The cost of setting up an e-commerce website: items and what changes them

The cost is a sum of items, not one figure

There is no single answer to “how much does an e-commerce site cost”. The cost is made of software or a platform, a domain, hosting, a payment set-up, design and product content, legal texts, an invoicing arrangement and maintenance. When you ask for a quote, check whether each item is written separately: a single “package price” that does not say what it contains cannot be compared.

Three ways to set up, three cost structures

Hosted (ready-made) platforms usually charge a recurring subscription; setting up is easy, but you build within the platform’s limits. With software installed on your own hosting (a script or package), installation, hosting and updating effort are separate items; you control the data and the site, but responsibility for maintenance is also yours, or it sits in the installer’s quote. With custom software the project fee depends on how wide the scope is, and change requests are discussed separately. Which way is cheaper depends on the number of products, their options and the features you need; there is no general ranking.

Separate one-off and recurring costs

Setup, design, payment integration and the first product entry are mostly one-off. Domain renewal, a hosting or platform subscription, maintenance and support are periodic, and a payment commission is charged per transaction. Write the budget for the first year and for the following years separately, because the first year’s total does not predict the later ones.

A payment set-up can cost per transaction

To take card payments you need an agreement with a payment institution or virtual-POS provider. Application terms, commission, instalments and how soon the money reaches your account vary by provider, sector and approval process; get the current terms from the provider in writing. Bank transfer and cash on delivery carry no extra card commission, but can add to the work of collecting payment, tracking orders and cancelling. The method you offer on the site shapes both the cost and the order flow.

Legal and financial duties are a cost item too

The Law on the Regulation of Electronic Commerce (6563) asks the service provider to present identifying information and the steps to follow to conclude a contract before the contract is made (article 3), to make the total price clearly visible before payment details are entered, and to confirm receipt of the order without delay (article 4). Pre-contract information and the consumer’s right of withdrawal in distance sales are set out in the Distance Contracts Regulation. If you process personal data, a KVKK privacy notice is needed. Check on the Ministry of Trade’s ETBİS page and in the legislation whether registration in the Electronic Commerce Information System (ETBİS) applies to you, and ask your accountant about invoicing (e-archive or e-invoice). Preparing and checking these texts means legal and accounting fees.

The invisible item: your time

Photographing products, writing descriptions, entering options and stock, preparing and shipping orders, and handling returns and customer questions are not in the software’s price but they are work. The more products and option variety (colour, size, volume) there are, the larger the first data entry; ask about it together with whether the product list can be bulk-loaded (for example from CSV).

Questions to ask for a quote

The quote should state separately: what the software or platform includes; who does the installation; in whose name the hosting and domain are opened and who pays for them; which payment methods are offered and which of them were tried with a real account; who is responsible for backups and updates; the scope and length of support; whether you can take the product data and the site with you if you leave; and how out-of-scope work and extra requests are priced.

Where does the software on this site stand in this list?

The ready-made e-commerce software presented on this site is of the kind installed on your own hosting; its installation options and scope are set by written quote and there is no list price. It has not been delivered to a client or tried on real hosting or with a real PayTR account; the page says separately what was tried and what was not.

Quick checklist

• Is each item (software, domain, hosting, payment, design, maintenance) written separately in the quote?
• Were one-off and recurring costs calculated separately?
• Were the payment provider’s current terms obtained in writing?
• Were the legal texts, ETBİS and invoicing put to an expert?
• Who does the product entry and photography?

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