WooCommerce Pricing: We Break Down All the Potential Costs of This Plugin

In order to build a fully fledged online store, you’ll need to add at least a few of these features to your WooCommerce pricing budget:

Now let’s take a closer look at what each expense is, and whether you’ll need it!

Typical cost: $6.95/month | Nice or necessary? Necessary

The first, and most important, WooCommerce cost you’ll encounter is for web hosting. Every website needs a space to exist on the internet, which is what web hosts provide. Of all the associated WooCommerce fees out there, hosting is one that you just can’t avoid.

Without hosting, customers won’t be able to access your website, period! So, it’s not a matter of whether you need web hosting – just a matter of which web host you should use.

Which web host should you choose?

We know firsthand that there are a ton of hosts to choose from – we’ve researched and ranked the eight best WordPress hosting providers out there – and we recommend Bluehost as the best option. We’re not alone in that conclusion, either: Bluehost is also recommended by WordPress itself. 

Bluehost scored 4.6 out of 5 in the “value for money” category of our hosting research. Specifically, you’ll get the best value for money from Bluehost’s tailored WooCommerce hosting plan, which comes in three different pricing tiers: Starter, Plus, and Pro. The best pricing tier for you will depend on the scale of your WooCommerce store, but here’s a quick comparison:

While it’s fairly simple to install WooCommerce yourself, Bluehost’s WooCommerce plans are convenient because they come with all of the software and the dynamic Storefront Theme pre installed already. Bluehost also offers a 30 day money-back guarantee, so you can try out a WooCommerce plan completely risk-free.

Want to see more hosting options? There are plenty of other providers to choose from! Click the links below to read an in-depth review of some more top-ranked WordPress hosting providers:

• A2 Hosting Review
• InMotion Review
• SiteGround Review

Typical cost: $10-20/year | Nice or necessary: Necessary

Registering a domain with your hosting provider

A domain name is another essential WooCommerce cost, and there are two different ways to buy one. Some hosting providers, including Bluehost, offer a free domain name for the first year of your hosting plan, which you can register when you sign up for your hosting. After the first year, you’ll have to renew your domain annually at a regular price, which typically ranges from $10-20/year depending on the domain name extension (.com, .org, .us…) that you choose.

If this option is available to you, we recommend it: not only will you save money in your first year, but you’ll also enjoy the convenience of managing your web hosting and domain registration in one place.

Registering a domain with a registrar

If your hosting provider doesn’t offer free domain registration, or if you’d just rather keep the two separate, then you’ll need to purchase your domain name through a domain name registrar like Domain.com or Namecheap. Some hosting providers also function separately as domain name registrars – meaning you could purchase a domain name through one provider, and still host your site with another.

Just like hosting providers, domain registrars also have first-year introductory prices that increase upon renewal. Check out this cost comparison for a few of the most popular domain name extensions:

More Information

• How Much Does a Domain Name Cost? Our full domain pricing guide.
• How to Transfer a Domain Name to a New Host: Five steps for switching your domain.

Typical cost: $0-129 | Nice or necessary: Necessary

Free themes

Every online store needs a theme, and there are plenty of free WooCommerce templates available. In our book, the perfect starting point is WooCommerce’s own Storefront theme, which won’t cost you a dime and offers plenty of opportunity for customization.

Paid themes

If you want to scale your online store, or want to ensure that your site has the highest quality design, you may want to invest in a paid WooCommerce theme.

WooCommerce sells customized themes based on the Storefront template, meaning you can pay for a more personalized, powerful version of the basic Storefront model. These templates range from $39-129, in the form of a one time payment. 

There are many reasons to consider investing in a paid theme:

• Better customization means your store will stand out from the crowd and align better with your branding
• Increased functionality makes it easier to grow your online store
• Customer service for paid themes is more personalized

More Design Inspiration

• How to Choose Your Template Design – Three criteria to keep in mind.

• How to Build a Brand Online – 11 steps to creating an engaging web presence for your business.

Typical cost: transaction fees + $0-360/year | Nice or necessary: Necessary

Extensions (also called add-ons) are additional, WooCommerce-specific features that you can add to your site, such as payment and shipping options. These are invaluable additions to an online store, so we’re going to explain the different costs associated with payment, shipping, and sales extensions below.

Payments

WooCommerce integrates with all of the major payment gateway options out there – meaning your online store can accept payments through PayPal, Stripe, or whatever your preference may be.

However, each payment gateway varies in cost, and usually charges a recurring monthly fee and/or a standard transaction fee.

WooCommerce Payments – $0/month + transaction fees

The easiest option is WooCommerce Payments, which charges no monthly fees. The transaction fee costs you 2.9% + 30¢ for every purchase made with a US credit or debit card, and is carried out completely onsite. There is an additional 1% fee for international cards.

PayPal – $30/month + transaction fees

PayPal is another popular option. If you choose a basic PayPal account, you won’t have to pay a monthly fee – just a transaction fee of 2.9% + 30¢ for every purchase. However, your customers can’t pay directly on your WooCommerce website – they’ll have to be directed to the PayPal site to complete their purchase.

If you upgrade to a PayPal Pro account, customers will be able to stay on your site to complete their purchase. But you’ll have to pay $30 per month in addition to the transaction fee.

Shipping

Automated tax calculations and live shipping rates from leading carriers are built into the WooCommerce dashboard for free. Plus, WooCommerce Shipping is a free extension that allows you to print shipping labels at home from your WooCommerce dashboard.

So what shipping extensions will you have to pay for?

WooCommerce offers hundreds of different shipping extensions, ranging in price from $0-299/year. Here are a few that we think are the most useful:

• Table Rate Shipping – $99/year: Define multiple shipping rates based on location, price, weight, or item count.
• Distance Rate Shipping – $79/year: Offer shipping rates based on distance or total travel time, with the option to charge extra based on the weight or number of items in a cart.
• Shipment Tracking – $49/year: Enable customers to track their shipments with ease.

Sales

WooCommerce offers a wide range of extensions to help you sell in specific ways:

• WooCommerce Bookings – $249/year: Let your customers book reservations, appointments, or rentals on their own time, no phone calls required. Your digital calendar will fill up accordingly.
• WooCommerce Pre-Orders – $129/year: Allow customers to order products before they’re available, and charge either up front or upon release.
• WooCommerce Subscriptions – $199/year: Offer subscription-based products with recurring payments, so that you can better track and manage your revenue.

Each of these sales extensions (and the many more available) can bring even more professionalism to your online store.

All of the above WooCommerce extensions come with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

More Information

• How to Ship Products – Our step-by-step guide.
• How to Accept Payments Online – The seven best methods.

Typical cost: $0-129/year | Nice or necessary: Nice

Plugins are essentially more general, less essential extensions. Plugins are optional features and functionalities you can add to make your WooCommerce store more engaging for customers.

There are hundreds of different free and paid plugins to choose from, which means a limitless amount of customizable features for your online store. To give you the gist, we’ve selected some of our favorite plugins across different ecommerce categories to discuss below.

Marketing plugins

Growth Plugins

Design Plugins

More Information

• Best WordPress Plugins: WooCommerce is one of the best WordPress plugins available to use

Typical cost: $0-300/year | Nice or necessary: Necessary

SSL certificates

What are SSL certificates, and why are they important?

The most basic (and important) security feature for any ecommerce store is a secure sockets layer (SSL) certificate, which encrypts the data that flows between a customer’s computer and your website. Customers can tell if a website has an SSL certificate, because the URL will start with ‘https’ and display with a padlock icon in the navigation bar.

SSL certificates are especially important for ecommerce sites, since customers will be hesitant to provide payment information to a website without these trust signals.

Basic SSL certificates are often included free in web hosting plans (indeed, all of Bluehost’s plans include free SSL security). If your hosting provider doesn’t offer it, you can install a basic SSL certificate for free through Let’s Encrypt.

That said, ecommerce sites generally need more protection than what a free SSL can provide, because you’ll be handling customers’ payment details. You can purchase more advanced SSL packages through vendors like Namecheap and through most hosting providers for $7-150/year, depending on the features you need.

Anti-malware tools

SSL certificates are the logical starting place for securing a website. But if you want to go the extra mile, you can look into anti-malware tools like SiteLock. Some web hosts even offer deals on this type of protection. If you sign up for SiteLock through Bluehost, for example, the basic version is billed at just $23.88/year.

For the ultimate anti-malware protection, you can sign up to one of SiteLock’s prepackaged Business plans, which range from $149.99 to $499.99/year.

SiteLock’s cheapest Business package provides automatic malware removal and automatic threat detection. Its priciest plan includes both features, plus:

• Google blacklist monitoring
• File-level scanning
• Plugin scanning
• Weekly scan report
• XSS scripting protection
• SQL injection protection

More Information

• How to Secure a Website – Our seven step guide.
• 10 Best Free SSL Hosting Providers – Find out which web hosts provide free SSL security.

Typical cost: $1,000-6,000 | Nice or necessary: Nice

If you’re running a small or midsize WooCommerce store, you won’t need to bother bringing in a web developer. While developers are capable of handling the nitty-gritty tech stuff to bring your site’s design and functionality to the next level, their services come at a steep price – and the benefits don’t really outweigh the cost unless your online store is fairly large or looking to scale!

If you are a larger site wanting to outsource the work to a developer, it will cost around $1,000 to $6,000 depending on the project, or an hourly rate of $60-150. WooCommerce provides a catalogue of verified WooExperts, so you can be sure the developer you choose is fully prepared to work on a WooCommerce website.

The WooCommerce plugin itself is free, but it can’t get off of the ground without a hosting plan and a domain name. Once those basics are covered, it’s pretty much up to you how much you’d like to spend on your WooCommerce store – tons of optional add-ons mean there’s enough flexibility for any budget.

Let’s recap the potential WooCommerce costs:

…and now, you’re ready to build your own budget!