WooCommerce Pricing: How much does an online store cost? (2024)

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The WooCommerce plugin allows you to run a professional online store with WordPress. Both WooCommerce and WordPress are open-source and don’t cost a penny. So what do you need to pay for, then? Let us give you an overview!

WooCommerce Pricing: What’s the cost?

WooCommerce itself is free. But a domain name (about $12/year), and a hosting service is needed ($5-$25 monthly). WooCommerce can have additional costs like a theme (~$59), plugins & extensions (from $25 each) and developer fees ($20-$150/hour).

Of course, you may not need all these features that we mention in this article so the WooCommerce costmay vary, but it will give you a good idea what you should consider. You’ll also realize that there’s a lot for free, but since you want to open an online store we’re supposing that it will be a serious business. In other words: when you expect a certain quality, you have to pay for it. The worst case could see you losing money, time and valuable customers, just because you tried to save a couple of dollars at the wrong end.

Hosting

You’ll need some webspace that allows you to install the latest version of WordPress. Installing WordPress and the plugin is pretty simple since this can be done within a few clicks. The more features you need (web space, staging area, support, etc.), the more you will pay. Here are some companies with several interesting deals:

Budget options

• Bluehost * (read review)
• SiteGround (read review)
• HostGator (read review)
• Cloudways (read review)
• Namecheap (read review)
• GoDaddy (read review)

Estimated costs: ~$5-100 per month

* Even though the installation is not complicated, Bluehost has a plan where both WordPress and WooCommerce are already pre-installed. You can save some bucks, though, if you do this yourself. Read more about this in our full Bluehost review.

High-end options

These two specialized WordPress hosts offer fully managed hosting and great support:

• WP Engine (read review & pricing guide)
• Kinsta (read review)

Estimated costs: ~$30-500 per month

Domain

A professional online store should have a professional domain like .com, .net, .co.uk, etc. Many hosting companies also allow you to register a domain through their service. This could save you some money, however, you can also opt for buying your domain separately. Check out these companies:

• Namecheap
• GoDaddy
• HostGator
• Bluehost

Estimated costs: ~$12 per year (depends on domain type)

Theme

Finding a free theme is not a problem, but quality can vary heavily. Another problem with free themes is that they don’t provide any support or contain hidden backlinks that you don’t want on your website. Many appealing and professional themes can be found at these sites, just make sure it supports WooCommerce:

• ThemeForest
• WooCommerce Storefront Themes
• Astra WooCommerce Theme
• TemplateMonster

Estimated costs: ~$59

Important Plugins

There are tons of free plugins, but sometimes you’ll realize that you have to pay when you need a certain feature. It is even more important that the plugin developer keeps it up-to-date. You definitely want to avoid any downtime or vulnerability caused by an outdated plugin. These plugins will not only boost your online store but will also ensure great service quality:

• Yoast WooCommerce SEO
• WPML (for multilingual websites)
• Disqus (managing comments and spam)
• Advanced Custom Fields (better content editing)
• Shortpixel or TinyPNG (to compress images for better loading speeds)
• AliDropship (for dropshipping on AliExpress; find our detailed AliDropship review here.)

Estimated costs: free to ~$90 for one plugin. Some charge a recurring fee, others only require a one-time payment.

Add-ons (Extensions)

Apart from plugins there are also add-ons available for WooCommerce. They are similar to plugins, but made for WooCommerce and add handy eCommerce functions. For instance, you can add credit card preprocessors, shipping options, a customer data export function and much more. You'll need to pay an extra WooCommerce fee to be able to use those.

• Stripe credit card gateway
• Shipping Carriers- calculate live rates and print labels.
• TaxJar- tax calculations for US/Canada
• WooCommerce Bookings - allow your visitors to schedule appointments

Estimated costs: ~$29 - $79 per year for one extension

Developer costs

There will be a moment when you will need to reach out for help. Typical reasons can be technical issues or a new feature that you need. Maybe you already know someone, but here you’ll find some experts:

• WooExperts

Verified experts selected by WooCommerce

• Upwork

Popular freelancer platform with thousands of WordPress developers

• Fiverr

Gig platform for low-cost web design. Quality can vary.

Estimated costs: no limit

Time

Never underestimate this factor. Setting everything up and maintaining just the system itself will cost you quite a lot of a time.

Ecommerce solutions like Shopify or BigCommerce don’t require any installation and will handle updates for you in the background, so you can completely focus on your business. Check out our Shopify review, our BigCommerce review, our list of WooCommerce alternatives, and our guide to choosing the best ecommerce platform for more information.

Estimated costs: headaches

I hope you have a much better idea about WooCommerce's costs and prices. If anything is still unclear, please leave a comment!