How Much Does an Online Store Cost in 2026? A Cost Breakdown.

In 2026, building an online store costs anything from a few thousand hryvnias on a hosted builder to several hundred thousand on a custom solution. For a custom Laravel store with a catalog, payments, Nova Poshta and testing, our benchmark is this: from UAH 150,000 and roughly 10–14 weeks of work. Below we break down what that sum is made of, what pushes it up and what you can cut without hurting sales.

All figures below come from our pricing page and calculator, and where we give an estimate we say so explicitly. A real estimate always depends on your project, so treat this text as a map, not a price list.

Why "how much does an online store cost" has no single answer

The question is like "how much does a car cost". There is a bicycle, a used sedan and a four-wheel-drive crossover, and they all "drive". Stores are the same. Five things determine the cost.

• Platform: a hosted builder, a ready-made CMS, or custom development.
• Catalog size and product complexity: 50 products without variants or 5,000 with combinations of sizes and colors.
• Design: a template, an adapted layout, or a bespoke design.
• Integrations: payments, delivery, CRM, accounting system, marketplaces.
• Quality and risk: whether there is testing, automated tests, monitoring and a warranty.

The last item most often drops out of the comparison of proposals. Two quotes of UAH 150,000 can differ in that one tests the store on 12 devices, while in the other your first customer does the first test.

Three price tiers: from a builder to custom

Simplified, the market splits into three tiers. The approaches are approximate and are not anyone's official price list.

Hosted builder (Shopify, Prom, Horoshop and similar). The start is fast and upfront costs are small. You pay a monthly subscription, commissions and paid extensions. Limits appear when you need non-standard logic: complex discounts, special shipping calculation, integration with your accounting system.

Ready-made CMS (OpenCart, WooCommerce, PrestaShop) with a theme. This is the middle path: the price is lower than custom, and there is an ecosystem of modules. The cost hides in customizations, updates and support for modules by different authors. We compared this in detail in Laravel vs OpenCart and WordPress for Ecommerce.

Custom development (Laravel + Nuxt). The highest upfront price and the most flexibility: the code belongs to you, there is no dependence on third-party modules, and complex logic is easy to add. This is our tier: ecommerce development from UAH 150,000.

The rule for choosing is simple: if your business logic fits the platform's standard settings, custom is an overpayment. If you are already hitting limits or know you will within a year, saving at the start turns into a more expensive migration.

What a custom store estimate is made of

Below is a typical budget split. The percentages are our estimates and shift on a specific project.

Pay attention to QA. If the estimate has no testing at all, that is not savings but a deferred payment: you will pay with fixes after launch, when every bug costs sales.

Analysis and planning

This is where we decide what exactly we are building. Poor analysis produces the most expensive mistakes, because they multiply across design and code. At this stage we find out how many categories there are, what attributes products have, how discounts are calculated, which payment and delivery methods are needed, and whether a B2B account area is required. That is why our brief is detailed: it reduces the number of surprises in the middle of the project.

Design

Bespoke design costs more, but a well-made store design affects conversion directly: from a clear checkout to a readable product page. If you already have a brand book, design gets cheaper. According to our calculator, an existing brand book lowers the cost by about 7%, and a ready layout by about 18%. For details on the process, see the UI/UX design page.

Development

This is the biggest item. It is driven by the number of entities (products, variants, brands, reviews, promotions), the complexity of pricing rules and the number of admin roles. Search and filters on a catalog of 2,000+ products also need a dedicated solution (full-text search, facet caching), not a "magic button".

What pushes the price up: extra modules

In our calculator, extra options are counted as a percentage of the base amount. It is a convenient model for estimating.

A calculation example. Take a base of UAH 150,000. Add payment (+6%), Nova Poshta (+5%) and CRM (+12%): a total of +23%, or about UAH 34,500. The sum is roughly UAH 184,500. This is a benchmark, not an offer: the exact amount comes from an estimate after the brief.

Why are integrations expensive? Because the cost is not only about writing code. Every external system adds documentation to study, a sandbox environment, error handling (what to do when the API does not respond), retries, logging and testing in all states. We described the trouble spots of such integrations in Nova Poshta and Payment Integration: Where It Breaks Most Often.

A rush launch costs more because several people work in parallel: more coordination is needed, there is less time for checking, and mistakes cost more.

Want to see numbers for your store? Use the calculator on the pricing page: four questions and you get a range. We prepare an exact estimate within 1 business day after the brief, with no obligation.

Hidden costs people forget

Besides development itself, a store budget includes things that are not in the developer's contract.

• Hosting and domain. For a store with moderate traffic this is not a lot of money, but you need a proper server, not the cheapest shared hosting. The domain and accounts must be in your name.
• Paid services: transactional email, SMS, CRM, search services. Payment provider fees are usually a percentage of turnover.
• Content. Photos, descriptions, product specifications. Filling a catalog of 1,000 items takes more time than people expect.
• Support. After launch the store lives on: library updates, fixes, new promotions, seasonal changes. Our support plans start from UAH 8,000 per month; details are on the website support page.
• SEO. The technical foundation is part of development, but promotion (copy, links, work with search queries) is a separate line.
• Marketing. A store without traffic does not sell. Count the ad budget separately from development.

A safe rule: set aside 15–25% of the development cost per year for support and improvements. This is our practical estimate, not a standard.

How to reduce the budget without harm

You can save, and sensibly. Here is what works.

1. Start with an MVP. Launch with 3–4 key flows (catalog, cart, payment, delivery) and add the rest based on data. Complex modules (a loyalty program, an account area with history, B2B prices) are easy to postpone to a second phase.
2. Prepare materials in advance. A brand book, photos and copy before the start shorten both the schedule and the cost.
3. Use standard solutions where they are enough. Do not write your own CRM if an existing one with an integration will do.
4. Pick fewer integrations at launch. One payment method and one delivery service instead of five.
5. Avoid urgency if possible: +25% is a noticeable price for haste.
6. Agree the scope in writing. A vague scope leads to endless rework.

And here is where you should not save:

• Testing checkout and payment. A bug here means lost money every day. The 60-point checklist will help you control the result even if you are not technical.
• Backups and security. A store without backups is a lottery.
• Code ownership. The contract must state clearly that the code belongs to you and that you hold access to the repository and the server.
• Documentation and handover. Otherwise you become hostage to one developer.

Two sample scenarios for comparison

To keep the numbers from being abstract, consider two hypothetical stores. These are illustrations of the calculation, not real client projects.

Scenario A: a small store at the start. Up to 100 products, bespoke design, one online payment method and Nova Poshta. The base is about UAH 150,000, plus payment (+6%) and delivery (+5%): roughly UAH 166,500. Timeline: 8–10 weeks. This is a typical entry into custom development.

Scenario B: a store with a catalog of several thousand items. 2,000–10,000 products, a brand book is available, with payment, Nova Poshta, CRM integration and automated checkout tests. The base is higher because the catalog is larger (per the calculator, the range for a store is UAH 150,000–220,000), with a discount for a ready brand book (about 7%), and the markup for options is +31% (6% + 5% + 12% + 8%). The final estimate easily goes beyond UAH 220,000, and the timeline is closer to 12 weeks.

The difference between the scenarios shows the main point: the price is determined not by "pages" but by the volume of data, integrations and quality requirements. That is why an estimate without a brief should be treated only as a range.

How to check a contractor's estimate

When you receive three proposals with different prices, compare not the total but the composition. Ask each one:

• What exactly is included in the price and what is not (design, copy, testing, integrations, hosting)?
• What assumptions are built in: number of products, pages, roles, languages?
• Is there testing and who does it? Will there be automated tests?
• What is the payment schedule? Our typical scheme is 30 / 40 / 30 by milestones, and it ties money to results.
• Who owns the code, design and access after completion?
• How long is the warranty and what does it cover?
• What is the rate for out-of-scope changes? Our developer hourly rate is $20 to $35, depending on level.

A suspiciously low price usually means one of three things: something is missing from the scope, money is saved on testing, or the project will run on change requests that are paid separately. We collected more questions for choosing a vendor in How to Choose a Web Development Contractor: 12 Questions to Ask.

Summary: what to bring to a contractor

A realistic budget for a custom store in 2026 starts from UAH 150,000, and with payment, Nova Poshta and CRM it usually lands in the UAH 180,000–220,000 range. This is our benchmark for a project of medium complexity, not a guarantee for any store.

To get an exact estimate, prepare five things: the approximate number of products, the list of integrations, whether you have a design or brand book, the desired timeline and the budget ceiling. With that set, an estimate takes a day, not a week, and you compare proposals on equal terms.

Ready to price your store? Fill in the brief in 10–15 minutes, and within 1 business day we will come back with a price range, timeline and list of risks. Or look at the ecommerce development page to see what the package includes.