Updated 17 October 2026 · Turing Websites
DTC website cost: build, fees & worksheet
Compare direct-to-consumer website build costs, monthly fees and payment charges. Download a three-year worksheet, with UK and US pricing context.
Discuss your ecommerce buildA direct-to-consumer (DTC) website cost has three parts: the initial build, continuing services and payment charges. Compare all three over the same period and catalogue before choosing a route.
Our published ecommerce Growth starting prices are £5,000 for UK projects and $9,500 for the US market. These are Turing Websites' own starting prices, set for each market, rather than currency conversions or industry averages. A quote records the agreed build, content, migration and integrations. See our ecommerce build scope and US delivery and dollar pricing.
Download the three-year cost worksheet
Download the Excel cost worksheet. It contains a blank Compare quotes sheet and a separate Illustrative GBP example. Access is ungated.
You can also use the CSV comparison template, inspect the illustrative GBP CSV, check the expected results and read the instructions.
The files contain formulas and a checked arithmetic example. They have not been opened and recalculated in Excel or Google Sheets during this review. Recalculate after importing or editing, then compare the populated example with the expected results before relying on your own comparison.
Compare two routes on the same scope
| Cost or decision | Hosted platform and theme | Custom build |
|---|---|---|
| Initial work | Theme, setup, configuration and migration | Design, build, testing and migration |
| Continuing services | Platform, apps and support | Hosting, support and third-party services |
| Payment charges | Merchant processing and any additional platform charges | Merchant processing and other agreed payment services |
| Product journey | What the chosen theme and apps support | What the agreed build includes |
| Ownership and access | Data exports, account access and theme licences | Code, accounts, data and handover terms |
Use the same catalogue, checkout requirements, content readiness and migration set in both quotes. A launch with five products is different work from a migration with five hundred SKUs, variants, subscriptions and historical orders.
For a hosted route, check the platform's current plan and billing term. Shopify's pricing varies by market and distinguishes platform subscriptions and payment charges. Use your merchant-country view and written terms. Record hosting or other bundled services once.
For payment processing, use the terms for your own account and payment mix. Stripe's UK pricing and US pricing illustrate why merchant country, payment method and international transactions matter. The worksheet's fictional processing rate is not a current quote from either provider.
Fill in the worksheet
- Set one scenario. The period is 36 months. Enter the comparison currency, monthly order count and average order value, shared by both options. Keep catalogue and checkout scope in the notes.
- Record each quote. Include the supplier, route, quote currency, source, date and tax basis. Both quote currencies must match the common scenario before comparison.
- Enter the initial costs. Separate build/setup, migration, content or photography, integrations and other one-off work. Add extras only where they are outside the quoted build.
- Enter continuing costs. Include platform, hosting, apps, support and other monthly services, plus an annual equivalent for domain and licence renewals. Record the billing and renewal assumptions beside the figures.
- Enter payment assumptions. Record the processing percentage, fixed fee per order and any separate platform percentage. Include further known charges in the other-cost allowance and explain them.
- Resolve every line. Leave an unknown input blank. Enter zero when you have checked that a separate cost is included elsewhere or unnecessary, with a note identifying why.
The template marks missing inputs as incomplete and withholds its total. Different currencies block comparison. A checked zero and a missing quote mean different things.
Recurring inputs are agreed monthly or annual equivalents for this planning period. If the first year is bundled, an introductory price ends or renewal prices change, calculate the period's total first and record how you obtained the equivalent. Multiplying a current promotional price by 36 can misstate the cost.
Use a consistent cash-cost and tax basis. Record tax as quoted and any unresolved charges; the worksheet does not decide tax treatment or assume recovery. A complete set of cells still needs the supplier's scope and exclusions reviewed.
A worked GBP example
The populated sheet compares two fictional quotes, using 100 orders per month and an average order value of £50 for 36 months. That gives 3,600 orders and £180,000 of order value. These are teaching assumptions, not a forecast or supplier pricing.
| Cost over 36 months | Illustrative A | Illustrative B |
|---|---|---|
| Initial work | £6,400 | £8,000 |
| Monthly services × 36 | £3,600 | £5,040 |
| Annual renewals × 3 | £72 | £72 |
| Payment processing | £3,600 | £3,600 |
| Additional platform percentage and other allowance | £0 | £0 |
| Modelled total | £13,672 | £16,712 |
In A, initial work is £5,000 build/setup, £500 migration and £900 content. Monthly services total £100; annual renewals are £24. B assumes £8,000 initial work and £140 in monthly services, with the same annual renewals.
Both options assume 1.5% plus £0.25 per order for processing:
£180,000 × 0.015 + 3,600 × £0.25 = £3,600
A therefore totals £6,400 + £3,600 + £72 + £3,600 = £13,672. B totals £16,712. The £3,040 difference follows only from those fictional inputs; it does not identify a better supplier, promise savings or measure return on investment.
This is a scoped website-and-payment cost model. Goods, fulfilment, shipping, advertising spend and wider operating costs need their own budget. Record separately quoted website charges, such as a payment-method surcharge or a change allowance, rather than assuming the illustrative zero covers them.
What changes a DTC build quote
- Catalogue: products, variants, stock rules, bundles and subscriptions.
- Content: the product photography, copy and product data each supplier must prepare or import.
- Checkout: countries, currencies, payment methods, subscriptions and order states in scope.
- Integrations: the exact fields and handoffs between the store, CRM, payments and analytics.
- Migration: products, customer records, orders, redirects and app-specific data that can be exported and accepted.
- Continuing ownership: account access, support, maintenance and the cost of later changes.
Bring the same brief to each supplier. Our ecommerce web design page explains the product-brand scope and links the illustrative store journey you can inspect.
UK and US starting prices
Our published Growth tier starts at £5,000 in the UK and $9,500 in the US market for the agreed ecommerce build, CRM integration, Google Ads setup and analytics. The written quote defines catalogue, content, migration and integration scope; continuing platform, payment and media costs remain separate lines.
Launchpad, from £2,000 in the UK or $4,500 in the US market, is an enquiry-focused brand site. It can suit a product business selling through marketplaces or wholesale, with full online checkout scoped in Growth.
Use the published service pricing and US delivery page for the current offer. The final quote states billing currency and included work. Use USD throughout the blank worksheet for a US comparison; the GBP teaching sheet is not a dollar budget.
pricing · ecommerce