How much does an online shop cost in Switzerland?

How much does an online shop cost? Many answers give a price for building it and stop there. But a shop costs money in three places: once for the build, every month for the platform or hosting, and with every single order.

Below you'll find all three in Swiss francs, with the rates of the main providers (as of September 2026) and a calculation over three years.

How much does an online shop cost in Switzerland?

A simple online shop starts at around CHF 1,200. With custom design, up to a hundred products and SEO basics, the range is typically CHF 4,000 to 10,000. These are the guide prices from our page on building an e-commerce website.

So if you only compare build prices, you only see part of the picture. For a shop with CHF 30,000 annual turnover, payment fees already cost more than the platform in the first year, as the calculation further down shows.

What does a small versus a professional online shop cost?

A small shop with a template, few products and standard payment methods stays close to the entry price of around CHF 1,200. A shop with its own design, up to a hundred products and SEO basics costs CHF 4,000 to 10,000. Larger product ranges and integrations cost more, depending on scope.

The difference comes less from the number of pages than from these five points.

Products and product data. Twenty products with a photo and description are entered quickly. Three hundred products with sizes and colours are a task of their own.

Design. An adapted template costs less than a custom design that fits your brand exactly.

Integrations. Connecting accounting, inventory or a point-of-sale system makes the shop more expensive, but saves manual work on every order later.

Languages. Every additional language needs translated product texts and its own search terms.

Payment methods and shipping. TWINT, card, invoice, shipping rules by weight or country: every option has to be set up and tested.

Timing depends on the same factors: a lean Shopify shop is ready in three to four weeks, or eight to twelve with custom design or an inventory system. More in How long does it take to build a website?

How much does an online shop cost per month?

From CHF 21 with Shopify, from CHF 15.90 for hosting plus maintenance with WooCommerce, and hosting and a domain with a custom build.

Shopify costs CHF 29 a month in Switzerland on the Basic plan, or CHF 21 with annual billing. Grow costs CHF 79 or 59, Advanced CHF 359 or 269 (Shopify Switzerland).

These prices exclude VAT. For stores in Switzerland, Shopify charges VAT on top of its fees (Shopify Help Center).

WooCommerce is a free WordPress plugin. You pay for hosting, from CHF 15.90 a month including VAT at Hostpoint (Hostpoint), the domain and any paid extensions you need. Maintenance comes on top, because WordPress and its extensions need regular updates.

A custom build has no platform fees. You still pay for hosting, the domain and further development. Which system suits which case is covered in our comparison WordPress, Shopify or custom development?

Which fees apply per order?

For every payment, the payment provider charges a percentage plus a fixed amount. With small orders, the fixed amount weighs more heavily.

Shopify Payments on the Basic plan: Swiss cards 2.95 percent plus CHF 0.30, international cards 3.15 percent plus CHF 0.30, TWINT 1.75 percent plus CHF 0.30. Rates drop on higher plans, to 2.55 percent for Swiss cards and 1.45 percent for TWINT on Advanced. For stores in Switzerland, VAT is added to these fees too (Shopify Help Center).

Stripe, for example with WooCommerce: Swiss cards 2.9 percent plus CHF 0.30, international cards 3.25 percent plus CHF 0.30 (Stripe pricing).

TWINT costs 1.9 percent plus CHF 0.30 at Stripe (Stripe fees for local payment methods). Whether you can offer TWINT in WooCommerce depends on the payment plugin you use.

The expensive exception: if your Shopify shop uses a provider other than Shopify Payments, Shopify charges an additional transaction fee: 2 percent on Basic, 1 percent on Grow, 0.6 percent on Advanced. With CHF 30,000 turnover on Basic, that's 2 percent of it, so CHF 600 a year, on top of the provider's own fees.

For an order of CHF 100 this means: Shopify Basic with a Swiss card costs 2.95 + 0.30 = CHF 3.25, with TWINT 1.75 + 0.30 = CHF 2.05. At Stripe it's CHF 3.20 with a Swiss card and CHF 2.20 with TWINT. With another payment provider, Shopify Basic adds CHF 2.00.

You usually pass shipping costs on to customers. Packaging material and the time spent packing still belong in the budget.

How much does an online shop cost over three years?

A simple shop with CHF 30,000 annual turnover costs from around CHF 4,600 over three years with Shopify Basic, excluding VAT on Shopify's fees, and from around CHF 5,300 with WooCommerce including maintenance. Here is the calculation for three options.

Assumptions: 500 orders a year at CHF 60 each, so CHF 30,000 turnover. Half are paid with TWINT, the other half with Swiss cards, with WooCommerce via a Stripe plugin that supports TWINT. Annual billing where possible. Shopify amounts excluding VAT, Hostpoint including VAT. For the domain we use CHF 15 a year, the middle of the range in our article What does a website cost in Switzerland? Shipping, apps and marketing are not included.

Because the build starts at around CHF 1,200, the totals are minimum values. This is how the payment fees add up on Shopify Basic: 250 card payments totalling CHF 15,000 cost 2.95 percent of that plus 250 × 0.30, so 442.50 + 75 = CHF 517.50. 250 TWINT payments cost 1.75 percent of that plus CHF 75, so CHF 337.50. That's CHF 855 a year and CHF 2,565 over three years. At Stripe it's 510 plus 360, so CHF 870 a year and CHF 2,610 over three years.

For WooCommerce, the table doesn't include maintenance yet. In our system comparison we estimate CHF 300 to 1,200 a year for WordPress, so CHF 900 to 3,600 over three years. That brings the WooCommerce shop to CHF 5,327 to 8,027 in total.

The calculation shows two things. First, payment fees cost more than the platform in every option. Second, WooCommerce is only cheaper than Shopify as long as maintenance isn't counted. If you aren't registered for VAT, you also pay the VAT on Shopify's fees, which makes Shopify slightly more expensive still.

Which Swiss requirements affect the costs?

Three points belong in every shop budget. As of September 2026.

VAT. You become liable for VAT once you have at least CHF 100,000 turnover from supplies in Switzerland and abroad that are not exempt from tax (Swiss Federal Tax Administration). From then on the shop shows the tax, and accounting takes more effort.

Mandatory information in the shop. Art. 3 para. 1 let. s of the Federal Act on Unfair Competition (UCA) requires online shops to provide (SME Portal of the Swiss Confederation):

• clear and complete information on their identity and contact address, including an email address,
• an indication of the individual technical steps leading to the contract,
• technical means to identify and correct input errors before the order is placed,
• electronic confirmation of the order without delay.

Price display. Under the Price Indication Ordinance (PIO), which the SME Portal also explains, you show consumers the actual price payable in Swiss francs, including all non-optional surcharges. Shipping costs may be shown separately but must be clearly visible.

These points mainly cost time during setup and for the legal texts. Planning them in from the start means nothing has to be retrofitted later.

This article is not legal advice.

How to plan your shop budget

1. Count your products. How many products with which variants, and who supplies photos and copy?
2. Calculate the fees. Expected turnover times the percentage, plus the number of orders times CHF 0.30. With CHF 30,000 turnover and 500 orders, all paid by Swiss card on Shopify Basic, that's 2.95 percent of 30,000 plus 500 × 0.30, so 885 + 150 = CHF 1,035 a year.
3. Choose the system. Shopify, WooCommerce or a custom build, depending on range, integrations and who takes care of maintenance.
4. Clarify VAT. If you aren't registered for VAT, count the VAT on Shopify's fees as a cost.
5. Compare over three years. Add up build, platform, maintenance and fees, not just the build price.
6. Check the quotes. A reliable quote states the scope, the running costs and who owns the domain and content.

We're happy to talk through what your shop is likely to cost. In the meantime, see our services and guide prices for online shops.