How much does it cost to build a webshop in 2026?

Building a webshop in 2026 comes down to choices: speed, customisation, and integrations. Those choices determine the budget and timeline. Below I outline cost drivers, typical price ranges and realistic timelines.

I write this as an experienced developer. You’ll get concrete figures and a checklist you can use to request quotes. No fluff, no promises about conversion rates — just the variables that move the price.

Three practical webshop tiers

You can roughly split projects into: template/managed stores, custom builds, and enterprise/headless. The table shows indicative one-time costs and typical timelines. These are ranges; every project differs.

Important: hosting, third-party licenses and recurring fees are usually separate from the one-time implementation cost.

Main cost drivers

• Platform & licenses. SaaS platforms have monthly fees. Self-hosted stacks avoid some fees but add hosting and ops costs.
• Design. A custom UX/UI adds 40–200+ hours depending on fidelity.
• Integrations. ERP, PIM, shipping, and accounting: budget €1,000 - €15,000 per integration depending on API quality and complexity.
• Product data. Single-digit product counts are cheap; tens of thousands of SKUs require ETL scripts and data normalization.
• Payments & shipping. Basic providers are quick to add. Multi-currency, fraud prevention, or custom checkout flows take more work.
• Performance & SEO. Improving Core Web Vitals and load times is technical work—see the Core Web Vitals guidance for which metrics matter: https://web.dev/articles/vitals.
• Security & compliance. E-commerce needs input validation, secure sessions, and hardened endpoints. Review OWASP Top 10 for typical web risks: https://owasp.org/www-project-top-ten/.

Recurring costs (monthly/annual)

• Hosting / infra: €10 - €1,500+/month. Small sites can use cheaper hosting; larger shops need managed cloud and CDN.
• Payment provider fees: typically 0.7%–3.5% + €0.10 per transaction (varies by provider).
• Maintenance & support: €50 - €1,500+/month. Expect €100–€300/month for a small shop with basic support.
• Apps and licenses: €0 - €2,000+/month depending on tools.
• Backups and security services: basic backups from €10/month; more robust enterprise solutions cost more.

Typical timelines

• Template / small: 2–6 weeks.
• Mid-size custom: 8–16 weeks (design, builds, testing, training).
• Enterprise / headless: 4–9+ months (integration-heavy projects).

Use two-week sprints. Add a stabilization phase of 1–2 weeks and an acceptance/training window of about 2 weeks.

Practical checklist before requesting quotes

• Document: expected number of products, traffic estimates, and markets.
• List required integrations (ERP, accounting, fulfillment).
• Indicate preferred platform or give freedom of choice.
• Define required payment and shipping methods.
• State accessibility requirements (WCAG compliance needs explicit scope): https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG22/.
• Decide acceptable downtime and post-launch SLA.

Checklist for comparing offers:

• Clear split between one-time and recurring costs.
• Timeline with milestones.
• Ownership of code and data exports.
• Proposed approach to performance and security.

Common pitfalls and examples

• Quick template launch that is slow and hard to scale. Fixing performance later can cost more than doing it right early.
• Poorly validated product imports cause data-borne bugs and customer-facing errors.
• Integrations without API docs increase time estimates significantly. Ask the vendor for previous integration examples.

If you want help scoping or comparing proposals, see our practical guide on how to hire a webshop. For a direct estimate, request a quote.

Final summary

Budget reference:

• Starter shop: €1,500 - €7,000.
• Serious scalable shop: €8,000 - €35,000.
• Enterprise/headless: start at €35,000 and can go much higher.

Choose a vendor based on technical fit, integrations experience and clear breakdowns — not only on the lowest price. Performance matters: Core Web Vitals are measurable and affect UX and rankings (see https://web.dev/articles/vitals). Security matters too; consult resources like the OWASP Top 10 when reviewing a vendor's approach (https://owasp.org/www-project-top-ten/).

A final note: DevCru is a senior-led web and app development team from the Netherlands. We work on projects from small shops to complex e-commerce platforms without promising revenue outcomes — only predictable scope, timelines and realistic costs.

If you want an initial estimate, request a quote.