The Cost of Hiring a Professional Woocommerce Developer: What to Expect

The Cost Of Hiring An Expert Woocommerce Developer: What To Expect

Opening an online store through WooCommerce is a great way to save money. You will need to make investments if you want your business to grow and thrive.

This is not what anyone tells you, but you can have much more control over your budget and costs with high savings potential.

Are you curious about how much and what you will have to pay for your WooCommerce development?Continue reading to learn about the development process and costs involved in opening an online WooCommerce store.


What is the cost of a WooCommerce store?

What is the cost of a WooCommerce store?

Well, it depends.

Thats right. As a free plugin, WooCommerce provides basic functionality to help you kickstart your business.

However, costs will depend on what features and functions you need in your store. Each eCommerce business has its own needs and requirements.

You, the owner, must identify your unique business requirements and look for plugins that can fulfill them.

You might need a theme or plugin for a particular function, as well as hiring a WooCommerce developer.

While some themes and plugins can be downloaded for free, others will require you to pay for them.

This is why the cost of goods and services can vary from one store to another.

However, there are 2 ways to divide the cost of launching your WooStore:

  1. Fixed cost (essential costs you cant avoid)

  2. Variable cost (optional, under your control)

Lets now take a quick look at the Fixed WooCommerce pricing.

1. Fixed cost payments

Every new WooStore business owner must spend some money in this area. These payments are essential to start your online store.

A. WooCommerce setup fees - Hosting and Domain fees

Hosting

Your online store must have some internet space to exist, regardless of which platform you use. Web hosting is exactly what you need.

It is essential to have a web hosting in place to make your website available to customers. You need to choose a hosting provider and plan that suits your needs.

These are the factors to consider before you make a decision about a hosting provider.

  1. Speed: Its the sites response time. This should be as fast as possible.

  2. Uptime: This indicates the percentage of time your website and host servers are online. This must be as high as you can.

  3. Security features: Be on the lookout for features such as malware prevention, automatic backups and manual reboots, spam filters, and so forth.

  4. Customer Service: Make sure that customer service representatives are always available for you in an emergency or trouble.

  5. Scalability: Make sure you can upgrade your hosting plan when your eCommerce site grows.

The problem is that there are many web hosting providers offering different plans, ranging from $2/month to as costly as you can get.

This can lead to confusion.

Weve done the hard work of comparing some of the most popular hosting providers to make it easier for you to make an informed choice.

Hosting Providers

Uptime

Customer Support

SSL Certificate

WordPress Support

Start price

BlueHost

99.98%

Available 24/7

Yes

One-click installation.

$2.95/month

DreamHost

99.99%

Available 24/7

Yes

One-click installation.

$2.59/month

SiteGround

99.99%

Available 24/7

Yes

WooCommerce pre-installed

$6.99/month

Hostinger

99.99%

Available 24/7

Yes

One-click installation.

$1.99/month

GoDaddy

99.99%

Available 24/7

Yes

One-click installation.

$3.99/month

HostGator

99.99%

Available 24/7

Yes

One-click installation.

$2.75/month

Note: Please verify and test the Speed time provided by the service provider in relation to your website.

Different sites may have different speeds. The page load time is quicker if there is a faster response.

Once you have chosen a hosting provider, it is time to register your domain name.

Domain Name

Domain names are your website address (.com or.net). This address will be used by your customers to find your store.

This service is usually included in your hosting plan.

You can purchase one at domain registrars such as:

  1. GoDaddy

  2. Namecheap

  3. Google Domains

  4. BlueHost, etc.

A domain name will typically cost around $13 per year. This cost could also rise to $20/year depending on the domain type.

It is important to note that both hosting and domain name are the most essential and necessary costs associated with WooCommerce.

B. WooCommerce theme

As a business owner, your website should look professional, elegant, and clean.

Most people dont realize that a theme can be more than its layouts and designs.

Before you start to choose a theme, here are some important factors to consider.

  1. A high-quality, appealing design

  2. Super-fast loading. Choose a theme that takes less than 2 seconds to load pages. Otherwise, customers will be disappointed.

  3. Regular updates. Your theme must provide regular updates to keep up to date with WordPress, WooCommerce, and other plugins.

    You could lose sales if you dont keep up with your competitors.

  4. Easy of Use. Choose a theme that is easy to install and requires you to not code or just a bit of code to make changes.

    Choose a theme that is compatible with your tech skills and knowledge.

  5. Mobile-friendly. Approximately 52% of global web traffic is generated by mobile phones. Its vital that your website looks great on mobile devices and runs smoothly.

  6. Excellent customer support and documentation If you have any issues with your theme, make sure the WooCommerce development services offer support services such as email, chat, forums, etc.

WordPress and WooCommerce offer hundreds of themes to choose from. Its almost like browsing through a collection of themes.

Theres nothing wrong with using free themes, but if you want to really add the X factor and make your store stand out from others, we recommend that you use custom themes.

We have found that paying for a theme is a good choice because it provides support and updates regularly. This gives your store that extra edge.

It makes it look more exciting, keeps you updated with the latest functions, as well as ensuring your store is always at its best.

Estimated cost - Between $30 and $80

C. Shipping & Payments

These two elements are vital to the e-Commerce industry.

Shipping

Unless its a digital product and downloadable, it is your responsibility to deliver your products to your customers.

You have the option to do business from anywhere in the world with shipping. Your customers still expect that their products arrive on time and in good condition.

Your shipping strategy is critical to customer experience and conversion. There are many shipping plugins out there today.

Shipping costs are something that nobody enjoys. You need to plan accordingly to include shipping costs in your products.

A plugin that calculates shipping costs is a great option.

These are important points to remember before you choose a shipping plugin.

  1. Flexibility: The plugin will allow you to create multiple shipping rates and calculate rates based on weight, quantity, dimensions, and so forth.

  2. Logistics support: If you are delivering internationally, ensure that your plugin can support both domestic and international shipping options.

  3. Order Tracking: This facility is important as customers will need to track their shipment once it has been shipped.

    It also helps to identify the package in case it is lost or stolen.

There are many shipping plugins available. You can choose from Premium and Free extensions.

Our suggestion If you offer a limited number of products, you can use the free plugin.

If you have multiple products and expect lots of traffic to your site, a premium shipping plugin is the best choice.

Youll have more options to calculate shipping rates, and you can offer discounts on shipping to customers as part of your customer conversion strategy.

Estimated cost - From $30 to $100

Payment Gateway

What are the payment options available when shopping online?Were sure plenty! This is because there are many payment options and everyone has their preferred method of payment.

You, the business owner, must offer them options or they will abandon your cart.

Its not possible to accept every payment method. It makes sense to offer the most popular and commonly used payment gateways.

Before you make a decision on which payment gateway integration to use, be sure to verify these points:

  1. Secure Transactions: Ensure that all security protocols are adhered to by payment gateways.

  2. Fees per Transaction - This is the amount that payment gateways make on every transaction.

  3. Additional charges - Be aware of additional fees like set-up charges, maintenance costs, cash withdrawal charges, and so on.

Weve also compared the most widely used payment gateways, to help you make an informed choice.

Payment Gateway

WooCommerce Integration

Fees per Transaction

Monthly charges

Price

PayPal

Yes

2.9% + 0.30 Cents

$0

$0

Stripe

Yes

2.9% + 0.30 Cents

$0

$0

Authorize.net

Yes, available for business only in the USA and Canada

2.9% + 0.30 Cents

$25

$79

Square

Yes, available for payments in the USA, Canada, Australia, and Japan

2.9% + 0.30 Cents

$0

$0

Amazon Pay

Yes

2.9% + 0.30 Cents

$0

$0

D. WooCommerce Security

This is a crucial aspect that you should not overlook. Your website will contain customer data, transaction details, and payment details.

You must ensure that this information is kept secure. It is very valuable.

People are smart. They will only buy from you if their data is secure. To provide this assurance, you need an SSL certificate that adds the https" to your URL.

And, luckily most hosting companies like BlueHost, DreamHost, etc. often offer SSL certificates free of charge with all plans.

To ensure security and safety on your website, you will need more than this.

A security plugin for your WooStore is essential. It will protect your client data and business from being compromised, prevent malware, Firewall protection, and regular system cleanups, as well as ensure that all safety procedures are in place.

This will protect your website from hackers, and other people with malicious intent.

There are Premium and free security plugins that you can choose from. If the plugin has safety and security features, we recommend that you not hesitate to buy it.

Estimated cost - From $60 to $200

2. Variable Cost Payments

These are costs that you can control. You have the option to pay for extensions or not.

A. Elevate your customer experience

Have you ever had a positive customer review that boosted your confidence in buying the product?Thats it. It works almost all the time.

Enhancing your WooStore is a great way to provide a Zen-like customer experience.

There are many WooCommerce extensions that can be used to accomplish this. These extensions can be used to enhance the functionality of different sections within your WooStore.

You dont need to add them all.

Thats right. You can make store enhancements if you have the funds. If your shop does not need it right away, you can skip it.

Weve also divided the enhancement extensions into categories to make them easier for you to understand.

  1. Cart checkout addons You can use this area for upselling related products, allowing customers to share their purchased products on social media, removing page distractions, and so forth.

  2. Product Comparisons Add-ons Let your customers compare products by using slideshows and pop-ups.

    These plugins will help you deliver this customer experience.

  3. Easy search & navigation add-ons Use this function to allow your customers to search quickly for the products they are looking for.

    This will allow your customers to save time and speed up the conversion process. With these add-ons, you can provide a remarkable customer experience.

  4. Product features plug-ins - Enhance your customer experience with high-quality product reviews, tutorials, and videos.

    These extensions can help you make the shopping experience a breeze.

Estimated cost - From $150 to $1000 depending on which plugins and customizations you choose.

B. Marketing Extensions

If you only plan to add products to your website and expect people to come to your WooStore and buy them, then we dont think your WooStore will survive.

Yup. You have to market your products and business in order to keep up with the rest of the pack. Youll increase your sales, capture leads, and email addresses, build a customer base and eventually grow.

With the multitude of plugins available, you can add almost any function to the store that is relevant to marketing.

remember the trick: Only purchase the plugin if you absolutely need it. As your business grows, you can add additional functions.

Weve listed below some must-have marketing tools that will help you keep up with the latest trends.

To give you a better understanding, we have categorized the plugins according to various aspects of your business.

Marketing Plug-ins

Function

Purpose

Price

1. WISDM Product Enquiry Pro

Capture Pre-sale Questions & Enable Quote Requests for Your Products

Improve Lead Generation.

Free version available.

Pro version - $80/year.

2. Pro to Abandoned Cart

This allows you to send reminder emails, SMS, and Facebook messages. to regain lost customers.

Improve Lead Generation.

$119/year.

3. Chat live

You can talk to customers and resolve their questions immediately.

Conversions will increase

Available at no cost

4. WISDM Pricing Specific to Customers

This allows you to set up special pricing and discounting rules for certain customers, users, or groups.

Conversions will increase

$80/year.

5. Product Slider for WooCommerce

Display your products in a carousel to make them stand out and create a stunning visual display.

Increase conversions

Available at no cost

6. MailChimp for WordPress

Send out email campaigns using smart newsletters or promotional emails.

To use the plugin, you must first create a MailChimp Account.

Marketing improvements

$59/year.

7. Refer a Coupon Program

Encourage customers to recommend your products to friends and family.

Improve Marketing

$29/year.

8. Shared Counts

Customers can share their opinions about your products via social media.

Marketing improvements

Available at no cost

9. Yoast SEO

To increase your traffic and engagement, improve your rank on SERPs such as Google.

Website optimization.

Available at no cost

10. MonsterInsights

Track data analytics like avg. order value, conversion rate, bounce rate, etc. Your website and products.

Website Optimization

$99.50/year.

The estimated cost is $0 to $110, depending on which plugins you buy.

Thats our list of must-have marketing tools for your WooCommerce Store. You may not feel the need for a particular add-on right now, and thats okay.

Please do not install any plugins if you dont need them. It can slow down your website.

C. Developers Cost

It can be difficult to start your own business without any help.

You can also hire an eCommerce developer if your store isnt looking as professional as it should or you wish to change certain aspects.

If you feel competent enough to solve problems on your own, then watch tutorials, videos, or documentation. This will save you lots of money.

If you are unsure about your abilities, it is a good idea to contact WooCommerce development companies. They can help with programming and other technical matters.

If things go wrong, it can be a serious problem for your website.

When planning your allocation of funds, remember to leave aside a reasonable amount for the development team. They may be needed at any stage.

The initial costs for hiring expert developers start at $10/hour and can go up to 100+/hour depending on your needs and work.

This is why we ask that you dont spend too much on marketing extensions at the beginning.

Estimated cost - Starts at $10-$100/hour (depending on your requirements).

Cost of starting your WooCommerce store

Below are two tables that show the WooCommerce Cost Structure.

Table 1 gives you an overview of the basic cost range. This is the minimum amount you will need to start your WooStore.

Fixed Price

Particulars

Annual Cost

Hosting

$30 - $72

Domain Name

$13 - $20

WooCommerce Theme

$30 - $80

Shipping plugin

$30 - $100

Payment Gateways

$0 - $50

Security plugins

$60 - $200

TOTAL

$163 - $522

Youll need between $163 to $522 to get your WooCommerce website up and running. This will depend on the plugins you choose and your hosting provider.

Lets now see how much it will cost to upgrade your WooStore to add additional functionality.

Variable Prices

Table 2 provides an estimate of the costs involved in adding additional functions to your WooStore.

Particulars

Annual Cost

Enhance Customer Experience (Store enhancement add-ons)

$150 - $1000

Marketing Extensions

$0 - $110

Custom development cost

$10 - $100/hour

TOTAL

$150 - $1000

Despite this, it is too difficult for WooStores to operate a business with fixed costs.

Marketing and promotion are key to increasing revenues and profits. You will need to make use of certain marketing extensions once your business is established.

You will also need to have technical knowledge if you arent a WooCommerce developer during the initial phase. You might need it again later on as you grow and expand.

Want More Information About Our Services? Talk to Our Consultants!

These costs become inevitable after a certain point. This is the reality of any e-Commerce platform.

The average marketing cost for other purposes will be $150 to $1000 (depending on which plugins you use and how much customization you do).

This is all, if you need more clarity on WooCommerce costs or are not sure if WooCommerce is the right choice for you, feel free to leave a comment below or consult our WooCommerce development experts.


References

  1. 🔗 Google scholar
  2. 🔗 Wikipedia
  3. 🔗 NyTimes