How much does a Shopify site cost?
A Shopify website in the UK costs somewhere between £3,000 and well over £150,000. The range is genuine, reflecting projects that are fundamentally different in scope, not agencies quoting differently for the same thing.
Scope, integrations, data complexity, custom development, theme versus custom design: none of it is standard. A basic theme-based build with a clean catalogue is a different project from a multi-brand operation with ERP integration and 50,000 SKUs.
This page breaks down what drives Shopify build cost, where projects commonly go over budget, and what to understand before you start collecting quotes. The figures reflect UK agency rates and platform pricing as of early 2026. Treat them as directional if you're reading this later.
What Does a Shopify Website Actually Cost?
The honest range for a Shopify build in the UK runs from around £3,000 to well over £150,000, depending on what the project actually involves.
The range reflects genuine differences in project scope.
A build with a simple catalogue, no ERP, no custom checkout requirements, and clean data can be live on a premium Shopify theme for £5,000–£15,000, including setup, configuration, and basic migration.
At the other end, a multi-brand operator with an ERP integration, complex B2B pricing rules, custom front-end development, and 50,000 product records is looking at a different project entirely — one that might run to six figures.
Rough orientation points:
Theme-based build, simple catalogue: £3,000–£15,000
Theme with moderate customisation + migration: £10,000–£30,000
Custom design, standard integrations: £25,000–£60,000
Full custom build, ERP/WMS integration, complex data: £60,000–£150,000+
What Drives the Cost of a Shopify Build?
Understanding where the money goes is more useful than any headline range.
The main cost drivers are consistent across agencies and project types.
Theme vs. Custom Design
A Shopify theme — a commercially available template, configured and extended — is the most cost-efficient route to a functional store. Done well, it produces a credible, performant result. The investment is primarily in setup, configuration, and light customisation.
Custom design means building the front-end from scratch. It provides greater control over the brand experience and enables layouts and interactions that a theme can't deliver. It also adds significant cost — typically £10,000–£30,000 or more just for design and front-end development, before any back-end work.
The distinction should be driven by where generic templates demonstrably constrain conversion or the brand experience, not by a preference for custom work for its own sake.
Integration Costs: ERPs, WMS, and App Connectors
This is where Shopify build costs become the hardest to estimate without proper scoping.
A store that uses Shopify's native features plus a handful of well-supported apps (email, reviews, returns) is straightforward. A store that needs to sync live inventory with a warehouse management system, push orders to an ERP, and pull product data from a PIM is a different class of project.
ERP integrations — NetSuite, SAP, Microsoft Dynamics, Sage — typically add £10,000–£40,000 depending on the system, data volumes, sync frequency, and whether a pre-built connector exists or custom middleware is required.
WMS integrations, marketplace connections, loyalty platforms, and subscription engines each add their own scope.
Data Migration Costs and What Drives Them
Moving product data, customer records, and order history from one platform to another sounds simple. It rarely is.
Common problems: inconsistent data structures in the source platform, missing fields, images stored in non-standard ways, product variants that don't map cleanly to Shopify's model, and customer data that requires cleaning before import.
A clean, well-structured catalogue of 500 SKUs migrates quickly. A multi-year Magento installation with 20,000 products, custom attributes, and attached order history is a project in itself. Expect data migration costs to range from £1,500 to £15,000+, depending on volume and quality.
Custom Development Costs and Day Rates
Shopify offers a wide range of standard ecommerce functionality, either natively or through apps. However, sometimes a business requires custom development. Examples include trade account portals, complex B2B pricing tiers, custom checkout logic, and multi-currency with non-standard rules.
Custom development is typically billed at day rates of £450–£900 in the UK, depending on the agency and developer seniority. A custom feature that takes five days of development adds £2,250–£4,500 to the project. A custom B2B portal might require 20–40 days.
The key question before speccing custom development is whether an app or Shopify's native B2B/Markets features can meet the requirement. They often can, at a fraction of the cost.
Shopify Plan Costs
Ongoing platform fees are sometimes overlooked in initial cost conversations. Shopify's standard plans run from £25 to £259 per month. Shopify Plus starts at $2,500 per month (around £2,000) or 0.25% of revenue, whichever is higher.
Plus is relevant for brands doing significant GMV or requiring enterprise features: custom checkout logic via Checkout Extensibility, advanced B2B functionality, expansion stores, or dedicated account support. For most brands with revenue under £5m, it isn't necessary.
Why Shopify Builds Go Over Budget
Most of the budget overruns we see follow predictable patterns.
Scope that wasn't scoped
Integrations that “we'll just plug in" turn out to need custom middleware. A migration that looked clean has six months of bad data underneath it. These overruns come from starting a project before understanding it.
Theme limitations discovered mid-build
A project starts as a theme-based build. Midway through, it becomes clear that the theme can't support the required product page layout or the checkout customisation the business needs. The project pivots to custom development, resetting the timeline and budget.
Data migration underestimated
It's common for migration to be treated as a line item rather than a project phase.
Unless someone has audited the source data, the estimate is a guess.
App sprawl adding up
Individual apps are cheap. Ten apps at £20–£50/month each add £200–£500/month to ongoing costs (£2,400–£6,000/year), and that's before considering apps that charge a percentage of revenue.
Post-launch requirements
Features that weren't in scope during the build become urgent the week after launch. Phase 2 lists grow faster than they get actioned. Set aside a contingency — typically 15–20% of the build cost — before you start.
Shopify vs. Custom Build: Which Has Lower Total Cost?
For most brands in the £1m–£20m range, a custom-built platform is a distraction. Custom builds carry development and maintenance costs that compound over time. For businesses without genuinely unusual requirements, Shopify's total cost of ownership is typically lower than a custom build at equivalent scale.
If you're seriously evaluating a custom build, the question worth asking first is whether the requirements driving that conversation can be met by Shopify or a supported alternative like BigCommerce. Usually they can.
How to Budget Properly Before You Get Quotes
The mistake most businesses make is requesting quotes before they know what they're quoting for. Agencies respond with ranges. Ranges are meaningless without scope. The project starts with misaligned expectations.
A more useful sequence:
Audit your current platform and data. What are you migrating? How clean is it? What integrations are live today and need to continue?
Map your requirements against Shopify's native functionality. What does Shopify do out of the box? What needs an app? What needs custom development?
Identify integration complexity. Which systems need to connect? Do pre-built connectors exist? What are the sync requirements?
Separate must-haves from nice-to-haves. Phase 1 scope should be the minimum required to trade. Everything else goes into a prioritised backlog.
In our experience, a properly structured diagnostic covering platform suitability, integration requirements, data complexity, and cost justification produces a scoped brief that agencies can accurately quote against. Without it, you're comparing guesses.
At Strawberry, that's what Clarity does. It's a paid discovery that produces a scoped brief, platform recommendation, integration map, and commercial case for the build. It exists because the alternative is spending six figures based on a requirements brief that nobody checked. If you're planning a Shopify build and you're at the stage of understanding costs, Clarity is the right next step — it'll scope the build if that's the right call, and tell you if it isn't.
FAQs
How much does it cost to build a Shopify store?
A Shopify store in the UK typically costs £3,000–£150,000+, depending on scope. A theme-based build with a simple catalogue sits at the lower end. A custom design with ERP integration and complex data migration sits at the upper. Most mid-market builds with moderate customisation land somewhere between £25,000 and £60,000.
How much does Shopify development cost?
Shopify development in the UK is typically billed at £450–£900 per day, depending on the agency and developer seniority. Development cost is one component of a full build, alongside design, migration, and integration work. A straightforward theme build involves minimal custom development. A build with ERP integration or custom B2B functionality might require 30–60 or more development days.
How much does a basic Shopify website cost in the UK?
A straightforward Shopify build — theme-based, small catalogue, minimal custom requirements — typically runs £3,000–£15,000. Configuration, basic migration, and launch support are usually included. Custom design or complex integrations add a high cost on top.
What is the difference between Shopify and Shopify Plus costs?
Shopify's standard plans run from £25 to £259/month. Shopify Plus starts at $2,500/month. The Plus tier is relevant for brands that need advanced checkout customisation, B2B functionality, expansion into stores, or higher API rate limits. For most brands under £5m GMV, standard Shopify is sufficient.
Why do Shopify build quotes vary so much between agencies?
Because the scope varies. Two quotes for a “Shopify build" can be for fundamentally different projects with different levels of custom development, different migration complexity, and different integration requirements. Without a detailed brief, quotes aren't comparable.
How long does a Shopify build take?
A theme-based build with straightforward migration typically takes 6–12 weeks. A custom design with ERP integration and complex data migration is more likely to take 16–24 weeks. Timeline is as variable as cost, and for the same reasons.
Do I need Shopify Plus?
For most brands under £5m revenue, probably not. Plus becomes relevant when you need custom checkout logic via Checkout Extensibility, B2B pricing rules, or a specific use case. Upgrading prematurely adds £24,000/year in platform fees for features you aren't using.
What ongoing costs should I budget for after launch?
Platform fees (£25–£2,000+/month depending on plan), apps (£200–£1,000+/month for a typical mid-market stack), hosting (included in Shopify), and ongoing development or retainer support.
