Online store builder pricing in India (2026): every plan, fee and hidden cost compared

TL;DR

• • Platform: ₹0 on SitesPlaced, 0% commission. Starter is ₹199/month or ₹1,990/year for your own domain and faster pages.
• • Charge on each sale: the line to check first. Some builders add 2% to 10% on top of the gateway’s fee.
• • Payment gateway: about 2% plus GST on online payments as of September 2026, on every builder, because the gateway charges it. COD and direct UPI have none.
• • Domain: optional. About ₹800 to ₹1,500 a year from a registrar when you want it.
• • Theme and apps: ₹0 on SitesPlaced. On app-store builders, the biggest hidden line.
• • Packaging and courier: per parcel, on every platform. Put them in your price or your delivery charge.

How we built the cost picture

A store builder’s pricing page shows one number: the monthly plan. A seller’s bank statement shows seven. We went through every line that a small store puts on that statement, from the plan to the courier bag, and asked three questions of each: is it charged by the platform, by someone else, or not at all; is it fixed or does it grow with orders; and is it a choice or unavoidable.

SitesPlaced prices are the ones published on our pricing page on 30 September 2026. Every figure about another company is quoted only from a comparison we have already published, with the date that comparison gives, because pricing pages change and a number without a date is a guess. Where we have not published a figure, we say so and tell you to check the builder’s own page.

The worked example uses round numbers on purpose: 30 orders a month, ₹700 of product each, a ₹79 delivery charge on every order, 18 orders paid online and 12 paid by cash on delivery. Swap in your own numbers; the structure stays the same.

1. The platform plan

The platform is the service your store runs on. It hosts the pages, holds the products and orders, and gives you the dashboard. Builders charge for it in one of three ways: a monthly or yearly plan, a cut of each sale, or a mix of both. Some have a free plan that is genuinely permanent, and some have a “free” plan that is really a trial with a product cap.

On SitesPlaced the plan is ₹0 and stays ₹0. The free plan includes unlimited products and orders, all 16 store templates, online payments through your own Razorpay, PhonePe or Cashfree account, cash on delivery, WhatsApp checkout, coupons, the free-delivery bar, PDF invoices, courier booking through Shiprocket and Shipmozo, up to 5 sites and 500 MB of storage. Your store lives on a free address like yourbrand.sitesplaced.site and shows a small SitesPlaced badge. That is the whole trade.

The paid steps are for things a growing store wants, not things it needs to take an order. Starter is ₹199/month or ₹1,990/year: your own domain, the badge removed, store pages that answer about 4× faster than on the free plan, visitor and store analytics, Meta Pixel with the Conversions API, custom head code, AI site copy, 2 GB, and a dedicated setup person. Growth is ₹499/month or ₹4,990/year and adds the sales boosters, product reviews, the loyalty programme, WhatsApp Business API order alerts, 1-click checkouts, unlimited digital downloads and 5 GB. AI Co-founder is ₹1,499/month and adds four AI agents, a campaign planner, a creative studio and 1,500 AI credits a month.

A yearly plan costs ten months’ price. The code FREE7 gives 7 days free on Starter or Growth, monthly or yearly, when you set up autopay at checkout; cancel before the first charge and you pay nothing. There is no trial without a card, so do not plan around one. How the other Indian builders price their plans is in the table further down, and in more detail in Indian online store builders compared.

2. The charge on each sale

This is the line to read first on any pricing page, because it is the only one that grows as fast as your sales. It goes by several names: commission, transaction fee, platform fee. Whatever it is called, it is a percentage the builder keeps from each order, on top of what the payment gateway keeps. It is separate from the gateway’s fee, which every store pays and which we cover next.

The range among builders is wide. As listed in September 2026, Shopify charges 2% on its Basic plan when you use a third-party payment provider. As listed in August 2026, StoreBase charges ₹99/month plus 10% of sales until a ₹999/month cap, which is a commission model until you reach the cap. WSTORES, Shop2Host, StartupInMinutes and FlexiCommerce listed 0%. SitesPlaced is 0% on every plan, including the free one.

Why it matters more than the plan price: on our example store, ₹779 collected per order across 30 orders is ₹23,370 a month. A 2% cut is ₹467 a month, more than a Starter plan, and it keeps rising as you sell more. The full argument for keeping every rupee of each sale is in how to sell online without marketplace commissions, and the builders that charge none are compared in zero-commission online store builders in India.

3. The payment gateway’s fee

A payment gateway is the service that takes a buyer’s UPI, card or net banking payment on your store and moves the money to your bank account. It charges a fee on each online payment. This fee is the same whichever builder you use, because it is the gateway’s, not the builder’s, and no store builder can make it go away. What a builder can do is add its own cut on top, which is line 2 above.

When we compared Razorpay, PhonePe and Cashfree, standard pricing was about 2% plus GST on most payment methods as of September 2026, with UPI often cheaper, and no setup or monthly fee on standard plans. These are indicative figures; rates change and negotiated rates differ, so read the gateway’s current rate card before you connect. The comparison is in Razorpay vs PhonePe vs Cashfree for a small online store. On SitesPlaced all three connect on the free plan, to your own account, and the money never passes through us.

Two ways of getting paid carry no gateway fee. Cash on delivery, where the buyer pays the courier at the door, and direct UPI, where the buyer orders and then pays your UPI ID from their own app. Both are free to switch on. COD has a cost of its own, covered under line 6. In the example, 18 online payments of ₹779 at about 2% come to about ₹280, plus GST on the fee of about ₹50, so ₹330 a month.

4. The domain

A domain is your own address on the internet, such as yourbrand.com. You rent it by the year from a company called a registrar, and you can take it with you if you ever change platforms. Our earlier guides put a .com or .in at about ₹800 to ₹1,500 a year, depending on the registrar and the name. Watch the renewal price rather than the first-year price; a cheap first year that renews at several times the amount is a common pattern.

Builders handle the domain in one of three ways. Some sell you the name and connect it. Some, like SitesPlaced, do not sell names at all: you buy from any registrar and connect it on a paid plan, with no extra charge for the connection. And some advertise a “free domain”, which in our 2026 comparison meant, for Squarespace, free for the first year and then paid. Whichever way, the domain is a paid-plan feature nearly everywhere: on SitesPlaced from Starter at ₹199/month; on WSTORES on Pro at ₹499/month as of August 2026; on Shop2Host as an add-on to Pro at ₹690/month; on StartupInMinutes on Pro at ₹999/month.

You do not need one to open. The free SitesPlaced address takes orders on every phone. What a domain is, what it changes for a buyer and how each builder treats it is the subject of online store builders with your own domain in India, so we will not repeat it here. We used ₹1,000 in the example.

5. Theme and apps

A theme is the design your store is built on. An app is a feature you add to the platform, usually from the builder’s own app store, usually with its own monthly fee. On builders that work this way, this line is where a low plan price becomes a high bill, because the things an Indian store needs on day one, cash on delivery, WhatsApp order alerts, a courier connection, invoices, are often apps.

As we found in September 2026, Shopify’s theme store listed 24 free themes and paid themes priced in US dollars, roughly $100 to $420 among those we checked, bought once for one store. As we found in August 2026, WhatsApp notifications, server-side Meta tracking and Indian courier connections on Shopify are usually separate paid apps on top of the plan. The detail is in Shopify themes vs free store templates and Shopify apps vs SitesPlaced integrations.

On SitesPlaced this line is ₹0. All 16 store templates are free, and there is no app store: COD, WhatsApp checkout, coupons, invoices, the courier connections and the free-delivery bar are part of the free plan. The paid features that exist, the sales boosters and reviews on Growth, are a plan step, not a stack of subscriptions. One honest note: changing template later means making a new store, so pick the template for what you sell at the start.

6. Packaging, courier and cash on delivery

These three are the same on every platform, and they are the costs new sellers most often leave out of their price. Count every piece that leaves with an order: the box or courier bag, filler, tape, the label. In the example we used a plain courier bag at ₹15 a parcel and a box at ₹40. Ask a local packaging wholesaler for real prices.

Your courier charges you for every parcel, by weight and distance. In the example from our shipping guide, a mix of same-city, rest-of-India and far-off deliveries averaged ₹73 a parcel. You decide how much of that the buyer pays: a flat delivery charge, free delivery above an order value, or free delivery on everything with the courier built into your prices. On SitesPlaced you set one flat delivery charge for the store and an amount above which delivery is free, under Settings → Shipping. The three models are worked through in how to set shipping charges for your online store.

Cash on delivery is where most first orders come from and where the losses hide. A parcel the buyer refuses comes back to you, and you pay delivery both ways, often ₹80 to ₹150 in total, plus the packaging. Two settings reduce it: an extra COD charge, which buyers accept when it is shown clearly at checkout, and confirming larger COD orders on WhatsApp before you ship. On SitesPlaced the COD charge is under Settings → Checkout, on the free plan. The full method is in cash on delivery for small online stores, and the free COD vs prepaid calculator shows what a refused parcel costs at your prices. We allowed one refused parcel a month at ₹120 in the example.

7. The costs that are not on any pricing page

• Stock. Usually the biggest number and different for every product. It is left out of every table in this guide because only you know it.
• Photos. A phone and a window are enough to start. A backdrop sheet and a few props cost a few hundred rupees; we used ₹500 once. See how to take better product photos.
• Ads. The one cost that can grow without limit. Treat it as a test with a fixed budget, and only after the store has taken orders from people who already know you. We put ₹2,000 a month in the comfortable column and marked it optional.
• Business email. orders@yourbrand.com needs a domain and a mailbox service, which our name-and-domain guide put at roughly ₹100 to ₹150 a month per mailbox. Not needed in month one.
• Returns and your time. Keep a little money aside for returns, and decide who packs and replies before the orders come.
• Tax and registrations. Whether you need GST, or FSSAI if you sell food, depends on what and how much you sell. Check gst.gov.in and ask a chartered accountant. We do not quote fees or limits because they change.

Your first month, worked through

Both columns are example figures for one seller: 30 orders in the month, ₹700 of product each, a ₹79 delivery charge on every order, 18 orders paid online and 12 by cash on delivery. Stock is left out.

Example figures only. The domain, photos and props are paid once and land in month one. SitesPlaced prices are the published prices on 30 September 2026.

Read the bare-minimum column again: there is no platform in it. All ₹900 is the gateway, packaging and one refused parcel, and every rupee of it was caused by an order. That is the shape of a store on a free, zero-commission builder: the bill only exists when sales exist. The comfortable column is mostly choices. Take out the ₹2,000 ad test and the ₹1,000 domain, both optional, and it is ₹2,949.

Your first year

The same seller, twelve months, same 30 orders a month. On the comfortable side we switched the plan to yearly billing, which costs ten months’ price.

Example figures only, for 360 orders in the year. Stock is left out.

For scale, the example store collects ₹779 × 360 = ₹280,440 in the year. The platform and the domain are ₹2,990 of that, about 1%. The gateway, packaging and courier lines are the ones that move with your sales, so those are the ones to negotiate: a better courier rate, cheaper boxes bought in bulk, and a COD charge that covers your refused parcels. Do not spend a week choosing a plan and an hour choosing a courier.

One comparison on the same example, using only the figures we have published. On Shopify Basic as listed in September 2026, the plan alone is ₹1,499 × 12 = ₹17,988 billed yearly, or ₹1,994 × 12 = ₹23,928 billed monthly, before taxes. The 2% fee on Basic with a third-party payment provider, applied to the example’s online payments of ₹779 × 18 × 12 = ₹168,264, adds about ₹3,365. A paid theme and the apps for WhatsApp alerts, COD and couriers would be on top. On WSTORES Pro as listed in August 2026, the plan is ₹499 × 12 = ₹5,988 with GST included and 0% transaction fees, plus a domain bought separately. Prices change; check each pricing page before you decide.

What each builder charges, as listed

Every figure about another company below is quoted from a comparison we published earlier, with the date that comparison gives. “Not listed” means the pricing page did not mention it when we looked, not that the feature is missing. Prices change; check the builder’s own pricing page before you buy.

Shopify figures from its India pricing page and theme store, September 2026. WSTORES and the six other Indian builders from their pricing pages, August 2026. Wix, Squarespace and Dukaan rows are approximate entry-tier figures from our 2026 comparison and depend on region. Taxes may apply where a price is not marked as inclusive.

Where the hidden costs hide

Read any pricing page with this list beside you. Each item is a place we have seen a low headline price grow.

• Monthly vs yearly. The big number on the card is often the yearly rate divided by twelve. Shopify’s ₹1,499/month, for example, is the yearly rate; the monthly rate was ₹1,994 in September 2026. Check which one you are reading.
• GST on top or included. WSTORES lists its prices with 18% GST included, as of August 2026. Others add it at checkout. A ₹999 plan is ₹1,179 with GST on top.
• The trial’s fine print. WSTORES’ 7-day trial needs a UPI autopay mandate and bills on day 8, as of August 2026. StoreMaker’s trial cost ₹50. SitesPlaced’s FREE7 also needs autopay, and you cancel before the first charge to pay nothing. None of these is bad; all of them need a note in your calendar.
• Product caps. Shop2Host’s free plan caps at 10 products and StoreMaker’s Starter at 30, as of August 2026. A cap turns a free plan into a trial the day you list the eleventh product. SitesPlaced has no product cap on any plan.
• The per-sale cut. Covered above. Multiply it by your expected monthly sales before you compare plan prices.
• Apps for basics. If COD, WhatsApp alerts, invoices or a courier connection are apps, price them before you sign up, not after.
• The theme. Free themes exist on most builders. Decide whether you will want a paid one before you count the plan as the whole cost.
• Domain renewal. The first-year price and the renewal price are different numbers. Look up the second one.
• Storage. Photos add up. SitesPlaced free has 500 MB, Starter 2 GB, Growth 5 GB. Enough for most small catalogues, but worth knowing.

The longer version, written about “free” builders generally, is the hidden costs of free website builders.

Which plan for whom

• Testing whether anything sells: the free plan, for as long as you like. Unlimited products, real checkout, 0% commission. Spend on packaging and stock instead.
• Printing the address, running ads, or selling past the first season: Starter at ₹199/month. Your own domain, no badge, analytics, Meta ad tracking, and store pages that answer about 4× faster than on the free plan. “Answer” is the moment a page starts arriving on the shopper’s phone, before the photos load; about 75 ms instead of about 330 ms, measured on live paid stores on 28 September 2026. It matters when traffic comes from Instagram and WhatsApp on mobile data. Details in why paid stores answer 4× faster.
• Steady orders and you want each one bigger: Growth at ₹499/month. The sales boosters, reviews with Google stars, the loyalty programme and WhatsApp Business API alerts.
• You want someone to plan the marketing with you: AI Co-founder at ₹1,499/month.

Who should not pick SitesPlaced. If you need a marketplace’s built-in shoppers, a marketplace’s fee buys you that and a builder does not. If you need pincode-based delivery rules, delivery slots, pre-orders or a returns module, we do not have them; check the integrations page and our help centre before you decide. We have verified everything in this guide for Indian sellers; sellers elsewhere should check the integrations page for their gateway and courier.

The comparison of ways to sell, from Instagram DMs to a marketplace, is in the cheapest platform to sell online, and the builder-by-builder ranking on price is on cheap ecommerce website builder. If you are opening for the festive season specifically, the season’s costs, with Diwali dates, are in how much a Diwali online store costs.

Frequently asked questions

Verdict

For a small seller in India, the cheapest way to run a real online store in 2026 is a builder whose platform line is ₹0 and whose per-sale cut is 0%, so that the only costs you carry are the ones every store carries: the gateway’s fee, packaging and the courier. SitesPlaced is that builder, with the selling features included rather than sold as apps, and ₹199/month when you want your own domain and faster pages. Of the paid Indian builders we have compared, WSTORES at ₹399 to ₹499/month with 0% fees is the most complete of the WhatsApp-first paid builders, and StoreMaker at ₹222/month is the cheapest entry with a product cap. Shopify is a strong platform whose real cost for an Indian store is the plan plus the 2% fee plus the apps, and it is priced for stores well past their first year.

Whatever you choose, do the arithmetic this guide does: your orders a month, times what each builder keeps, plus the plan, plus the apps. The 45 stores on our live-sites page did that sum and started free.