Ecommerce website price in South Africa: what an online store costs
The price of an online store in South Africa, with our figures incl. VAT: what our R25,000 starting price buys, what pushes a store into custom work, and what it costs every month once it is live.
The ecommerce website price in South Africa runs from a monthly plan on a hosted platform you set up yourself, through a built store at a package starting price, to custom work quoted after discovery. With us, a store starts at R25,000 incl. VAT to build on our Professional package, and a store that needs custom plugins or links to other software is from R65,000, quoted after a free first discovery. Running it adds hosting (R450 a month), the payment gateway’s fee on each sale, delivery and a domain.
This article covers what a store from R25,000 includes, what pushes a store past it, what it costs each month, and whether it will pay for itself. If you are still deciding what to sell and how to deliver it, start with how to start an online store in South Africa.
Three ways to pay for an online store
The price is only half the difference: the other half is who does the work.
| Route | What you pay | What you get | Suits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Build it yourself on a hosted platform | A monthly plan, hosting included, and your own time | A store on the platform’s templates, run by you | Testing an idea before paying for a build |
| A built store: our Professional package | From R25,000 incl. VAT once, then hosting or a care plan by the month | A WooCommerce store inside a website designed for your business, with a payment gateway and one shipping method set up | A trading business that wants its shop to be part of its own website |
| Custom work: our Custom & Systems tier | From R65,000 incl. VAT. Quoted after a free discovery; detailed scoping is part of the build | A store with custom plugins, integrations, or logic a package cannot hold | A store that has to fit around existing systems |
What does a store from R25,000 include?
A WooCommerce store inside a custom-designed WordPress website of up to 20 pages, with up to 50 products loaded, a payment gateway and one shipping method set up, your existing site moved across, a staging copy to review, three rounds of revisions and 60 days of support after launch. It is typically ready in four weeks.
The store. We build on WooCommerce, which turns a WordPress website into a shop; as at 2 October 2026, WooCommerce’s pricing page says it is free, with no monthly subscription. We load up to 50 products from the details and photographs you supply, connect a payment gateway to the checkout, and set up one shipping method: a flat fee, say, or free delivery above an order value. What the gateway we include charges and how it pays out and taking payments online in South Africa cover the gateway side.
The website around it. Everything in our Business package comes with it: a design made for your business rather than a bought template (we do not use paid themes), enquiry forms, an SEO plugin set up so each page and product can carry its own title and description in search results, caching and security plugins configured, Google Analytics and Search Console connected, and your Google Business Profile set up. Professional adds up to 20 pages, moves your existing content across, and builds the store on the staging copy.
The process. You get a handover video at launch. You pay a 50% deposit and the balance on go-live. Every site we build works on phones, and a display problem on a phone is fixed free. Your website and its content are yours, and you can move them wherever you like.
What pushes the price above the package?
Anything the package excludes: more than 50 products loaded, a second shipping method, copywriting, photography, and custom plugin development or an integration with other software. The first three are quoted per task or per page before we start. The last two move a new build into our Custom & Systems tier, from R65,000, quoted only after discovery.
| What you need | How it is priced with us |
|---|---|
| More than 50 products loaded | Quoted per task before we start |
| A second or third shipping method | Quoted per task before we start |
| Pages written for you | Copywriting at R975 a page incl. VAT; a structured content brief and one editing pass are free |
| Product photography | Not included: you supply the photographs or hire a photographer |
| A paid plugin or extension you want | Licensed to your own account at your cost; if we buy it for you, a small markup covers the cost |
| Custom plugin development, or an integration with accounting, ERP or stock software | Custom & Systems, from R65,000 incl. VAT, quoted after a free discovery |
| Several sellers in one store, or several currencies | Not included in Professional; quoted before we start |
| Ongoing SEO | A separate service: see ecommerce SEO: getting product and category pages found |
Extensions are a cost to plan for after launch. As at 2 October 2026, WooCommerce’s own marketplace lists free downloads alongside extensions priced per year in US dollars, and its guide to managing marketplace subscriptions says a purchase there is a subscription, billed annually or biennially, with updates and support while it runs. Treat each one as a recurring line; an extension bought elsewhere is on that vendor’s terms.
Work after launch is the other cost. Smallies World, a WooCommerce store and a client since 2024 that we host and maintain, has since had section rebuilds, WooCommerce changes such as bulk-purchase discounts, and custom page animations built as a custom plugin in 2026. Changes like these to a live store are quoted per task before we start.
What does an online store cost to run each month?
With us, hosting is R450 a month; a care plan is R975 a month, which includes the hosting and adds updates tested on staging first and security monitoring with Wordfence, or R2,450 with two hours of changes a month. Beyond us, a store pays its gateway on each sale, its courier per parcel, its domain each year, and any extension subscriptions.
| Cost | With us, incl. VAT | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Managed hosting | R450 a month | Daily off-site backups (at least seven days kept, restore included), SSL, a staging copy, uptime monitoring and five mailboxes, up to 15 GB per site (website and email; more quoted separately). No updates, fixes or content changes |
| Care plan, basic | R975 a month | The hosting, plus core, plugin and theme updates tested on staging first, security monitoring with Wordfence, uptime alerts and a monthly health email. A response within one business day |
| Care plan, full | R2,450 a month | Everything in basic, plus two hours of changes a month (unused hours do not carry over), a priority response within four business hours on a private contact, a monthly performance and security report, a quarterly speed review and a broken-link sweep |
| The payment gateway | Set by the gateway | A fee on each payment; the two gateway articles linked above cover what it charges and how it pays out |
| Delivery | Set by the courier | Per parcel; you decide how much the customer pays |
| Your domain name | Quoted per request | Your store’s address; we register and renew domains, including .co.za |
| Extensions | Set by each vendor | A subscription if bought from the WooCommerce marketplace, billed yearly or every two years; other vendors set their own terms |
A care plan runs on our hosting only, and is cancelled with one calendar month’s notice. A care-plan client’s store that is down gets a response within four business hours. In the first year, a store from R25,000 with twelve months of the basic care plan starts at R36,700 incl. VAT. The same list for a site without a shop is in the running costs nobody quotes.
How do you tell whether a store will pay for itself?
Work out what each order leaves you after the gateway’s fee, the delivery you absorb and the packaging. Then count how many orders a month that margin needs to cover the fixed costs: hosting or a care plan, extension subscriptions, the domain, and what you spend to bring buyers in. If that number is realistic, the store pays its way.
Do the sum before the build, with the gateway’s published fees and a courier’s quote for your parcel. Whether a store is worth it depends on the margin, not the platform: low-margin or heavy products need far more orders to carry the fixed costs. And bringing buyers in is a real cost. Thrive Raw Food For Dogs, whose store we built in 2025, has since had us work on its analytics, SEO and Google Ads alongside its hosting and maintenance.
What a Professional store includes is on our ecommerce web design service page. Every package is on our website pricing page, and how much a website costs in South Africa covers a site without a shop. Tell us what you sell and roughly how many products, and we’ll reply the same business day: Get a quote.
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to get an eCommerce website?
With us, a WooCommerce store inside a custom-designed website starts at R25,000 incl. VAT, and one with custom plugins or integrations starts at R65,000, quoted after a free first discovery. Building one yourself on a hosted platform costs a monthly plan instead. Either way, add hosting, the gateway’s fee on each sale, delivery and a domain.
Is eCommerce worth it in South Africa?
It is worth it when an order leaves enough margin, after the gateway’s fee and the delivery you absorb, to cover the store’s fixed monthly costs at a number of orders your business can realistically reach. Run that sum before you build. Products that travel well and carry a decent margin make it work sooner.
How much does a website domain cost in South Africa?
It is a recurring cost, set by whoever you buy it through and separate from hosting. As at 2 October 2026, the co.za registry operator’s namespace comparison page says a co.za name is renewed for a minimum of one year and a maximum of five years at a time. We register and renew domains, including .co.za, and quote the price per request.
Can I buy a domain without hosting?
Yes. A domain is your store’s address and hosting is where the store’s files live; they are bought separately, and a domain can be registered before there is anything to host. With us, a domain is quoted per request and hosting is R450 a month incl. VAT.