An ecommerce website in India costs from nothing a month for the platform (BizzPocket is free to build, with a ₹1 one-time verification to go live) to about ₹3,300 a month, plus roughly ₹900 to ₹1,600 a year for a domain. The bigger costs are per order: about 2% plus GST to the payment gateway, any platform fee, and ₹50 to ₹100 or more per parcel for shipping.
That is the short answer. This guide breaks down each cost with the rates each company publishes, then works through three real budgets: a home seller doing ₹50,000 a month, a small brand doing ₹3 lakh a month and a D2C brand doing ₹15 lakh a month. Every competitor price below was checked on 15 Oct 2026 on the company's own page, linked next to the figure. We make BizzPocket, so we have tried to state other platforms' numbers plainly and link to every source.
What goes into the cost of an ecommerce website?
Six things, in roughly this order of size for a typical small store:
- Shipping, paid per parcel, plus a charge on cash-on-delivery orders.
- Payment gateway fees on orders paid online, plus GST on the fee.
- The platform plan, a monthly or yearly subscription.
- Platform or transaction fees that some builders take from each order.
- The domain name, renewed every year.
- Design, which on a hosted builder is mostly your time.
A cheap plan with a high per-order fee can cost more than an expensive plan with none once orders start coming in, so always add the costs up at the sales you expect.
How much does a domain name cost in India?
A domain is your address, such as yourbrand.in. On GoDaddy India's .in page, a .in domain is ₹1 for the first year with a three-year purchase, then ₹899 a year. A .com on GoDaddy India is also ₹1 for the first year with a three-year purchase, then ₹1,599 a year.
Some builders bundle a domain for the first year: Wix lists a free domain for one year on its paid plans, and Hostinger's WordPress plans include one for the first year on the Single and Premium plans. Budget for the renewal price, not the first-year offer.
You do not need your own domain on day one. Most builders give you a free subdomain; on BizzPocket every store starts on yourstore.bizzpocket.com, and the Growth and Scale plans let you connect your own domain.
How much do ecommerce website builder plans cost in India?
Here are the entry prices for selling online, from each company's pricing page. "Not stated" means the pricing page does not say.
| Platform | Entry plan for selling | Per-order platform fee |
|---|---|---|
| BizzPocket | Starter: Free to build; ₹1 one-time verification to go live; Growth ₹999/month; Scale ₹2,999/month | 2% Starter, 1% Growth, 0% Scale |
| Wix | ₹250/month Core, billed yearly (50% offer; list ₹500), includes GST | Not stated |
| Shopify | ₹1,994/month Basic (₹1,499 billed yearly) | 2% on Basic when you use a third-party gateway |
| GoDaddy | ₹3,299/month Professional (₹1,699 billed yearly), excludes taxes | Not stated in INR |
| Instamojo | Lite has no plan fee; Starter ₹6,999/year; Growth ₹14,999/year | 5% + ₹3 (Lite, Starter); 2% + ₹3 (Growth), gateway included |
| Dukaan | Entry plan with no fee; Starter ₹2,500/year (offer; list ₹14,399) | Service fee 4.99% to 0.99% by plan, capped at ₹200 an order |
| WooCommerce | Free plugin, plus hosting such as Hostinger Premium at ₹149/month on a 48-month term (renews ₹449) | None from WooCommerce |
For GoDaddy we list Professional because it is the first plan that shows a product catalogue and online payments. For Wix we list Core, the first plan that shows "Accept payments".
BizzPocket is free to build. ₹1 one-time verification before you go live. It confirms a real seller runs each store and is never auto-debited. You sign up, build the store and list products for free, and pay the ₹1 once, by UPI, when you are ready for customers to order. It keeps fake and spam stores off the platform. Annual billing on Growth is ₹9,590 a year and on Scale ₹28,790 a year, about 20% less than paying monthly.
How much are payment gateway fees in India?
Unless your platform bundles payments (Instamojo does), buyers pay through a gateway that you sign up with, and the gateway takes a fee from each online payment:
- Razorpay: 2% of each successful domestic payment for cards, UPI, net banking and wallets, plus 18% GST on that fee, so about 2.36% in total. EMI, corporate cards and Amex or Diners cost 3% plus GST. There is no setup fee and no annual fee. Sources: Razorpay pricing and Razorpay's pricing explainer. When we checked, Razorpay also advertised 0% for a new account's first 90 days.
- Cashfree: a standard platform fee of 1.95% plus applicable taxes for UPI, cards and the other listed domestic methods (Cashfree pricing). When we checked, Cashfree advertised 0% for new merchants on sales up to ₹20 lakh as a festive offer until 31 Mar 2027, subject to its terms.
Cash on delivery has no gateway fee, but the courier charges for collecting the cash (see shipping below). On BizzPocket, online payments run through your own Razorpay or Cashfree account and settle straight to your bank; BizzPocket's only per-order charge is the platform fee on your plan.
How much does shipping cost per order in India?
Shipping is usually the largest cost per order. Shiprocket's rate card on its free Lite plan shows these typical prices for the first 500 g by surface:
| Delivery zone | Typical price, first 500 g |
|---|---|
| Within city | ₹51 |
| Within state | ₹57 |
| Metro to metro | ₹66 |
| Rest of India | ₹71 |
| North East | ₹103 |
On the same rate card, the cheapest surface couriers to "rest of India" charge ₹61 to ₹66 for each extra 500 g, and list a cash-on-delivery charge of ₹48 to ₹52 per COD order (Delhivery Surface: ₹71 for the first 500 g and ₹52 for COD). Returned parcels cost roughly the forward price again. Shiprocket's paid plans lower the average: its pricing page lists an average shipment cost of ₹45 on Lite, ₹41 on Business (₹199/month), ₹39 on Advanced (₹499/month) and ₹36 on Pro (₹799/month).
Most sellers pass some or all of the shipping cost to the buyer through a delivery charge or a slightly higher price, but it is still money that leaves the order, so we count it below.
How does GST affect the cost of an ecommerce website?
GST shows up in three places:
- On the tools you buy. Plan prices are quoted differently: Wix shows prices including GST, while GoDaddy's online store prices exclude taxes and Instamojo says GST is charged on top of its listed prices. Compare like with like.
- On gateway fees. GST at 18% applies to the gateway's fee, not to the whole payment. That is why Razorpay's 2% works out to about 2.36%.
- On your own sales. If you register for GST, you charge it to buyers and file returns. You must register once turnover crosses ₹40 lakh for goods in most states, or from the first sale if you ship goods to buyers in another state. Our GST guide for online sellers explains the rules, the rate changes from 22 Sep 2025 and the official sources.
Registering is free on the GST portal, but many sellers pay an accountant to file returns. That fee varies widely, so ask a few local accountants for a quote.
How much does ecommerce website design cost?
On a hosted builder, design is mostly your time. You start from a ready-made theme, add your logo, colours and photos, and edit the homepage sections yourself. BizzPocket has nine themes built for Indian categories such as fashion, sarees, jewellery, food and beauty; Dukaan lists 7 themes on its entry and Starter plans; Wix and GoDaddy list their own template libraries.
A custom design from a freelancer or agency is a different budget. Quotes depend on the scope, so we have not put a number on it here. For most small stores, good product photos matter more than a custom layout; our guide to product photography at home shows how to get them with a phone.
Worked budget 1: a home seller doing ₹50,000 a month
Assumptions: 50 orders a month at ₹1,000 each, 30 paid online (₹30,000) and 20 cash on delivery. Parcels under 500 g, shipped to the rest of India at Shiprocket's Lite rate. BizzPocket Starter on the free subdomain.
| Cost | Monthly |
|---|---|
| Platform plan (Starter) | None (free to build; the ₹1 verification is one-time) |
| Domain | None (free subdomain) |
| Platform fee, 2% of ₹50,000 | ₹1,000 |
| Razorpay, 2% of ₹30,000 plus 18% GST on the fee | ₹708 |
| Shipping, 50 parcels × ₹71 | ₹3,550 |
| COD charges, 20 × ₹50 | ₹1,000 |
| Total | ₹6,258 |
The store and payments cost ₹1,708, or 3.4% of sales. Shipping is most of the rest, and you can recover part of it through a delivery charge. At this size, a plan with no fixed fee is not automatically cheaper: Instamojo Lite's 5% + ₹3 on the ₹30,000 paid online alone would be ₹1,590 before GST.
Worked budget 2: a small brand doing ₹3 lakh a month
Assumptions: 250 orders a month at ₹1,200 each, 175 paid online (₹2,10,000) and 75 cash on delivery. Own .in domain. Same parcel size and zone.
| Cost | Monthly |
|---|---|
| Platform plan (Scale, monthly billing) | ₹2,999 |
| Domain (.in at ₹899 a year) | ₹75 |
| Platform fee on Scale (0%) | None |
| Razorpay, 2% of ₹2,10,000 plus GST on the fee | ₹4,956 |
| Shipping, 250 parcels × ₹71 | ₹17,750 |
| COD charges, 75 × ₹50 | ₹3,750 |
| Total | ₹29,530 |
Why Scale and not Growth? At ₹3 lakh a month, Growth would cost ₹999 plus a 1% fee of ₹3,000, which is ₹3,999, against ₹2,999 on Scale. The store and payments come to ₹8,030, or 2.7% of sales.
For comparison, Shopify Basic at ₹1,994 a month plus its 2% fee on the ₹2,10,000 paid through Razorpay is ₹6,194 before the same gateway fee. Shopify has strengths that may justify that, such as its app ecosystem and international selling; our BizzPocket vs Shopify comparison covers them.
Worked budget 3: a D2C brand doing ₹15 lakh a month
Assumptions: 1,000 orders a month at ₹1,500 each, 750 paid online (₹11,25,000) and 250 cash on delivery. Own .com domain. Same parcel size and zone at Lite rates.
| Cost | Monthly |
|---|---|
| Platform plan (Scale, monthly billing) | ₹2,999 |
| Domain (.com at ₹1,599 a year) | ₹133 |
| Platform fee on Scale (0%) | None |
| Razorpay, 2% of ₹11,25,000 plus GST on the fee | ₹26,550 |
| Shipping, 1,000 parcels × ₹71 | ₹71,000 |
| COD charges, 250 × ₹50 | ₹12,500 |
| Total | ₹1,13,182 |
At this size the platform is a small line: ₹3,132 including the domain. The gateway and shipping are where savings are. Razorpay invites businesses taking more than ₹5 lakh a month to ask for custom pricing, and Shiprocket's Pro plan lists an average shipment cost of ₹36 against ₹45 on Lite. Moving more buyers from COD to prepaid also cuts COD charges and returns; our COD vs prepaid guide covers how.
Which BizzPocket plan is cheapest at my sales?
Because the platform fee falls as the plan price rises, the cheapest plan depends on monthly sales (monthly billing, platform fee on every order):
- Up to about ₹1 lakh a month: Starter (no plan fee, 2% platform fee) is cheapest.
- About ₹1 lakh to ₹2 lakh a month: Growth (₹999 plus 1%) is cheapest, and adds your own domain, staff accounts and abandoned-cart recovery.
- Above ₹2 lakh a month: Scale (₹2,999, 0% fee) is cheapest.
The gateway fee and shipping are the same on every plan. See all plans and limits.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does it cost to make an ecommerce website in India?
The platform costs from nothing a month (BizzPocket Starter is free to build, with a ₹1 one-time verification to go live) to ₹1,994 a month for Shopify Basic or ₹3,299 a month for GoDaddy Professional on monthly billing. Add ₹899 to ₹1,599 a year for a domain, about 2.36% per online payment for the gateway, and ₹50 to ₹100 or more per parcel for shipping.
Is there a free ecommerce website builder in India?
Yes. BizzPocket is free to build: you sign up, build your store and list products without paying anything, then pay a ₹1 one-time verification by UPI before the store goes live. The ₹1 confirms a real seller runs each store and is never auto-debited. Once you sell on Starter, BizzPocket takes a 2% platform fee per order and your gateway charges its own fee on online payments. Other builders with no plan fee take a larger cut of each order: Instamojo Lite takes 5% + ₹3 per order and Dukaan's entry plan a 4.99% service fee.
What is the monthly cost of running an ecommerce website?
For a small store, expect the plan, about 2% to 2.4% of online payments for the gateway, any platform fee, and shipping per order. In our examples the store and payments came to 2% to 3.4% of sales, and shipping was the largest single cost.
Do I need my own domain to start?
No. You can start on a free subdomain and add a domain later. On BizzPocket, your own domain is available on the Growth and Scale plans.
Is WooCommerce cheaper than a hosted website builder?
The WooCommerce plugin is free and takes no platform fee, but you pay for hosting (Hostinger's WordPress Premium plan is ₹149 a month on a 48-month term, renewing at ₹449), and you maintain WordPress, plugins and security yourself. If you have a developer, it can be cheap; if not, the time cost is real. See BizzPocket vs WooCommerce.
Build your ecommerce website
If you want to see these numbers in your own dashboard, our ecommerce website builder page shows what a BizzPocket store includes and how to build one in five steps. Building your store is free; the ₹1 one-time verification is paid by UPI when you go live.
Sources
All checked on 15 Oct 2026:
- Domains: GoDaddy India .in, GoDaddy India .com
- Platforms: Wix plans, Shopify India pricing, GoDaddy online store, Instamojo pricing, Dukaan pricing, WooCommerce plugin, Hostinger WordPress hosting, BizzPocket pricing
- Payments: Razorpay pricing, Razorpay pricing explainer, Cashfree payment gateway charges
- Shipping: Shiprocket pricing, Shiprocket rate card
- GST: our GST guide for online sellers and the official sources it lists
