2026 Ecommerce Price Guide
How Much Does an E-commerce Website Cost in Nigeria in 2026?
Platform fees, payment gateway charges, hosting, and the real ongoing cost of running an online store \u2014 plus a ₦0-upfront route to launch.
The direct answer
An e-commerce website in Nigeria costs ₦400,000 to ₦1,500,000 to build in 2026, depending on the platform, number of products, and whether payment gateway integration (Paystack or Flutterwave) is included. On top of the build, expect ₦100,000\u2013₦250,000 a year in hosting and maintenance, plus transaction fees of roughly 1.5% per payment from your gateway provider. A ₦0-upfront plan removes the build cost, spreading it into a monthly subscription instead.
An online store is a different build from an informational website: it needs a product catalogue, a cart, secure checkout, and order management, all of which affect price differently depending on your chosen platform.
Cost by platform
The platform you build on affects both the upfront price and what you keep paying afterward.
| Platform | Typical build cost (2026) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| WooCommerce (WordPress) | ₦350,000 \u2013 ₦900,000 | Most flexible and widely supported in Nigeria; plugin costs add up over time |
| Shopify | ₦400,000 \u2013 ₦1,000,000+ | Faster to launch, but a recurring monthly subscription (typically $19\u2013$65) runs on top |
| Custom-built store | ₦1,200,000 \u2013 ₦3,000,000+ | Full control over features, but the highest build cost and longest timeline |
| ₦0-upfront (Naija Free Websites) | ₦0 upfront | Product catalogue, cart, and Paystack/Flutterwave checkout on a monthly or ownership plan |
The ongoing costs of running a store
An online store keeps costing money after launch in ways an informational site does not \u2014 mainly transaction fees and higher hosting demands.
| Ongoing cost | Typical range | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Hosting (ecommerce-grade) | ₦60,000 \u2013 ₦200,000/yr | Stores need faster, more reliable hosting than a basic informational site |
| Payment gateway fees | \u2248 1.5% per transaction | Paystack and Flutterwave charge a small percentage on each successful payment |
| SSL certificate | \u20a60 \u2013 ₦25,000/yr | Often free with modern hosting, but confirm it is active \u2014 required for card payments |
| Product photography | ₦50,000 \u2013 ₦300,000 | One-off or ongoing cost depending on how often your catalogue changes |
What drives an ecommerce build price up
- Number of products. A 20-product catalogue is far quicker to set up than one with 500+ SKUs and variants.
- Payment gateway integration. Wiring up Paystack or Flutterwave correctly, including test transactions, takes real development time.
- Inventory and order management. Automatic stock tracking and order notifications add complexity beyond a simple catalogue.
- Delivery/logistics integration. Connecting a courier service or building delivery-zone pricing increases scope.
- Design customisation. A store built on a stock theme costs less than one with a fully custom storefront design.
Common mistakes that inflate ecommerce costs
Many first-time store owners underestimate two things: content and fees. Product descriptions, photos, and pricing for every item take real time to prepare, and unclear scope here often causes budget overruns. Second, gateway transaction fees are frequently left out of budgeting entirely \u2014 at 1.5% per sale, a store doing ₦1,000,000 in monthly sales pays roughly ₦15,000 a month in fees alone, which should be priced into your margins from day one.
Launch your store without the upfront cost
Naija Free Websites builds product catalogues, secure checkout, and mobile-first stores for ₦0 upfront, on a monthly plan or 12-month ownership plan.
WooCommerce vs. Shopify: the real cost difference over time
WooCommerce looks cheaper on paper because it has no mandatory monthly platform fee, but that comparison misses hosting: WooCommerce stores need proper hosting capable of handling a database-driven storefront, which costs more than the shared hosting used for a simple informational site. Shopify bundles hosting into its subscription (roughly $19\u2013$65 a month, paid in dollars, which fluctuates with the exchange rate), so the true year-one cost gap between the two is often smaller than it first appears. Over three years, WooCommerce tends to work out cheaper for stores that stay relatively simple, while Shopify can be worth its premium for stores that need frequent app integrations and do not want to manage plugin updates themselves.
How much of your revenue should go toward running the store?
A useful rule of thumb for a growing Nigerian ecommerce business is to budget 3\u20136% of monthly revenue toward the full cost of running the store \u2014 hosting, gateway fees, maintenance, and any ongoing design tweaks combined. For a store doing ₦2,000,000 a month in sales, that works out to roughly ₦60,000\u2013₦120,000 a month in total platform costs, which should comfortably fit inside normal operating margins once gateway fees (around 1.5% per transaction, or ₦30,000 at that revenue level) are accounted for separately. Businesses that skip this kind of budgeting often discover the true cost of running a store only after a slow month makes hosting and maintenance bills feel disproportionately heavy.
Building on a ₦0-upfront monthly plan removes the largest single cost \u2014 the build itself \u2014 from this calculation entirely, leaving only predictable ongoing fees to plan around.
Don't forget delivery and fulfilment costs
A cost guide for an ecommerce website is incomplete without mentioning the business cost sitting immediately downstream of the site itself: delivery. Many new store owners budget carefully for the build and gateway fees, then get surprised by how much local delivery actually costs once real orders start coming in \u2014 typically ₦1,500\u2013₦5,000 per delivery within the same city, rising sharply for interstate shipping. Whether you absorb this cost into your product pricing, pass it directly to the customer at checkout, or split it, decide before launch rather than after your first week of orders, since changing your pricing structure once customers are used to it creates friction. A well-built store should make this decision easy to display clearly at checkout, whichever way you choose to handle it.
Frequently asked questions
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