WooCommerce is one of the most user-friendly e-commerce platforms. Considering that it is becoming more and more used and popular, it is a free yet powerful solution for your online business. But is it really worth it to build a WooCommerce online store for free? How much does it cost to build, feature and maintain a WooCommerce online store and what else will you have to pay for?
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If you intend to migrate to WooCommerce, we offer migration services from other systems that help you transfer all content from your current e-commerce platform to WooCommerce.
WooCommerce Overview
What is WooCommerce?
WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin trusted by over 6.3 million running websites as of April 2023. It also takes the lead as the most popular platform, along with Shopify and BigCommerce.
WooCommerce is completely free to download and install, and this is one of the main reasons online store owners choose this platform. You can develop your website to your liking and within your budget instead of paying a monthly or yearly subscription.
What does WooCommerce do?
My impression of WooCommerce is that this platform is very customizable. It gives users complete control over their websites, allowing you to effortlessly adjust everything from the appearance to the functionality of your online store. As a result, you can create an online store that meets your needs.
In addition, WordPress comes with a wide selection of plugins and will meet the needs of your business without worrying about the functionality you want. In addition, WordPress is well optimized for SEO, thanks to numerous highly rated SEO built-in features and plugins, such as Yoast SEO or Rank Math SEO.
WooCommerce overview
WooCommerce online store setup is relatively cheap, with basic features available to start an online business than if you stop at any CMS system. However, beginners still ask themselves questions like:
Is WooCommerce Free, Literally? Can one know the true cost of building a WooCommerce online store? or Can I get a summary of WooCommerce pricing?
As you know, to keep the business successful in the long run, store owners need to invest in certain aspects when using plugins made for WooCommerce.
WooCommerce Pricing Breakdown
Before we dive into the details, let me show you how I break down the overall pricing of a WooCommerce online store based on my experience.
Although starting up is free, you need to think about some basic aspects that every online store has as an expense. As we know every business has unique requirements and you need to identify those that match your online store.
- Mandatory costs: when starting a complete WooCommerce store
- Custom Pricing: As per your business customization requirements.

WooCommerce Hosting Costs
- Hosting: Under $10 per month with starters, up to $60 per month for larger plans
The first thing you need to pay for is hosting and buying a domain name.
Next, you need to build a WordPress site to configure WooCommerce. If you have never installed either WordPress or WooCommerce, contact specialists who can do this for you.
There is a huge variety of hosting providers that you can choose from, ranging from affordable businesses to specialized ones that will take care of hosting your site. Therefore, the price depends on the hosting plan, which will be determined according to the size of your online store.
To make a clearer point, hosting plans can start at $20 and range up to thousands of dollars per month. Of course, if you’re not at the enterprise level, you won’t pay that much.
Which web host to choose?
Choosing a hosting plan is not difficult. You can quickly check it out by following the top three WordPress and WooCommerce offerings: Bluehost, DreamHost, and SiteGround
PROVIDERS | CUSTOMER SUPPORT | SSL CERTIFICATE | STARTING PRICE |
Bluehost | Available 24/7 | Yes | $2.95/month |
DreamHost | Available 24/7 | Yes | $2.95/mo |
No matter where you choose your hosting plan, be sure to consider the following recommended factors:
- Sites on the server: the fewer sites on your server, the faster its speed.
- Uptime: The percentage of time your website and host server are available for work. It should be as high as possible.
- Security: Keep an eye out for features like automatic backups, manual restarts, spam checking, malware avoidance, and more.
- Customer support: The provider’s support should always be available in case your site runs into problems.
- Scalability: You should be able to upgrade your hosting plan as your business expands.
Cost of a WooCommerce domain name
- Domain name: $9-$60 per year
The next element in WooCommerce online store pricing is a domain name. You need to register a domain, this is the address of your website.
You can also buy your domain from these registrars: GoDaddy, Namecheap, and Bluehost.
WooCommerce Theme Pricing
- $0-$79 per year with a regular plan
- $200+ with one-time payment
Criteria for choosing a theme for your new online store:
- Good quality and design – well-structured and clean code
- Fast loading time
- Regular Updates – Before purchasing a theme, check if the theme developers provide regular updates
- Easy to use – Easy to install themes that require no coding knowledge
- Mobile Friendly – Make sure the website is mobile-friendly.
- Support Available – Make sure you can contact the theme developers at any time through channels like emails, contact forms, etc.
Here is the place to note that when you choose a free theme, you get limited functionalities, unlike paid themes.
WooCommerce Shipping Fees
- Delivery: $0-$108 on average per year
Another must-have element of WooCommerce pricing is shipping charges. WooCommerce now allows flat-rate shipping, local pickup or free shipping, which are essential solutions for any business and are completely free.
But many businesses need a much more personalized delivery and this explains the existence of many paid WooCommerce delivery plugins, and below are the three main factors to consider:
- Flexible: allows multiple pricing methods for shipping and calculates prices based on weight, quantity, dimensions, etc.
- Support logistics: support both domestic and global delivery solutions.
- Trackable Orders: This allows you and your customers to track product packages after they are shipped.
My advice is to integrate with WooCommerce Shipping, a free solution. It connects to the USPS and allows store owners to print shipping labels from the dashboard.
Pricing for WooCommerce Payments
- Payment: 2.9% + $0.3 per transaction + monthly fees of $0-$30 on average per month
With an online store, you need a payment system, which is a program created and designed to process customer payments with bank cards.
This means that your online store can receive payments through multiple providers such as PayPal or Stripe. Most payment systems for WooCommerce may cost you additional fees with additional features such as sending invoices or printing labels.
Our advice is to consider the following factors when choosing a payment system:
- Secure Transactions: Make sure the payment system follows all standard security protocols.
- Payment Support: Payment systems must accept payment from your location and customers’ location. We also recommend tracking site analytics as this is a good way to see what customers are visiting your site
- Transaction Fees and Other Fees: Transaction fees are the amount of money that online payment systems charge for a transaction. You should also be aware of additional fees such as maintenance or cash withdrawal fees, etc.
They often come with recurring fees each month and/or standard transaction fees:
CLOAK GATEWAYS | TRANSACTION FEES | MONTHLY TAXES | PRICE |
WooCommerce Payments | 2.9% + $0.3 | $0 | $0 |
PayPal | 2.9% + $0.3 | $0 | $0 |
stripe | 2.9% + $0.3 | $0 | $0 |
Authorize.net | 2.9% + $0.3 | $25 | $79 |
WooCommerce Online Store Security
- Firewalls and Systems: $0-$300 per year
- SSL certificate: $0 included in hosting plans; up to $65 per year with separate purchase
Another important element of WooCommerce is security (as with all other platforms). This is a must for your online business:
- Firewall: they manage your site traffic and identify sensitive bots before they reach the store server.
- Malware Scanner: Scan your site regularly to identify malware
- Malware cleanup: remove and fix malware when your website is attacked.
Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificates encrypt the data that travels between customers’ devices and your website. The data can be credit card, customer personal data, transaction or payment data.
In most cases, free SSL certificates are offered in hosting plans after you register a domain name. If you wish to purchase separately, the cost can range from $8 to $65 per year.
Additionally, you may need to add a few more current security packages to the website as a business owner.
There are a variety of WooCommerce plugins to choose from, including anti-malware and firewall tools such as SiteLock, Sucuri and Jetpack Security
WooCommerce Pricing – Additional Costs
Marketing functionalities
- Marketing Plugin Pricing: $0-$348 per year
- SEO plugin pricing: $0-$79 per year
With a marketing strategy, you will not only increase sales but also reach potential customers or personal contact information like email more easily. From here you are able to build a structured customer base and grow your business successfully.
With WooCommerce, you have the ability to add marketing plugins, but they must fit the needs of the store, for example:
- Customer communications: Create campaigns to promote via emails, encourage repeat purchases, abandoned carts or send thank you cards. Mailchimp is a popular extension with free and paid plans. The free plan still gives you a pool of 2,000 emails at first, the paid plan starts at $9.99 per month.
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Increase site ranking in Google with SEO plugins commonly used in WordPress to support SEO analysis and recommendations. Yoast SEO is on top, offering both free and paid plans. Typically, a paid plan starts at $69 per year.
Hiring developers
- Price: BGN 40-100/hour
Maintaining your store is one of the most important points that you should pay special attention to after building your online store. This is about the security of your site and regular system, theme, plugin and content updates.
Building a Woocommerce Online Store – Pricing
We chose to insert the biggest cost of building an online store at the end of the old ones. Of course, prices here in Bulgaria vary. You can find a freelance developer to build your website for 1000$ or even less. But here is the time to point out that among the many “developers” there are those who are self-taught or who want to take up the creation of your online store after 1 completed course, which brings its consequences. We’ve had many clients come to us who settled on a cheaper design option, but at some point realize that it’s hindering their brand and their business because the site doesn’t meet the needs of the users, as well as the needs of their business. In this case, you will pay more for an expert website development agency and online store to create a site that suits your needs, easy to navigate with a neat design. Agency website development
prices vary, but our research indicates that building an online store starts from 2,000$ to 50,000/more, depending on your business needs and budget.
Conclusion
The WooCommerce plugin is free, but your online store can’t start without a domain name, hosting plan, build and support.
We are always available to advise you on the suitable platform for your business, as well as to assist with the creation, maintenance and selection of hosting, domain name and creation of a complete brand identity.