Budgeting honestly
What an ecommerce website costs, including the parts nobody quotes for
Quotes for an online store range from almost nothing to more than a car, and both ends can be reasonable. The spread is not vendors being dishonest; it is that 'an ecommerce website' describes four quite different purchases, and they are priced along different axes.
What makes budgeting hard is that the up-front figure is rarely the expensive part. The costs that decide whether a store was worth building are the recurring ones — hosting, extensions, payment fees, maintenance and, most of all, the time somebody spends keeping products and stock correct.
This page sets out the cost shapes rather than quoting figures that would be stale in a year, so you can price your own situation and recognise a quote that has left something out.
What you get
What this gives you
The domain
A small annual fee, and genuinely unavoidable. Buy it yourself from a registrar rather than through a builder, so it stays yours if you ever move.
Hosting and certificates
Included in a hosted platform, a separate recurring bill on a self-hosted one. On the self-hosted route this is also where cheap decisions show up later as a slow store.
The platform itself
A subscription, a set of paid extensions, or a build fee — depending on route. This is the number most quotes lead with and rarely the largest one.
Payment processing
A percentage of every sale, charged by the processor. It is unavoidable and it is the cost that scales, so model it against annual turnover rather than per transaction.
Design and product data
Photography, descriptions and correct variants. Almost always the most under-budgeted item, and the one that most determines whether the store sells anything.
Ongoing maintenance
Updates, security, broken extensions and keeping stock accurate. On a self-hosted or custom build this is a permanent line item, whether you pay an agency or pay in evenings.
The four routes, and what drives each bill
A hosted store builder is a subscription. The variable is the app ecosystem — the base plan is rarely the final cost, because functionality people expect as standard often arrives as paid apps, each with its own monthly fee. Budget the base plus the apps you will actually add.
A self-hosted platform such as WooCommerce is free to license and not free to run. The bill is hosting, a theme, paid extensions for things like shipping rules or subscriptions, and either a developer on call or your own time when an update breaks something. The economics are excellent if you have technical capacity and poor if you do not.
A custom build is priced in developer days, and the up-front figure is the smaller commitment — the real one is that maintenance is permanently yours. Worth it when you have a requirement no platform serves, expensive when what you needed was a normal shop.
A unified system prices the storefront as part of the platform running your business. There is no separate ecommerce subscription and no connector, and the trade is less storefront flexibility than a dedicated platform with a mature theme ecosystem.
Where ecommerce budgets actually overrun
Product data. Three hundred products, photographed properly, with accurate variants and descriptions, is a serious piece of work, and it is the piece that gets waved through in a quote because it is your job rather than the builder's. It is also the difference between a store that converts and a catalogue nobody buys from.
The second system. If the store does not share stock with your counter, the ongoing cost includes somebody reconciling them — or a connector subscription, or both. Over three years this frequently exceeds the entire build cost, and it never appears in a quote because it is not a line item anyone sells you.
Extensions creeping. On plugin-based platforms, each individually reasonable subscription accumulates. Shipping rules, a better search, a reviews widget, an accounting connector, a backup service — it is normal to end up paying more in extensions than in the platform.
Rebuilds. A store built cheaply on an unusual foundation is often replaced within two or three years, which makes the cheap option the expensive one. The question to ask about any route is not what it costs to build but what it would cost to still be running well in three years.
- Budget photography and product data as a real line, not as a favour
- Count every recurring extension, not just the platform
- Include the cost of reconciling stock if the store is a separate system
- Model payment fees against annual turnover
- Ask what a redesign in two years would involve before committing
What it costs here
The storefront is included from the Basic plan — USD 12 (KES 1,499 in Kenya) is the entry plan without it, and the storefront tier is the step above. There is no separate ecommerce subscription, no connector to license, no hosting bill and no certificate to renew.
What you still pay for independently, as you would anywhere: your domain, your payment processor's percentage, and your own time on product photography and descriptions. We would rather be explicit about that than quote a figure that quietly excludes the things everyone pays.
Compare
Cost shape by route
Shapes rather than figures, because published prices change and the shape is what determines your three-year bill.
| What you are comparing | Hosted builder | Self-hosted | Custom build | sell.ke |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Up front | Minimal | Theme and setup | Large | None |
| Recurring | Subscription plus apps | Hosting plus extensions | Retainer or your time | One subscription |
| Payment fees | Processor, plus platform fee if not using theirs | Processor | Processor | Processor only |
| Maintenance | Vendor | You | You or an agency | Vendor |
| Stock reconciliation | Connector or manual | Plugin or manual | Built, or manual | None needed |
| Largest hidden cost | App subscriptions | Maintenance time | Change requests | Product photography |
Questions
What an online store costs — questions
How much does it cost to build an ecommerce website?
Anywhere from a domain plus a subscription to a five-figure custom build, depending on which of four routes you take. The more useful question is the three-year total: platform or build cost, plus hosting, plus extensions, plus payment processing, plus maintenance, plus the time spent keeping products and stock correct. The last item is the one most often left out and frequently the largest.
Can I build an online store for free?
Not entirely — a domain and payment processing both cost money regardless of route. Free usually means an open-source platform you still have to host, or a free tier that charges a higher percentage of sales instead of a subscription. Neither is free; the cost has moved.
Is it cheaper to use a website builder or hire a developer?
A builder is cheaper up front and usually over three years too, unless you have a requirement no platform serves. Hiring a developer makes sense when the store is genuinely unusual, when it has to integrate with something bespoke, or when the site is a large enough part of revenue to justify a permanent maintenance relationship.
What ongoing costs should I expect after launch?
Domain renewal, payment processing as a percentage of sales, the platform subscription or hosting, any paid extensions, and maintenance. If your store does not share stock with your counter, add the recurring cost of keeping the two in agreement — a connector subscription, your own time, or both.
Does sell.ke charge extra for the online store?
No — it is included from the Basic plan, sharing the same catalogue as your counter. There is no separate ecommerce subscription, no hosting bill and no connector fee. You still pay your own domain registrar and your own payment processor, as you would on any platform.
How much does sell.ke cost?
Plans run from USD 12/month for a single-location till to USD 115/month for unlimited scale, with the online store on your own domain included from USD 23/month. In Kenya the same plans are KES 1,499 to KES 14,999/month, billed in shillings. Every plan starts with a 14-day trial and no card, and there is no per-terminal licence and no commission on your sales. There is no hardware to buy either — sell.ke runs on a phone, tablet or laptop you already own.
How long does setup take?
A single-counter shop is usually selling the same day. The work is the product list, not the software: import a spreadsheet, scan barcodes, or let Amina build products from a supplier invoice or a photo of your price list. A multi-location business with thousands of SKUs and opening stock counts should plan about a week and run the old system alongside for a fortnight. The 14-day trial is long enough to do exactly that.
Which countries does sell.ke work in?
The software is not geographically limited — the counter, inventory, the storefront, reporting and accounting work anywhere, in multiple currencies. What is market-specific is two things: the payment rails available to you, and your country's tax-invoicing rules. We currently run with merchants in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Ghana and Nigeria, and the deepest local payment and compliance integrations are in Kenya. If you are outside those markets, ask before you sign up and we will tell you precisely what would and would not be connected for you.
What happens to my data if I leave?
You export it. Products, customers, suppliers, stock movements and transactions are all exportable, and the accounting side produces standard statements rather than a proprietary format. We would rather you stayed because moving is not worth it than because moving is not possible — a business whose records are hostage is a business that resents its software.
Read next
The other pages that answer the question you are probably about to ask.
Ecommerce website builder
An online store on your own domain, built from the catalogue you already sell from.
Shopify vs WooCommerce vs all-in-one
Three different purchases, compared on architecture rather than feature counts.
How to set up an online store
The seven steps, in order, with the one that actually takes the time flagged.
Pricing
Four plans, one subscription, no per-terminal licence and no cut of your sales.
Selling products online
Your own store, a marketplace or social selling — what each actually costs you.
All-in-one POS, inventory & online store
One system for the counter, the stock and the website — not three that sync.
Go deeper on a feature
An online shop off the same stock
A branded storefront on your own domain, reading the same products, stock and prices as the till.
Setup, growth and the plumbing
Trial, product import, opening stock, eTIMS enrolment and a custom domain — in the order they matter.
Prices, price lists and promotions
Wholesale and retail off one product, quantity breaks, customer-specific lists, VAT-inclusive display.
See it for your trade
Clothing boutique
Size-then-colour variants, per-variant stock, the online shop as a second branch.
Stationery & office supplies
School-season bulk orders, quotations to institutions, credit invoicing.
Electronics & phone shop
IMEI and serial tracking, warranty by unit, consignment stock, high-value write-offs.
Try it on your own products
Fourteen days, no card. Import your product list or let Amina build it from a photo of your price list, and run it alongside whatever you use now.