WooCommerce is the world’s most popular WordPress plugin and has been downloaded more than 123 million times. WooCommerce is a worldwide renowned open-source eCommerce platform that lets you turn your WordPress website into an online store.
Thus, depending on your needs, you can sell anything from one product to thousands of products. However, with so many options and add-ons, it can be challenging to determine how much your WooCommerce platform will cost in the long run. Many entrepreneurs and businessmen with an already functioning WordPress site always wonder whether WooCommerce costs a lot.
The WordPress plugin for WooCommerce starts at about $10/month. A fee for the extra features is about $200 or so a year. It could cost upwards of $1,000 to keep up a WooCommerce website that needs to be large scale.
Here’s a complete breakdown of how much you can expect to pay depending on your business goals, what plugins you want to use, and whether you need any hosting or additional hardware.
#1. Hosting Cost
Source: W3 Tech – Hosting Providers
Hosting is simply the space where your website files are stored. Every time someone visits your site, they send a request to the host server requesting information from one of those files, and the file is delivered accordingly.
Hosting should be considered an integral part of any WooCommerce development process because it’s how visitors access your site’s content and purchase products. How much does Woocommerce cost on hosting? The price varies depending on the size & scale of your online store. Your hosting costs will vary. Shared hosts can be as little as $10/month for smaller stores.
You may need to invest in a VPS or dedicated server for larger stores, costing $100/month or more. If you’re unsure which route to take, our team of experts can help you determine the best hosting solution for your needs.
When choosing a hosting service, you can go for:
- Shared Hosting – This type of hosting starts at $10/month. Shared hosts use a single server to serve all customers’ sites, so performance depends on how many other sites are hosted simultaneously.
- Virtual Private Server (VPS) – This type of hosting starts at around $50/month and offers better performance than shared servers due to each customer having a virtual machine that runs separately from others. Customers can also configure settings themselves with this option.
#2. Domain Cost
Regarding the cost of Woocommerce development, the domain name is one of the first things you’ll need to budget for. Your domain name is your online identity & helps customers find your site. The average cost of a domain name is $10 per year.
While some hosting providers offer free domains with purchase, others charge up to $25 annually. Worldwide top domain includes .com, .org, .net, .biz and more. These are all under $10 yearly when purchased through a hosting provider. If not included in your package or an after-market addition, then pricing will vary depending on the provider.
You can usually register a domain name in 30 minutes or less through most companies, including Namecheap and GoDaddy, which provide easy-to-use interfaces with their registration process.
#3. Themes Cost – Paid & Free Themes
You can find both free & paid themes for Woocommerce. Paid themes typically cost between $59-$399, while free themes are available at no cost. However, free themes may not offer the same support or features as paid themes.
- To install a new theme,
- Simply visit your WordPress admin panel
- Click on Appearance, then Themes
- Click on Add New
- Select Woocommerce from the list of options.
- Download and activate any themes that strike your fancy.
You can also use templates to customize a pre-existing theme using a third-party plugin like Jomsocial (free) or Envato WordPress Theme Customizer (premium). Remember to always keep backups before making significant changes to your site. The chosen theme must resonate with business owners’ needs.
They need to feel confident that they’ll be able to grow their business without going over budget. It is an important consideration when choosing a platform for ecommerce development.
There’s nothing worse than investing time and money into building something only to realize it doesn’t provide everything necessary to grow your business. It’s advisable to do some research first and get a sense of what other users think about the potential purchase to avoid this situation.
#4. Critical Extensions: Payment, Shipping, & Sales
WooCommerce development cost is an additional expense that includes the time needed to design a new theme or customize your existing theme. Extensions are plugins; they’re the next thing you’ll need to consider.
The cost of extensions can range from $0.99 to $499, with some premium plugins costing up to $1000! Following are some of the critical extensions that all Woocommerce sites must have for a standard UX:
- Payment Gateway Extension
The standard payment gateway can include PayPal, Stripe, and Braintree. The other features such as VAT Taxes, Sales Tax calculation on orders, and taking Credit Cards are optional. Stripe’s fees vary depending on the monthly plan you select; if you go with their annual plan, it will cost less in the long run.
Braintree offers a free plan, but if you want higher transaction limits, it will cost more monthly money -but there’s no contract, so feel free to cancel at any time! What may seem like an added fee now will save you money in the long run regarding credit card processing fees because they’re calculated based on volume (meaning more transactions means a lower percentage).
- Shipping Extension
It’s important to note that WooCommerce does not come with built-in shipping rates, so you’ll have to find one plugin among the many available options. Once installed, this extension adds shipping methods, carrier calculations, and quotes for different countries/states/regions.
They also allow unlimited weight classes, which is a plus if you ship heavy items often. Lastly, this extension lets customers know how much each shipment will cost them before placing an order, which saves them from guessing how much shipping would be.
- Sales Extension
One option for calculating commissions is WooCommerce Commissions Pro. With this extension, you can set standard commission rates by product type, category, customer groups, and custom fields, allowing you to offer specific commission structures that best suit your needs.
You can also define how commissions are calculated by determining the default % rate and how costs are subtracted after sales commissions are applied. When setting commission percentages, make sure that these numbers reflect what others in your industry typically charge so it won’t hurt your store’s credibility.
#5. WooCommerce Developer’s Cost
The cost of Woocommerce development can range from $500 to $5,000. The average cost of Woocommerce development is $2,500. It largely depends upon the hiring location, developer’s expertise, and project complexities involved.
You can also hire woocommerce developers as they can be as affordable as $1,000 for a project with mid-level complexity. However, in the US, one might have to pay between $3,000 and $6,000, depending on the project’s complexity.
With an increasing demand for Woo-commerce sites, more skilled freelancers are offering their services at low rates. It is recommended that you should hire a freelancer with a minimum number of 5 stars reviews on Fiverr or Upwork.
Wrapping Up
Overall, If you’re just starting, you can expect to pay around $500 for a primary online store. However, If you’re looking to add more features or expand your business, you can expect to pay between $5,000-$10,000 for woocommerce development costs.
For a fully custom site with all the bells and whistles, you can expect to pay upwards of $20,000. Of course, these are rough estimates, and the actual cost will vary depending on your specific needs and requirements.
