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Calculators

Dropshipping calculators: profit, costs and VAT.

Four calculators every UK dropshipper needs: how much you keep from each sale, what your shop costs each month, how many sales it takes to cover that, and when you will need to register for VAT.

Profit per sale

How much do you keep from each sale?

Type in what you sell a product for, what the supplier charges you and what the delivery costs. Then choose who takes your card payments and whether you are registered for VAT, and we'll show you what is left for you from each sale. Change the figures to your own.

Who takes your card payments?

If you are registered for VAT, a sixth of a price that includes VAT goes to HMRC. Card fees are from each company's own UK website, checked on 4 November 2026.

You keep from each sale

£11.79

47% of what your customer paid

  • Supplier £8.50
  • Delivery £3.20
  • Card fee £0.75
  • VAT £0.00
  • What you keep £12.54
Working out the figures with a calculator and receipts

Covering your costs

How many sales do you need to cover your monthly costs?

Choose what your shop costs each month, not counting card fees, and put in how much you keep from each sale. Each parcel is one sale, and they show how many you need each month before you start making a profit.

What your shop costs each month

The monthly costs are the same as in what a shop really costs each month. Work out how much you keep from each sale with the profit calculator above.

15sales a month to cover your costs

What a shop really costs each month

What each one really costs once you add everything a dropshipping shop needs.

The price a shop website advertises is only part of what you pay. To take orders, a shop on Shopify, WooCommerce or Wix also needs an app to connect it to AliExpress, a business email address and a web address, and someone has to build it. Move the sliders to your size of shop and each bar adds it all up, with the cost for the first year underneath.

Who is going to build your shop?

The shop website The AliExpress app Email and web address Card fees The web designer

Prices are from each company's own website, checked on 4 November 2026, before VAT. The AliExpress app is DSers at $19.90 a month. The email is Google Workspace at £5.90 a month for one email address. The web address is a .co.uk from IONOS at £10 a year. Dollar prices are turned into pounds at $1 to £0.74, the European Central Bank's rate that day.

MediatopiaOurs
£0

First year £0 £119 a month plus VAT, which includes the design and build, hosting, the connection to AliExpress, your web address, email and support. Card fees are Stripe's, 1.5% + 20p for standard UK cards. Mediatopia · Stripe

Shopify Basic
£0

First year £0 £25 a month (£19 if you pay for the year), plus the DSers app, email and a web address. Card fees are 2% + 25p. Shopify

Shopify Grow
£0

First year £0 £65 a month (£49 if you pay for the year), plus the DSers app, email and a web address. Card fees are 1.7% + 25p. Shopify

WooCommerce
£0

First year £0 The software is free, so the price here is hosting at $25 a month, the lowest figure WooCommerce's own website gives ($25 to $350). Plus the DSers app, email and a web address. Card fees are 1.5% + 25p. WooCommerce

Squarespace Core
£0

First year £0 £24 a month before VAT (£17 if you pay for the year), plus the DSers app and a web address. Core includes one Google Workspace email address free for the first year. Card fees are 2% + 25p on UK personal cards. Squarespace · Squarespace fees

Wix Core
£0

First year £0 £16 a month before VAT, paid for the year, which is the only way Wix shows its prices. Core is its cheapest plan that takes payments. Plus the DSers app, email and a web address. Card fees are 2.1% + 20p. Wix · Wix fees

BigCommerce isn't included, because it doesn't publish its card fees for UK shops. Your own time isn't counted for any of them. Shopify's UK website doesn't say whether its prices include VAT, so they are shown as it states them.

When you need to register for VAT

When will your sales reach £90,000?

You must register for VAT once your sales go over £90,000 in any 12 months in a row. Move the slider to your sales each month, and we'll show you what that comes to over a year.

The threshold is from gov.uk/register-for-vat. This is a summary, not tax advice.

Your sales over a year: £36,000

You stay under the VAT line.

Price alerts

Prices change. We'll email you when they do.

We'll send you one email when a company on this site changes its prices, and when we publish a new guide. Nothing else, and you can stop them with one click.

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Price alerts Profit per sale What it costs a month
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