What is the cost of building a Magento eCommerce store?

Introduction

Are you thinking of building a new eCommerce store on Magento or migrating to the platform? It’s a smart move. Magento offers the kind of flexibility brands need to create bespoke eCommerce experiences for shoppers. While it’s true that Magento costs more than template-driven sites, the results are far more unique.

In the process of building your store, the first thing you’d like to know is the cost involved. This blog will be a breakdown of all the factors that determine the cost required to build your Magento store. Before we get into those details, let’s quickly look at an overview of Magento and how the platform can add value to your business.

About Magento

Magento is one of the most popular eCommerce platforms in the market. Written in open source PHP, Magento offers unparalleled flexibility, enabling you to create a site that will take you well into the future. And with its global community of 300,000 third-party developers and 1,150+ solution and technology partners, you’ll have no trouble finding the resources you need to build and maintain your site.

Here are some facts that establish the influence of Magento in the digital landscape

• Over 213,057 stores are Magento, among which 106,299 operate on Magento 2.x, so the platform is market tested.
• Magento is popular among both SMBs and Enterprises. 4000+ enterprise-level brands use Magento.
• Magento is a recognized industry leader. In 2021 Gartner named Magento as a Leader in the “Magic Quadrant for Digital Commerce Platforms” (third year in a row).
• Easily supports all selling models: eCommerce, social commerce, conversational commerce, mobile commerce.

Why choose Magento?

Magento is a fully-loaded eCommerce platform that has all the essentials you need to sell online. But that’s just the start. The platform also offers advanced capabilities that enable future growth.

Built-in features – Once-click payment, Adobe Sensei (for AI-driven product recommendations), Integrated Adobe Payment Gateway, Security Scan tool, Business Intelligence, Marketing, and SEO friendliness etc.

Advanced core technicalities – Supports PHP 8.1, GraphQL support, security, performance, scalability, omni-channel and headless commerce support, built-in SDK for PWA development.

Elastic Search – Customizable built-in search engine to improve search results speed, relevancy, accuracy, and presentation.

Adobe Sensei – AI-powered product recommendation engine that leverages analytics on user behavior (e.g. product or brand preferences, search history etc.) to recommend relevant products.

Business Intelligence – An advanced analytics tool that extracts deeper insights from millions of digital interactions, enabling you to personalize and strategize marketing plans.

PWA Studio – Improve conversions on mobile by building fast-loading, mobile-responsive web pages, checkout pages and app-like experience with PWA Studio.

Headless – Go headless if experience matters the most. Combine the power of Magento’s eCommerce capabilities (backend) and any experience-driven CMS (frontend).

BOPIs – Enable customers to place orders online and pick them up from the stores near them at their convenient time.

Checkout – Process more orders per hour and enable faster checkout experience using 1-step checkout and auto form fills and multiple payment gateway support.

Magento Pricing – Cost of Magento Commerce, Commerce Cloud and Open Source

Magento OpenSource pricing

Magento OpenSource is free and for this reason it’s the go-to option for businesses that plan to start small and expand on the go. It has all the necessary features out of the box to start selling from day one. However, you’ll need to hire in-house developers or sign up a Magento Solution Partner to get the codebase customized for your business.

Magento Commerce pricing

Magento Commerce (now Adobe Commerce) is a premium version that has all the features of Magento Open Source, as well as handpicked advanced features that matured businesses need. Magento Commerce license costs are based on annual Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) and Average Order Value (AOV). The benefit of this pricing model is that Magento is as committed to your success as you are.

Based on the range of GMV and AOV, your Magento Commerce license cost will differ. Earlier, the license cost for Magento Commerce and Commerce Cloud were featured in the official website of Magento. Now, you can get the exact Magento Commerce pricing from Adobe experts directly or can ask for a free Magento Commerce demo.

Magento Commerce Cloud pricing

Like Magento Commerce, the license cost of Magento Commerce Cloud (now Adobe Commerce Cloud) is based on your annual GMV and AOV. You’ll have to speak with an Adobe expert for a quote for your business.

Magento Commerce Cloud offers a long list of advantages, including faster page loads, performance tools, PCI compliance, high security, onboarding support, dedicated support team and more.

Now that we have discussed the license cost of Magento Open Source, Commerce and Commerce Cloud, let’s move on to other cost factors like hosting, development etc.

Magento Domain Name Cost

You can opt for either a new domain name or get an expired domain name. A brand new domain can cost $10 to $20 per year while an expired domain or pre-owned domain range between $20 to $400 per year. You might wonder why an expired domain would cost more than a new domain and also why you would need one in the first place. Here’s why. Domain names that already have the keyword of the ‘market’ or the ‘industry’ or a ‘service’ your business falls into can boost your SEO rankings. Ex – medicalinsurance.com would be a better choice if you are into providing medical insurance. Also, pre-owned domains gain domain authority due to their age and can provide an SEO advantage.

Magento Hosting Cost

If you opt for Magento Commerce Cloud, the hosting cost will be covered in the package itself. If you choose Magento Open Source or Magento Commerce, you’ll need a hosting partner, which will likely cost $10 to $50 per month.

SSL certificate cost for Magento

SSL certificate is essential to make your Magento eCommerce store more secure. Magento Commerce Cloud includes SSL certificate out-of-the-box. If you are opt to build your site on Magento Open Source or Magento Commerce, you will need to spend for SSL certification, which can cost $50 to $300 per year.

Magento UI Development Cost

You have multiple options for building your frontend (aka “storefront”). Magento offers two free themes out of the box (LUMA and Blank). Though free, you will need to customize them with your brand elements.

If you want something a bit more bespoke, you can buy a premium theme, or customize a look and feel that matches your unique brand. Magento’s premium themes cost $200.

Magento offers two out-of-the-box themes – ‘LUMA’ and ‘Blank’. Though you choose between the free, default themes, you have to spend on customizing the theme. You can refer to Magento dev docs to quickly get started with your theme set up. If you go for the pre-built option, a good quality premium Magento theme costs $200.

Next, we’ll break down the major phases of Magento store development. The key pages needed for a fully functioning Magento store are Homepage, Category page, Product page, Shopping cart page, and Checkout page. Customizing these Magento UI will take a minimum of 80 hours.Hiring an experienced Magento UI developer would cost $40 per hour.

Magento Development Cost

Let’s start with the average cost of a certified Magento developer, as it’s the main factor in calculating the overall cost of a Magento website build. The average rate of a certified Magento developer or Adobe Silver Solution partner, ranges between $40 to $80.

Your developers need about least 80+ hrs development time to customize Magento to your business specifics. So, if you hire a Magento developer at an hourly rate of $40, your Magento website development cost will start from $3,200.

You should also consider other cost factors, such as building business-specific features and purchasing premium modules from Magento’s extension marketplace. Let’s look at the Magento extension pricing in the upcoming section.

Magento extensions cost

Magento provides 5000+ extensions in its marketplace developed by the platform’s solution partners. Magento’s paid extensions cost range from $60 to $600. While Magento provides all the necessary features built-in, starting from its free Open Source version, most eCommerce store owners prefer a few premium Magento extensions for operational ease and customer convenience.

You might want to add multiple payment gateways or digital wallets, or include advanced customer support and fulfillment features. Based on your requirements, the number of paid Magento extension costs will add up to your overall Magento store building cost. Considering the average pricing range of Magento extensions ($60 to $600), you can add the number of extensions and their pricing to your overall cost.

Note: The price of Magento paid extensions depends on the features provided and the extension developer’s reliability and quality.

Magento Marketplace development cost

An online marketplace is a multi-vendor store (think Amazon). Sellers offer a selection of their products to marketplace shoppers as a way of expanding their customer base. Building a marketplace is much more complex than building a single-brand eCommerce store. Naturally, the costs will be quite a bit higher.

In addition to the basic eCommerce functionalities, a Magento marketplace website requires ‘Seller accounts and dashboards,’ approvals by super admin for sellers’ product listing, customer accounts, complex workflows, multi-currency support, etc.

We will get a detailed breakdown of a Magento Marketplace cost and the required features in our forthcoming blogs.

Magento 1 to Magento 2 Migration Pricing

Adobe fully sunsetted Magento 1 a few years back, so if your store still runs on it, you may be putting your business at risk. We highly recommend you migrate to Magento 2.

Magento 1 to 2 migration is not an entirely new project like building a Magento store from the ground up. You can migrate your data, design elements, and workflows to Magento. However, various other factors will cost you. Here’s a breakdown of the key cost factors involved in a Magento 1 to Magento 2 migration.

Magento Commerce / Magento Commerce Cloud license cost

First up, if you are migrating to the premium version of Magento, the license cost adds up, which we have detailed in the earlier part of our blog.

Data import requirements

While migrating to Magento 2 from Magento 1 you need to get all your crucial information like orders, product information like price, attributes, specs, and customer data like profiles and wish lists. Ensure that you make a list of information to be migrated so that you can save costs by avoiding unwanted data. Be sure to migrate the meta contents of the homepage, product listing pages, and detail pages to retain the SEO strength.

Third-party extension migration cost

Another consideration is the cost of any third-party extensions you use. Most developers provide a Magento 2. x counterpart for their extensions in Magento 1.x, but you’ll have to pay additional costs. Also, remember to audit your Magento 1.x extensions, as you can avoid migrating or upgrading the ones you no longer need to Magento 2.x and save overall migration cost.

Magento 2 extensions development cost

If you’ve built custom extensions on Magento 1.x. you’ll need developers’ help to make it compatible with Magento 2 as the codebase, PHP version, database support, and other technicalities differ largely. This will add to your migration costs. The average starting cost of a certified Magento developer is $40 per hour.

Magento code customization cost

In order to make the customization made on the Magento 1.x code work on Magento 2.x, you’ll have to make it compatible with the help of developers. Based on the level of customization done, the time taken to make it compatible will differ. Add this as well to your Magento 1 to Magento 2 migration cost.

Magento theme cost

You’ll have to build a Magento 2 theme from scratch or buy a premium theme for the storefront design. You can also avail the default theme provided with Magento 2.x and customize it. As we’ve discussed in the earlier part of this blog, please refer to Magento dev docs to quickly get started with your free theme setup.

Magento Support Services Cost

Why do you need a Magento support and maintenance partner?

To keep your store performing at its best all the time, regular monitoring, audits, customization, bug fixes, and optimization are necessary. More importantly, engaging a dedicated team for your support and maintenance allows your teams focus on strategic projects, such as marketing, fulfillment, product expansion, etc.

Magento maintenance services are available on an hourly basis. Magento Support services with dedicated resources from an Adobe Silver Solution partner agency typically start $40 per hour.

Magento Pricing – Magento store development cost breakdown

Note

• The costs provided are the minimum limit.
• If you sign up for services like support and maintenance, marketing, SEO etc., those charges will add up.
• This table does not include the costs of integrating 3rd-party systems like ERP, marketing automation, etc.

Final Words

We hope our breakdown of a Magento development project can help determine a close to the accurate cost of building a store that suits your business requirements. While your AOV and GMV drive the license cost, factors like developer’s cost, extension cost, hosting, integration, support, and maintenance are dependent on the quality and reputation of the service providers and solution partners. You can begin your search by going for Adobe Solution Partners based on the partnership tier and specialization badges they have been awarded and the quality of their Magento services.

Also, while signing up a Magento partner agency, remember to check out their market presence, relevant industry experience, eCommerce challenges they’ve solved for their clientele, etc.

Get a free consultation from Ziffity’s certified Magento developers to determine your Magento eCommerce store development cost.