The true cost of running an online store
Ask ten store owners what their store costs and most will quote a monthly subscription. Ask them to add up everything they actually paid last year and the number is often very different. The gap comes from fees that scale with sales, add-ons bought one at a time, and work that never appears on an invoice. This article breaks the cost of an online store into its real components so you can compare options on equal terms and avoid surprises after launch.
Three kinds of cost: fixed, per order and percentage
Every cost in e-commerce fits into one of three buckets. Sorting them this way is the single most useful thing you can do before choosing a platform.
- Fixed costs stay the same whether you sell one order or a thousand: subscriptions, domain names, hosting, design work, accounting software.
- Per-order costs are a fixed amount each time someone buys: packaging, some payment processing components, shipping labels.
- Percentage costs take a share of each sale: payment processing, platform transaction fees, marketplace commissions, affiliate payouts.
Fixed costs hurt most when you are small. Percentage costs hurt most when you grow. A platform that looks cheap at launch can become the most expensive option once your revenue rises, simply because it takes a share of every order. That is why it pays to model your costs at the sales level you are aiming for, not at the level you have today.
Platform and subscription costs
Monthly hosted platforms usually sell several tiers. The entry tier has a low price, and features that growing stores need, such as advanced reports, more staff accounts, lower transaction fees or international selling tools, sit in higher tiers. When you compare tiers, look past the price and ask:
- Which tier includes every feature you will need in your first two years?
- Is the price monthly or yearly, and does it rise after an introductory period?
- Are staff accounts, product counts or storage limited?
- Is there a separate fee for using an external payment provider?
Self-hosted plugin stacks have no subscription for the core software, but you pay for hosting, and good hosting for a store is not the same as cheap shared hosting for a blog. You will also need backups, a security service or firewall, and a staging copy to test updates before they reach the live store.
Apps, plugins and premium themes
This is where budgets quietly grow. A basic store becomes a real business with features such as:
- Abandoned cart emails and recovery coupons
- Product reviews with structured data
- Loyalty points or tiers
- Pop-ups and newsletter sign-up forms
- Multiple languages and currencies
- Product feeds for shopping channels
- SEO tools: redirects, sitemaps, metadata
- Invoice and packing slip printing
On many platforms each of these is a separate app or plugin, often with its own monthly subscription. Individually they look small. Together they can exceed the cost of the platform itself. Each add-on also comes from a different vendor, so it may load its own scripts, slowing your pages down, and it may change its pricing or stop being maintained.
Premium themes are usually a one-time purchase on self-hosted stacks and a one-time or yearly fee on hosted platforms. Factor in the cost of customising them, because few themes fit a brand out of the box.
Transaction fees and payment processing
These two are often confused, but they are different charges from different companies.
| Fee | Who charges it | What it pays for |
|---|---|---|
| Payment processing fee | Your payment provider (card processor, wallet, bank) | Moving money from the customer's card or account to yours, fraud screening, chargeback handling |
| Platform transaction fee or commission | Your store platform or marketplace | Nothing additional at the payment level; it is a share of your revenue |
| Currency conversion fee | Payment provider or bank | Converting foreign currency payments to your settlement currency |
| Chargeback fee | Payment provider | Handling a disputed payment |
Payment processing fees are unavoidable: someone has to move the money. Platform transaction fees are a business model choice. Some platforms charge one only if you use an external payment provider, some charge it on every order, and some charge none. We explain why this matters more than it seems in zero-commission e-commerce.
Payment processing fees are usually a percentage plus a small fixed amount per transaction, and they differ by card type, country and whether the payment crosses borders. Get the current price list from each provider you are considering and use your own expected order values in your calculations.
Hidden costs: time, maintenance and switching
The costs that never appear on an invoice are often the largest.
Maintenance time
On a self-hosted stack, someone has to update the core software, every plugin and the theme, test that nothing broke, and roll back when something did. Security patches cannot wait for a quiet week. If that someone is you, it is time not spent on products and customers. If it is a developer, it is an hourly or retainer cost.
Speed and conversion
Every extra script slows the page a little. Slower pages tend to convert worse and can rank lower in search. This cost is real but indirect; you will not see it on a bill. Our guide to store speed and Core Web Vitals explains how to measure it.
Switching cost
Moving platforms means migrating products, customers and order history, rebuilding design, and redirecting every old URL. Ask before you start: can I export my data in a standard format? Is there a redirect manager? A platform that is easy to leave is usually one that is confident you will stay.
Other running costs
- Domain renewal and business email
- Product photography and copywriting
- Email sending, if your email tool charges per contact or per message
- Accounting, tax filing and legal review of your policies
- Customer service tools such as chat or help desk
- Marketing spend: ads, influencers, samples
Build a simple twelve-month cost model
You do not need complex software. A spreadsheet with four sections will do.
- Assumptions: expected monthly orders, average order value, share of international orders, share of orders that are returned.
- Fixed costs per year: platform or hosting, every add-on subscription, domain, email, design, accounting.
- Per-order costs: packaging, label, fixed part of payment fee.
- Percentage costs: payment processing percentage, platform transaction fee, currency conversion share.
Then calculate the total for three scenarios: a slow start, your realistic target, and a good year. Do this for each platform you are considering. You will often find that the cheapest option in the slow scenario is not the cheapest in the good one.
A worked example of the structure, without prices: imagine 200 orders per month at an average order value you set yourself. Payment processing applies to every option. A platform transaction fee of, say, 2% adds that same share of your annual revenue on top. A self-hosted stack adds hosting, perhaps five paid plugins, and several hours of maintenance a month. An all-in-one plan with no transaction fee adds only its yearly price. Plug in your own numbers and the comparison usually becomes obvious.
Questions to ask before you commit
Use this list with any provider, including us:
- What is the total yearly price for the tier that includes every feature I need?
- Do you take any percentage of my sales, under any circumstances?
- Which features cost extra, and roughly how many stores like mine buy them?
- Who applies security updates, and how quickly?
- Are hosting, SSL certificates and backups included?
- Can I export products, customers and orders at any time?
- Is there a refund period if the platform does not suit me?
- How are subscription taxes such as VAT or sales tax handled on your invoice?
How an all-in-one plan changes the maths
We designed Origela's pricing around this exact problem. There is one plan, and it includes every feature: all six themes, abandoned cart, loyalty, pop-ups, email campaigns, multiple languages and currencies, product feeds, SEO tools and AI content tools. There are no paid plugins and no commission on your sales; your payment provider's own processing fees still apply, as they do everywhere. The launch price is 99 USD per year, with hosting, SSL and updates included.
Subscriptions are paid at a secure checkout, and VAT or sales tax appears on a proper subscription invoice. If you use AI features, you connect your own API key and pay the AI provider directly, with a daily spending cap you set. You can check the current details on the pricing page and the full list of included modules on the features page.
Whatever platform you choose, the principle is the same: count every cost, model it at the size you want to reach, and prefer pricing you can predict.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between a transaction fee and a payment processing fee?
A payment processing fee is charged by your payment provider for moving the money. A transaction fee or commission is charged by your store platform as a share of each sale, on top of processing.
Is a self-hosted store cheaper than a hosted platform?
Not always. You avoid a subscription, but you pay for good hosting, paid plugins and themes, backups and security, and the time spent on updates and fixing conflicts.
Which costs grow as my store grows?
Percentage costs such as payment processing, platform transaction fees and marketplace commissions grow with revenue. Some app subscriptions also rise with order volume or contact count.
Does Origela charge extra for features or plugins?
No. One yearly plan includes every feature and there are no paid plugins. If you use AI tools you pay your AI provider directly through your own API key.