Ecommerce
It's the first question almost every business asks before going near Shopify: what is this actually going to cost me?
It's also one of the hardest to get a straight answer to, because "a Shopify store" can mean anything from a £19-a-month template you set up yourself over a weekend to a bespoke, high-converting store built to scale. Both are technically Shopify. They are not remotely the same thing.
So let's break it down properly. There are really two separate costs to understand: what Shopify charges you to run the store, and what it costs to design and build it in the first place.
Shopify is a subscription platform, so there's a monthly fee to keep your store live. As of 2026, the UK plans look like this (prices change, so always check Shopify's own pricing page for the current figures):
Paying annually instead of monthly knocks around 25% off most plans, and Shopify frequently runs an introductory offer (often £1/month for the first three months) for new stores.
For most small UK businesses, Basic is the right place to start, and you move up only when the numbers justify it — the lower transaction fees on higher plans start paying for themselves once your revenue grows.
The plan fee is rarely the whole story. Budget for these too:
None of these are huge on their own, but they add up — so it's worth mapping them out before you launch rather than being surprised by them afterwards.
This is the part with the enormous range, because it depends entirely on who builds it and how custom it is. Broadly, there are three routes.
If you set up a Shopify store on a free or premium theme yourself, the build cost is essentially just the theme — so anywhere from nothing to a few hundred pounds.
The trade-off is your time and the result. DIY can absolutely work for a simple store, but it's easy to end up with something that looks templated, loads slowly and quietly leaks sales because the details that drive conversion were never dialled in. What you save in money, you can lose many times over in orders that don't happen.
A freelancer typically sits in the middle. For a straightforward store you might be looking at somewhere around £500–£2,000, depending on their experience and the scope.
It's often good value, but quality varies enormously, and you're relying on one person's availability, skill set and reliability. A cheap build that has to be redone later rarely turns out cheap.
A professionally designed, conversion-focused store from a studio or agency generally starts from a few thousand pounds and rises with complexity — bespoke design, custom features, integrations, migrations from another platform and larger product catalogues all add to it. A genuinely custom, scalable store is usually a four-figure project, and larger builds go well beyond that.
The reason it costs more is that you're not just paying for a store that exists — you're paying for one that's built to sell: fast, mobile-first, designed around your brand and engineered to turn visitors into buyers. Done right, that build pays for itself, because a small lift in conversion rate on the traffic you already have is worth far more than the difference in build cost. When we rebuilt Discounted Bikes, the store saw a 400% increase in conversions — that's the kind of return a good build is really about.
If you're getting quotes, the big variables are:
As a rough guide for a UK small business: expect ongoing Shopify costs from around £20–£65 a month on the common plans once you're running properly, plus apps and fees on top. For the build, a serious, conversion-focused store is usually a four-figure investment — with the exact figure depending on the design and features you need.
The more useful question isn't "what's the cheapest I can pay?" It's "what will this store earn me?" A store that converts well and scales with the business is an asset. A cheap one that doesn't convert is just an ongoing cost with a nice logo.
Rather than a vague ballpark, it's always better to price a store against what you actually need.
At Digital Marbles, we build premium Shopify stores that are engineered to convert — the quality bigger agencies charge a fortune for, without the big-agency price tag. Founder-led, straight-talking, and priced against your project rather than a one-size-fits-all package.
See our pricing or start a conversation about your store — tell us what you're building and we'll give you a clear, honest figure.
As of 2026, UK plans run from around £5/month (Starter) to roughly £259–344/month (Advanced), with Basic at about £19–25/month being the usual starting point for a real store. Annual billing saves around 25%. Transaction fees and apps are additional ongoing costs.
It varies widely by route. DIY costs little more than a theme; a freelancer might charge around £500–£2,000 for a straightforward store; and a professionally designed, conversion-focused build from an agency or studio is typically a four-figure project that rises with complexity.
Shopify has a predictable monthly fee that bundles hosting and security, whereas WooCommerce is free to install but you pay separately for hosting, security and often more development to keep it running. Which works out cheaper depends on your setup — Shopify is usually simpler and more predictable to budget for.
The main extras beyond the plan fee are transaction fees, paid apps, a premium theme (if you use one), and your domain and email. They're manageable, but worth mapping out before launch so nothing catches you off guard.
If the store is central to your business, usually yes. A professional build that loads fast and converts well typically returns far more than it costs, because even a small improvement in conversion on your existing traffic can outweigh the price difference. The key is that the build is genuinely engineered to sell, not just to look nice.
Founder-led, straight-talking Shopify builds engineered to convert — without the big-agency price tag.
See pricing →