How much does WooCommerce cost?

Is WooCommerce free, and what does it really cost to run?

• The core WooCommerce plugin is free and open source under the GPL license.
• There is no licensing fee and no revenue commission, so WooCommerce never takes a cut of sales.
• Running a live store still costs money, since you pay for hosting, a domain and often extensions.
• Total annual cost varies widely: a lean DIY setup can stay in the low hundreds, while a professional small store often reaches the low thousands once hosting, payment processing, paid plugins and maintenance are counted.
• A bare-bones DIY store using cheap hosting, a domain, free SSL and free plugins can run near the low hundreds per year, while a modest paid setup with better hosting or extensions can reach $480 to $560 a year or more.

So WooCommerce is free in the way the engine is free, but the car still costs money. Its strength is that the costs are modular, so you assemble your own stack and only pay for what your store actually needs.

How much does hosting for a WooCommerce store cost?

• Hosting is the foundation cost, since WooCommerce runs on WordPress hosting bought separately.
• Budget shared or WooCommerce-branded hosting from providers like SiteGround can start around $3 to $10 a month on introductory terms, but renewal prices are higher and suitability depends on traffic, catalog size and checkout load rather than a fixed GMV threshold.
• Managed cloud hosting like Cloudways starts at $11 a month on entry DigitalOcean Flexible plans, while higher Flexible tiers and Autonomous WordPress/WooCommerce plans cost more.
• Premium managed WordPress hosts run higher, with Kinsta from about $35 a month and WP Engine from about $30 a month upward.
• WordPress.com offers an all-in-one Commerce plan at $45 a month on annual billing, about $540 a year.

Hosting is the single biggest decision for store speed and reliability. Shared hosting launches a store cheaply, but managed cloud or WooCommerce-tuned hosting handles product pages and checkout far better as traffic grows.

How much do WooCommerce extensions and themes cost?

• Themes start free, with the official Storefront theme built for WooCommerce.
• Premium themes typically cost $49 to $149 per year, while a custom theme build runs into the thousands.
• Premium extensions are where budgets grow, billed annually per license.
• Common ones include Subscriptions ($279), Bookings ($249), Memberships ($199) and Product Add-Ons ($79).
• An essential extension stack runs $100 to $500 a year for a small store, more as you scale.

The official marketplace lists many paid extensions and themes, which is both the strength and the cost trap of WooCommerce. Start with free tools and add paid extensions only when a feature clearly earns its annual fee.

How does WooCommerce total cost compare to Shopify?

Note: this comparison is general, since totals swing with extensions, hosting and development choices.

• Shopify Basic costs $39 a month when paid monthly, or $29 a month on annual billing, before apps, payment processing and any third-party transaction fees.
• A bare-bones WooCommerce store can run near $120 a year, cheaper in the short term.
• Shopify can be more predictable for smaller stores because the platform fee is fixed, while WooCommerce costs vary with hosting, extensions, maintenance and development time.
• WooCommerce wins on ownership, custom workflows and never paying a platform sales fee.
• A WooCommerce store loaded with premium extensions and dev work can exceed a high-tier Shopify plan.

The honest answer is that it depends on your store. Shopify is simpler to budget for at small scale because the subscription is fixed, while WooCommerce trades more hands-on management for control, modular costs and no WooCommerce platform sales fee. See our full Shopify cost research for the other side.

How much are WooCommerce payment processing fees?

• WooCommerce charges no transaction fee of its own, so processing cost comes entirely from your gateway.
• WooPayments, built in partnership with Stripe, charges 2.90% plus $0.30 per US online card sale.
• For US merchants, WooPayments lists an added 1.50% international card fee and a 1.00% currency conversion fee when applicable.
• WooPayments is free to set up for standard online payments, with no base monthly fee, and deducts fees automatically from payouts. Extra fees can still apply for disputes, instant payouts, in-person card readers and subscription orders that use the Stripe Billing engine.
• A $100 US card sale costs about $3.20, while an international card sale runs about $4.70, and a cross-currency sale costs more again once the conversion fee applies.

The standout here is the zero WooCommerce platform fee. For standard online card payments, you pay gateway processing rates rather than a separate WooCommerce sales cut, but WooPayments can still charge additional fees for international cards, currency conversion, disputes, instant payouts, in-person card readers and qualifying subscription payments. For setup costs, see our cost to build a website research.

Sources & additional resources

• “WooCommerce Open-Source Ecommerce Platform.” WooCommerce.
• “WooCommerce Pricing.” WooCommerce.
• “WooCommerce Extensions and Themes Marketplace.” WooCommerce.
• “WooCommerce Subscriptions.” WooCommerce.
• “WooCommerce Bookings.” WooCommerce.
• “WooCommerce Memberships.” WooCommerce.
• “Product Add-Ons for WooCommerce.” WooCommerce.
• “Storefront.” WooCommerce.
• “WooPayments Fees Documentation.” WooCommerce.
• “WooPayments Built in Partnership with Stripe.” WooCommerce.
• “WooCommerce Hosting.” SiteGround.
• “Cloudways Pricing and Plans.” Cloudways.
• “WordPress.com Pricing.” WordPress.com.
• “WordPress Hosting Plans and Pricing.” Kinsta.
• “Managed WordPress Hosting Plans.” WP Engine.
• “Shopify Pricing Plans.” Shopify.
• “WooCommerce Pricing Full Cost Breakdown.” Swell.

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