Having a Magento webshop built: what does it cost?

The Magento software itself (Open Source) is free. You pay for the build, the integrations, the design, the hosting and the maintenance. An honest price only exists once it is known how many products, languages and integrations you have. That is why I work with a fixed price up front, on request, instead of a calculator on a website.

Where does the price of a Magento webshop go?

If you have a Magento webshop built, you do not pay for a licence but for work and for a server that can handle it. The costs fall into six blocks:

| Part | What happens | What pushes the price up | |---|---|---| | Setup | Categories, product types, VAT, shipping, payment methods | Many product variants, B2B pricing, several countries | | Design and theme | How the shop looks and feels | A custom design instead of an existing theme | | Integrations | Accounting, stock, carriers, marketplaces | Every system link that has to be built custom | | Custom modules | Functions that are not there by default | Custom logic for prices, quotes or checkout | | Product data | Getting products and texts into the shop | Number of products and number of languages | | Hosting and maintenance | A server, backups, patches, monitoring | Traffic, number of modules, speed requirements |

The first five are one-off. Hosting and maintenance keep running. A quote that mentions only the build and forgets the maintenance paints too rosy a picture.

Hosting deserves extra attention. Magento asks more of a server than a regular website: searching, filtering and checkout are heavy tasks. A cheap shared hosting plan gets stuck quickly. I host on my own servers, so I can tune the settings to your shop and keep watching when something goes wrong.

Why is building a Magento webshop more expensive than a standard webshop?

Because Magento can do a lot and asks the same of you. It is a large system. More parts means more to configure, test and maintain.

An example from my work. I work daily on a Magento 2 production shop with over 3,400 products, about 13,600 product pages across four language versions and 328 active modules. That is a sizeable shop, and each of those modules has to keep working with every update. Security counts too. A webshop handles orders and customer data, so patches and monitoring are not a luxury but part of the job. So do not calculate only the build price, but the cost over a number of years. This is why maintenance weighs heavier with Magento than with a smaller solution. Magento maintenance is not a side issue, over the years it is a large part of the bill.

On the other side you get a lot of freedom. You own the code and you can bend the system to your business instead of the other way round.

When does Magento fit your webshop?

Magento is a good choice if several of these are true:

• You have a large or complex catalogue: thousands of products, many variants or options.
• You sell in several languages or countries, with their own prices, tax rules or stock per country.
• You have a way of working that no standard shop covers: B2B price lists, quotes, special delivery.
• You want integrations with your own systems, such as accounting, stock or carriers.
• You want to own your shop and your data, on your own hosting.

Magento is built for a shop like that. The rest of the story is mostly a matter of doing it well.

When does Magento not fit?

I have to be honest here, because it saves you a lot of money. Magento is not the best choice if:

• You are just starting and do not yet know what you will sell. Start small and learn first.
• You have a few dozen products and no special wishes. A simpler platform is ready sooner and cheaper to maintain.
• You have nobody who can do the maintenance, and no budget to outsource it. A Magento shop that is not kept up to date is a risk (see my article on Magento 2 versions, patches and updates).

In that case I would rather look with you at Shopify or Magento, or at a custom webshop that fits exactly what you sell. I also build webshops on Next.js. Which platform fits depends on your situation, not on what I like building most.

How do you make sure a Magento webshop is fast enough?

A slow Magento shop costs you customers and Google positions. Magento is not fast by itself; you have to set it up that way. On the production shop I look after, the mobile load time (LCP, the time until the largest piece of content is visible) went from 14 to 16 seconds down to 2.14 seconds for real visitors. Those are measurements from real visitors, not a test score in a lab.

So speed belongs in the first setup, not as a repair afterwards. Read more about Magento speed and measure your own shop with a speed test.

How do you choose a Magento webshop builder?

A Magento webshop builder is someone who is still reachable after delivery. So do not only ask for a price to build. Also ask:

1. Who does the maintenance? And what does it cost per year?
2. What happens with a security patch? Who installs it, how often, and do they test first?
3. Who owns the code? Can you continue with another party later?
4. Can I see an example of real work? With me you can look at my portfolio.
5. Is the price fixed or an estimate? With a fixed price you know where you stand up front.

I work as a one-person studio. That means you talk to the person who writes the code. For Magento work and webshops I give a fixed price up front, on request. For extra work afterwards I charge € 95 per hour in blocks of 15 minutes, or you buy a 10-hour strip card for € 875. More details are on the pricing page.

Frequently asked questions

Is Magento free?

The Magento Open Source software has no licence fee. The costs are in the build, the hosting and the maintenance. Adobe Commerce, the paid variant, does have a licence. For most mid-sized shops Open Source is plenty.

What does a Magento webshop cost per month after delivery?

That depends on your hosting, the number of modules and how much maintenance you need. Hosting and maintenance of a regular website costs € 49 to € 149 per month with me. For a Magento shop I make a separate agreement based on your situation.

Can I switch from Shopify to Magento?

Yes, you can take products, customers and orders along. Whether it is wise depends on why you want to leave. If you are running into the limits of what Shopify allows, Magento can help. If it is only the cost, first check whether it is worth the move.

How do I request a quote?

Send me a message with the number of products, the languages, the integrations you need and what you use now. With that I can make an honest proposal with a fixed price, or tell you that another platform fits better.