ECOM REALITY TOOL

Ecommerce Platform Cost Calculator

Estimate subscription, platform, payment, marketing, and operating costs. Change any assumption to match your account.

Platform

Platform Plan

Business assumptions

Currency USD — $ EUR — € GBP — £ Monthly gross sales Orders per month

Editable costs

Payment processing rate (%) Fixed payment fee per order (USD) Apps and integrations per month (USD) Advertising budget per month (USD) Total product / order-processing costs per month (USD) Other costs per month (USD)

Calculate costs Compare all plans

How to Use the Ecommerce Platform Cost Calculator

This Ecommerce Platform Cost Calculator helps you estimate the real monthly cost of operating an online store.

Most ecommerce platforms advertise a simple monthly subscription or transaction fee. However, that headline price rarely represents the complete cost of running the business.

Depending on the platform and business model, your actual monthly expenses may also include payment processing, fixed charges per transaction, applications, hosting, advertising, product acquisition, order processing, fulfillment, and other operating costs.

The calculator combines these expenses into one estimate and shows how much of your monthly gross sales may remain after the selected costs are deducted.

Follow the steps below to create a realistic calculation.

1. Select Your Ecommerce Platform

Start by selecting the ecommerce platform you want to evaluate.

The calculator currently supports several different ecommerce pricing models, including subscription-based platforms, percentage-fee platforms, self-hosted ecommerce systems, and integrated ecommerce services.

After selecting a platform, choose the appropriate plan. Available plans may differ by platform.

For example, one platform may offer a free plan with a transaction fee, while another may charge a fixed monthly subscription with no additional platform percentage. A self-hosted platform may have no standard platform subscription but still require hosting, premium plugins, maintenance, and technical support.

Select the platform and plan that most closely match the account you use or intend to purchase.

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2. Choose the Currency

Select the currency you want to use for the calculation.

The calculator currently supports:

USD — United States dollar
EUR — euro
GBP — British pound

When you change the currency, fixed monetary values such as subscriptions, hosting, advertising, applications, and other monthly costs are converted using daily reference exchange rates.

Percentage-based fees do not change when the currency changes. For example, a 2.9% payment-processing rate remains 2.9% in USD, EUR, or GBP.

The exchange rate shown by the calculator is a reference rate. Your bank, card provider, payment processor, or ecommerce platform may use a different commercial exchange rate and may also charge an additional conversion fee.

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3. Enter Monthly Gross Sales

Monthly gross sales represent the total amount paid by customers before expenses are deducted.

This is not your profit.

For example, if customers purchase products worth a total of $5,000 during one month, enter:

5000

Do not subtract payment fees, advertising, refunds, product costs, or other expenses before entering the amount.

The calculator uses monthly gross sales to estimate percentage-based platform fees and payment-processing fees.

Example

Monthly gross sales: $5,000
Monthly orders: 100

Average order value: $50

You do not need to enter the average order value separately. It is determined by dividing gross sales by the number of orders.

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4. Enter the Number of Orders per Month

Enter the estimated number of completed customer orders you expect to receive during one month.

The number of orders is important because many payment processors charge both:

a percentage of the transaction value;
and
a fixed fee for every payment.

For example, a payment provider might charge 2.9% plus $0.30 per order.

A store generating $5,000 from 100 orders will therefore have different payment costs from a store generating the same $5,000 from only 10 orders.

Enter the number of completed transactions rather than the number of website visitors, leads, abandoned carts, or product page views.

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Editable Costs Explained

5. Payment Processing Rate (%)

The Payment processing rate (%) field represents the percentage deducted by the payment processor from customer transactions.

For example:

2.9 means 2.9%
3.5 means 3.5%
5 means 5%

Do not enter 29 when you mean 2.9%.

The actual rate may depend on your country, payment provider, account type, card type, monthly sales volume, currency, and whether the payment is domestic or international.

For the most accurate estimate, use the rate displayed in your payment-processing account.

Correct example

Payment processing rate (%): 2.9

Incorrect example

Payment processing rate (%): 29

Entering 29 would mean that 29% of your gross sales is deducted.

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6. Fixed Payment Fee per Order

The Fixed payment fee per order field represents the fixed monetary charge applied to every completed transaction.

This is not a percentage and it is not the total monthly payment fee.

For example, if your payment provider charges $0.30 for every transaction, enter:

0.30

If you process 100 orders, the calculator will estimate:

100 × $0.30 = $30 in fixed transaction charges

This amount is calculated in addition to the percentage-based payment-processing fee.

Example

Payment processing rate: 2.9%
Fixed payment fee per order: $0.30
Orders per month: 100

The calculator will include both the percentage charge and the fixed per-order charges.

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7. Apps and Integrations per Month

Enter the combined monthly cost of applications, plugins, extensions, and third-party services used to operate the store.

This may include:

email marketing tools;
page builders;
product review applications;
subscription tools;
analytics services;
automation tools;
upselling applications;
checkout extensions;
SEO plugins;
customer support software;
inventory tools;
premium WordPress plugins.

This field should contain the total monthly amount, not the price of one individual application.

If you do not expect to use any paid applications or integrations, enter 0.

Example

Email marketing application: $20
Review application: $15
Analytics tool: $10

Apps and integrations per month: $45

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8. Advertising Budget per Month

Enter the total amount you expect to spend on paid promotion during one month.

Advertising expenses may include:

Google Ads;
Meta Ads;
TikTok Ads;
Pinterest Ads;
influencer promotions;
sponsored content;
platform-managed advertising;
retargeting campaigns;
paid marketplace placements.

Advertising is treated as a marketing expense rather than a direct platform fee.

When comparing the underlying cost of several ecommerce platforms, you may set the advertising budget to 0. This makes it easier to compare subscriptions, transaction fees, payment processing, hosting, and applications.

After choosing a platform, add your expected advertising budget to estimate the total amount of cash required to operate the business.

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9. Total Product or Order-Processing Costs per Month

Enter the total monthly cost associated with products, fulfillment, or processing customer orders.

This field requires the complete monthly amount, not the cost of one order.

Depending on the business model, this may include:

product acquisition costs;
supplier payments;
digital product processing costs;
order activation charges;
fulfillment expenses;
packaging;
shipping;
production costs;
platform-specific order-processing payments.

For example, if processing one order costs $7 and you expect 100 orders, enter:

700

The calculator does not automatically multiply this field by the number of orders because different businesses calculate product and processing costs in different ways.

Example

Cost per processed order: $7
Orders per month: 100

Total product or order-processing costs per month: $700

Be careful not to enter 7 unless the total monthly cost really is only $7.

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10. Other Costs per Month

Use the Other costs per month field for recurring expenses that are not already included elsewhere.

Examples may include:

domain renewals;
premium themes;
bookkeeping;
design software;
business email;
fraud-prevention tools;
customer support;
virtual assistants;
technical maintenance;
business banking fees;
optional platform services;
additional marketing tools.

Enter the combined monthly amount.

Do not include an expense in this field if you have already entered it under apps, advertising, hosting, payment processing, or order-processing costs.

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How to Calculate the Result

After entering your assumptions, click Calculate costs.

The results panel will update and display an estimated monthly expense breakdown.

You can change any field and calculate the result again. This allows you to test different sales volumes, order counts, advertising budgets, and operating-cost scenarios.

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How to Read the Results

Estimated Total Monthly Cost

Estimated total monthly cost is the combined amount of all expenses included in the calculation.

It may include:

platform subscription;
platform transaction fees;
payment-processing fees;
fixed payment fees per order;
hosting;
apps and integrations;
advertising;
product or order-processing costs;
other monthly expenses.

This number represents estimated monthly expenditure. It does not represent only the amount charged directly by the ecommerce platform.

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Subscription

Subscription is the recurring price of the selected ecommerce plan.

Some platforms offer discounted monthly prices when the subscription is paid annually. In that case, the calculator may display the monthly equivalent even though the platform requires one annual payment.

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Platform Transaction Fees

Platform transaction fees are charges collected directly by the ecommerce platform based on sales or completed orders.

These fees are separate from payment-processing fees.

A platform may charge:

a percentage of gross sales;
a fixed fee per transaction;
both;
or no platform transaction fee.

Always distinguish between the platform fee and the payment provider fee when comparing services.

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Payment Processing

Payment processing is the estimated amount charged for accepting customer payments.

The result combines:

the percentage-based payment-processing rate;
the fixed payment fee per order;
the number of monthly orders;
monthly gross sales.

Actual processing fees may vary because of international cards, alternative payment methods, refunds, currency conversion, negotiated rates, and regional conditions.

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Hosting

Hosting is the estimated monthly cost of keeping the store online.

Hosted ecommerce platforms often include hosting in the subscription. Self-hosted systems such as WooCommerce usually require a separate hosting plan.

Additional expenses may also apply for backups, security, performance optimization, server administration, or premium hosting features.

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Effective Cost Rate

The effective cost rate shows the estimated total monthly expenses as a percentage of monthly gross sales.

For example:

Monthly gross sales: $5,000
Total monthly costs: $1,000
Effective cost rate: 20%

A high effective cost rate does not necessarily mean that the ecommerce platform itself is expensive.

Advertising, product acquisition, fulfillment, and other operating expenses may represent most of the total.

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Amount Remaining

Amount remaining is calculated by subtracting the selected monthly expenses from monthly gross sales.

For example:

Monthly gross sales: $5,000
Estimated expenses: $1,500
Amount remaining: $3,500

The amount remaining should not automatically be considered net profit.

The calculation may not include taxes, VAT, refunds, chargebacks, salaries, contractor payments, reserves, accounting expenses, or other business-specific costs.

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How to Use “Compare All Plans”

Click Compare all plans to apply the same sales and cost assumptions to all enabled ecommerce plans.

This feature helps you compare different pricing models using one consistent scenario.

For a fair comparison:

use the same monthly gross sales;
use the same number of orders;
use realistic payment-processing assumptions;
include the applications required for each platform;
include hosting when it is not included;
keep advertising and product costs consistent.

The lowest estimated cost does not automatically mean that a platform is the best choice.

Features, ease of use, ownership, scalability, traffic generation, product management, customer support, technical requirements, and business model should also be considered.

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Platform Costs vs Total Business Costs

It is important to separate direct platform costs from total business operating costs.

Direct platform costs may include:

subscription;
platform transaction fees;
required hosting;
required applications.

Payment costs may include:

payment-processing percentage;
fixed payment fee per order;
currency conversion;
international payment surcharges.

Operating costs may include:

advertising;
product acquisition;
order processing;
fulfillment;
marketing tools;
customer support;
other recurring expenses.

To compare platform pricing alone, set advertising, product or order-processing costs, and other business expenses to 0.

To estimate the complete monthly cash requirement, include all relevant operating expenses.

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Example Calculation

Assume an online store has the following monthly activity:

Monthly gross sales: $5,000
Orders per month: 100
Payment processing rate: 2.9%
Fixed payment fee per order: $0.30
Apps and integrations: $40
Advertising budget: $500
Product or order-processing costs: $700
Other costs: $25

The calculator combines these assumptions with the subscription, transaction fees, and hosting costs of the selected platform.

This provides a more realistic estimate than comparing subscription prices alone.

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Important Limitations

This calculator provides estimates for educational and comparison purposes only. It does not provide financial, legal, accounting, investment, or tax advice.

Platform pricing and fee structures may change. Actual costs may also differ depending on your country, currency, account status, payment provider, sales volume, negotiated rates, billing period, and selected features.

The calculator may not include:

income tax;
sales tax or VAT;
refunds;
chargebacks;
payment reserves;
payout fees;
international card surcharges;
currency-conversion margins;
custom development;
employee expenses;
contractor expenses;
shipping;
customs duties;
marketplace fees;
account-specific charges.

Check the official pricing information and the terms displayed inside your account before making a purchase, migration, or business decision.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Is the Ecommerce Platform Cost Calculator free?

Yes. The calculator is free to use and does not require account registration.

Are the results exact?

No. The results are estimates based on the information entered into the calculator. Actual platform, payment, advertising, and operating costs may differ.

Should I enter revenue or profit?

Enter monthly gross sales before fees and expenses. Do not enter net profit.

Is the payment-processing rate a percentage?

Yes. Enter 2.9 when the payment-processing rate is 2.9%. Do not enter 0.029 or 29.

What does “fixed payment fee per order” mean?

It is the fixed amount charged for every completed customer transaction. For example, enter 0.30 when the provider charges $0.30 per payment.

Are product or order-processing costs entered per order?

No. Enter the complete monthly total.

If processing one order costs $7 and you expect 100 orders, enter $700.

Should I include advertising?

Include advertising when estimating the total monthly cash required to operate the business.

Set advertising to 0 when you only want to compare direct platform and payment costs.

Why does the effective cost rate look high?

The effective cost rate includes every expense you entered. A large advertising budget or high product costs can significantly increase the percentage even when the platform subscription is relatively low.

Does the calculator convert currencies?

Yes. The calculator supports USD, EUR, and GBP using daily reference exchange rates.

Your bank, payment processor, or ecommerce platform may use a different exchange rate and may charge an additional conversion fee.

Can I compare Shopify, Ecomzy, Sellvia, Payhip, and Gumroad directly?

Yes, but these platforms may use different pricing and operating models.

Compare the complete cost breakdown rather than looking only at the subscription price. Also consider which tools, products, traffic systems, hosting, and operational functions are included.

Which ecommerce platform is the cheapest?

The answer depends on monthly revenue, number of orders, payment fees, applications, hosting, advertising, and the business model.

A percentage-based platform may be suitable for testing a small project, while a fixed-subscription platform may become more cost-effective as sales