An online store starts from €1,590, while a company website costs from €690. That’s more than double. The difference isn’t arbitrary — it pays for features a company website doesn’t need. Here’s where the money actually goes.
Payment gateway integration
A company website doesn’t handle money. An online store must connect to at least one payment provider — usually a card processor like Stripe or PayPal, sometimes a local bank gateway. Each integration requires technical setup, testing with real transactions, and compliance with security standards. You’re also paying for the developer to ensure customer card details never touch your server, which is a legal requirement in most countries.
The payment gateway itself charges fees per transaction, but the integration work is a one-off cost built into the web design price. If you need multiple payment methods — card, bank transfer, cash on delivery — each adds another layer of setup.
Delivery and shipping logic
Shipping isn’t just a form field. The store needs to calculate cost based on weight, destination, or order value. It must offer multiple carriers if needed, let customers choose a pickup point, and generate tracking codes. Some businesses need custom rules: free delivery above a certain amount, restricted zones, or different rates for different product categories.
This all requires backend logic that a standard company website doesn’t have. A contact form submits data once. A checkout calculates, validates, and routes information to several systems at the same time.
Product upload and structure
Even a simple online store with 50 products takes hours to set up properly. Each product needs a title, description, price, images, stock status, and often variations like size or colour. The images must be optimised for web use — large enough to show detail, small enough to load fast.
Then there’s the product structure itself: categories, filters, search functionality. A company website might have five pages. An online store might have five hundred, most of them generated automatically from a database. Setting that up correctly from the start saves you from chaos later.
Invoicing and accounting integration
When someone buys from your store, an invoice must be generated — often automatically, with the correct VAT rate, customer details, and a unique invoice number. Many businesses also need the transaction to sync with their accounting software, so they don’t enter every order manually.
This integration can be simple or complex depending on the system, but it’s always custom work. A standard website has no invoicing at all.
Stock management
You need to know when a product is out of stock, and so does the customer. Stock management can be basic — manually updating quantities in the admin panel — or automated, syncing with your warehouse or supplier. Either way, the system must prevent overselling and show real-time availability.
If you have multiple suppliers or warehouses, the logic becomes more complex. The price reflects this.
Security and legal requirements
An online store collects personal data and payment information. That means GDPR compliance, SSL certificates, secure hosting, and regular updates. The legal responsibility is higher, so the site must be built to a higher standard.
You also need clear terms and conditions, a privacy policy, a cookie banner, and a return policy — often written into the design as dedicated pages. A company website might have one legal page. An online store typically has four or five.
Ongoing maintenance
Once the store is live, it needs more upkeep than a static site. Payment gateways update their APIs, plugins need patching, product data needs managing. Most businesses take a maintenance plan — from €39/month for basic upkeep to €65/month for more active support — because an online store can’t afford to break.
A company website can sit unchanged for months. An online store is a working system that handles real money, so it must stay current.
Is the extra cost worth it?
If you’re selling products, yes. The features that push the price from €690 to €1,590 aren’t optional extras — they’re what make the store actually function. You’re paying for a system that takes orders, processes payments, manages stock, and integrates with the tools you already use.
The alternative is doing it manually: taking orders by email, sending invoices one by one, updating stock in a spreadsheet. That’s free upfront, but it costs you hours every week. The online store cost is the price of automation.