goods you can pull this line toward zero, which changes how much money it takes to open the store more than any other single choice on this page.

Payment processing is a cost that scales with success. Every order carries a processor's cut, so the fee line grows as the store sells more, which is the opposite of the fixed costs above it. A higher plan tier usually buys a lower processing rate, so at enough volume the extra subscription pays for itself against the fees it saves. Using an outside payment gateway instead of the platform's own can add a further fee on top, so check the effective rate against your plan before you assume the default holds for your store.

Do-it-yourself and agency are two different price worlds for the same store. Setting the store up yourself on a free or premium theme trades your hours for a low cost and pulls the design and setup lines toward their floor. Hiring a developer or agency to build a bespoke storefront buys skill and time and sits at the top. The same product catalogue can land in either, so decide which route you are pricing before you set the numbers, and read the wide range this calculator shows as the span between those worlds rather than a margin of error.

Frequently asked questions

How much does it cost to open a Shopify store?
It depends far more on your inventory and your app stack than on the platform itself. A lean store you set up yourself on a free theme, with a modest opening catalogue and a light launch budget, lands near the bottom of the range and is mostly the plan, some inventory and a little marketing. A designed store with a paid theme, a developer build, a deep catalogue and a wall of paid apps runs several times that. The calculator above builds the real number from your own plan, apps, inventory and launch figures over a full first year.
What ongoing costs does a Shopify store have?
Three that recur every month or every order: the subscription plan, the paid apps, and the payment processing on your sales. The plan and apps bill on a fixed monthly schedule whether or not you sell anything, and the processing takes a percentage of each order, so it grows as the store does. This calculator folds a full year of those into the total and reports the recurring share separately, because it is the cost owners most often leave out when they budget only for opening and then meet as a standing bill.
Can I open a Shopify store cheaply?
Yes, if you keep the variable lines lean. Run on a free theme, set the store up yourself instead of hiring a developer, add only the apps you genuinely need at launch, and start with a tight inventory you can reorder as it sells or a dropship model that carries little stock. That pulls the design, theme, app and inventory lines toward their floor and leaves you paying mainly the plan, the domain and a modest launch budget. The trade is your own time and a more generic storefront, which the wide range on this page reflects.
Why does the app line matter so much?
Because apps are where a store's monthly bill quietly compounds. The base platform leaves out features many stores want, such as reviews, email and SMS marketing, upsells, subscriptions and loyalty, and each is a separate paid app billed every month. On its own each looks cheap, but a store running a stack of them can spend more on apps than on the plan, and that spend keeps recurring. Add up the monthly fees of the apps you actually need at launch, and treat the total as a figure that tends to climb as the store grows rather than a fixed one.

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