Every shop website advertises a monthly price. Shopify, for example, starts at £25 a month. But a dropshipping shop that is ready to take orders has to pay for more than that, and it is worth knowing what before you choose.
What you have to add to the monthly price
If you build your shop yourself on Shopify, WooCommerce or Wix, you will need these on top of the platform's own price:
- An app to connect your shop to AliExpress. DSers is the best-known one. Its Advanced plan is $19.90 a month, which is about £14.73.
- A business email address. Google Workspace is £5.90 a month for one email address, plus VAT.
- Your web address. A .co.uk address from IONOS is £10 a year once its first-year offer ends, which is about 83p a month.
- Card fees. Every time a customer pays by card, the card company takes a small percentage and a few pence.
What a month costs on each one
This is what each one costs in a month for a shop that sells £3,000 worth of products from 100 orders, with everything above added in. The prices are taken from each company's own website, before VAT, and dollar prices are turned into pounds at $1 to £0.74.
| Shop website | Its advertised price | What a month really costs |
|---|---|---|
| Shopify Basic | £25 a month | £131 |
| Shopify Grow | £65 a month | £162 |
| WooCommerce | Free, but you pay for hosting from $25 a month | £110 |
| Squarespace Core | £24 a month, plus VAT, with email free for the first year | £125 |
| Wix Core | £16 a month, paid for the year, plus VAT | £120 |
| Mediatopia Ours | £119 a month plus VAT | £184 |
Who builds the shop?
All of these figures, apart from Mediatopia's, assume you build the shop yourself. If you pay a web designer to build it for you, you will need to add what they charge. Mediatopia's £119 a month includes the design and build, the hosting, your web address, your email and the connection to AliExpress, so only the card fees are added to it.
Mediatopia owns this website, and its prices come from its own website in the same way as everyone else's.
