How Much Does an Ecommerce Website Cost in the UK? (2026 Prices)
Key takeaway
An ecommerce website in the UK typically costs £0 to £1,000 to set up yourself on a hosted platform, £1,500 to £4,000 for a theme store, £3,000 to £15,000 for an agency-built store and £20,000 or more for custom builds. Running costs usually start around £50 a month plus payment fees. ProntX builds ecommerce websites from £3,950.
An ecommerce website in the UK typically costs £3,000 to £15,000 when built by an agency for a small to medium business, with DIY stores starting near zero and custom builds running from £20,000 to £80,000 or more. Running costs usually start around £50 to £400 a month, plus payment fees on every sale. The table below sets out typical market prices, and the rest of this guide explains what changes the number.
| Ecommerce website type | Typical upfront cost | Typical ongoing cost | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| DIY hosted store (builder) | £0 to £1,000 | £25 to £100 a month plus fees | Testing a product, very small catalogues |
| Theme store (freelancer) | £1,500 to £4,000 | £50 to £150 a month plus fees | New shops with simple products |
| Small business agency store | £3,000 to £15,000 | £100 to £400 a month plus fees | Growing brands that need search and ad traffic |
| Bespoke or headless store | £20,000 to £80,000+ | £300 to £2,000+ a month | Large catalogues, complex pricing, custom integrations |
| B2B or multi-channel commerce | £15,000 to £60,000+ | Varies with systems | Trade pricing, ERP, marketplaces and wholesale |
Figures are typical UK market ranges, excluding VAT. If you only need a brochure site, our guide to how much a website costs in the UK covers non-ecommerce options.
Why is it hard to get a price for an ecommerce website?
Ecommerce pricing varies because two stores that look similar can need very different work underneath. Product data, integrations, shipping rules and payments drive most of the cost, and they are rarely visible on the homepage.
A store with 30 simple products and flat-rate UK delivery is a short project. A store with 2,000 products, size and colour variants, trade pricing, stock synced with a warehouse system and international shipping is a different scale of build. Until those details are written down, any quote is a guess.
Step 1: what do you need your online shop to do?
Defining your requirements is the single most useful thing you can do before asking for quotes. It lets agencies price accurately and stops costly changes mid-build.
- Catalogue: how many products and variants, and who will prepare the product data and images?
- Customers: retail only, or trade accounts with separate pricing?
- Payments: cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay, buy now pay later, PayPal or invoices?
- Delivery: flat rate, weight-based, click and collect, or international with duties?
- Integrations: stock or ERP systems, accounting software, email marketing, reviews, marketplaces.
- Content: buying guides, size guides, blog and category copy for SEO.
Shopify, WooCommerce or custom: how do the costs compare?
Shopify usually costs less to launch and maintain, WooCommerce gives more control with no platform fee, and custom builds suit only genuinely unusual requirements. Total cost over three years matters more than the build price.
| Platform | Typical build cost (agency) | Typical running costs | Trade-offs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shopify | £3,000 to £15,000 | Plan roughly £25 to £300 a month, plus apps and payment fees | Hosting, security and updates handled; app fees add up; some checkout limits on lower plans |
| WooCommerce | £3,000 to £15,000 | Hosting £20 to £150 a month, extensions, maintenance and payment fees | Full ownership and flexibility; you are responsible for updates, speed and security |
| Custom or headless | £20,000 to £80,000+ | Hosting, developer retainer and services, often £300 to £2,000+ a month | Maximum control and performance; higher cost and dependence on developers |
If you already run WordPress, WooCommerce keeps everything in one place. Our guide to WordPress website costs in the UK covers hosting and maintenance in more detail.
Off-the-shelf or custom: what are you paying for?
An off-the-shelf theme keeps design and development costs down, while custom work is shaped around your brand, products and buyers. Most growing stores sit in between: a solid theme with custom templates for the pages that sell.
Design
Theme stores look competent but similar. Custom design matters most on product pages, collection pages and the basket and checkout journey, where small improvements in clarity and trust have the biggest effect on sales.
Development
Custom development gives full control over features and performance. On hosted platforms, many features come from apps, which are quick to add but bring monthly fees, extra scripts and potential conflicts. A good agency will tell you when an app is fine and when a small custom feature is cheaper over time.
What are the ongoing costs of an ecommerce website?
Ongoing costs for a small online shop typically run from £100 to £400 a month before marketing, plus payment fees on every order. These costs continue for as long as you trade, so include them in your budget from the start.
| Cost | Typical UK range |
|---|---|
| Platform plan or hosting | £25 to £300 a month |
| Apps, extensions and licences | £20 to £200 a month |
| Payment processing | Around 1.5% to 2.5% plus a fixed fee per transaction |
| Domain and business email | £5 to £20 a year, plus £5 to £12 per user a month |
| Maintenance and support | £50 to £300 a month, more for busy WooCommerce stores |
| Marketing (SEO, ads, email) | Usually the largest cost; varies with goals |
What hidden costs should you plan for?
The costs that catch most store owners out are product data, photography and the time it takes to set up shipping, tax and legal pages properly. None of them appear in a basic build quote.
- Product photography: consistent images often cost £10 to £50 per product, more for lifestyle shots.
- Product data entry: titles, descriptions, variants and attributes can take weeks for large catalogues.
- Copywriting: unique product and category copy helps SEO and is often billed separately.
- VAT and shipping setup: UK VAT, delivery zones and, if you sell abroad, duties and EU VAT rules.
- Legal and compliance: terms, returns and privacy pages, plus a compliant cookie consent tool.
- App creep: five or six apps at £10 to £40 each quickly adds over £100 a month.
- Training: basic training is often included; in-depth team training may be extra.
How much does it cost to migrate products and customers?
Ecommerce migration typically costs £500 to £5,000 or more, depending on the volume and complexity of data. The real risk is not the data move but losing search rankings through broken URLs.
A proper migration moves products, variants, images, customers and order history where possible, then maps every old product, category and content URL to its new equivalent with permanent redirects. Customer passwords usually cannot be moved between platforms, so plan a clear email asking customers to reset them. Test the redirect map before launch and monitor Google Search Console closely for several weeks afterwards.
How does AI search change what an online shop needs?
AI tools now answer product questions and recommend shops, so your store needs product information that machines can read and trust. Building this in during development costs little; adding it later means touching every template.
- Complete product schema: Product and Offer structured data with price, currency, availability, brand, GTIN where available, reviews and shipping and returns details.
- Merchant feeds: a clean Google Merchant Center feed supports free listings, Shopping ads and AI shopping features.
- Answer-first product and category copy: who the product is for, sizing, materials and delivery times stated plainly near the top.
- Organisation facts and llms.txt: consistent business details sitewide, and an optional llms.txt file pointing AI tools to key category and policy pages.
ProntX builds these foundations into ecommerce projects, and our ecommerce SEO service keeps them current as your catalogue grows.
Do accessibility and Core Web Vitals matter for ecommerce?
Yes, and more than for most sites, because every slow page and inaccessible checkout step costs sales directly. Both should be scoped in the build, not fixed after launch.
Accessibility
Aim for WCAG 2.2 level AA across product pages, filters, basket and checkout. Common failures include unlabelled filter controls, low-contrast sale prices, image-only product details and checkout fields that screen readers cannot follow. UK stores have duties under the Equality Act 2010, and stores selling into the EU may also fall under the European Accessibility Act, which has applied to many ecommerce services since June 2025.
Core Web Vitals
Google’s thresholds are Largest Contentful Paint under 2.5 seconds, Interaction to Next Paint under 200 milliseconds and Cumulative Layout Shift under 0.1. On ecommerce sites the usual causes of poor scores are large hero images, too many apps injecting scripts, review widgets and pop-ups. Fewer apps and properly sized images fix most problems.
How long does an ecommerce website take to build?
Most agency-built stores take six to twelve weeks. The timeline depends more on product data and decisions than on development.
- Theme stores: two to four weeks.
- Agency-built stores: six to twelve weeks.
- Custom, headless or B2B builds: four to six months or longer, usually in phases.
Rushed timelines usually cost more, because they need more people working in parallel.
So how much does an ecommerce website really cost in the UK?
For most small and growing UK brands, a realistic budget is £3,000 to £15,000 for the build and £100 to £400 a month to run the store, before marketing. Below that, you are usually on a DIY or basic theme setup. Above it, you are paying for custom features, large catalogues or complex integrations.
ProntX builds ecommerce websites from £3,950, with the final price depending on catalogue size, integrations and content. You can compare it with our other services on the pricing page.
How should you brief an ecommerce agency?
Write a short functionality document before you approach anyone. It produces accurate quotes and protects you from expensive changes later.
- Write down functionality: catalogue size, payments, delivery, integrations and must-have features.
- Speak to two or three agencies: give each the same brief so quotes are comparable.
- Do not automatically pick the cheapest: check what is excluded, such as data entry, SEO setup or redirects.
- Agree ownership: you should own the store account, domain, code, analytics and ad accounts.
Questions to ask before you sign
- Which platform do you recommend for my catalogue, and why?
- Which paid apps or extensions will the store rely on, and what will they cost each month?
- Who prepares product data and imports it?
- How will you protect my rankings if I am migrating from another platform?
- How do you test accessibility, Core Web Vitals and product schema before launch?
- What support do you offer after launch, and is there a minimum term?
Not sure where to start? A ProntX free growth audit reviews your current store or plans and is delivered as a personal video.
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