WooCommerce Pricing - A Detailed Guide

WooCommerce pricing for UK business owners

If you're considering WooCommerce as your ecommerce platform, you'll want to know how much it really costs to use the platform. In this post, we delve into the true costs of setting up and running an online shop with WooCommerce.

• An introduction
• Building your store
• Hosting fees & setup costs
• Theme costs
• Maintenance & running costs
• Shipping
• Using a payment gateway
• Performance and scalability
• Security
• Training and support
• Marketing, SEO and customer experience
• Final thoughts - the true costs of using WooCommerce

WooCommerce Pricing

Unlike many other ecommerce platforms, WooCommerce is a free open-source plugin for WordPress. That’s right, WooCommerce is completely free to use, and it lets you add ecommerce functionality to your existing WordPress site.  

Now, there is a catch, because in reality, you’ll need more than just the free download of WooCommerce itself to actually build an online store ready for sales. For example, you’ll need additional services like web hosting, a domain name, paid themes and additional plugins. 

So how much does WooCommerce really cost? 

Let’s break it down. 

How much will it cost me to build a store with WooCommerce?

While WooCommerce itself is a free plugin for WordPress, you'll likely need to incorporate additional plugins, extensions and security measures to make a fully functional ecommerce site. 

At the very least, you’ll need web hosting, a domain name, a theme and security. This could cost as little as £15 per month. But to unlock additional features to take your store to the next level, you'll need more than just some basic features. But with a few additional features, the cost of using WooCommerce could soon rise to £200 per month. 

Let’s now break down each potential cost when using WooCommerce: 

Hosting fees and setup costs

Because WooCommerce is a plugin for WordPress, you’ll have to choose hosting for your WordPress website. The cost of WordPress hosting can vary greatly depending on your needs and preferences. There are numerous hosting providers to choose from, such as SiteGround, Dreamhost, and WP Engine all of which are recommended by WooCommerce.

Hosting providers typically offer a range of packages that cater to different types of online stores. The larger and more sophisticated your store, the more you can expect to pay for your WooCommerce base setup.

But what about other setup costs? 

Here are some other initial costs you’ll need to think about: 

• Domain Name: For a professional online store, a domain name with a .com or .net extension is crucial. WordPress, along with many other hosting providers, offers a free domain name with their hosting package.
• Logo: A visually appealing logo is a must for your eCommerce store to create a strong brand image. You can hire a graphic designer from platforms like Elance and Fiverr to create your logo.
• SSL Certificate: To ensure customer trust and secure transactions, an SSL certificate is highly recommended. The cost is typically around £50 per year.
• WordPress Monitoring: Managed WordPress hosting ensures that your site is constantly monitored and runs smoothly by experts. For example, SiteGround offers site monitoring packages.

Themes - How much do WooCommerce themes cost?

WordPress offers thousands of free themes, many of which are optimised for WooCommerce.

A popular choice among new ecommerce businesses is WooCommerce's official Storefront theme. This theme is well-designed, simple and offers deep integration with WooCommerce. It is highly customizable through the WordPress Customizer and there's excellent support from WooCommerce if you encounter any issues. 

If you decide to go with a free theme, make sure it is updated regularly and is compatible with the latest version of WooCommerce. It should also be created by a developer with experience in WooCommerce.

However, before you go ahead and choose a free theme, consider the following: 

• Free themes are very common, which means that your store won't stand out from the crowd.
• Free themes may have performance and functionality limits.
• Paid themes are more likely to come with specialist support and regular updates. 
• Paying for a WooCommerce theme can open up your business potential.

If you do decide a paid theme has more benefits, you can expect to pay between £50-100 per year for a decent theme. These themes can also be paid monthly if you’d like to spread the costs. You can check out WooCommerce’s catalogue of dedicated themes here. 

Maintenance & running costs

WooCommerce has plenty of free tools to try out, which is why it’s such a popular ecommerce solution. 

Features include:

• Embedded products on pages
• Flexible customisation options for your store
• Organise your website and products into categories, tags and search
• Unlimited images and galleries
• Sell products however you want

But whilst these essential features are free, you’ll need to download extra extensions and plugins to get more functionality for your store. For example, if you want to accept payments through PayPal or Stripe, you’ll need to download a plugin. 

Some extensions are free, so you won’t have to pay any extra for using them, but many other extensions come with an additional cost. For example, most payment gateways are free to use, but when you want to send an invoice or print a shipping label, you’ll incur additional fees. 

The true cost of running your WooCommerce store will depend on how many paid plugins you need, but expect to pay anywhere from £50 per month to £150 per month extra if you want a fully functional store. If you're not tech-savvy, you might also need to hire a developer to make more advanced customisations, which can add to your expenses. 

Shipping

By default, WooCommerce offers basic shipping solutions such as a flat shipping rate, complimentary shipping or the option for customers to pick up their orders locally. For a more integrated shipping solution, WooCommerce Shipping is available at no extra cost. This feature integrates with USPS, enabling you to generate and print shipping labels directly from your WordPress interface, often at a discounted rate. For many small enterprises, these options suffice.

However, for those seeking more intricate shipping solutions, there are plugins like Advanced Shipping Rates ($99), ShipStation Sync (starting at $9/month), and Rate-Based Shipping ($79). You’ll have to check which plugin is best for your business.

In all, you can expect to pay between £0-100 a year for shipping on WooCommerce depending on your needs.

Using a payment gateway

Online payment gateways are essential for securely processing transactions. Each comes with its own pricing model, and WooCommerce supports most major providers.

A top recommendation is Woo Payments, which offers the convenience of handling payments directly within your WooCommerce dashboard. Setting up WooCommerce Payments is free, and there are no recurring fees. For transactions using cards issued in the U.S., the charge is 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction. For non-U.S. issued cards, an extra 1% fee is applied.

Another option is to use Paypal. With a basic Paypal account, there is no monthly fee, but each sale will incur an additional charge of 2.9% + $0.30. If you use this option, customers will be directed to Paypal’s website where they can complete the transaction using their account or credit card.

You can also accept credit card payments directly by upgrading to Paypal Pro, but this will cost an extra $30.00 per month.

Other payment gateways for WooCommerce include Stripe (2.9% + $0.30 per transaction and Authorize.net (2.9% + $0.30 cents per transaction + $25/month.)

View all of WooCommerce’s payment gateway options here.

Performance and scalability

As your online store grows, so will your need for better performance and scalability. WooCommerce, being a self-hosted solution, gives you the freedom to choose your hosting provider. This means you can upgrade your hosting plan or even switch to a dedicated server as your traffic increases. While this offers great flexibility, it also means that you're responsible for ensuring your site's performance. Regularly monitoring your site's speed, optimising images and using caching solutions can help in this regard. But remember, better performance might mean higher hosting costs. In this case, you might be better off choosing an all-in-one ecommerce platform like ShopWired where high-performance web hosting is included.

Security

While WooCommerce itself is secure, the fact that it runs on WordPress means you have to be vigilant about security. WordPress is a popular target for hackers, so you'll need to invest in good security plugins and practices. Regular backups, using security plugins like Wordfence or Sucuri and ensuring all your themes and plugins are up-to-date are essential steps. Some security plugins are free, but for advanced features, you might need to invest in their premium versions, which of course means spending more money.

Training and support

If you're new to WooCommerce or ecommerce in general, there might be a learning curve. While there are plenty of online resources, tutorials and forums dedicated to WooCommerce, sometimes you might need more direct help.

WooCommerce does have a directory of WooExperts that you can enlist for advanced support. These experts are listed on their website with pricing ranging from £50-100 per hour.

Investing in training or hiring a consultant can be beneficial, especially in the early stages, but this will mean spending more money, and for more advanced support, you’re likely going to need to spend more.

Marketing, SEO and customer experience

Whilst you can technically build a store for free using WordPress and WooCommerce, to really give your store the best chance of success, you’ll need to invest in some extras. 

Building a website is one thing, but marketing it, optimising it for search engines and improving the customer experience are things that are going to take extra time and money. 

For example, you'll need:

• SEO: Search Engine Optimisation tools like Yoast will ensure you’re using the best keywords and phrases. Yoast will set you back another £99 per year. 
• Customer communications: You'll want to stay in touch with your customers to ensure that they keep coming back to your website. Mailchimp is an excellent tool for this, but you can expect to pay another £10 per month, and up.
• Social media marketing tools: Some social media plugins are free, but if you want a more comprehensive sales and marketing strategy, you may want to pay for tools that combine social media marketing with email marketing, sales, customer relationship management software, and so on. 
• Professional marketing services: You may want to outsource your marketing to an external team of experts. This could cost anywhere from hundreds to thousands per month depending on their expertise and the size of your business. 
• Customer service support: If you’re running a large scale business, you’ll probably need to hire support staff to be there whenever customers need some help. You may also need to invest in things like 24/7 chat bots or set up contact centres globally. 

WooCommerce: the true cost of using the platform

While WooCommerce has a reputation for being a free ecommerce solution, it's essential to understand the associated costs that come with building, managing and scaling an online store on this platform. The total expenditure is more than just the initial setup costs, as it also includes ongoing costs for maintenance, enhancements and marketing to drive success.

The basic setup, which involves hosting, domain name, theme and security can be as low as £15 per month. But, to take your store to the next level with added features and functionalities, you could be looking at around £200 per month. For example, extensions and plugins for payment gateways, invoicing, shipping and SEO could potentially add up to £50-£150 extra per month.

Investing in a paid WooCommerce theme, priced between £50-£100 annually, offers a more unique aesthetic, better functionality and more frequent updates. This ensures your online store stands out and runs smoothly, enhancing the user experience and increasing the likelihood of repeat business.

Marketing, SEO and enhancing the customer experience are critical aspects that require budget allocation. Tools like Yoast for SEO can cost £99 per year, while an email communication tool like Mailchimp could be an additional £10 per month. Should you choose to employ social media marketing tools or outsource marketing to a professional team, costs can skyrocket into the hundreds or even thousands per month.

So how much does WooCommerce truly cost?

Well, it ultimately depends on the scale of your business operations, the sophistication of your store and how much you're willing to invest in marketing, customer service and advanced features to enhance user experience and drive sales. For most businesses, we'd expect them to end up paying £100+ a month for WooCommerce for a decent set of features and functionalities, but it is possible to pay less or more depending on your needs.