An ecommerce website can start with a monthly platform subscription, while a custom store built by a U.S. agency can cost tens of thousands of dollars or more. The big difference is what needs to be built: a basic theme setup, a redesign of an established store, and a complex system with custom product tools are different projects.
For a starting point, Shopify’s U.S. pricing page lists its Basic plan at $19 per month when paid yearly as of October 1, 2026. For U.S. agency work, Clutch’s ecommerce agency directory cites roughly $10,000 to $50,000 for a project of moderate complexity using Shopify or WooCommerce, with heavily integrated custom work potentially reaching $100,000 or more. These are market planning figures, not a quote for any particular project.
Compare the main ways to build a store
| Approach | Useful planning range | What changes the budget |
|---|---|---|
| Build it yourself with a hosted platform | Platform subscription plus domain, theme, apps, and your time | Catalog size, content preparation, paid tools, and support |
| Hire help for a theme-based store | Often below a fully custom agency build | Setup, design changes, product migration, and testing |
| Commission a U.S. agency build of moderate complexity | Roughly $10,000–$50,000 in Clutch’s directory guidance | Custom design, templates, data migration, and integrations |
| Build a heavily integrated custom commerce system | Can reach $100,000 or more | Product configuration, ERP or inventory systems, B2B workflows, and custom applications |
The first row reflects Shopify’s current platform pricing; the agency ranges reflect Clutch’s U.S. directory guidance. Each source covers a different slice of the market, so use the numbers to prepare a budget conversation rather than to predict a final proposal.
What makes an agency quote go up?
Design and content. A store using a standard theme and supplied product photos costs less to produce than a site with a new brand system, custom page layouts, product photography, and rewritten copy.
Catalog and migration. Moving a small, clean catalog is different from importing thousands of products with variants, subscriptions, customer records, redirects, reviews, and historic order data. The work includes checking that information arrives accurately.
Features and integrations. A standard cart and checkout are often provided by the platform. Custom product builders, wholesale pricing, subscriptions, inventory synchronization, and connections to accounting or fulfillment software add design, development, and testing time.
Quality assurance and launch. Budget for mobile testing, accessibility, speed, analytics, payment and shipping checks, redirects, and a launch plan. A low quote may omit some of these tasks; ask what is included before comparing proposals.
Remember the costs after launch
The build is only one part of the first-year budget. Add the platform or hosting subscription, domain, paid apps, payment processing, maintenance, and marketing. Shopify notes that app fees and ongoing services can eventually exceed the base platform price in its 2026 cost guide.
Ask which app subscriptions or software licenses you will own, how support is billed, and what happens when the store needs new features. A custom solution may reduce reliance on several apps, but it also needs someone to maintain the code. Neither approach is automatically cheaper over time.
How to get a useful quote
Prepare a short brief before contacting agencies:
- What do you sell, and how many products and variants do you have?
- Are you launching a new store or replacing an existing one?
- Which platform and systems must the store connect to?
- Which parts of the current buying experience are losing sales or staff time?
- Who will provide photography, product data, copy, and legal policies?
- What must work at launch, and what can wait?
Share your budget range as well as your goals. A good agency can then explain the tradeoffs between a theme-based approach and custom work. Compare proposals on deliverables, testing, migration, training, and support—not just the total at the bottom.
Kelp builds stores on Shopify and WooCommerce, including projects that need custom integrations. For an example of how requirements can shape the build, see Kelp’s US Labels project. If you are planning a store or redesign, tell us what the store needs to do.
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