Shopify versus custom, what transaction fees really add up to over three years, and which features genuinely drive the build price.
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The short answer
A Shopify store runs $29–$399 a month plus apps and transaction fees, and $2,000–$15,000 if you pay someone to set it up properly. A custom e-commerce build from a US agency is typically $20,000–$100,000. The number is driven by catalog complexity, integrations and checkout requirements far more than by product count. Our custom e-commerce builds start at $1,249.
What the US market charges
The same brief costs wildly different amounts depending on who builds it. Here's the honest spread.
| Who you hire | Typical cost | What that actually means |
|---|---|---|
| Shopify / BigCommerce (DIY) | $29 – $399 / month | Plus apps and transaction fees. Setup is your time. |
| Shopify build (US agency) | $5,000 – $25,000 | Theme customisation, apps, migration, on top of the monthly platform fee. |
| WooCommerce build | $3,000 – $20,000 | Cheaper licence, higher maintenance. Plugin conflicts are the recurring tax. |
| Custom e-commerce (US agency) | $20,000 – $100,000+ | Full control, no platform fees, and a US team's hours. |
| Enterprise platform | $100,000 – $500,000+ | Licence plus implementation. Appropriate at genuine scale, not before. |
| Mana Studio | $1,249+ | Custom build, no monthly platform fee, you own it outright. |
US agency figures below are typical market ranges for comparable scope — what businesses tell us they were quoted, and what US agencies publish on their own pricing pages. They are not quotes from any named firm, and your own quotes may fall outside them. Our prices are fixed and confirmed in writing before any work starts.
What drives the price
If two quotes are far apart, the difference is almost always hiding in one of these rows.
| What drives it | Costs less | Costs more |
|---|---|---|
| Catalog complexity | 50 simple products with one price each | Variants, configurable bundles, per-customer pricing, thousands of SKUs |
| Checkout requirements | A single card processor, one currency | Multi-currency, buy-now-pay-later, subscriptions, split payments |
| Shipping and tax | Flat rate within one country | Live carrier rates, zones, international duties, US sales tax by jurisdiction |
| Inventory | Managed in the store itself | Synced with an ERP, a POS, a 3PL or multiple warehouses |
| Migration | A fresh start with no history | Thousands of products, customers and orders moved with URLs preserved |
| Content and photography | Supplier images and descriptions you already have | Original photography and written descriptions for every SKU |
What each budget buys
Our published tiers, and what's genuinely inside each one.
$169
A single-product or single-offer page with checkout — enough to sell one thing well and point ads at it.
Best for Testing whether the product sells before building a store.
$499
A full business site with a small catalog and checkout, blog, local SEO and forms — commerce as part of a broader site rather than the whole point of it.
Best for A service business selling a handful of products alongside.
$1,249
Product catalog and cart, Stripe/PayPal/Square checkout, customer accounts and order history, an admin dashboard you run yourself, inventory, shipping and tax rules, third-party integrations, 60 days support.
Best for A real store where e-commerce is the business.
Our fixed prices
Every price here is fixed. The number in the proposal is the number on the invoice.
One high-converting page for a single service, offer or ad campaign.
The complete site most US small businesses actually need — up to 8 pages.
Online stores, portals, dashboards and anything with real logic behind it.
Our Work
Every one of these is live right now — click through and judge the work yourself.
Pre-owned car dealership platform for a trusted dealer in Warangal — live inventory browsing, certified listings, and an installable PWA with offline access and instant new-arrival notifications
After the successful launch of the first website, the client partnered with Mana Studio again to develop a dedicated website for their Sirisilla branch.
A modern, SEO-optimized website designed and developed by Mana Studio for a professional packers and movers company. From UI/UX design to full-stack development, we built a fast, mobile-friendly, and conversion-focused website that helps generate leads, build customer trust, and strengthen the brand's online presence.
Full-stack e-commerce platform for traditional Indian clothing with AWS integration and advanced analytics
Comprehensive job portal for government job seekers with real-time updates and notifications
Automated PNL reporting platform for Tradetron Creators — real-time MTM tracking, drawdown alerts, and Telegram summaries
Why us
Not just the deliverable — the way the project runs.
Same senior engineers, without the $150/hour Manhattan overhead. Fixed quotes in USD, agreed before we start.
Daily overlap with US Eastern, Central and Pacific. Calls at 9am your time, not 9am ours.
You talk to the people building it — no account manager relay, no translation gap.
Send yours or use ours, signed same-day at no cost. Your idea, code and data stay yours.
A dated proposal with scope, milestones and the final number. No hourly meter, no surprise invoices.
Code, designs, hosting, domains and logins handed over in full. Nothing is locked to us.
FAQ
Free 30-minute call, fixed quote in 24 hours, and an honest answer about whether we're the right fit.
Prefer to talk now? +91 86885 48048 — we call US numbers back same day.