"How much does a Shopify store cost?" is the first question almost every UAE business owner asks us. The honest answer: it depends less on Shopify and more on how the store is built. Here's the full breakdown, so you can budget before you talk to anyone.
There are four costs to plan for:
- Shopify's own monthly plan (paid to Shopify)
- Payment and transaction fees (paid to your payment provider)
- Apps and theme (one-time or monthly)
- Design, setup and content (paid to whoever builds the store)
Let's go through each one.
1. Shopify's monthly plan
Shopify charges a monthly subscription, billed in US dollars, even for UAE stores. The main plans are Basic, Grow and Advanced, with Shopify Plus for large brands.
- Basic is enough for most new UAE stores: unlimited products, online checkout, discount codes and basic reports.
- Grow adds better reports and more staff accounts. It makes sense once you have steady orders.
- Advanced is for higher volume stores. In the UAE it also matters for payments (more on that below).
Shopify changes its prices and runs regular promotions for new stores, and annual billing is cheaper than monthly. Always check the current price on Shopify's UAE pricing page before you budget. As a rule of thumb, most small UAE stores start on Basic and only upgrade when sales justify it.
2. Payment fees
Every online payment costs a percentage plus a small fixed fee per order. In the UAE, what you pay depends on which provider you use:
- Card gateways (for example Telr, Network International, Checkout.com, Stripe) usually need a trade licence and charge a percentage per transaction.
- Ziina is popular with small UAE sellers and has a Shopify app. Its published fees are a percentage plus a small AED amount per payment.
- Tabby and Tamara (buy now, pay later) charge the merchant a higher fee, but often increase order value.
- Cash on delivery has no gateway fee, but your courier usually charges a COD handling fee and you carry the risk of refused orders.
If you use a third-party gateway instead of Shopify Payments, Shopify may also add its own small transaction fee on top. We explain all the UAE options in our guide to accepting payments on Shopify in the UAE.
3. Theme and apps
- Free themes: Shopify's free themes (like Dawn) are fast and perfectly good for a first store.
- Premium themes: a one-time payment, usually a few hundred dollars. Worth it only if the design really fits your brand.
- Apps: this is where costs creep up. Reviews, WhatsApp chat, upsells, Arabic translation and shipping apps often charge monthly. Many stores end up paying more for apps than for Shopify itself.
Tip: start with as few apps as possible. A good developer can do many "app" jobs with theme settings or a small amount of code, without a monthly fee.
4. Design, setup and content
This is the biggest variable. In Dubai you'll typically see three levels:
| Option | Typical cost in the UAE | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Do it yourself | Your time + Shopify plan | Testing an idea with a small product range |
| Prebuilt / fixed-price store | Around AED 2,000 | Small businesses that want a professional store quickly |
| Fully custom store | AED 10,000 to 50,000+ | Established brands with custom design, integrations or large catalogues |
What you're paying for in a setup:
- Theme set up in your brand colours and fonts
- Products, collections and images added
- Payments, shipping zones and taxes (VAT) configured
- Legal pages: privacy, refund and shipping policies
- Domain connected, and basic SEO (titles, descriptions, sitemap)
- Mobile testing, because most UAE shoppers buy on their phone
Realistic budgets
Starter store (most small businesses): Shopify Basic + a free or prebuilt theme + 2 to 3 essential apps + a fixed-price setup. This is enough to start selling properly.
Growing brand: Grow plan + premium theme + reviews, upsell and email apps + ongoing ads and content.
Custom build: Advanced or Plus + custom design + integrations (ERP, warehouse, loyalty) + a monthly support retainer.
Hidden costs people forget
- Product photos. Good photos sell more than any app.
- Shipping. Courier rates, COD fees and returns.
- VAT. If you're VAT-registered, your prices and invoices must handle 5% VAT correctly.
- Marketing. A store with no traffic makes no sales. Budget for ads, social content or SEO from day one.
Our fixed-price option
If you want a professional store without a custom-build budget, we offer a prebuilt Shopify store for AED 2,000: a theme set up in your brand, your products added, payments that fit your business (including Ziina, cash on delivery or WhatsApp orders) and UAE shipping configured. See what's included.
Need something bigger? Our Shopify development team in Dubai builds custom stores too.
Questions about your budget? WhatsApp us on +971 52 452 4163 and we'll tell you honestly what you need, and what you don't.