Setting Up an E-Commerce Site: Routes and Real Costs

The answer to "how do I set up an e-commerce site" is usually a platform name. But the platform is not the real question. The real question is: which part of this are you going to maintain yourself?

The technical gap between the three routes is smaller than people assume. The maintenance obligation gap is not. This guide compares the three against published figures, lists the recurring items nobody raises in the first conversation, and covers what changes if you sell into the EU.

Key Takeaways

• Shopify's published price is $19 per month for Basic billed annually, $27 billed monthly, and a third-party payment provider adds up to 2% depending on plan (Shopify).
• The WooCommerce plugin is free; the setup is not. WordPress recommends PHP 8.3 or greater (WordPress.org) and security support for PHP 8.2 ends on 31 December 2026 (php.net).
• SSL is no longer a line item: Let's Encrypt issues certificates at zero cost (Let's Encrypt).
• Selling into the EU makes accessibility mandatory: Directive (EU) 2019/882 applies to services provided to consumers after 28 June 2025 and explicitly covers e-commerce (EUR-Lex).

The three routes

Hosted platform. Shopify and its peers. You pay a monthly subscription and in return infrastructure, updates and security stop being your problem. You start quickly. In exchange you live by the platform's rules, and a share of every sale stays in the system.

Self-hosted open source. WooCommerce is the common one. No subscription, the code is yours, you change what you like. In exchange, updates, backups and security move entirely onto you.

Custom development. For catalogues or processes that do not fit a ready-made system. The most expensive start, the most flexible result, and the maintenance obligation is whatever the contract says it is.

The technical differences are covered in detail in the WooCommerce, Shopify and custom comparison. The focus here is the shape of the cost.

What a hosted platform actually costs

Shopify's published pricing (Shopify):

It is a mistake to stop there, because the subscription is only part of the total. Using a third-party payment provider, Shopify adds 2%, 1%, 0.6% or 0.2% depending on plan — and your payment provider's own fee sits on top of that.

Run the arithmetic against revenue, not against the subscription. A $27 plan is a rounding error next to a few percent of turnover once volume arrives.

The bill for the "free" option

The WooCommerce plugin is free. The setup is not.

Separate items: hosting, domain, business email, paid theme and extension licences, payment processing. Those are predictable.

The unpredictable one is maintenance. WordPress recommends PHP 8.3 or greater in its own requirements, noting that older versions will still function but have reached end of life and "may expose your site to security vulnerabilities" (WordPress.org). The PHP calendar is equally clear: each release branch gets two years of active support, then two years of security fixes, and security support for PHP 8.2 ends on 31 December 2026 (php.net).

The trap is that nothing visibly breaks. A store on an unsupported version loads fine and takes orders. The only thing that changed is that newly discovered vulnerabilities are no longer patched on it — we covered how sites actually get compromised separately.

Frame the comparison this way: on a hosted platform you pay subscription; on open source you pay maintenance. Neither is zero.

What has to be ready before the build

The items that delay most projects are not technical:

Domain and hosting. What each one does is explained without jargon in domain, hosting and DNS.

Product content. Images, descriptions, variants, SKUs. This usually takes longer than the build itself.

Your shipping and returns terms. Commercial decisions, not technical ones — but they have to exist before the store is configured.

Payment provider application. Approval can take days. Do not leave it until last.

SSL — no longer an item. Let's Encrypt states that "anyone who owns a domain name" can obtain "a trusted certificate at zero cost" (Let's Encrypt). If a quote carries a separate SSL charge, ask what is being billed.

Local obligations. Registration and disclosure requirements for online sellers differ by country and change over time. Confirm the current rules with the relevant authority in your market before launch rather than relying on a guide.

Selling into the EU changes the picture

The European Accessibility Act — Directive (EU) 2019/882 — applies to services provided to consumers after 28 June 2025, and the services it covers explicitly include e-commerce services (EUR-Lex).

What matters for the budget: accounted for during the build, accessibility is largely a design and markup discipline. Retrofitted after launch, it is a rebuild line. Same outcome, two very different prices.

Choosing a route

The decision is not made on revenue. It is made on whether your processes are standard.

Limited catalogue, simple variants, ordinary fulfilment, and a need to start quickly — a hosted platform is the right answer, and the maintenance you hand over is what the subscription buys.

An unusual catalogue structure, ERP or accounting integrations, or a preference for spending once on engineering rather than monthly on subscription — open source or custom development fits better.

Either way, the work does not end at launch. Making category pages findable is a separate effort, and in e-commerce SEO the larger gain sits on category pages rather than product pages.

In short

Setting up an e-commerce site is not choosing a platform. It is choosing a maintenance model. A hosted platform charges subscription plus a share of sales; open source charges no subscription but moves updates, backups and security onto your calendar; custom development fixes both in a contract.

Whichever route you take, what has to be ready first is commercial rather than technical: your product content, your shipping and returns terms, your payment setup.

If you want a real number for your own scope, tell us what you plan to sell — Caliency publishes fixed prices for defined scopes on the web development page.