What Shopify and WooCommerce actually cost over three years.
Sticker prices only tell you the subscription. Real total cost of ownership includes transaction fees, apps or plugins, hosting, build time, and the maintenance nobody quotes up front, and it changes a lot depending on whether you're billing in USD or PKR. Enter your numbers below.
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Your 36-month total cost of ownership
Pick your market first. Shopify Payments, card rates, hosting, and dev costs are genuinely different in Pakistan than in the US, not just a currency conversion. Then open Customize the assumptions to override any line item with your own quote.
Shopify Payments is available, so most US merchants avoid the third-party surcharge entirely.
▸Customize the assumptions
Every default below reflects typical publicly-listed pricing and market-rate ranges as of early 2026. Change anything to match a quote you've actually received. Totals update immediately, and switching market resets these to that market's defaults.
Shopify
WooCommerce
Shopify costs less over 36 months at these numbers: a difference of $6,824 total, or roughly $190/month.
Shopify
Shopify plan (auto)WooCommerce
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How this number is actually built
What's included
Both totals add up cost categories over 36 months: platform subscription or hosting, card processing (percentage and the flat per-order fee, which adds up fast at low order values), apps or plugins, a premium theme, one-time build/setup cost, ongoing developer maintenance, domain registration, and, for WooCommerce, security and backups, which are bundled into Shopify's platform fee.
Why Pakistan isn't just a currency conversion
Shopify Payments isn't available to Pakistani merchants, so the non-Shopify-Payments surcharge is mandatory, on top of whatever your local gateway (JazzCash, Easypaisa, PayFast, or a bank gateway) charges. The subscription itself is billed in USD, so it also carries the forex markup Pakistani banks add to foreign-currency card charges. Hosting, developer rates, and store-build costs, on the other hand, are usually cheaper in PKR terms than US-market rates. This calculator models both effects rather than just re-pricing US numbers at an exchange rate.
Where the defaults come from
Shopify plan pricing and card rates reflect the publicly listed Basic, Shopify, Advanced and Plus tiers, billed in USD globally. WooCommerce defaults reflect typical managed hosting tiers and agency-quoted ranges for build and maintenance work in each market. None of this is a quote. Treat it as a starting point and edit any figure to match a real quote.
Costs most comparisons skip
- •The per-order fixed fee. A small flat fee per card transaction doesn't sound like much until you're processing thousands of low-ticket orders a month.
- •The Shopify Payments surcharge. Mandatory in Pakistan, and easy to trigger accidentally in the US if you plug in a third-party gateway.
- •Forex card markup on USD billing. Pakistani merchants pay their bank's foreign-currency markup on every USD Shopify invoice, often 3 to 5% extra that never shows up on Shopify's own pricing page.
- •Cash-on-delivery handling. COD remains dominant in Pakistani ecommerce. Courier COD collection fees and failed or returned COD orders are a real, recurring cost neither platform's pricing page mentions.
- •Plugin licenses that renew annually. WooCommerce extensions are often billed yearly, not monthly, so it's easy to under-count them until the renewal invoice arrives.
- •Migration cost if you switch later. Moving platforms mid-stream costs real developer time on top of whatever you've already spent. Factor it in before you commit either way.
Common questions about Shopify vs WooCommerce cost
Is WooCommerce actually free?+
The WooCommerce plugin itself is free, but a real store never runs on the plugin alone. You still need a domain, hosting, an SSL certificate, a payment gateway, and, for most stores, a handful of paid extensions for shipping, tax, or subscriptions. "Free" describes the software license, not the total cost of running a store on it.
Can Pakistani merchants use Shopify Payments?+
No. Shopify Payments is only available in a set list of countries, and Pakistan isn't one of them. Every Pakistani Shopify store pays the non-Shopify-Payments surcharge (0.6 to 2% depending on plan) on top of whatever local gateway (JazzCash, Easypaisa, PayFast, or a bank gateway) actually processes the card. That's a structural cost difference from the US, not just a currency conversion.
Why does the calculator add a forex card markup for Pakistan?+
Shopify bills its subscription (and most apps) in USD regardless of where the merchant is. When that charge hits a Pakistani debit or credit card, the issuing bank typically adds a foreign-currency markup on top, commonly 3 to 5%. It's a recurring cost that never appears on Shopify's own pricing page, so this calculator adds it explicitly and lets you edit the rate.
Why does the per-order fee matter so much in this calculator?+
Card processors charge a percentage of the sale plus a small fixed fee per transaction. That fixed fee is invisible at high average order values but becomes a real cost driver for stores with lots of small orders. That's why this calculator asks for average order value rather than assuming a transaction count.
How does cash-on-delivery affect the comparison?+
COD is still a large share of orders in Pakistani ecommerce. Couriers typically charge a COD collection fee, and failed or returned COD orders carry real cost: reverse logistics, restocking, and lost time. Neither platform charges for this directly, but it's a genuine cost of doing business in a COD-heavy market, so the calculator lets you add it as a percentage of revenue.
How many apps or plugins does a typical store actually need?+
Most stores beyond a bare-bones catalog run somewhere between 4 and 10: email marketing, reviews, upsells, a helpdesk widget, shipping rate calculation, and accounting or ERP sync are the most common. The default of 6 in this calculator is a reasonable mid-range starting point.
Why is WooCommerce's "store build" cost usually higher by default?+
Shopify ships with more built-in functionality and a large ecosystem of pre-built apps, so a standard store typically needs less custom development to launch. WooCommerce is more flexible but more hands-on: more of the checkout, shipping logic, and admin workflow is assembled from separate plugins, which generally takes more developer hours to configure and test.
Can I trust the default numbers, or should I get real quotes?+
Treat the defaults as a well-informed starting point, not a quote. Platform subscription and card-processing figures are publicly listed; hosting, app, and development figures are typical ranges that vary by vendor, store, and market. Every assumption is editable so you can drop in numbers from your own quotes as you collect them.