WooCommerce is one of the most popular e-commerce platforms in the global market. If you are a store owner starting or planning to expand an existing physical business online, the flexibility, scalability, and cost-effectiveness of WooCommerce make it an ideal platform for setting up your e-commerce business.
WooCommerce development offers store owners the opportunity to create custom solutions tailored to their business needs. With its extensive range of plugins and themes, you can build a highly personalized and functional online store that scales as your business grows.
However, understanding the WooCommerce pricing can be a bit challenging due to the various components involved. In this blog, we will break down the costs associated with WooCommerce, answer some of the most frequently asked questions, and provide insights into the platform’s capabilities as your online business source.
What is the cost for WooCommerce?
Since you have decided to take your business online using WooCommerce and WordPress, the first question that comes to mind is How much does WooCommerce Cost?
Well the answer is that basic WooCommerce plugin is free to download and use for all users. This free plugin of WooCommerce will allow you to set up a basic online store framework without spending extra money.
However, the basic plugin is not sufficient for your online store. To get your online WooCommerce store running, you need to pin out additional money to fully utilize the features and capabilities of your online WooCommerce store and make it suitable to your unique business requirements.
Following is a list of the major costs that you will have to pay for setting up your online WooCommerce store –
A. Hosting
To run your WooCommerce store and make it accessible across internet to your user base, you will need a WordPress site which requires website hosting. WooCommerce allows you to select a host from a large list of hosting providers like Bluehost, GoDaddy, SiteGround, Namecheap, Cloudways, WP Engine andKinsta etc.
While selecting the hosting provider, you should check for different WooCommerce security features that are provided as a part of the hosting package. Some of the common features that you should check in your hosting service provider can be –
- Security – Protection against cyber-attacks and malwares.
- Customer helpline – Check whether the hosting service provider has a 24/7 customer support to resolve your issues quickly with minimum impact.
- Speed – The hosting service provider should provide quick performance speed. A slow website can result in higher cart abandonment rate.
- Uptime – Your website should always be accessible to the targeted audience. The higher is the up time the better is the site accessibility.
- Scalability – Make sure your hosting provider provides upgraded plans as your business grow without the need to shift to different host.
Your hosting costs generally range anywhere between $5 per month for basic shared hosting to $4,000 – $5,000 per month for high-end dedicated hosting servers.
Don’t forget! When selecting the hosting servicer provider, check for their renewal costs as well. The renewal costs often turn out to be more expensive than first time subscription and put burden financially on the business.
Once you have chosen a reliable hosting provider for your business, the next major cost for your online business is the domain name.
B. Domain name
Source – WordPress.com
A domain name generally costs around $10 – $20 per year. You can buy the domain name for multiple years to get additional discounts on the domain cost.
Common domain name generally includes domain like .com or .net or .org etc.
Common websites to buy domain include GoDaddy, HostGator and Bluehost etc.
However, if your business domain has already been taken by someone else, you will have to incur higher costs to get the domain in your name. This will significantly increase your overall setup cost.
You can club your domain name purchase with hosting. Companies like Bluehost offer free domain name for the first year alongwith their hosting plan.
C. Themes
This cost is optional. If you want a pre-designed theme that is WooCommerce optimized, you can choose from a large catalogue of free themes or go for a paid one that is customized to your business requirements.
If you decide to use a free theme, ensure that it is optimized for the latest WooCommerce version. The free themes have limited functions for the business and may not help your website to stand out on the search engine platform. However, if you still plan to start with a free theme, try WooCommerce Storefront theme. It is free and offers decent amount of customization options.
On the contrary, the paid themes are highly customizable which allows you to give your store a personalized touch. Additionally, they provide better consumer support and improved functionality of the online store, ultimately improving the customer traffic on your website.
Some of the websites that can be used for WooCommerce themes are ThemeForest and Astra WooCommerce Theme.
The premium themes can cost between $25 to $125 per year in general.
Some of the websites that can be used for WooCommerce themes are ThemeForest and Astra WooCommerce Theme.
The premium themes can cost between $25 to $125 per year in general.
On the contrary, the paid themes are highly customizable which allows you to give your store a personalized touch. Additionally, they provide better consumer support and improved functionality of the online store, ultimately improving the customer traffic on your website.
Some of the websites that can be used for WooCommerce themes are ThemeForest and Astra WooCommerce Theme.
The premium themes can cost between $25 to $125 per year in general.
D. Plugins
Depending on your business needs, you may have to buy additional plugins for your WooCommerce store such as Yoast WooCommerce SEO, MalCare security, UpdraftPlus andDisqus etc. The feature wise plugins are detailed below.
The cost for these plugins can range from $0 to $150 each with some plugins charging one-time payment.
Marketing plugins
- Google Analytics – Free of cost
- Yoast WooCommerce SEO – $99 per year
Security plugins
- MalCare Security – $149 – $499 per year
- Wordfence – $149 per year
Design plugins
- Checkout field editor – $49 per year
- Customizer for WooCommerce – Free of cost
E. Extensions
Extensions or add-ons provide additional ecommerce functions for a fee to your WooCommerce store. These extensions make your website easy to navigate, order and operate for the targeted audience.
1. TaxJar for tax calculations for USA and Canada. The plans start at $99 per month for Professional version.
2. WooCommerce Bookings for scheduling appointments for visitors for $249 for 1 year plan.
3. WooCommerce Product Recommendations for providing upsells, cross-sells and frequently bought together recommendations for $99 for 1 year.
4. WooCommerce Subscriptions for allowing customers to subscribe to your products or services and pay on a weekly, monthly, or annual basis. It costs $279 for 1 year plan.
There are other extensions that can cost anywhere between $25 to $250 per year per extension.
F. Payment gateways
WooCommerce can be easily connected to all major payment gateways. The most commonly used payment gateways globally are PayPal and Stripe, which charge different transaction fees.
These payment gateways generally charge a percentage fee of 2.9% of the transaction amount + $0.30 per transaction for Stripe or $0.49 per transaction for PayPal for all the credit or debit cards that have been issued in the USA. Also, if your cards are issued outside the USA, an additional fee of 1% of the transaction fee is levied.
Alternatively, you can make use of WooPayments to operate your payment requirements on the WooCommerce platform directly.
G. Shipping
If your business is making goods available physically to your customer, you will need to ship the product to the customer across the world. Timely and efficient deliver is a key factor to the success of any online business.
You can make use of shipping plugin like WooCommerce Shipping. This extension is free to use and allows you to print the shipping labels from WooCommerce dashboard and save money on total shipping costs.
You can use additional paid extensions to further strengthen your shipping like WooCommerce Shipment Tracking costing $59 per year. This extension allows your customers to track their shipment orders with ease.
Similarly, Table Rate Shipping extension costing $119 per year allows you to define multiple shipping rates based on location, price, weight, shipping class or item count.
H. Developer Fees
WooCommerce store can be difficult to understand and design as compared to other platforms. You might have to take help of developers having expertise in design and developing WooCommerce store.
This may cost you an additional one-time fee which may range anywhere from $10 per hour to as high as $100 per hour.
You can select from a list of approved WooCommerce experts.
I. Security
Your hosting service provider already provide the basic SSL certificate with their hosting plans. However, since your website will be hosting personal user data such as contact details etc, it is necessary to safeguard such information from possible cyber-attacks and data stealing.
The WooCommerce store has both free as well as paid plugins. However, it is always advised to not compromise on the data security and go for a security provider which provided all round security to your website.
Some of the common security providers are Jetpack ($29.95 per month), All in One Security (AIOS) costing $70 per year per website and Defender Security costing $20 per month.
An average security cost for your WooCommerce store can be around $80 to $ 150 per year on average.
J. Other WooCommerce Pricing
Email – Cost anywhere between $0 to $120 per year depending on the email tool used.
Summary of WooCommerce cost.
| Features | Cost |
| Hosting | $5 – $5000 per month |
| Domain | $10 – $20 per year |
| Themes | $0 – $125 per year |
| Plugins | $0 – $150 per year |
| Extensions | $99 – $ 299 per year |
| Payment Gateway | 2.9% of transaction amount + $0.30 per transaction in general. Monthly additional fee on certain payment gateways |
| Shipping | $0 – $200 per year |
| Developer fee | $10 – $100 per hour (one time cost) |
| Security | $80 – $150 per year |
| Other – Email | $0 – $120 per year |
All the abovementioned costs are average costs and can vary depending on the region, service provider, period of service etc. Also, there are additional seasonal discounts offered on various services which may bring the overall cost down for setting up your online business.
How many products WooCommerce can handle?
There is no such limit on the number of products that you can add to your WooCommerce store.
However, the performance of your store will depend on various factors, including your hosting server, the efficiency of your product database, website optimization etc. If you have the right setup, WooCommerce can handle tens of thousands or even millions of products.
Conclusion
WooCommerce offers you a highly flexible and cost-saving solution for setting up an online store for your business. It has a mix of both free and well-paid features and products. If you select the right setup, the WooCommerce store can handle a large number of products and transactions, making it a viable option for businesses of all sizes.
To build your WooCommerce store with ease without issues, Hire Woocommerce Developer for instant help.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1 – Is WooCommerce free to use?
Yes, the core WooCommerce plugin is free. However, there are additional costs for hosting, domain registration, and premium features.
Q2 – What are the hidden costs of WooCommerce?
Other than the known costs like hosting and domain registration, you might have to invest in additional money in security features, backup solutions, and professional development services for your online store.
Q3 – Can WooCommerce handle a large number of products?
Yes, WooCommerce can manage a large number of products, but performance will depend on your hosting and site optimization.
Q4 – Is WooCommerce suitable for small businesses?
Absolutely! WooCommerce is suitable for businesses of all sizes, from small startups to large business enterprises.
Q5 – Are there any transaction fees with WooCommerce?
WooCommerce itself does not charge any transaction fees, but payment gateways like PayPal and Stripe charge transaction fees. Also, certain platforms charge a monthly fixed fee in addition to the transaction fee.
Q6 – How does WooCommerce compare to other e-commerce platforms?
WooCommerce is highly customizable according to the user needs and cost-effective compared to platforms like Shopify and BigCommerce. However, you will need hands-on technical knowledge to run the store on its own as a new user.
