Cost of building an e-commerce website in 2026: itemized budget and legal obligations

Onur Ertem
October 31, 2026

At a glance: The cost of building an e-commerce website is the total of the one-time setup fee and recurring expenses after sales begin. Setup includes design and infrastructure; ongoing costs include domain and hosting renewals, payment provider commissions, shipping, e-invoicing, advertising and maintenance. E-commerce packages at Onur Freelance start from 24,000 TL; the domain, hosting, commissions and shipping are excluded. Optional maintenance costs 500–2,000 TL per month.

The cost of building an e-commerce website is not a single figure but the total of the one-time setup fee and expenses recurring every month or with every order after sales begin. Setup covers design and infrastructure, while ongoing costs include domain and hosting renewals, payment provider commissions, shipping, e-invoicing services, advertising and maintenance.

This article explains in sequence what each item covers, who is paid and what determines the amount. No figures are given other than Onur Freelance’s own service fees and package prices published on ready-made platforms’ own websites; because items such as domains, hosting, commissions and shipping vary by provider and agreement, the article explains what to ask about them. The final section summarizes the statutory obligations of online selling, with links to official sources.

Which items make up the cost of building an e-commerce website?

The cost of building an e-commerce website consists of eight main items: design and infrastructure, hosting, payments, shipping, invoicing, content, promotion and maintenance. Only the first is one-time; the others continue as long as sales continue. The table below shows the payment structure of these items and what their amounts depend on:

Item	Payment structure	Amount
Design and infrastructure setup	One-time	Starts from 24,000 TL at Onur Freelance
Domain name	Annual renewal	Varies by extension and registrar
Hosting and SSL	Monthly or annual	Varies by provider and package resources
Payment provider or virtual POS	Commission on every sale	Varies by agreement
Shipping	Per shipment	Varies by contract with the shipping company
E-invoice / e-Archive invoice service	Package or credits	Varies by service provider
Product entry, photography and content	One-time and ongoing	Determined by product count and scope
Advertising budget	Directly to the advertising platform	Budget set by the business
Maintenance and updates	Monthly, optional	500–2,000 TL

A practical method is to calculate the first-year budget separately: add twelve months of hosting, maintenance and e-invoicing expenses to the setup fee, and estimate commissions and shipping according to expected order numbers. This calculation also helps set realistic sales prices and a free-shipping threshold.

Looking at this entire table when discussing the budget gives a more realistic picture than comparing setup fees alone. A solution with cheap setup but high monthly costs can become the most expensive option within a few years.

What determines the design and infrastructure fee?

The design and infrastructure fee is determined by the store’s product structure, integration needs and how specific to the brand the design will be. E-commerce packages at Onur Freelance start from 24,000 TL; mobile-compatible design, SEO infrastructure and SSL are standard parts of every setup; dashboard use is demonstrated at handover, and the domain and hosting are registered in the business’s name.

The main factors that can push the fee above the starting price are:

Variant structure: Products with many combinations of color, size and material make stock and price management more complex.
Product count and import: Bulk importing hundreds of products from an existing system or spreadsheet is separate work.
Integrations: Connections to accounting software, marketplaces, ERP or warehouse software require additional development.
Multilingual and multicurrency sales: Language, currency and shipping rules for overseas sales are configured separately.
Dealer and wholesale pricing: Showing different prices for different customer groups requires special configuration.

Package scope and the process steps are explained in detail on the e-commerce website development page. Cost differences between ready-made subscription packages, WooCommerce and custom software are compared in the choosing e-commerce software article; the platform choice determines much of the monthly expense from the outset.

Ready-made e-commerce platform package prices in 2026: ikas, Ticimax, IdeaSoft, T-Soft and Shopify

With a ready-made platform, a license or subscription fee is paid to the platform instead of a one-time setup fee. The figures below are package prices published on the five platforms’ own pricing pages on October 11, 2026, reproduced as stated on those pages. Shopify publishes prices in US dollars; these figures have not been converted to TL. Amounts in parentheses are list prices shown crossed out next to promotional prices.

Platform	Package	Published price (October 11, 2026)	Note on the page
ikas	Start	Free	Add 100 products with a 3.99% virtual POS rate
ikas	Lift / Scale / Scale Plus	55,927 / 83,983 / 139,423 TL annually (79,896 / 119,976 / 199,176 TL)	Packages are sold annually only; the Premium plan starts from 40,000 TL per month
Ticimax	Advantage / Premier / Advance / Advance Plus	46,000 / 89,000 / 99,000 / 119,900 TL annually (117,000 / 172,500 / 247,500 / 347,500 TL)	“Buy 2 years, get 1 year free” campaign; renewal fees apply in subsequent years, and the domain is not included
IdeaSoft	Starter / Booster / Master / Master+	39,900 / 69,900 / 129,900 / 99,000 TL annually (Booster 116,500 TL, Master+ 247,550 TL)	Master+ is shown below Master with an “October special” campaign; 12-installment option
T-Soft	Basic / Basic Plus / Special / Special Plus	45,000 / 60,000 / 90,000 / 105,000 TL (75,000 / 90,000 / 135,000 / 165,000 TL)	12 installments are shown; the billing period is not stated in the page text
Shopify	Basic / Grow / Advanced	$19 / $54 / $299 USD/month billed annually; $27 / $72 / $399 USD/month billed monthly	3-day free trial, then $1 per month for 3 months; the Plus plan starts from $2,300 USD/month

Three points matter when reading the table. First, most displayed figures are promotional first-term prices; the amount applicable in the renewal year and tax treatment should be requested in writing before purchase. Confirming the current amount is particularly important because the FAQ section on the same ikas page gives different annual figures from the package cards, such as 39,948 TL for Lift. Second, virtual POS commissions and shipping charges are separate from the license; whether the domain is included also varies by platform. Third, because Shopify’s plan fee is in dollars, its TL equivalent changes with the exchange rate.

For comparison: an e-commerce website built with WooCommerce at Onur Freelance starts from a one-time 24,000 TL and is not tied to an annually renewed platform license; hosting and the domain are nevertheless paid annually. On October 7, 2026, entry-level e-commerce packages from six agencies and freelancers publishing prices openly ranged from 25,000 to 90,000 TL; the provider-by-provider list appears in the 2026 website prices market research . Differences in platform features, code access and data portability are not repeated here; that comparison is in the choosing e-commerce software article.

Domain, hosting and SSL

The domain is an annual expense, while hosting is renewed monthly or annually, and both amounts vary by provider and package. More important than price is whose name the accounts are opened in: the domain and hosting account should be registered in the business’s own name and under its own access.

An e-commerce website uses more server resources than a promotional website. Product images, search and filtering, cart and checkout steps strain the server with concurrent visitors; starting with the lowest shared package can therefore lead to slowdowns on campaign days. When comparing hosting proposals, ask separately about CPU and memory limits, backup frequency and renewal prices.

An SSL certificate is required to transmit payment and membership information in encrypted form and is standard on all websites built by Onur Freelance. Whether the certificate carries a separate charge varies by hosting provider; many packages include a free certificate option.

Payment provider and virtual POS commissions

To accept online card payments, either a bank’s virtual POS service or a licensed payment provider is used, and a commission varying by agreement is deducted from every sale. This is one of an e-commerce website’s least visible expenses but grows most as sales increase.

Payment services in Turkey fall under Law No. 6493, and operating licenses for payment institutions are granted by the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey. Whether a provider is authorized can be checked on the CBRT list of payment institutions . When requesting a proposal, clarify the commission per sale, additional costs for installment sales, settlement time, deductions for refunds and chargebacks, and whether any setup or annual usage fee applies.

Technical integration of the payment infrastructure is part of setup; the commission is an agreement between the business and payment provider and is paid directly to the provider. Application steps and required documents are explained in the how to obtain virtual POS guide.

Shipping integration

Shipping costs are paid per shipment and are determined by the contract with the shipping company, the package’s volumetric weight and shipment volume. Website shipping integration allows shipment records and tracking numbers to be generated from the order screen instead of being entered manually.

The shipping item is not just a transportation fee. Decisions such as the free-shipping threshold, who pays return shipping and whether cash on delivery is offered affect both pricing and pre-contract information. Making these decisions before website setup is less work than changing text and settings later.

E-invoice and e-Archive invoice: the accounting item

Invoices for online sales are created electronically as e-Archive invoices or e-Invoices, using the Revenue Administration portal or a private integrator service. Private integrators generally charge by package or credits, and the amount varies by provider.

Which businesses must switch to e-Invoice or e-Archive invoices and from which date depends on criteria such as turnover, sector and whether they sell online, and these criteria change periodically through Revenue Administration regulations. The decision is therefore made together with an accountant. Whether the website will integrate with invoicing software should be discussed during setup; manually invoicing orders takes significant time as product and order counts increase.

Product entry, photography and content

Product entry, photography and description writing are the most frequently forgotten but most labor-intensive items in an e-commerce budget. The setup fee generally covers the website’s infrastructure; entering hundreds of products individually, photographing them and writing descriptions is separate work.

The amount of this item is determined by product count and who will do the work. If the business team enters products through the dashboard, the cost is time; if an outside service is used, it is priced per product or by an agreed overall scope. Using manufacturers’ ready-made descriptions verbatim may seem fast, but because the same text appears at other sellers, its contribution to search visibility remains limited.

Consistency is the priority in product photography: the same background, lighting and framing ratio make category pages look orderly. Whether studio photography or photography using the business’s own resources is used largely determines the budget for this item.

Let us build the store budget together

Describe the product count, variant structure and payment and shipping preferences in a few sentences on WhatsApp, and the setup scope becomes clear and a proposal is prepared the same day. Items excluded from setup are also listed individually in writing during the same discussion.

WhatsApp 0532 690 9924

Legal obligations: distance sales, ETBİS and KVKK

Regardless of website design, an online-selling business must inform consumers before a contract, register with ETBİS (Turkey’s Electronic Commerce Information System) and fulfill its information obligation when processing personal data. The summary below is for general information and is not legal advice; consulting a legal advisor is recommended for final wording specific to the business. A page-by-page checklist is in the e-commerce website legal requirements guide.

Pre-contract information and the distance sales agreement

Turkey’s Distance Contracts Regulationrequires consumers to be informed before the contract about matters such as the seller’s legal name, MERSİS (Turkey’s Central Registration System) or tax number, contact details, key product characteristics, the tax-inclusive total price and delivery charges. For online contracts, much of this information must be shown separately immediately before the consumer assumes an obligation to pay, and the consumer must confirm receipt of the pre-contract information; without confirmation, the contract is deemed not to have been concluded.

These obligations also affect the budget. Shipping and packaging costs for products returned under the right of withdrawal, which carrier will be used and how soon the return amount will be refunded depend on the conditions stated in pre-contract information; the returns policy is therefore considered together with pricing.

The regulation also gives consumers fourteen days to withdraw without giving a reason and states that delivery of goods other than products prepared to individual specifications cannot exceed thirty days in any event. Exceptions to the right of withdrawal and return procedures are also contained in the same text.

ETBİS registration

According to the Ministry of Trade’s ETBİS page , service providers engaged in electronic commerce register with the Electronic Commerce Information System through e-Devlet (Turkey’s e-government portal) before starting operations. Information such as a KEP (registered electronic mail) address suitable for electronic notification and the type of e-commerce is reported during registration.

The information obligation under KVKK

Every website collecting personal data through registration, order and contact forms must inform the data subject when collecting it. The KVKK (Turkey’s Personal Data Protection Law) page on the information obligationlists disclosure of the data controller’s identity, processing purposes, to whom and for what purposes data may be transferred, the collection method and legal basis, and the data subject’s rights.

The main texts and steps expected on the website before launch are:

A pre-contract information form and confirmation checkbox shown before payment
A distance sales agreement and a copy sent to the consumer after the order
A page explaining withdrawal rights, returns and delivery conditions
A KVKK privacy notice and cookie notice
A contact page containing the seller’s legal name, address and contact details
Completion of ETBİS registration

Advertising and promotion budget

A newly opened store often makes its first sales through advertising, and this budget is not part of website setup fees; it is paid directly to the advertising platform. The business determines the amount, while advertising management is priced separately according to scope.

Product margin is decisive when planning an advertising budget. The gross profit remaining from a single sale indicates the maximum amount that can be spent to win an order; campaigns launched without knowing this limit can generate revenue while still causing losses.

Because gaining visibility in organic search takes time, sales expectations in the first months are not based entirely on SEO. Shopping ads and search ads provide quick visibility in product searches; on a website where measurement is not set up correctly, however, it is impossible to tell which spending produces sales. Campaign structure and budget allocation are explained separately on the Google advertising management page. For the items to check on the store’s organic side, the e-commerce SEO checklist can be used.

After launch: maintenance and ongoing expenses

After an e-commerce website goes live, plugin, theme and infrastructure updates, backups and security checks should be performed regularly. Onur Freelance’s maintenance service for carrying out this work regularly is not mandatory; its monthly fee ranges from 500 to 2,000 TL, and scope is determined by website size and requested work.

Skipping maintenance may look like a short-term saving. However, checkout failing because the payment plugin has not been updated or customer data being put at risk by a known security vulnerability can have consequences far more costly than maintenance fees. The work included in maintenance is explained in the annual WordPress maintenance and updates service.

E-commerce website prices in 2026: how do you compare proposals?

When comparing e-commerce website prices, examine what the proposal covers before the figure itself; two seemingly similar proposals may produce very different total costs after setup. Ask the following when comparing proposals:

Whose name are the domain, hosting and administration panel opened in, and who retains access?
Are payment and shipping integration included in the setup fee?
Is the structure of legal pages created, and who is responsible for their text?
How many products does product entry cover, and is bulk import charged separately?
For a subscription platform, what is the monthly or annual fee, and what happens to the website when the subscription ends?
Is maintenance optional or mandatory after delivery?

The cost of building an e-commerce website in 2026 is also shaped by the answers to these questions. Starting prices for corporate and single-page website packages are listed on the web design prices page.

Let us start online sales with a realistic budget

You can contact the same number to ask which items are included in setup, compare an existing proposal or begin store setup immediately. Messages and calls are answered between 09:00 and 21:00.

WhatsApp 0532 690 9924

Before budgeting, the documents, accounts and steps to prepare in sequence are collected as a checklist in the requirements for building an e-commerce website guide.

Related guides

Frequently asked questions

How much does building an e-commerce website cost in 2026?

E-commerce website packages at Onur Freelance start from 24,000 TL. Items such as the domain, hosting, payment commissions, shipping and e-invoicing are excluded from this fee and vary by provider.

What makes up an e-commerce website’s monthly expenses?

Hosting, payment provider commissions, shipping, e-invoicing services, the advertising budget and maintenance are the main ongoing expenses. Maintenance is optional; at Onur Freelance, its monthly fee is in the 500–2,000 TL range.

Who receives virtual POS commissions?

Commission is determined by agreement between the business and the bank or payment provider and is paid directly to that organization. Payment providers’ authorization can be checked on the list published by the CBRT.

Is ETBİS registration mandatory for an e-commerce website?

According to the Ministry of Trade, service providers engaging in electronic commerce register with ETBİS before starting operations. Registration is completed through e-Devlet, and details such as a KEP address are reported.

Why are a pre-contract information form and distance sales agreement necessary?

Turkey’s Distance Contracts Regulation requires consumers to be informed before the contract about the seller, product, price and delivery details and to confirm this. Without confirmation, the contract is deemed not to have been concluded; legal advice is recommended for the final texts.

Is using e-Invoice or e-Archive invoices mandatory?

The obligation depends on criteria such as turnover, industry and online selling and can change through Revenue Administration regulations. The business’s situation is clarified with an accountant, and the website is structured around the selected invoicing solution.

Is product entry included in the setup fee?

The setup fee generally covers infrastructure and design; entering, photographing and writing descriptions for many products is assessed as a separate item. Scope is clarified at the proposal stage according to product count.

Is a ready-made e-commerce package or an independently owned website cheaper?

Setup fees can be low with ready-made platforms, but the license is renewed annually and the website is used for the license term; on October 11, 2026, paid entry packages from ikas, Ticimax and IdeaSoft were shown between 39,900 and 55,927 TL annually. A website with its own infrastructure may have a higher setup fee, but the domain, hosting and website remain in the business’s name and under its control.

How much are ikas, Ticimax and IdeaSoft packages in 2026?

The annual entry prices displayed on the platforms’ own pages on October 11, 2026 were 55,927 TL for ikas Lift, 46,000 TL for Ticimax Advantage and 39,900 TL for IdeaSoft Starter; ikas Start is free. Because most figures are promotional, renewal prices should be requested before purchase.

What is Shopify’s monthly fee?

Shopify publishes its prices in US dollars. On October 11, 2026, Basic was $19 per month billed annually or $27 billed monthly; Grow was $54 and $72; Advanced was $299 and $399. Theme, app and payment provider expenses may be outside the plan fee.

How much are T-Soft packages?

On October 11, 2026, T-Soft’s package page showed Basic at 45,000 TL, Basic Plus at 60,000 TL, Special at 90,000 TL and Special Plus at 105,000 TL, with a 12-installment option. Because the billing period is not stated in the page text, it should be confirmed before purchase.