How Much Does It Cost To Start An Online Business In 2026? The Real Numbers (That You Can’t Avoid)
So, you’re thinking about starting an online business? That’s awesome! But here’s the million-dollar question – or maybe the hundred-dollar question – how much does it cost to start an online business, really?
Look, if you’ve been scrolling through social media, you’ve probably seen those ads promising you can start with just $50 and become a millionaire by next Tuesday. On the other hand, maybe you’ve heard horror stories about people dumping $20,000 into a business that never took off. The truth? Well, it’s somewhere in between, and honestly, there’s something more important you need to understand first.
Here’s what nobody tells you upfront: certain costs are completely unavoidable. It doesn’t matter if you’re a coding genius who builds everything from scratch or if you hire a $5,000 agency to do it all for you. Either way, some fees are coming for you. Transaction fees, platform subscriptions, payment processing – these costs hit everyone the same.
Think of it like trying to drive a car without paying for gas. You can choose between a luxury vehicle or a budget model, you can drive yourself or hire a chauffeur, but either way, you’re buying gas. The same logic applies to online business startup costs.
In this guide, we’re going to break down exactly how much does starting an online business cost, with a special focus on what you absolutely cannot escape versus where you actually have choices. Moreover, we’ll show you the real difference between doing everything yourself and hiring help – spoiler alert, some costs stay exactly the same.
Whether you’ve got $100 or $10,000 to invest, by the end of this article, you’ll know exactly which costs are mandatory, which are optional, and where you’re wasting money thinking you can outsmart the system.
Let’s dive in and get brutally honest about the numbers.
The hard truth: Costs you’ll pay no matter what
Before we talk about how much it cost to start an online business for different models, let’s address the elephant in the room. Some expenses are just part of the game, period.
Platform fees are non-negotiable
Whether you spend 100 hours building your site yourself or pay someone $2,000 to do it professionally, you’re still paying for the platform. If you choose Shopify, that’s a minimum monthly fee. Every single month. Forever. There’s no “I built it myself” discount.
Amazon sellers face a different fee structure entirely. With Amazon FBA, you’re paying a monthly professional seller account fee, plus referral fees on most categories (typically 15%), plus fulfillment fees per item, plus storage fees. A $30 product on Amazon might cost you a third of its value in combined fees before you even account for product costs.
BigCommerce starts affordable but forces upgrades as your sales grow. Wix ecommerce plans range from budget-friendly to expensive. Squarespace charges monthly for ecommerce functionality.
Sure, you might think, “I’ll use a free platform!” Okay, but truly free platforms either lack critical ecommerce features or slap their branding all over your site. Moreover, they usually charge higher transaction fees to make up for the free hosting. You’re not escaping costs – you’re just moving them around.
Even if you go the WooCommerce route (which has no platform fee), you’re paying for hosting, domain registration, and probably premium plugins to get features that other platforms include by default. The total? Often similar or more when you add everything up.
However, there’s a smart middle ground. AliDropship offers a complete dropshipping solution at $39/month (after a 14-day free trial) that includes hosting, domain name, and all essential dropshipping features built right in. Compare that to Shopify where you need to pay separately for the platform plus add expensive dropshipping apps to get the same functionality. Or Amazon where you’re paying monthly fees plus taking a significant percentage hit on every sale.
Transaction fees: The unavoidable profit eater
Here’s where it gets really unavoidable. Every. Single. Sale. Costs. Money.
Shopify Payments takes approximately 3% per transaction plus a small fixed fee. Every sale gets hit with this cost – there’s no way around it.
Amazon is even more aggressive with referral fees ranging from 8% to 45% depending on category, plus additional fulfillment fees per item. Combined, Amazon typically takes 25-38% of your sale price before advertising costs. That’s why a $50 product might only net you $35-40 after Amazon’s fees.
eBay charges around 13% per transaction, plus payment processing fees on top. Etsy takes about 10% total when you combine their transaction fee, listing fee, and payment processing fee.
“I’ll just use a different payment processor!” you say. Cool, but PayPal charges roughly 3% plus a small fee. Stripe? Same story. Square? Yep, similar rates. This is industry standard, and there’s absolutely zero way around it.
Furthermore, if you use a non-Shopify payment processor on Shopify, they charge additional transaction fees on top of the payment processor’s fees. So you’re actually paying more by trying to avoid their system.
With AliDropship, you pay transparent per-transaction fees that cover everything: payment processing, automated fulfillment, and fraud protection. The total per-transaction cost includes complete order automation that other platforms charge significant monthly fees to achieve through separate apps. More importantly, it remains dramatically lower than Amazon or Etsy marketplace fees. AliDropship handles everything in one integrated system, helping you keep more of your revenue.
Want to sell internationally and access a bigger market? Great idea! Now add currency conversion fees to everything. That international sale might net you less than you expected after all the fees stack up.
The app and software trap
Here’s something that catches everyone: whether you built your store yourself or hired the fanciest developer in Silicon Valley, you’ll need apps and tools. And these subscriptions don’t care who set them up.
Email marketing platform? Eventually everyone outgrows the free tiers. Customer service software? Check. Inventory management? Yep. Analytics tools? Probably.
On Amazon, you might think you avoid app costs, but serious sellers need product research tools, repricing tools, inventory management software, and review management tools. These can add up to hundreds monthly on top of Amazon’s already high fees.
BigCommerce and Shopify both require app ecosystems. The average serious Shopify store uses multiple apps, creating ongoing subscription costs.
You might think coding custom features saves money. Sometimes it does upfront, but maintaining custom code costs way more long-term than monthly apps. Moreover, one platform update can break custom code, costing you thousands to fix what an affordable app handles automatically.
The good news? AliDropship at $39/month includes many essential dropshipping features that other platforms make you pay extra for. Product importing, automated order fulfillment, pricing automation, and supplier management are all built into that subscription. On other platforms, you’d be paying for the platform PLUS extra monthly fees just for these basic dropshipping features.
So while AliDropship costs slightly more than Shopify’s base plan, you’re actually saving money compared to Shopify plus the necessary dropshipping apps. Over a year, those savings add up significantly.
The domain and hosting reality
Whether you’re a total beginner or a tech expert, everyone needs a domain name and somewhere to host their site. This isn’t negotiable. You can’t run a business without an address, and you can’t have a website without these basics.
On Amazon or eBay, you don’t control your “domain” – you’re renting space in their marketplace. You’re building on borrowed land. If they suspend your account or change their policies, you’re done. No email list, no customer data, no brand equity.
Etsy sellers face the same issue – you’re at their subdomain, not your own branded domain. You don’t own the customer relationship.
Additionally, you’ll need an SSL certificate for security. Without it, browsers warn customers your site isn’t secure, which kills sales instantly.
Here’s where AliDropship’s $39/month shines – hosting and SSL are included in that price. With other platforms, these costs vary but are always present. But remember, you still need those extra dropshipping apps on Shopify and BigCommerce, while AliDropship includes everything.
The learning curve tax
Here’s the hidden cost people miss: whether you DIY everything or hire help, there’s a learning curve cost. If you do it yourself, you’re investing significant hours learning platforms, tools, and strategies. If your time is worth anything, that’s real opportunity cost.
Amazon FBA has a notoriously steep learning curve – understanding requirements, managing inventory levels to avoid storage fees, navigating the complex fee structure, dealing with stranded inventory, fighting against counterfeit listings. Expect significant time investment to become competent.
Shopify is easier but still requires learning apps, themes, and optimization. WooCommerce requires WordPress knowledge. BigCommerce has a steeper learning curve than Shopify but more built-in features.
On the flip side, if you hire freelancers, you still need to learn enough to manage them, review their work, and make decisions. You can’t just throw money at people and hope for the best. So you’re paying cash AND still investing time to learn the basics.
The point? You’re paying somehow, either with time or money or both. There’s no magical free path where you avoid all costs.
So how much does it cost to start an online business, really?
Alright, with the unavoidable costs understood, let’s talk about the full picture. When people ask “how much does it cost to start a website” or “what are online business startup costs,” the answer ranges from under $100 for bare-bones launches up to $10,000+ for serious operations.
But here’s the key: that range mostly reflects the OPTIONAL stuff you’re adding on top of the mandatory baseline.
The mandatory baseline (what everyone pays)
For marketplace sellers (Amazon FBA):
- Professional seller account: Monthly fee
- Initial inventory: Must buy upfront (typically $500-3,000)
- Shipping to Amazon warehouses: Several hundred dollars
- Product photography: $200-500
- Per-sale fees: 25-38% of each sale combined
For DIY platforms (Shopify, BigCommerce, Wix):
- Platform subscription: Monthly fee
- Domain: Annual fee
- Apps for dropshipping: Additional monthly fees (if dropshipping)
- Transaction fees: About 3% of every sale
- Basic business email: Monthly fee
For AliDropship:
- Platform: $39/month after 14-day free trial
- Everything included: hosting, domain (in trial), SSL, dropshipping features
- Transaction fees: About 3% of every sale
- No additional apps needed for basic dropshipping
The platform you choose makes a dramatic difference in what you get for your money. AliDropship at $39/month includes hosting, domain name (also in the free trial package), complete dropshipping functionality, and marketing services. Shopify or BigCommerce require additional apps to achieve the same capabilities. Amazon locks you into their ecosystem with significant per-sale fees. Wix limits your customization. Etsy charges higher per-sale fees and you don’t own your customer relationships.
Now, everything else – branding, marketing, inventory, additional apps, professional services – that’s where your choices come in.
Cost breakdown by business model
Dropshipping business ($100-$500 startup)
Dropshipping is probably the most popular answer when people ask how much does it cost to start an online business on a budget. The model is simple: you act as the middleman between suppliers and customers, so you don’t need to buy inventory upfront.
What you can’t avoid:
- Platform subscription: Varies by choice
- Domain name: Annual fee (sometimes included)
- Transaction fees: About 3% per sale on your own store, higher on marketplaces
- Payment processing: Built into transaction fees
Platform comparison for dropshipping:
AliDropship at $39/month (after 14-day free trial) gives you:
- Fully functional dropshipping store ready to go
- Hosting and domain
- Direct integration with AliExpress suppliers
- Automated product importing and order fulfillment built-in
- Pricing automation tools included
- Professional themes included
- SSL certificate included
- 14-day free trial to test everything
- + Integration with Sellvia (all features of Sellvia’s subscription included)
Fees: Transparent per-transaction fees include payment processing, automated order fulfillment, fraud and chargeback protection, and customer messaging. Everything needed for automation is included – no surprise monthly app charges.
Shopify requires:
- Base platform fee
- Dropshipping apps for full functionality
- Additional apps for pricing automation and order management
- Total monthly cost typically higher than advertised base price
- BigCommerce needs:
- Similar app ecosystem to Shopify
- Forced upgrades when you hit certain revenue thresholds
- Generally higher total monthly cost
Fees: Standard payment processing (around 3% per transaction), but achieving automation requires separate paid apps. If using non-Shopify payment processors, additional transaction fees apply.
WooCommerce (WordPress) costs:
- Hosting fees
- Domain fees
- Dropshipping plugins
- More technical knowledge required
- Lower monthly costs but higher time investment
Fees: Only standard payment processing fees, but requires separate purchases or subscriptions for dropshipping plugins and automation tools.
Amazon FBA isn’t really dropshipping:
- Can’t dropship from AliExpress (against their terms)
- Must have inventory
- High per-sale fee structure
- Expensive at any revenue level
Fees: Complex fee structure combining referral fees, fulfillment fees, storage fees, and advertising costs. Total fees typically range from significant percentage of each sale with no transparency or choice in what you pay for.
Etsy isn’t a dropshipping platform either:
- No monthly fee initially
- About 10% taken per sale
- Dropshipping is allowed but must disclose
- Good for testing, expensive long-term
Fees: Transaction fees, payment processing fees, and listing fees combine to approximately 10% of each sale. No automation features included, limited control over customer experience.
The key takeaway: AliDropship gives you complete functionality at a flat monthly rate plus transparent per-transaction fees that include everything. Other platforms either hide costs across multiple app subscriptions or take large percentages with complex fee structures.
Additionally, Sellvia takes dropshipping even further by solving the industry’s biggest problem: shipping times. While AliExpress’ suppliers ship from China (which can take weeks), Sellvia operates US-based warehouses with fast domestic shipping. This dramatically reduces customer complaints, chargebacks, and returns.
Sellvia’s value proposition at $39/month:
- Curated, pre-vetted products stored in US warehouses
- Lightning-fast shipping to US customers
- Quality control
- Professional product photos and descriptions included
- Next-day order processing
- Higher conversion rates due to fast shipping
- Dramatically lower return rates
- US-based customer support
Fast shipping can increase your conversion rate significantly. When customers know they’ll get their order quickly, they’re much more likely to buy. That monthly investment often pays for itself many times over through better conversion rates and fewer returns.
Total monthly cost with AliDropship + Sellvia: $39 for complete solution
This is still less expensive than comparable setups on other platforms, while getting better features, support, and customer satisfaction.
Monthly ongoing: $39 (AliDropship + Sellvia)
Amazon FBA business ($2,500-$10,000+ startup)
What you can’t avoid:
- Professional seller account: Monthly fee
- Initial inventory purchase: Must buy upfront (typically $1,000-5,000)
- Shipping to Amazon warehouses: Several hundred dollars
- Product photography: $200-500
- Per-sale referral fees: Significant percentage
- FBA fulfillment fees: Per item
- Storage fees: Monthly based on space used
What you can control:
- Product research tools: Monthly subscription
- PPC advertising: Can range from hundreds to thousands monthly
- Brand registry and trademark: One-time and annual costs
- Professional product inserts and packaging
Total realistic budget: $3,000-8,000 initially Monthly ongoing: Base fee plus 25-38% of revenue plus tools and advertising
Amazon pros: Built-in traffic, Prime badge credibility, potential for high volume
Amazon cons: No customer data, no brand building, fierce competition, expensive fee structure, strict rules, account suspension risks
Etsy shop ($0-$300 startup)
What you can’t avoid:
- Monthly fee: Zero (pay as you sell)
- Transaction fee: About 10% total per sale
- Listing fee: Small fee per item
What you can control:
- Product photography: DIY or professional
- Listing optimization tools: Optional
- Etsy ads: Optional
- Shipping supplies
Total realistic budget: $50-300 Monthly ongoing: No base fee, about 10% per sale
Etsy pros: Zero upfront monthly costs, built-in marketplace traffic, good for handmade/vintage
Etsy cons: High per-sale fees at scale, limited customization, can’t build independent brand, at Etsy’s mercy for policy changes
Service-based online business ($0-$500 startup)
What you can’t avoid:
- Website/portfolio: Minimal cost depending on platform
- Domain: Annual fee
- Business email: Monthly fee for professionalism
Platform choices vary from free options to professional paid platforms.
What you can control:
- Scheduling tools: Free options available or paid
- Video conferencing: Free tiers work fine
- Professional development: Optional courses and certifications
Total realistic budget: $50-300 Monthly ongoing: Low, typically under $50
Ecommerce with inventory ($2,000-$10,000+ startup)
What you can’t avoid:
- Platform subscription: Varies by choice
- Inventory purchase: Your choice of scale
- Domain: Annual fee
- Transaction fees: About 3% on own store or much higher on marketplaces
- Business insurance: Annual cost (necessary with inventory)
Platform comparison for inventory-based ecommerce:
- AliDropship: Can handle both dropshipping AND inventory, full control, lower ongoing costs
- Shopify: Excellent inventory management, needs apps for advanced features, scales well but costs increase
- BigCommerce: More built-in features than Shopify, no transaction fees (advantage), forced upgrades at revenue thresholds
- Amazon FBA: Handles fulfillment for you, expensive but high traffic, no brand ownership
What you can control:
- Product photography: DIY or professional
- Warehouse/storage: Home storage or commercial space
- Website design: Free theme or custom development
- Marketing budget: Your choice
- Packaging materials
Total realistic budget: $2,000-8,000 minimum depending on platform and scale
The hidden costs that surprise everyone
Whether you’re doing everything yourself or hiring an entire team, these costs appear like clockwork. They’re not sexy, they’re not fun to think about, but they’re absolutely unavoidable in online business startup costs.
Apps and subscriptions creep
You start with your platform subscription. Then you realize you need email marketing. Okay, fine. Oh, but you also need better analytics. And a review app. And abandoned cart recovery.
Suddenly, you’re paying significant monthly amounts in subscriptions before you’ve made a single sale.
By platform:
- AliDropship + Sellvia: Includes many features, minimal additional tools needed
- Shopify: Needs multiple apps for serious functionality
- BigCommerce: Slightly fewer app needs but still requires several
- Amazon: Needs product research, repricing, inventory tools
- WooCommerce: Needs security, backup, SEO plugins
- Etsy: Fewer tools needed but limited control
Moreover, these costs scale up as you grow. Your email marketing costs increase as your subscriber list grows. Apps increase pricing tiers based on order volume. Amazon advertising costs increase as competition grows.
Whether you built your store yourself or paid someone doesn’t matter – you’re subscribing to tools regardless. But choosing the right platform from the start minimizes how many subscriptions you actually need.
Returns and refunds (the invisible profit killer)
In ecommerce, a percentage of your revenue walks back out the door as returns. If you made good money in sales this month, budget for some of that coming back as refunds.
Return rates vary by platform and shipping speed:
- Amazon FBA: Higher due to generous return policy
- Own store with slow shipping: Higher due to customer frustration
- Own store with fast shipping: Lower due to customer satisfaction
- Etsy: Varies by product type
Furthermore, payment processing fees on refunded orders? You usually don’t get those back. So returned items cost you in fees that disappear forever.
This is where Sellvia’s US-based fulfillment at $39/month becomes a game-changer:
With slow AliExpress shipping:
- Higher return rates
- More customer complaints
- Poor reviews impact future sales
- Return shipping costs can exceed product value
With Sellvia fast shipping:
- Lower return rates
- Happy customers leave good reviews
- Fewer customer service tickets
- US-based returns are manageable
The monthly Sellvia subscription often pays for itself just in reduced returns. When you reduce returns significantly, you keep more of your revenue and spend less time dealing with angry customers.
Combined platform approach: AliDropship plus Sellvia gives you complete, professional dropshipping with fast US shipping at a reasonable monthly cost that’s still less than many alternatives.
No amount of DIY effort or freelancer hiring changes return realities. But choosing suppliers and fulfillment partners wisely makes a massive difference.
Taxes (the government always gets paid)
As a business owner, you’re paying quarterly estimated taxes. Set aside a significant portion of your profits for this. Additionally, depending on where you operate and sell, you might need to collect and remit sales tax across multiple jurisdictions.
This gets complex fast, which is why most successful businesses hire accountants. You can try to DIY your taxes, but one mistake costs more than the accountant would have.
Amazon sellers have additional complexity: Inventory stored in multiple states creates tax obligations in those states. It’s a compliance challenge that often requires professional help.
Everyone pays taxes. Rich or poor, DIY or agency-built, doesn’t matter.
Customer acquisition costs
Getting customers costs money, whether through your time (organic marketing) or your wallet (paid ads). In competitive niches, acquiring one customer might cost significant money. Therefore, your product needs sufficient margins to support this.
By platform:
- Your own store: Moderate costs per customer via ads, full control
- Amazon: Built-in traffic but high fees plus advertising costs per click
- Etsy: Lower ad costs per click but limited scale
- Organic social media: Free but significant time investment
You can do content marketing yourself (time investment) or pay for ads (cash investment), but either way, you’re paying to acquire customers. There’s no magical free customer source.
Mistakes and learning curves
That Facebook ad campaign that flopped? Cost you money. Those products you ordered that nobody wanted? Money down the drain. The app you subscribed to but never used? Wasted before you canceled. Amazon inventory that got hit with storage fees? Surprise charge.
Budget extra for inevitable mistakes. Whether you’re DIYing everything or hiring experts, mistakes happen. Experts make fewer mistakes, but they also cost more upfront.
The silver lining? With AliDropship’s 14-day free trial, you can test the platform and learn the basics without paying anything. If you take two weeks to figure things out during the trial, you’ve paid zero versus paying from day one on other platforms.
What you absolutely should NOT cheap out on
While we’re focused on minimizing costs, some investments are non-negotiable if you want success.
Platform reliability and security
Don’t choose based solely on finding the absolute cheapest option if it means slow loading times or frequent downtime. Your site going down costs way more in lost sales than you’d save on cheaper hosting.
AliDropship includes quality hosting with fast loading and high uptime as part of the subscription. Cheap hosting options often crash during traffic spikes, costing you sales.
SSL certificates are mandatory – browsers warn customers about insecure sites. Fortunately, SSL is included with AliDropship, Shopify, BigCommerce, and Amazon.
Payment processing security
Never use questionable payment processors to save a small amount on fees. One data breach kills your business and potentially exposes you to lawsuits. Stick with reputable processors.
Yes, they all charge similar fees. That’s because secure payment processing actually costs money, period.
Supplier reliability for dropshipping
If you’re dropshipping, don’t just choose the cheapest supplier every time. A reliable supplier that costs slightly more per item beats an unreliable supplier that’s slightly cheaper. Customer complaints and refunds from unreliable suppliers cost way more than slightly higher product costs.
This is why Sellvia is worth the investment – you’re paying for reliability, quality control, fast shipping, and US-based support. The monthly cost often pays for itself through one saved problem order. Think of it as insurance.
Legal compliance
Business licenses, sales tax permits, and basic legal protection aren’t optional. Getting caught operating illegally costs infinitely more than proper licensing.
Amazon sellers face additional complexity with sales tax nexus in multiple states. Your own store needs to track where you have obligations.
Additionally, forming an LLC protects personal assets once you’re making real money.
Wrapping it up: The truth about what you’ll really pay
So, how much does it cost to start an online business? Here’s the honest answer:
Mandatory baseline varies dramatically by platform:
- AliDropship and Sellvia: $39/month after free trial (complete solution)
- Shopify: Higher when you add necessary apps
- Amazon: Monthly base plus 25-38% of revenue
- Etsy: No monthly but about 10% per sale
- BigCommerce: Monthly plus apps, forced upgrades
- WooCommerce: Lower monthly but higher technical work
Realistic launch budgets:
- Dropshipping: $100-500, with AliDropship only $39/month
- Amazon FBA: $2,500-8,000
- Service business: $50-300
- Inventory ecommerce: $2,000-10,000
The most important lesson? Some costs are completely unavoidable across all platforms, but your platform choice determines whether you pay a low percentage or high percentage of your revenue in ongoing fees.
The costs you can’t escape anywhere:
- Payment processing: About 3% per sale
- Taxes: Portion of profits
- Marketing: Either time or money
- Basic tools: Email marketing, analytics
- Legal compliance: Licenses, permits, business formation
The costs that vary dramatically by platform:
- Platform base fees
- Per-sale fees (from none to over 30%)
- Apps and tools needed
- Time investment
- Customer data ownership
This strategy minimizes risk, validates cheaply, and scales profitably without getting locked into expensive per-sale fees.
Platform comparison over time shows AliDropship consistently saves money:
- Lower monthly base costs
- Includes features others charge extra for
- Avoids high per-sale percentages
- Predictable costs as you scale
The difference between dreamers and entrepreneurs isn’t about having a huge budget. It’s about understanding exactly where money goes and choosing platforms that let you keep more of your revenue as you grow.
Claim your 14-day free trial with AliDropship – test everything without spending a penny, then pay just $39/month for a complete solution that keeps your costs low as a small percentage of revenue instead of high percentages. Build a real business that you own, not one dependent on marketplace policies.
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