Short answer: a professionally built online store in South Africa costs R30 000 to R150 000 once-off in 2026, and then R500 to R5 000 a month to run, before payment fees. Where you land depends mostly on three things: the platform, the number of products, and how complicated your delivery and payment rules are. This guide compares the three realistic options and lists the running costs that usually only appear after launch.
Shopify, WooCommerce or custom: what each costs
| Platform | Typical build price | Monthly running cost | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shopify | R30 000 to R90 000 | Shopify's plan fee in US dollars, plus apps, plus a platform fee on each sale | Stores that want to sell quickly with little maintenance |
| WooCommerce (WordPress) | R35 000 to R110 000 | Hosting R150 to R1 500, paid plugins, and somebody to keep it updated | Stores that need flexibility and want no platform fee on sales |
| Custom store | R120 000 to R400 000 and up | Hosting R500 to R5 000, plus maintenance | Unusual products, pricing or ordering that off-the-shelf platforms fight against |
Do-it-yourself is also real: you can open a Shopify store yourself for the plan fee and a weekend. It works for testing whether a product sells. It stops working when you need the store to look like your brand, rank on Google, calculate delivery properly and connect to your stock.
The costs that appear after launch
- Payment gateway fees. PayFast, Yoco, Ozow and the other South African gateways charge per transaction, typically around 3% on card payments and less on instant EFT. On R100 000 of monthly sales that is about R3 000.
- Shopify's fee for using an outside gateway. Shopify's own payment system is not available to South African merchants, so Shopify adds its own percentage on every sale on top of the gateway's fee. It shrinks on the higher plans. Budget for it.
- The rand. Shopify plans and most apps are billed in US dollars. Your monthly cost moves with the exchange rate.
- Apps and plugins. Reviews, subscriptions, bundles, advanced delivery rules and email marketing are usually paid add-ons. Five apps at US$10 to US$30 each is a real line in the budget.
- Delivery. Courier integration is usually free to connect; the deliveries themselves are not. Decide early whether you charge a flat rate, by weight or by area, because it changes the build.
- Product content. Photographs and descriptions for 300 products is weeks of work for somebody. If that somebody is the studio, it is in the quote.
- Maintenance. WooCommerce needs updates and backups every month. Skipping them is how stores get hacked.
What moves the build price
- Number of products and variants. Twenty products is a different project from two thousand with sizes and colours.
- Design. A good theme set up properly sits at the bottom of the range; a store designed around your brand sits higher and usually converts better.
- Delivery and payment rules. Collection points, free delivery thresholds, deposits, lay-by, wholesale pricing and multiple currencies each add work.
- Integrations. Stock that syncs with your point of sale or accounting system, and orders that flow into a courier account, save hours every week and cost days to build.
- Migration. Moving products, customers and order history from an old store is often the most underestimated item.
A plain rule for choosing
- 01Choose Shopify if you sell standard physical products, want the least maintenance, and accept paying a small percentage of sales for that convenience.
- 02Choose WooCommerce if margins are thin, you want to own everything, or you need the store to sit inside a larger content site. Budget for somebody to maintain it.
- 03Choose custom only when the way you sell does not fit a normal cart: orders by WhatsApp, menus that change daily, quotes instead of prices, bookings mixed with products. ZAMenu, our own product, is custom for exactly that reason: restaurants take orders on WhatsApp and get paid online through Yoco and Ozow, which no off-the-shelf store does well.
How long it takes
Four to eight weeks for a Shopify or WooCommerce store once the scope is approved and the product content is ready. Product content is what delays most stores, not the build. A custom store takes three to five months for a first version.