How much does an eCommerce website cost to build and host? We are asked this question a lot, and while it is very hard to answer – we’ve prepared this generic chart to give you an idea of the full scope of work involved to help our clients understand the complexity and potential cost.
eCommerce website costs could range from $5 thousand to over $5 million, depending on the platform and requirements. eCommerce also requires that you continue to invest money to improve the function and experience when the initial development is completed – as well as marketing your website, which is a whole different animal.
Waiting until a website is outdated and then updating isn’t a smart decision, nor is it a proactive ecommerce strategy.
EMG likes to break work down into understandable segments, so to make it easier to understand costs, please review this summary of all of the requirements and segments. Keep in mind that the site you want may actually contain a variety of these segments and cross over from small, mid or custom in certain segments. This might help you understand why it is so difficult to “quote” a definitive cost for eCommerce sites. For this reason, EMG must analyze your scope – help you determine “need” from “want” – and narrow it all down to where a base cost can be determined, with everything additional billed at standard hourly rates.
Traditional E-Commerce Website Cost
Small
|
Mid
|
Custom
|
|
|
Licensing |
< $500 |
< $5,000 |
$5,000 – $100,000 |
|
Hosting (monthly) |
$350 |
$500 |
$1,000-$2,000+ |
|
Design |
< $3,000 |
$5,000 – $10,000 |
$10,000-$150,000+ |
|
Custom Development |
< $500 |
$2,000 – $5,000 |
$10,000 – $150,000+ |
|
Setup/Config |
<$3,000 |
$2,000 – $5,000 |
$2,000 – $10,000+ |
|
Training |
$500 – $1,000 |
$500 – $2,000 |
$500 – $5,000+ |
|
Maintenance (montly) |
$500+ |
$1,000 – $2,000 |
$2,000 – $5,000+ |
|
Total Setup* |
< $11,000 |
$15,500 – $29,000 |
$30,500 – $422,000+ |
|
Total Annual* |
< $12,000 |
$18,000 – $30,000 |
$36,000 – $84,000 |
* Totals do not include other items important to the success of your site, such as marketing and content creation – including product descriptions and product photos.