How much does an online store cost in 2026? Prices and costs

The short answer, based on offers published on the Romanian market and checked in August 2026: on a subscription platform you start at 7 € per month, while a store built to order by an agency or a freelancer is generally quoted between 1,400 RON and 11,000 RON, with complex projects above that range.

The difference between the two is not only price. It is a choice between renting a ready-made solution and owning one built for your business. Let’s put the numbers on the table.

Option 1: a subscription platform

You pay monthly and get hosting, updates and technical support included. Public prices, checked in August 2026:

Platform	Published starting price
Gomag	from 7 € / month, the Basic plan

Gomag also lists a launch offer of 1 € per month for the first six months, and the final price depends on the billing period you pick (monthly, yearly or two years). Ask for the current grid before you decide: platforms change their prices more often than agencies do.

The advantage is obvious: you launch fast, without a big upfront cost. The disadvantage shows up later, when you need something the platform does not do: a specific integration with your ERP, a different checkout flow, a design that does not look like the other 400 stores on the same platform.

Option 2: a store built to order

Here someone builds your store, usually on WooCommerce, Shopify or a custom solution. The ranges from published offers:

Source	Published range
Rauden	starter package from 1,400 RON
Webecom	290 € + VAT promotional, 440 € + VAT list price, lifetime licence
Necesit.ro	3,600 - 11,000 RON per turnkey package

The gap between 1,400 RON and 11,000 RON is not the agency’s margin. It is the number of products imported, whether the design is an adapted theme or custom, whether courier and invoicing integrations are included, and who writes the product descriptions.

And to be clear: these numbers are the market’s entry threshold, not the whole market. A store that imports thousands of products, integrates properly with your ERP and invoicing, has a checkout flow designed around how you actually sell, and product descriptions written to be found in Google is quoted in a different bracket, starting at a few thousand euros. That isn’t the same product sold dearer. It’s the difference between a store that exists and a store that sells.

The costs that repeat monthly and yearly

The build price is only the beginning. An online store has expenses that keep running whether you sell or not:

• The .ro domain: 12 € + VAT per year, the official ROTLD fee.
• Hosting: separate for a custom-built store. Dalbe estimated the domain at 20 – 30 € per year in May 2026, and the monthly tooling for a Shopify store at 50 – 100 € per month, without any marketing budget and without the build cost.
• The platform subscription, if you went the rented route.
• Payment processor fees, charged on every transaction. They are negotiable and differ a lot between processors, so ask for the rate card in writing before you sign.
• Maintenance: security updates, backups, plugins that break after an update. On a store this is not optional, it is mandatory.

A store is not a website that just sits there. It is a system that runs daily and that, when it goes down, stops your sales.

Not sure which option fits you? Tell us what you sell and how many products you have in a free 30-minute call or drop us two lines. We will tell you honestly whether you need a custom build or whether a subscription platform is enough for this year.

Subscription or custom build: how to decide

This is not a budget question, it is a stage question.

A subscription platform makes sense if: you are validating an idea, you have under 100 products, you sell in a standard way (add to cart, pay, ship) and you have no mandatory integrations with other systems yet.

A custom build makes sense if: you already have sales and want to scale, you need integration with an ERP, invoicing or a courier, you have an unusual order flow (a configurator, quote requests, per-customer pricing), or your brand is a selling argument and cannot look like a template.

Where we sit. Digital U doesn’t build stores “at the lowest price”. We build stores meant to bring traffic from Google and orders, with the domain, hosting and code in your name from day one. The traffic side we can show in numbers rather than promises: on a project of our own we went from zero to 3,270 monthly visitors from search in six months, with no link building and no ad budget, and we wrote up the whole process in the case study.

There is a third answer, the least popular and the most often correct: start on a subscription, measure for six months, move when the platform actually gets in your way. The most expensive store is the one built for a sales volume you have not reached yet.

What to ask before accepting a quote

1. How many products are included in the import, and what does each extra product cost?
2. Custom design or adapted theme? How many revision rounds?
3. Who writes the product descriptions and the site copy?
4. Which integrations are included: online payments, courier, invoicing, ERP?
5. Is the site optimized for mobile and speed? Measured how? (It matters more than you think, we wrote about it in why a slow website loses you customers.)
6. Who owns the domain, the hosting, the platform account and the code at the end?
7. How much does a change cost after launch, and how fast is it done?

Question 6 is the one that separates the offers. If the answer is “we own everything”, you did not buy a store, you rented one at a purchase price.

Our answers to those same seven questions

It would be hypocritical to hand you the list and then make you apply it to us over the phone. So here are our answers, written down, ready to be put side by side with anyone else’s:

The question	Our answer
1. How many products are in the import?	The number is fixed in the brief, along with the rate for anything beyond it. Written into the quote, not discovered at import time.
2. Custom design or a theme?	Custom, built for your brand. The price includes 2 rounds of revisions.
3. Who writes the product descriptions?	We do, if you don’t have them, written to be found in Google rather than just filled in. If you already have them, we use yours and you don’t pay extra.
4. Which integrations are included?	The ones you actually need: online payments, courier, invoicing. We settle them in the brief and they’re in the price, not tacked on at the end.
5. Mobile and speed?	Yes, and it’s measured. You get the mobile PageSpeed Insights score before launch, not a promise that it “will be fast”.
6. Who owns everything at the end?	You do. Domain, hosting, the platform account and the code are in your name from day one. If you leave tomorrow, you leave with all of it.
7. Changes after launch?	The first 2 minor changes are free (copy edits, simple layout tweaks). Beyond those, the rate depends on complexity and you hear it upfront, not afterwards.

Compare them. If someone else answers all seven just as clearly, that’s a serious quote and worth considering. If they dodge question 6, you already know what you’re buying.

Our prices, and why they say “from”

They’re all on the pricing page. For an online store the floor is €2,000, and the package includes everything in the Premium site plus product import, descriptions written to be found in Google, online payments, and the courier and invoicing integrations.

They say “from” for the same reason market quotes run from 1,400 to 11,000 RON: until we know how many products you have, which integrations you need, and whether you sell in a standard way or have a flow of your own, an exact number is a guess. And those guesses are exactly what infuriates you when three quotes come back looking nothing alike.

Your number comes out of a 30-minute conversation, free and with no strings attached, where we go through the seven questions above for your store. You leave with a range, the list of what’s inside it, and sometimes with the recommendation not to build anything yet, if a subscription platform is enough for you this year.

That’s the part that matters: if the honest answer is “you don’t need a custom build”, you get that in the same half hour.

Our answers to those same seven questions

It would be hypocritical to hand you the list and then make you apply it to us over the phone. So here are our answers, written down, ready to be put side by side with anyone else’s:

The question	Our answer
1. How many products are in the import?	The number is fixed in the brief, along with the rate for anything beyond it. Written into the quote, not discovered at import time.
2. Custom design or a theme?	Custom, built for your brand. The price includes 2 rounds of revisions.
3. Who writes the product descriptions?	We do, if you don’t have them, written to be found in Google rather than just filled in. If you already have them, we use yours and you don’t pay extra.
4. Which integrations are included?	The ones you actually need: online payments, courier, invoicing. We settle them in the brief and they’re in the price, not tacked on at the end.
5. Mobile and speed?	Yes, and it’s measured. You get the mobile PageSpeed Insights score before launch, not a promise that it “will be fast”.
6. Who owns everything at the end?	You do. Domain, hosting, the platform account and the code are in your name from day one. If you leave tomorrow, you leave with all of it.
7. Changes after launch?	The first 2 minor changes are free (copy edits, simple layout tweaks). Beyond those, the rate depends on complexity and you hear it upfront, not afterwards.

Compare them. If someone else answers all seven just as clearly, that’s a serious quote and worth considering. If they dodge question 6, you already know what you’re buying.

Why you won’t find a fixed price on our site either

You haven’t seen a table with our own prices, and that isn’t secrecy. With an online store, the difference between 1,400 RON and 11,000 RON sits in things we don’t know yet: how many products you have, whether it needs to talk to your invoicing and courier, whether you sell in a standard way or have a checkout flow of your own. Any number given before those answers is a guess, exactly the kind of guess that produces quotes that look nothing alike.

What we do instead: a 30-minute conversation, free and with no strings attached, where we go through the seven questions above for your store. You leave with a range, the list of what’s inside it, and sometimes with the recommendation not to build anything yet, if a subscription platform is enough for you this year.

That’s the part that matters: if the honest answer is “you don’t need a custom build”, you get that in the same half hour.

Frequently asked questions

How much does it cost to open an online store in Romania? On a subscription platform you start at 7 € per month, plus the domain. Custom-built, published offers run from 1,400 RON up to 11,000 RON and beyond, depending on complexity.

How much does a turnkey online store cost? Necesit.ro lists 3,600 - 11,000 RON for turnkey packages, while other agencies start lower, from 1,400 RON or from 290 €. Always check what is included in the price, not just the number.

Is there such a thing as a free online store? Some platforms offer free or trial plans, but the domain, payment processing and transaction fees remain real costs. Free usually means limits that stop you exactly when you start selling.

Can you give me a price without talking at all? Yes, the floors are public on the pricing page, starting at €2,000 for an online store. An exact number for your store, no, not until we know the product count and the integrations. That’s what the free half hour is for: you leave with your number, not the market average.

Why do quotes for the same store differ so much? Because “the same store” is not defined yet. Without a clear list of products, integrations and features, every provider assumes something different. Write the requirements first, then ask for prices.

How much does a simple website without online sales cost? Considerably less. We covered the ranges in how much a website costs in 2026.

Want an exact number for your store instead of a range? Tell us what you sell or book a 30-minute call directly: we look at what you have and tell you what you actually need and what it would cost, no strings attached. If you already run an online store, you can ask for a free audit instead.