WooCommerce is a free plugin that transforms any WordPress site into a fully functional online store. Yes, it’s completely free. So, why do people talk about WooCommerce pricing?
While WordPress and WooCommerce can be used without paying any fees for the software, there are certain costs that come into play when building a store and making it live on the web.
You need to choose the best WooCommerce hosting and register a domain name, these are foundational requirements for any website.
So what’s the real price of launching a WooCommerce site? How much do you pay to process payments? What about additional features and site customizations?
In this in-depth guide, we’ll answer those questions and much more. Below, we’ll break down every expense you’ll come across when creating and maintaining an online store with WooCommerce.
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What’s WooCommerce Pricing?
Like mentioned above, WooCommerce is a free plugin, unlike paid solutions like Shopify or BigCommerce. However, just because it’s free doesn’t mean you can create a WooCommerce store without spending any money.
There are two main categories where you’ll have to spend to money:
- Mandatory expenses. Costs you can’t avoid if you want an online store that accepts customer orders.
- Optional costs. Additional functions and customizations beyond the absolute essentials.
What’s the minimum cost to create a WooCommerce site?
You can start with hosting and a domain for approximately $7 per month. On top of this, you have payment processing costs and any additional features you need, like a premium theme or plugins. However, you can get by with a free theme, plugins, and extensions, until you’re ready to spend more money.
Now, let’s take an in-depth look at the main WooCommerce pricing elements, which include: hosting, domain name, payment gateways, WooCommerce plugins and themes, additional development costs, and more.
WooCommerce Hosting Pricing Breakdown
The first expense you’ll need to think about is your website hosting. WooCommerce store owners will want to look for a WooCommerce hosting provider, which is a form of hosting that’s optimized for WooCommerce.
You’ll find both WooCommerce-specific and WordPress-specific hosting. Both forms of hosting can work, but as your WooCommerce store grows, you’ll probably want to upgrade to WooCommerce-only hosting.
The price you’ll pay for your hosting plan varies and will range from around $100 to $1,000+ per year.
The price you pay will be based on a variety of factors, like:
- Number of sites you can host
- Plan resources (RAM, CPU, available storage space)
- Shared hosting vs dedicated hosting
- Additional hosting features and support
If you’re just getting started, then the best WooCommerce hosting plan is going to be the SupportHost WooCommerce 1 plan. This plan supports a single online store for up to 45,000 visitors per month and costs €76 per year. Plus, it includes a free domain name.
If you have higher traffic or storage requirements, then you’ll need to upgrade to a higher plan. But, no matter which plan you choose the domain name is free as long as you’re hosting your store with SupportHost.
When you’re looking at the price of WooCommerce hosting, here are some important questions you need to ask:
- Is it easy to upgrade your hosting plan if your site needs more resources?
- Are things like 24/7 expert support, daily backups, and an SSL certificate included in your plan?
- Is site migration included in your plan, or do you have to migrate manually?
- Does your plan include necessary security features like DDoS protection and malware scans?
- Does the plan include caching to help improve WooCommerce performance?
- What is the cost for your plan renewal? (A lot of hosting companies will lure you in with cheap monthly rates, only to charge much higher prices when the time comes to renew.)
Taking some time to answer the questions above and truly evaluate the hosting providers you’re comparing will help to ensure you’re not only getting a good deal, but you’re getting a WooCommerce hosting plan that will actually support and grow with your store, and not spend needlessly on additional upgrades.
Domain Registration Costs in WooCommerce
The next thing you’ll need to have a live WooCommerce store is a domain name. Your domain name is what your visitors type into their web browsers to access your store. It’s your brand name and the first thing visitors will associate with your new company.
Just like hosting above, the cost of your domain name will vary based on the domain name registrar you use.
A lot of times, you can bundle your domain and hosting together when you’re signing up for website hosting. This is a great way to save some money on your total store cost.
However, one thing you need to look out for is the renewal cost (just like hosting above). A lot of times, when you see domain pricing, it’s only for the first year. After that, the rate will increase when it’s time to renew.
Costs can vary based on the domain registrar or hosting company you use, so let’s look at an example:
Here at SupportHost, when you register a .com domain name, it’s going to be just under $14 per year. However, there is a way you can get a free domain name for life.
All you have to do is choose any SupportHost plan designed for WooCommerce, and we include your domain registration for free. As long as you continue renewing your plan, we will cover domain name costs forever.
Beyond the obvious benefit of getting a free domain name, bundling your domain and hosting together makes it easier to keep track of them both, so you never miss a renewal and lose access.
WooCommerce Store Management Costs: Payment Processing, Shipping, and More
The next thing you need to think about are additional costs associated with managing your store. These are things like shipping, payment gateways, and additional sales and marketing extensions.
Below, we’ll be looking at each of these categories in depth and highlight a few premium WooCommerce extensions that can extend these features even further.
Payment Processing Costs
First, we have payment processing. To process orders on your site, you need to set up a payment gateway.
One of the easiest options is WooPayments. WooPayments is free to set up and doesn’t have any monthly fees. Instead, you pay 2.9% + $0.30 for every transaction. If the card is outside the US, then you pay an additional 1%. WooPayments offers detailed payment processing rates for international stores.
Beyond WooPayments, you can also set up Stripe, PayPal, or Authorize.net. Each of these has its own associated costs.
The nice thing about WooPayments is that it’s fully integrated with WooCommerce and doesn’t have any additional fees. Plus, processing fees are taken out automatically.
Shipping Management Extensions
Next, we’ll look at shipping. Right out of the box, you’ll find options for flat-rate, free, and local pickup. These options are included in WooCommerce, and you don’t have to pay extra.
Another free extension that might be worth using is the WooCommerce shipping extension. It automatically connects to providers like USPS, UPS, and DHL, and lets you print shipping labels right from your WordPress dashboard.
However, there are more advanced shipping options available through WooCommerce extensions.
Here are a couple of different options:
- Table Rate Shipping. Starts at $119/year and lets you create highly customizable shipping rates.
- ShipStation for WooCommerce. Starts at $9.99/mo and helps you automate, streamline, and save money on shipping and fulfillment.
- Distance Rate Shipping. Starts at $99/year and lets you offer shipping based on distance or travel time.
As you can see, there are a ton of different extensions available that can help you create a better shipping experience for your customers. However, a lot of them come at a price.
Essentially, with shipping, you’re looking at a range of $0 up to $119+ per year.
Sales and Marketing Extensions
The final type of WooCommerce extensions we’ll look at are sales and marketing extensions. These are extensions that can help you improve your checkout pages, communicate with customers, and more.
We’ll review a few extension options briefly. Note that you can use both WordPress plugins and WooCommerce extensions to add some of these features. We’ll go into WordPress/WooCommerce plugins towards the bottom of this post.
Here are a few WooCommerce extensions and their price points:
- Abandoned Cart Recovery. Starts at $79/year and helps you easily recover abandoned carts with follow-up emails.
- Product Add-Ons. Starts at $79/year and lets you offer product add-ons to your checkout page.
- WooCommerce Subscriptions. Starts at $279/year and lets you create product subscriptions.
- Gift Cards. Starts at $79/year and lets you offer your customers prepaid digital gift cards.
WooCommerce offers a large extension library to add more features to your site. Most of the add-ons offered by WooCommerce are premium. However, you’ll also find extensions from third-party providers like social media, email marketing tools, and more, which are free minus the cost you’re paying the service provider.
A lot of the extensions range from $79 to $279 per year, per extension.
WooCommerce Theme Pricing
The foundation of the design of your WooCommerce store is your WooCommerce theme. The extensions we mentioned above help to add more functionality to your store, but the appearance is completely controlled by your theme.
There are a variety of free and premium WooCommerce themes for you to choose from.
One of the most widely used free themes is developed by the WooCommerce team and is called Storefront.
Some other options for free/premium themes include Astra or OceanWP. These themes aren’t 100% built for WooCommerce, but they have WooCommerce-compatible features.
If you have a small budget, then it’s a good idea to start with a free theme, and then upgrade once your store is earning money.
If you want to use a premium theme instead, then you can expect to pay anywhere from $49 to $150+ per year. Some themes you’ll be able to buy outright, with lifetime updates, while others you’ll need to pay yearly to continue to access theme updates and support.
For example, on the WooCommerce Marketplace, you’ll find premium themes that range from $49 per year to $99 per year.
There are also third-party developers like GeneratePress, which offers a highly versatile premium theme for $149 per year. You can also look for a premium WooCommerce theme on marketplaces like ThemeForest.
Here you’ll find thousands of different WooCommerce themes. For example, the Flatsome theme is $59 and includes six months of support.
If you are choosing a theme from a third-party marketplace, then make sure you check the following:
- How often the theme is updated
- Whether the theme includes premium support
- Whether it’s a lifetime or yearly license
- Look at the theme reviews for red flags
Ideally, you want a theme that’s updated frequently, is compatible with the latest version of WordPress, has an active support team, and a ton of verified five-star reviews.
Custom Theme Development (Optional)
Another thing worth mentioning is custom development costs. If you need specific features for your online store, changes to an existing design, or a custom website built from scratch, then you’ll want to hire a developer.
You don’t need to pay for custom development to launch your online store; it’s entirely optional, but the cost for this will vary depending on your budget.
You can hire a freelancer or work with an agency. Typically, working with a freelancer will be more affordable than working with an agency.
On average, the cost to work with a developer can range from $10 to $100+ per hour. If you’re looking to have a website built from scratch, then you’ll be looking at a cost that’s anywhere from $1,000 to $20,000.
If you’re looking for an agency or developer partner, then you can browse the list of WooCommerce verified partners.
WooCommerce and WordPress Plugin Pricing
Above, we looked at some of the available WooCommerce extensions, which add more standard eCommerce-specific features, like additional payment methods, improved shipping, better checkout, and more.
However, you can take this even further with WordPress and WooCommerce plugins. These plugins can add all kinds of features to your site, like:
- Letting customers leave product reviews
- Create a multilingual WooCommerce store
- Optimizing your product pages for SEO
- Improving the security of your entire online store
You might find some WooCommerce extensions that add features like this, but you also have the entire WordPress plugin ecosystem available to you.
Keep in mind that WordPress plugins are both free and premium. Usually, there will be a version of the plugin that’s free up to a certain point, or you get additional features with the premium plugin.
The premium version of these plugins can range from $20 to $200+ per year.
Beyond plugins that add eCommerce-specific features to your site, there are also standard WordPress plugins that can help you do things like:
- Improve your search engine rankings
- Improve your WordPress security
- Backup your website
- Improve your website performance
- Help with lead generation
- Add chat functionality
Here’s a quick look at some WooCommerce plugins that might be worth it for your store:
- Rank Math SEO is an SEO plugin that helps you optimize your pages and products for search. There’s a free version, and the Pro version starts at $7.99 per month.
- Cartflows helps you build high-converting checkout pages, automations, and more. There’s a free plugin and premium plans start at $99/year for the checkout builder and $249/year for all the advanced features.
- Metorik WooCommerce analytics gives you advanced WooCommerce analytics to get better clarity of your customers and orders. The pricing is based on total order volume and starts at $25/month.
- FiboSearch is a WooCommerce search plugin that lets you add instant search to your WooCommerce store to help visitors find the exact products they’re looking for. There’s a free plugin, and the premium version starts at $49/year.
- WooCommerce WPML helps you build a multilingual and multicurrency WooCommerce store. Compatible with WPML and has a free and pro version. To use this plugin, you’ll need the CMS or Agency version of WPML, which is $99 or $199 per year and renews at a lower rate.
As you can see, there are both WooCommerce plugins and WooCommerce extensions that offer similar features for your store. You can utilize both depending on the cost and feature set to help you add the features you need to your store, while staying within your budget.
WooCommerce Security Costs
Another very important cost to consider are the addtional security needs for your store. If you choose a high-quality WooCommerce hosting provider, then your hosting plan will include most of the features that’ll keep your store safe. If not, then you’ll need to purchase additional third-party services or hosting add-ons like DDoS protection, malware scans, and even SSL certificates.
That’s why it’s important you choose a hosting provider that bundles DDoS protection, firewalls, malware removal, and more, instead of charging you extra as add-ons.
One of the most important security items to pay attention to is an SSL certificate. SSL certificates make your site accessible via HTTPS and encrypt the connection between the browser and the server.
On all SupportHost WooCommerce hosting plans, a free SSL certificate is included, and this can be enough for most site owners who are just getting started. You also have the option of purchasing an premium SSL certificate.
Premium SSL certificates range from €18 to €259 per year at SupportHost and offer higher levels of security, along with a guarantee that can cover customer financial losses if a security breach occurs. If you’re doing a high volume of transactions, then you’ll probably want to upgrade to a paid SSL certificate.
WooCommerce Pricing: Complete Summary
Here’s a quick breakdown that shows the WooCommerce pricing for each category, along with it’s status as a required or optional expense.
Expense | Cost Range | Necessary Expense? |
|---|---|---|
Hosting | €76 to $1,000+/year | Required |
Domain | $0 to $15/year | Required |
Payment Processing | 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction | Required |
SSL Certificate | $0 to $280+/year | Required |
WooCommerce Theme | $0 to $149/year | Required |
Shipping Extensions | $0 to $119/year | Optional |
Sales/Marketing Extensions | $79 to $279+/year | Optional |
WordPress/WooCommerce Plugins | $20 to $200/year | Optional |
Custom Development | $10 to $100+/hour | Optional |
Closing Thoughts: WooCommerce Pricing Breakdown
Having a better understanding of WooCommerce pricing can help you budget effectively and decide where to invest money. While WooCommerce itself is free, building a successful online store means you need to spend money on hosting, a domain name, and other tools to improve your site.
You can spend as little as €76 per year to get started. However, as your store grows you’ll incur additional costs. On average this can range from $450 to $1,000+ for mid-tier, all the way up to $2,000 to $10,000+ for more advanced stores.
The key is balancing your needs with your budget constraints. You don’t need every premium feature immediately, but don’t compromise on essentials like reliable hosting, security, and user experience.
Now over to you. How much did you invest to start your WooCommerce store? Please share in the comments below.
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