More and more business owners, from small enterprises to large corporations, are realizing the critical importance of having their own ecommerce website. This shift is largely driven by the increasingly restrictive admin fees on online marketplaces, which many sellers find suffocating. For these merchants, an ecommerce website represents a long-term solution for their business. However, a major question remains: how much does it actually cost to build one?
Ecommerce website development costs varies significantly. The final price depends heavily on the number of products sold and the specific features desired. Since every online store has unique needs, no two ecommerce website development costs will be identical.
This article will provide a detailed breakdown of the costs involved in creating an ecommerce website and explore the factors that influence them. Read on to get the full picture.
Table of Contents
Key Factors That Influence Ecommerce Website Development Costs
The cost of building an ecommerce website is shaped by various technical and operational factors. Since each element contributes to the total expense, planning your website development carefully is essential. Here are the main factors that affect the cost:
1. The Platform or Technology Used
The cost of developing an ecommerce website is influenced by the chosen platform. The more complex the platform, the higher the development cost will be.
The first major factor is the platform or technology stack. This is influential because each platform has different characteristics and technical requirements. Here are some common choices for building an ecommerce site:
a. WordPress & WooCommerce
For small to medium-sized businesses, using WordPress with the WooCommerce plugin is often sufficient to build a solid ecommerce foundation. This combination offers convenience by providing a comprehensive set of basic online store features by default. As a result, the cost of building an ecommerce site with WordPress can be more affordable, as it requires less extensive design customization or complex feature configuration.
b. Custom Development
For large-scale online stores that require unique features and complete flexibility, custom development is the ideal choice. In this approach, the ecommerce website is built from the ground up using technologies or frameworks like React.js, Node.js, and Laravel.
Because the entire system is created from scratch to meet specific business needs, the process demands in-depth research and a longer development timeline. Consequently, the ecommerce website development costs with a custom development approach is generally higher than using a ready-made platform.
2. Design
Design is a critical factor that significantly impacts the cost of building an ecommerce website. Besides affecting the budget, a complex ecommerce website design also determines the duration of the development process.
Currently, there are at least three types of ecommerce website design: template-based, semi-custom, and full-custom. Here’s an explanation of each:
- Template Design: This approach uses a default WordPress-based theme as the foundation for the visual elements of the ecommerce site. The advantages are a faster development process and lower cost. However, the main drawback is the very limited customization options.
- Semi-Custom Design: This method uses a template as a starting point during development. With a semi-custom design, the designer will adjust icons, colors, typography, and layout to match the ecommerce website’s brand identity. The limitation of this design type is that the core template structure cannot be completely modified during the process.
- Full-Custom Design: In a full-custom design, all visual and UI/UX elements of the website are created from scratch and tailored to the online store’s needs. The designer will structure the pages and interactions based on user research. The result is a unique and exclusive website where every element is specially crafted to represent the store’s identity. However, due to its complexity, the development time is longer, and the costs are significantly higher.
3. Feature Complexity
Example of a shopping cart on an ecommerce website
The number and complexity of features are major determinants of the final ecommerce development cost. Typically, a standard ecommerce site includes basic features like a product catalog, a shopping cart, a clear checkout flow, and a payment system. In contrast, advanced ecommerce sites may require features such as ERP integration, membership systems, discount vouchers, and integration with marketing tools.
The more advanced features you need, the more complex the system will be to build, which ultimately drives up the ecommerce website development costs. To learn more about available features, please read our article on ecommerce website features.
4. Domain and Hosting Costs
Domain and hosting costs influence the overall budget because they are the foundational elements that determine a website’s stability and performance. Here is a breakdown of domain and hosting costs for an ecommerce website:
a. Domain
A domain is the unique address used to access a website on the internet. Generally, domain prices are determined by their extension. In 2026, .com remains the most popular extension for ecommerce websites. The price for a .com domain ranges from IDR 99,000 to IDR 199,900 per year. For ecommerce owners targeting the Indonesian market, local extensions like .id and .co.id can be good options. For a one-year subscription, an .id domain costs between IDR 210,000 and IDR 220,000, while a .co.id domain ranges from IDR 149,000 to IDR 299,000.
b. Hosting
Hosting provides the server space and resources that allow an ecommerce website to be accessed quickly and reliably. Here are the details on hosting costs for an online store:
- Shared Hosting: This is the cheapest hosting option and a common choice for micro-enterprises or online stores with low transaction activity. Because you share resources with other users, shared hosting is prone to downtime when traffic increases. Therefore, it is not ideal for ecommerce websites.
- VPS Hosting: For small to medium-sized online stores, a VPS (Virtual Private Server) can be a great choice. VPS hosting provides dedicated resources, meaning all resources and storage are allocated to a single user and not shared. This results in a faster and more secure ecommerce website.
- Cloud Hosting: Cloud hosting offers large capacity and automatic scaling capabilities, making it a popular choice for medium to enterprise-level ecommerce businesses. This type of hosting provides full flexibility to adjust server capacity, allowing the website to manage high traffic without interruptions.
5. Maintenance
Maintenance and technical support play a crucial role in keeping an ecommerce website operating optimally. Ecommerce sites require regular maintenance because their systems handle customer data, financial transactions, stock updates, and integrations with external services. The cost of maintenance generally depends on the technical needs and the level of upkeep required.
Common types of ecommerce website maintenance include:
- Regular system updates to ensure the website runs stably.
- Server performance monitoring to detect and resolve issues promptly.
- Updates to plugins, themes, and backend modules to maintain website security.
6. System Integrations
An example of system integration on an ecommerce website is shipping system integration
System integrations are optional, but this element often affects the cost of building an ecommerce website. This is because each integration requires additional technical work. Common system integrations include:
- Shipping Carrier Integration: This provides a real-time shipping rate API, allowing customers to automatically see estimated shipping costs. The system processes city data, weight, and carrier information to display accurate shipping costs on the checkout page.
- Additional Payment Integration: Integrating more payment gateways offers customers a wider variety of payment methods. Developers will connect payment APIs so that transactions can be processed automatically and quickly.
- CRM Integration: A Customer Relationship Management (CRM) integration helps businesses manage customer relationships for more effective communication. The CRM system collects customer data, which can then be used to inform marketing strategies.
- Internal System Integration: Integrating internal systems like ERP, warehouse management, POS, and inventory management creates a more efficient operational flow, allowing stock and transaction data to be synchronized automatically.
7. Number of Products and Categories (SKU)
Example of an ecommerce website product display
The number of products and categories, or SKUs (Stock Keeping Units), significantly influences the cost of building an ecommerce website because each item requires a proper data input process. Tasks like entering product data one by one, designing the category structure, and optimizing images all contribute to a higher development cost.
Displaying a large number of SKUs requires special configuration for the search and filter systems to maintain a good user experience. Additionally, server requirements increase with the number of products to prevent the website’s performance from slowing down. The more SKUs you need to display, the more complex the configuration becomes, leading to a higher ecommerce website development cost.
8. SEO and Performance Optimization
Example of SEO and website performance optimization
SEO and performance optimization affect the ecommerce website development costs because these two aspects determine access speed and visibility in search engines. These actions include:
- Configuring caching and a CDN (Content Delivery Network) so the website can load pages faster and be accessed by users from various parts of the world.
- Optimizing images to reduce file sizes without sacrificing visual quality.
- Implementing lazy loading techniques, which delay the loading of certain elements so that the page appears faster.
- Proper SEO optimization so that search engines can understand the content hierarchy well.
- Optimizing Core Web Vitals to ensure the website meets the speed and stability standards set by Google.
Estimated Costs for Ecommerce Website Development
The cost of building an ecommerce website is custom and highly dependent on the client’s specific needs. Therefore, an initial consultation session is crucial to get an accurate price quote. Here are our ecommerce website development packages:
a. Basic Package
This is the most fundamental package for our ecommerce website creation service. The Basic Package is suitable for simple online stores with a small variety of products. Here are the features you get with the Basic Package:
- WooCommerce-based ecommerce website
- Standard ecommerce functionality with Shipping Rate, Shipment Tracking, Refund Form, and Confirmation Form plugins
- Free 3 Static Pages
- Custom Logo and Colors for emails
- Content entry for up to 10 blog posts and products
- Support via email, with a maximum response time of 1×24 hours
- Online user training
- User manual book
- Free hosting for the first year
- Price starts from IDR 25,000,000
b. Advanced Package
This is our intermediate package for ecommerce website development. This package is suitable for medium-sized online stores with a wide variety of products. Here are the features you get with the Advanced Package:
- All features from the Basic Package
- Up to five extra Static Pages
- Content entry for up to 20 blog posts and products
- Extra plugin for Abandoned Cart recovery
- Payment Gateway Integration
- One month of maintenance
- Website optimization (PageSpeed, CSS, Image, PWA, Add to Homescreen)
- Price starts from IDR 45,000,000
c. Corporate Package
This is the highest-tier package for our ecommerce website development service. This package is highly suitable for large companies, state-owned enterprises, and corporations that require integrated internal systems. Here are the features you get with the Corporate Package:
- All features from the Advanced Package
- Full custom design
- Premium Stock Images
- Support via group chat
- Up to three months of maintenance
- On-site SEO optimization
- Please consult with us for pricing information on the Corporate Package.
Build Your Dream Ecommerce Website with Tonjoo
Now you have a detailed breakdown of the ecommerce website development costs. Every online store is unique, with its own character and business goals. Entrust the development and optimization of your ecommerce website to Tonjoo’s Online Store Development Service. We have experience serving hundreds of clients, including Aqua, Polygon Bikes, and many others.
You can choose a practical WooCommerce-based online store or a headless architecture that combines WooCommerce with React.js, with various deployment options. Whether you prefer deployment on the cloud, VPS, Docker, or your own server, we are ready to make it happen.
Are you ready to get started? Contact us for a free consultation, a price quote, and a time estimate tailored to your needs.
Read similar articles by Moch. Nasikhun Amin on the Tonjoo blog about WordPress, WooCommerce, plugins, and other web development topics.
Updated on January 21, 2026 by Moch. Nasikhun Amin
