Ecommerce
Ecommerce Website Cost in India (2026): Custom Store vs Shopify vs Marketplace
Ask five people what an ecommerce website costs and you will hear five answers. A freelancer says ₹15,000. Shopify says ₹1,499 a month. An agency sends a ₹3 lakh proposal. A friend says "just sell on Amazon, it's free to start." Each of them is describing a different thing, and none of them is talking about what the store costs to run once orders start coming in.
The short answer: an online store in India has two kinds of cost. There is the one-time cost of getting it built, which can be close to zero on a platform you set up yourself or run into lakhs for a fully custom build. Then there are running costs that grow with your sales: platform subscription, payment gateway fees, shipping, and for marketplaces, a commission on every order. For a small store, the running costs over two or three years usually matter more than the build price. That is the number to compare.
This guide walks through both parts, compares the three common routes on the same sales figure, and ends with a checklist you can use when quotes arrive.
A note on the numbers: platform and gateway prices below are taken from the providers' own pricing pages as of October 2026 and are linked so you can check them. They change. Build prices are ranges, not rates, and depend heavily on scope.
The three ways to sell online
Before you compare prices, be clear which of these you are actually pricing. They solve different problems.
| Route | What you get | Who it suits |
|---|---|---|
| Marketplace (Amazon, Flipkart, Meesho) | Ready traffic and buyers who already trust the platform. No website to build. | Sellers testing demand, commodity products, anyone who wants volume quickly |
| Hosted platform (Shopify and similar) | Your own branded store on a monthly subscription, with themes and apps. | Standard catalogues, owners who want to launch fast and are fine paying monthly |
| Custom-built store | A store built for your business, hosted where you choose, with no platform subscription. | Custom flows (B2B pricing, bookings, made-to-order), owners who want to avoid recurring platform fees |
Plenty of businesses use two of these at once. A common pattern is a marketplace for reach and an own store for repeat customers, where you keep the customer's details and pay no commission.
What selling on a marketplace really costs
Marketplaces are cheap to start. You do not pay for a website, design or hosting. You pay per order instead, and that cost does not go away as you grow.
On Amazon.in, for example, the fee on each sale is made up of a referral fee (a percentage of the selling price that changes by category), a closing fee based on the price band, and a shipping or weight handling fee if Amazon delivers the order (Amazon seller guide). Amazon has cut fees on low-priced items in the last two years, so the exact deduction depends a lot on what you sell and at what price. Flipkart and Meesho have their own structures.
The fees are not the only cost. On a marketplace you do not own the customer relationship. You usually cannot email or WhatsApp a buyer to bring them back, you compete with the seller next to you on price, and the platform's rules can change your margins overnight. None of that shows up on a quote, but it is why many sellers who start on marketplaces later add their own store.
What Shopify costs in India
Shopify publishes rupee prices for India. As of October 2026 (Shopify India pricing):
| Plan | Per month, billed yearly | Per month, billed monthly | Extra fee when using a third-party payment gateway |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | ₹1,499 | ₹1,994 | 2% of each order |
| Grow | ₹5,599 | ₹7,447 | 1% |
| Advanced | ₹22,680 | ₹30,164 | 0.6% |
The last column is the one Indian store owners miss. Shopify's own payment system, Shopify Payments, is not available in India (Shopify help centre), so Indian stores use a third-party gateway such as Razorpay. That means you pay Shopify's transaction fee and the gateway's fee on every order.
Then there are apps. A basic Shopify theme covers the store itself, but features many Indian sellers want, such as COD verification, WhatsApp order updates, GST invoices in a particular format or advanced reviews, often come from paid apps with their own monthly charge. A premium theme is usually a one-time purchase on top. Add these up before you decide Shopify is the cheap option, because for some stores it is and for others it isn't.
To be fair to Shopify: it is reliable, it is fast to launch, and you don't need a developer to keep it running. If your catalogue is standard and you want to start selling next week, it is a sensible choice.
What a custom-built store costs
A custom store has a bigger one-time cost and smaller running costs. You pay to have it built, then you pay for hosting, the domain, the payment gateway and maintenance. There is no monthly platform subscription and no platform transaction fee.
The build price depends on what the store has to do. These are the things that move a quote:
- Catalogue size and structure. Twenty products with no variants is a small job. Two thousand products with sizes, colours and stock per variant needs proper import tools and a careful admin panel.
- Payments and COD. Connecting one gateway is routine. Adding cash on delivery with rules (for example, COD only below a certain order value or only in certain pin codes) adds work.
- Shipping. A flat delivery charge is simple. Live courier rates, label printing and tracking through a shipping aggregator take longer to build and test.
- GST invoices. If you need tax invoices generated automatically with your GSTIN, HSN codes and the right tax split, that needs to be scoped and tested.
- Custom flows. Wholesale pricing for logged-in dealers, made-to-order products, subscriptions, or booking a slot along with a purchase. These are often the reason to go custom in the first place.
- Content. Someone has to photograph products and write descriptions. If the developer does it, it is part of the cost.
For reference, our own Premium package is ₹19,999 and includes payment integration and an admin panel, which suits smaller stores. For a fuller store we offer a ready-made Ecommerce App with a customer store, admin dashboard, order tracking and Razorpay, Stripe and COD support, which you can try live before paying. Large catalogues and custom flows are quoted after a call. Other developers and agencies price differently, and the list above is what you should ask them to break down.
One honest warning about very cheap custom quotes: a store that takes money has to work every time. If a quote is far below others, ask what is left out. Usually it is testing, payment failure handling, order emails, or the admin panel.
Payment gateway fees: the cost every route shares
Unless every customer pays cash on delivery, you need a payment gateway, and it charges a percentage of each successful payment. Razorpay's standard published rate is 2% per transaction for domestic cards, UPI, netbanking and wallets, with 18% GST charged on that fee, and no setup or annual fee (Razorpay pricing). Other gateways such as Cashfree, PayU and PhonePe have their own rates, and businesses with higher volumes can often negotiate.
Two things to know:
- The 18% GST is on the gateway's fee, not on your sale. On a 2% fee, the effective cost becomes 2.36% of the order value.
- COD is not free either. Couriers charge for collecting cash, and returned COD orders (customers who refuse the parcel) cost you shipping both ways. Many stores limit COD for this reason.
The same store, three ways: a worked example
Numbers make this clearer. Take a hypothetical small brand selling ₹2,00,000 worth of products a month online, all paid through a gateway at 2% plus GST. This ignores shipping, packaging and marketing, which you pay on every route, and any GST billed on Shopify's own charges.
| Cost per month | Shopify Basic + Razorpay | Custom store + Razorpay |
|---|---|---|
| Platform subscription (billed yearly) | ₹1,499 | ₹0 |
| Shopify third-party gateway fee (2%) | ₹4,000 | ₹0 |
| Gateway fee (2% + 18% GST) | ₹4,720 | ₹4,720 |
| Paid apps | Depends on what you install | ₹0 (features are built in) |
| Hosting and maintenance | Included in subscription | Your hosting plan plus any maintenance plan |
| Monthly running cost before apps and hosting | ₹10,219 | ₹4,720 |
In this example the Shopify route costs about ₹5,500 more a month before apps, which is roughly ₹66,000 a year, mostly because of the 2% transaction fee on the Basic plan. The custom route needs that saving to cover its build cost, hosting and maintenance. At these sales it usually does within the first year or two. At ₹30,000 a month in sales, the gap is much smaller and Shopify's lower upfront cost may well win. That is the point: run your own numbers with your own expected sales.
For a marketplace, replace the platform rows with the category's referral fee, closing fee and shipping fee. For many categories, that per-order total is higher than either column above, which is the price of the ready traffic.
The yearly bills that come after launch
Whatever you choose, budget for these every year:
- Domain renewal, and check the renewal price, not just the first-year offer.
- Hosting for a custom store. A store needs more reliable hosting than a five-page brochure site, because downtime during a sale costs orders.
- Maintenance. Security updates, backups, checking that payments and order emails still work. Stores need more of this than simple websites. We explain what a fair maintenance plan covers in our guide to website maintenance costs in India.
- Business email if you want order emails to come from your own domain.
- Apps or plug-ins on a platform store, which tend to grow in number over time.
GST and consumer rules you should plan for
This is not legal or tax advice, and you should check your own case with a CA. But two things affect what your store needs to have built in.
GST registration. Selling goods across state lines generally requires GST registration regardless of turnover. Since 1 October 2023, small sellers of goods on marketplaces can sell without GST registration if their turnover is under the state threshold, but only within their own state and only on one state's marketplace (Notification 34/2023, via Taxmann). If your own website will ship all over India, talk to your CA about registration before you launch, and make sure the store can produce proper tax invoices.
Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020. These rules cover businesses that sell their own stock online, not just marketplaces. Among other things they expect you to show your return, refund and exchange policy clearly, show the total price, and publish contact details for a grievance officer who acknowledges complaints within 48 hours (analysis on IndiaCorpLaw). Your store should have pages for these from day one. It costs little at build time and is awkward to retrofit.
Checklist: what to ask before you accept a quote
- Is the price for a hosted platform setup, a template store or a custom build?
- Who owns the code, the domain and the hosting account? (The answer should be you.)
- Which payment gateway and which payment methods are included? Is COD included, and with what rules?
- How many products will be loaded for me, and is there a bulk import tool?
- Can I add products, change prices and manage orders myself without calling a developer?
- Are order confirmation emails, invoices and status updates included?
- Are return, refund, shipping, privacy and contact pages included?
- Has the full flow been tested with real payments, including a failed payment and a refund?
- What are the yearly costs after launch, line by line?
- What support is included after launch, and for how long?
If a developer is vague on more than two of these, keep looking. Our article on what to check before hiring a website developer covers the broader questions.
Which route should you choose?
- Just testing whether people will buy? Start on a marketplace, or take orders on Instagram and WhatsApp for a few weeks. We compared that approach in business website vs Instagram.
- Standard catalogue, want to launch this week, low early sales? A hosted platform like Shopify is a reasonable start. Watch the transaction fee as sales grow.
- Steady sales, repeat customers, or a flow that templates handle badly? A custom store usually costs less to run and fits better. See how we approach ecommerce website development.
Frequently asked questions
What is the minimum cost to start an ecommerce website in India?
The cheapest start is a marketplace or a hosted platform's lowest plan, where you pay little or nothing upfront and pay per month or per order. A properly built own store has a one-time build cost on top of a domain, hosting and a payment gateway. Compare the total over two years, not the first month.
Is Shopify cheaper than a custom website in India?
At low sales, often yes, because the upfront cost is small. As sales grow, the subscription, the transaction fee for third-party gateways and paid apps add up, and a custom store can become cheaper to run. The worked example above shows how to compare the two on your own numbers.
Do I need GST registration to sell on my own website?
If you sell goods to customers in other states, GST registration is generally required whatever your turnover. The 2023 relief for small sellers applies to sales through marketplaces within one state. Check your situation with a CA before launch.
Which payment gateway is best for a small online store?
Razorpay, Cashfree, PayU and PhonePe are all widely used in India. Compare the published rate, settlement time, how easy onboarding is for your business type, and whether it supports the methods your customers use, especially UPI. Fees are usually close; support and settlement speed often matter more.
How long does it take to build an ecommerce website?
A hosted platform store with a theme can go live within days if your products and photos are ready. A custom store takes longer, depending on the catalogue, payments, shipping and custom features. Getting product photos and descriptions ready is often the slowest part.
The bottom line
The build price is the easiest number to compare and the least useful on its own. Work out what the store will cost to run each month at the sales you expect, add the yearly bills, and compare routes over two or three years. Make sure you own the domain and the customer data whichever route you pick. If you want a second opinion on a quote, or want to see what a custom store looks like before deciding, our live ecommerce demo is open to try, and our guide to business website costs covers the non-store side of the budget.
