Don’t know how much to pay someone to set up a Shopify store? Well, that depends on which method you plan to opt for: hire a freelancer, buy a prebuilt shop, or even build a store on your own (which costs time).
Worry no more. In this blog, eComStart eCommerce gurus will show you the estimated cost and fees for common Shopify store outsourcing services as well as their pros and cons.
After reading this blog, you will be able to choose a service that best aligns with your demand and budget.
Contents
1. Overview of Shopify
Before we dig into what’s the cost to get a Shopify store up and running, let us help you have a better understanding of Shopify and its pricing plans first.
1.1. What is Shopify?
Shopify is the world’s most famous eCommerce platform that enables you to launch, manage, and scale up a functional online store with ease. And with Shopify POS– Shopify’s in-house point-of-sale system, you can also sell in-person and sync data with your online shop seamessly.
>> Check out our unbiased Shopify review for more detailed information on Shopify’s pricing, features, pros, and cons.
1.2. Understanding Shopify Plans & Pricing
As of the time being, Shopify has five pricing plans, ranging from $5 to $2,300+ per month. Let’s take a look at the licensing cost and transaction fee of each plan:
Plan | Licensing fee (billed monthly) | Transaction fee | Recommended for |
Starter | $5/month | 5% | People who want to sell on social media |
Basic | $39/month | 2.9% + 30¢ | Solo entrepreneurs |
Shopify | $105/month | 2.7% + 30¢ | Small teams |
Advanced Shopify | $399/month | 2.5% + 30¢ | Growing businesses |
Shopify Plus | From $2,300/month | 2.15% + 30¢ | Enterprises |
And here’s an overview of what’s included in each plan as well as its target audience:
- Starter: With Shopify Starter, you only have product pages and a contact page, as well as Shopify’s checkout to sell your products on social media instead of an eCommerce website.
- Basic Shopify: At $39/month, Basic Shopify gives you all the needed features to launch an online store like unlimited products and free SSL.
- Shopify: At $105 a month, you can add five staff accounts with role permission settings, which is handy if you have a small team
- Advanced Shopify: At $399/month, you have 15 staff accounts, unlock third-party shipping rates calculated, and a 10x faster checkout page.
- Shopify Plus: Starting at $2,300 a month on a 3-year term, Shopify Plus provides merchants with unlimited staff accounts, priority support, a 40x faster checkout page, and more customizations.
2. Can you build it yourself?
Yes, you can build a Shopify store from scratch on your own. Actually, between premade Shopify store vs custom Shopify store, building a Shopify shop on your own can be an affordable option.
Nevertheless, despite Shopify’s ease of use, there is still a learning curve you need to overcome to set up all the right things in the right place. To name a few, you’d have to import products to your store, customize your theme, configure your taxes and payment settings, etc.
Therefore, unless you are a Shopify expert with hands-on experience building a full-fledged Shopify store, it’s smarter to hire someone to set up your store. But how much should I spend on a Shopify store? Well, that’s what we’re going to explore next.
3. How much to pay someone to set up a Shopify store: A Comprehensive Guide
Have a glance at the side-by-side comparison between three popular options: building yourself, hiring a freelancer, and the increasingly popular solution– buying a prebuilt store.
Time | Cost | Support | Target audience | |
Build yourself | 4-8 weeks | Pay as you go*Can be $500 – $1,000+ | Shopify general support or community support | Experts or businesses with technical resources. |
Hire freelancer | 1-6 weeks | From $1,000 for a basic store or $80/hour for on-demand services | Most of them don’t offer post-service support. | People with a high budget and want a full-fledged Shopify store |
Buy a prebuilt store (with eComStart) | 1-2 days | $17 | Long-term support from experts | Anyone who wants an affordable turnkey Shopify store with fast time-to-market. |
*Though the cost of building a store on your own is free at first, the cost can be out of hand when you need a premium theme, add apps, or hire technical support for hours. Hence, it depends on your expertise.
Now that you understand different store-building methods better, let’s solve the question, “How much does it cost to hire someone to set up Shopify store?”
3.1. Hiring Shopify Experts
🔎 Key takeaways:
✔️ Recommended for people with a budget who want a full-fledged Shopify store
✔️ Costs from $50 – $1,500+ based on store complexity
✔️ It might take weeks or months
With this option, you can outsource a Shopify expert to work on your store design, page setups, product uploads, SEO optimization, etc.
But how much does it cost to have someone create a Shopify website, then? Well, it depends on the expert you decide to opt for. Below are three popular expert marketplaces you can refer to:
- Shopify expert directory: $50 – $2,000/project (mostly $1,000+)
- Fiverr: $85 – $1,000/project (mostly $200-$500)
- Upwork: $5 – $30/hour depending on seniority
If you want quality services from certified Shopify partners, you can hire experts on Shopify expert directory for around $1,000. For more affordable options, you can check out freelancers on Fiverr (pay-per-project) or Upwork (pay-per-hour).
On that note, there isn’t a fixed answer to the question “How much does a Shopify developer cost?” since it would depend on the complexity of your prebuilt store. Overall, here is the total cost of hiring a Shopify expert to build your store:
- $50 – $500: Basic store and theme customization
- $500 – $1,500: Custom design, SEO optimization, app integration, etc.
- > $1,500+: Full-store customization
With Shopify experts, you can get a superb quality store crafted by professionals with real experience. Nevertheless, the cost is quite high, even when with freelancers on Fiverr or Upwork. Not to mention that communication can take weeks or months.
But don’t worry, there is another fantastic option in case hiring freelancers doesn’t click with you– buying prebuilt Shopify stores.
3.2. Buying Prebuilt Shopify Stores
🔎 Key takeaways:
✔️ The cost of a prebuilt store only starts from $17
✔️ Prebuilt store’s cost efficiency and optimized layout make it the optimal solution for solo entrepreneurs and businesses of all sizes
Buy readymade Shopify store for $17
3.2.1. Overview
A prebuilt Shopify store is a ready-to-launch store that comes with a pre-designed theme, pre-loaded products, as well and properly set up eCommerce and marketing integration. As eCommerce and Shopify are becoming more and more popular, many businesses have turned to prebuilt stores as the optimal solution.
This is because:
- Compared to building a custom store, buying a prebuilt store would let you quickly test your products without tremendous effort
- Compared to hiring an expert, buying a ready-made Shopify store is a much more cost-effective solution, especially when you can get a prebuilt Shopify store for $17 with eComStart.
Here’s a glance at one of the trending Shopify stores for sale at eComStart:
Over the past few years, prebuilt Shopify stores have been increasingly preferred by sellers worldwide with their superior benefits such as:
💸 Cost-efficiency: Compared to hiring Shopify experts, buying a ready-made Shopify store is a more budget-friendly option for newbies
🚚 Quick time-to-market: Professional prebuilt store providers like eComStart deliver a full-fledged Shopify store in 1-2 days. This is much faster compared to launching a Shopify store on your own (which may take weeks or months).
💝 Proven-effective layout: A proper prebuilt Shopify store is optimized for conversion and UI-UX best practices out of the box, bringing you a higher chance to succeed.
3.2.2. Cost Evaluation
So, how much should I pay for a Shopify store? Again, it depends on the provider you decide to settle down with. Among tons of premade Shopify store companies out there, here are the five most credible providers:
Providers | Pricing | Value for money |
$17 | 5.0 out of 5.0 🌟 • Battle-tested layouts • Winning preloaded products • Lifetime support • Fast delivery in 1-2 days | |
$350 – $2025 | 4.2 ⭐ • Feature-rich stores • Great customer support • No store demos • Relative high fees | |
$290 – $480 | 4.9 ⭐ • Stores with high-quality aesthetics • Pricing can be high for newbies • Post-service support only within the first 7 days after store delivery. | |
$149 – $399 | 4.8 ⭐ • Functional, high-quality prebuilt Shopify stores • Delivery time can take up to 12 days • Responses from Customer Support are slow |
4. Conclusion
Since you’ve made it to this line, we bet you have figured out how much to pay someone to set up a Shopify store, haven’t you?
If you have the budget, you can consider hiring a Shopify expert on the Shopify expert directory, Upwork, or Fiverr for around $1000/project or $30/hour.
And if you still want an optimized store to get started selling quickly, it’s a no-brainer to buy a premade Shopify store from a credible provider like eComStart.
Don’t forget to check out eComStart.io to get updated with all the latest eCommerce tutorials and guides.
5. Frequently asked questions
