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E-commerce Website Development Cost Calculator

What a custom or headless online store costs to build: catalogue, cart, checkout, payments, search and integrations, by sprint and region.

Updated · By Niraj Kumar · 4 sources

Project

The baseline: a React front end with a Node or serverless back end.

Unique layouts, not every page: a product page template counts once.

CRM, ERP, shipping, tax, analytics… 32 hours each.

Features

Sign-up and loginSign-up and login

Email and social login, password reset; SSO or MFA is complex.

User profiles and settingsUser profiles and settings

Profile pages, preferences and account deletion.

Roles and permissionsRoles and permissions

Who can see and do what; complex means custom policies.

Teams and multi-tenancyTeams and multi-tenancy

Organisations, invitations and data isolated per customer.

Admin panel / CMSAdmin panel / CMS

Manage users, content and settings without a developer.

Product catalogue and checkoutProduct catalogue and checkout

Listings, variants, cart, checkout and orders.

Payments and subscriptionsPayments and subscriptions

Stripe or similar: plans, invoices, webhooks and refunds.

Search and filteringSearch and filtering

Full-text search and facets; complex means a search engine.

Email and push notificationsEmail and push notifications

Transactional email, push and in-app alerts.

File and media uploadsFile and media uploads

Uploads to object storage, previews and image resizing.

Real-time chatReal-time chat

Messaging over WebSockets, read receipts and history.

Maps and locationMaps and location

Maps, geocoding, distance search or live tracking.

Reports and dashboardsReports and dashboards

Charts, exports and scheduled reports for users.

AI / LLM featuresAI / LLM features

Chat assistants, summaries or retrieval over your data.

Multiple languagesMultiple languages

Translated interface, locale formats and RTL support.

Offline mode and syncOffline mode and sync

Works without a connection and syncs changes later.

Design and quality

UI/UX designUI/UX design
QA and testingQA and testing

Team

Mid-market US agencies; big consultancies bill $200 to $300 an hour.

Agency tierAgency tier
Seniority mixSeniority mix

More developers shorten the calendar, not the hours.

Sprint lengthSprint length
%
0%50%

A reserve for scope that changes once work starts. 15 to 20% is usual; more for a vague brief.

Likely budget, United States$278,000Range $217,000 to $387,000
Total effort
2,145 hours
1,034 hours of development
Timeline
14 weeks
7 sprints of 2 weeks, up to 22 weeks if the scope grows
Blended rate
$130 an hour
Across every role on the team
Maintenance after launch
$50,000 a year
About 18% of the build: updates, fixes and small improvements
Lowest-cost region
Philippines & Vietnam
$73,500, $204,000 less
Where the budget goes, United StatesHover or focus a row for its hours and share of the budget.
  1. 1Front-end development$69,000
  2. 2Back end, platform and integrations$61,500
  3. 3Contingency reserve$36,000
  4. 4UI/UX design$29,000
  5. 5Project management$26,000
  6. 6QA and testing$23,500
  7. 7Hardening and launch$13,000
  8. 8DevOps and CI/CD$11,500
  9. 9Discovery (sprint 0)$8,400
Sprint plan, 14 weeks192 hours of development per sprint; design, QA, DevOps and PM run alongside.
SprintFocusHoursCostRunning total
Sprint 0Discovery, backlog, architecture and first designs177$22,500$22,500
Sprint 1Project setup, Sign-up and login and 2 more332$43,500$66,000
Sprint 2Admin panel / CMS, Product catalogue and checkout305$39,500$105,000
Sprint 3Product catalogue and checkout, Payments and subscriptions305$39,500$145,000
Sprint 4Payments and subscriptions, Search and filtering and 2 more305$39,500$184,000
Sprint 5Reports and dashboards, Integrations305$39,500$224,000
Sprint 6Hardening, acceptance testing and launch136$18,000$242,000
Team by role, before contingency
RoleHoursRateCost
Project manager / BA231$130/h$30,000
UI/UX designer252$120/h$30,500
Senior developer503$160/h$80,500
Mid-level developer620$125/h$77,500
QA engineer259$90/h$23,500
Total1,865$130/h$242,000
The same scope in every region, offshore to onshoreMid-market agency rates at the tier you picked, with each region's coordination overhead added for a US client.
  1. 1Philippines & Vietnamoffshore$73,500
  2. 2Indiaoffshore$77,000
  3. 3Eastern Europeoffshore$105,000
  4. 4Latin Americanearshore$119,000
  5. 5Canadaonshore$220,000
  6. 6Western Europeoffshore$225,000
  7. 7Australiaoffshore$248,000
  8. 8United Kingdomoffshore$249,000
  9. 9United Statesonshore$278,000

How is software development cost estimated?

A custom headless store with a catalogue, cart, checkout, payments, search, order emails and four integrations takes around 2,150 agency hours. That is about $278,000 with a US agency and $77,000 in India. Switching the stack to Shopify or WordPress cuts the build by about a third.

build = Σ features (hours × complexity × stack) + screens × 10 h + integrations × 32 h + 40 h setup total = discovery + design + build + 10% hardening + QA % + DevOps + PM (12% + time-zone overhead) cost = Σ role hours × regional rate × agency tier; likely = cost × (1 + contingency) sprints = 1 + ⌈build ÷ (developers × 40 h × weeks × 0.8)⌉ + hardening

This page uses the same method as the Software Development Cost Estimator, which explains each term and assumption in full.

Worked example

A headless store on Next.js: 20 screens, a catalogue with variants, cart and checkout, payments, search and filters, order emails and an admin, with four integrations (payments, shipping, tax, email marketing). Built by a US agency (mid-market rates), 3 developers in 2-week sprints, with 15% contingency.

  1. 1Discovery (sprint 0): 62 hours, $8,400
  2. 2UI/UX design: 240 hours, $29,000
  3. 3Front-end development: 496 hours, $69,000
  4. 4Back end, platform and integrations: 444 hours, $61,500
  5. 5Hardening and launch: 94 hours, $13,000
  6. 6QA and testing: 259 hours, $23,500
  7. 7DevOps and CI/CD: 71 hours, $11,500
  8. 8Project management: 200 hours, $26,000
  9. 9Contingency reserve: 280 hours, $36,000
  10. 10Blended rate: $130 an hour across the team
  11. 11Schedule: 7 sprints, 14 weeks

About $278,000, within a range of $217,000 to $387,000, and 14 weeks from kickoff to launch.

Frequently asked questions

Shopify or a custom store?

Shopify, for almost every store under a few million dollars in sales: a themed store with a few custom sections costs a fraction of a custom build, and hosting, checkout and PCI compliance come with the subscription. Custom or headless pays off with unusual pricing, B2B ordering, very high traffic or content that a theme cannot express. Set the stack to WordPress / Shopify to compare.

Which e-commerce integrations add the most cost?

ERP and inventory sync, because stock and orders must stay consistent in both systems, followed by marketplace feeds, tax engines and shipping carriers. Payment gateways and email marketing tools are the quickest thanks to good SDKs. Each integration here is 32 hours at standard complexity; an ERP can take several times that.

How much does a custom e-commerce site cost to build with a team in India?

For the scope on this page, about $77,000, with a range of $60,000 to $107,000 at mid-market rates: 2,374 hours at a blended $32 an hour, delivered in about 14 weeks by 3 developers. Change the features and team above for your own scope.

Sources

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