WooCommerce is free, and it is good. That is not the same as a free shop. The software costs nothing, but a shop built on it needs somewhere to live, a few paid extras for the things it doesn't do on its own, and someone to keep the whole thing updated. Here is the whole bill, from WooCommerce's own pricing page, read on 15 October 2026. The figures are in dollars because that is how WooCommerce states them.
What WooCommerce itself costs
Nothing. WooCommerce says it is free to download and use, with no monthly subscription, no platform fees and no revenue share. That is genuinely unusual for shop software, and it is to WooCommerce's credit.
The catch is that WooCommerce is a plugin for WordPress. You are not buying a shop, you are building one on your own WordPress site, so everything a shop platform would normally bundle in is yours to arrange and pay for.
Hosting is the big line
A shop asks more of its host than a plain website does: every basket, stock check and checkout is worked out on the server, and a slow checkout loses sales. WooCommerce's own pricing page puts hosting at $25 to $350 a month for most stores, rising with traffic and how fast you need the shop to be.
That is $300 to $4,200 a year. A small shop with modest traffic sits at the bottom of that range; the top is for busy stores. Watch for the renewal, too: plenty of hosts sell the first term cheaply and renew at a much higher rate, which is set out in WordPress pricing 2026: what it really costs in the UK.
Then the extensions
WooCommerce does the basics. Much of the rest arrives as extensions, and WooCommerce's page prices them at $29 to $299 a year for each one. Subscriptions, bookings, better shipping rules, product add-ons: each is usually its own extension, and each renews every year.
There is no honest single figure for this line, because every shop picks a different set. Five paid extensions, say, would come to somewhere between $145 and $1,495 a year at WooCommerce's own range. The pattern is the thing to know: the bill grows one extension at a time, and each one renews on its own date.
The payments
WooCommerce adds nothing to a sale. You pay your payment provider's own fee, whichever provider you choose, and that is all. Card processing costs money everywhere, so this line is the same wherever your shop lives; the difference is whether the platform takes something on top, and WooCommerce does not. If you want to compare the providers themselves, How to take card payments online in 2026, and what it really costs sets them out.
The upkeep nobody prices
This is the line that isn't on any pricing page. WordPress, your theme, WooCommerce and every extension each release updates, and they need applying, in the right order, without breaking the checkout. Skip them and the shop becomes the easiest way into your site. Do them and something occasionally breaks.
You either do this yourself or pay someone to. Developers' rates vary too widely to quote honestly, so we won't. The plain explanation of why the updates never stop is in WordPress plugin updates - why they break your site, and how to stop minding them.
So what does a small WooCommerce shop really cost?
| The yearly bill | WooCommerce | Bernard, site and shop |
|---|---|---|
| The shop software | free | £400 for the site and the shop |
| Hosting | $300 to $4,200 for most stores | included |
| Extensions | $29 to $299 each | the shop's features are built in |
| Updates, security and backups | your time, or a developer's | included |
| Each sale | your provider's fee; WooCommerce adds none | Stripe's own card rate; Bernard takes 0% and adds nothing |
Two honest readings. If your shop runs on cheap hosting with no paid extensions, and you're happy doing the updates yourself, WooCommerce can cost less than £400 a year and you should keep it: it is good software and it takes nothing from your sales. If the hosting, the extensions and the hours have crept up, or you would simply rather never think about an update again, a flat price that includes all three is usually the calmer number.
Where Bernard sits
Bernard moves your WordPress site, every page, post and image, into a home that runs no plugins and looks after itself, with every old link kept. We carry your products across for you, by a person for now, and you check them before anything goes on sale. Buyers pay through your own Stripe account and Bernard takes 0% of your sales. The site and the shop together are £400 a year, with the move included, and you can try the site moved in free for 14 days before you decide.
Your order history and any plugin that does something special, like subscriptions or bookings, need a conversation first, and we would rather have it before you move than after.
Questions people ask
- Is WooCommerce free?
- The software is. WooCommerce is free to download and use, with no monthly subscription, no platform fee and no share of your revenue. A live WooCommerce shop is not free, because it needs hosting, usually some paid extensions, and someone to keep WordPress and every plugin updated.
- How much does WooCommerce cost a year?
- WooCommerce's own pricing page puts hosting at $25 to $350 a month for most stores, which is $300 to $4,200 a year, and paid extensions at $29 to $299 a year each. Add the time, yours or a developer's, to keep it all updated. A small shop on cheap hosting with no paid extensions sits at the bottom of that range; most shops sit somewhere in the middle.
- Does WooCommerce take a cut of my sales?
- No. WooCommerce says it charges no platform fees and takes no revenue share. You pay your payment provider's own fee on each sale, and nothing more to WooCommerce.
- How much is WooCommerce hosting?
- WooCommerce's own estimate is $25 to $350 a month for most stores, scaling with traffic and how fast the shop needs to be. A shop needs more from its host than a plain WordPress site, because every basket and checkout is worked out on the server.
- Is there a simpler way to run a small WooCommerce shop?
- If you would rather not look after hosting, extensions and updates at all, Bernard moves your WordPress site into a home that looks after itself, and we carry your products across for you. It is £400 a year for the site and the shop together, takes 0% of your sales, and the move is included. If your shop runs on cheap hosting with no paid extensions and you enjoy the upkeep, WooCommerce may well cost you less, and you should keep it.