“How much will a Shopify store cost me?” is usually the first question a UAE founder asks, and the honest answer is that it depends on four things: the Shopify plan, the theme and apps, payment processing, and who builds it. The platform itself is cheap. The decisions you make around it are where the budget goes.
This guide breaks down each cost line as it stands in late 2026, with Shopify’s published prices in US dollars and rough dirham equivalents. The dirham is pegged to the dollar at about AED 3.67, so the conversions below are rounded and stable, but always check the live figure in your Shopify admin before you commit.
1. Shopify plan fees
Shopify’s UAE pricing page lists four main plans. Subscription fees are charged in USD. Paying yearly brings the monthly price down noticeably.
- Basic: USD 32 a month billed monthly, or USD 24 a month billed yearly (roughly AED 118 or AED 88).
- Grow: USD 92 monthly, or USD 69 a month yearly (roughly AED 338 or AED 253).
- Advanced: USD 399 monthly, or USD 299 a month yearly (roughly AED 1,465 or AED 1,098).
- Shopify Plus: from USD 2,300 a month (roughly AED 8,450), with 1-year or 3-year term options. Larger brands are often quoted individually.
Shopify also runs a short free trial followed by a reduced introductory price for the first few months on most plans. That is useful for setting up, but budget on the full price from month four onwards.
Which plan fits a UAE start-up?
Most new brands launch comfortably on Basic or Grow. The step up to Advanced makes sense once you need more staff accounts, more detailed reporting or lower card rates on higher volume. Plus is built for brands with serious order volume, multiple storefronts, wholesale or advanced checkout requirements. If you are not sure you need it, you probably do not yet.
2. Payment processing fees
This is the cost line founders most often underestimate, because it grows with revenue. Shopify’s help centre now lists the United Arab Emirates as a supported country for Shopify Payments. The published online card rates on the UAE pricing page are:
- Basic: 2.9% + AED 1.00 per transaction
- Grow: 2.8% + AED 1.00
- Advanced: 2.7% + AED 1.00
- Plus: 2.5% + AED 1.00
Eligibility can depend on your business details and verification, so confirm in your own admin that Shopify Payments is available to you before you plan around it.
Third-party gateways and the extra Shopify fee
Many UAE stores also use a local gateway, a buy now, pay later provider or another processor. Those providers set their own rates, which you negotiate or accept directly with them. On top of that, Shopify charges a third-party transaction fee on orders processed through an external gateway: 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced and 0.2% on Plus.
Shopify does not charge that extra fee on orders processed through Shopify Payments, Shop Pay or manual payment methods such as cash on delivery or bank transfer. If you use Shopify Payments as your main provider, PayPal orders are exempt too. However, orders that go through any other external gateway still carry the fee even when Shopify Payments is switched on. On a store doing AED 100,000 a month through an external gateway on Basic, that 2% is AED 2,000 a month before the gateway’s own charges, which is why plan choice and gateway choice should be decided together.
3. Theme costs
You have three realistic options:
- Free theme: Shopify offers a set of free themes that are fast and well maintained. Good for testing a product before investing heavily.
- Paid theme from the Shopify Theme Store: a one-off purchase. At the time of writing, paid themes on the Theme Store range from about USD 170 to USD 380 (roughly AED 625 to AED 1,400).
- Custom theme: designed and built around your brand, your products and your customers’ buying journey. This is where the agency budget comes in, covered below.
A paid theme plus some careful configuration is a sensible middle ground for many first stores. The cost of a theme is rarely the problem. The cost of heavily modifying a theme that was never designed for your catalogue usually is.
4. Apps
Apps are where monthly costs quietly pile up. A typical UAE store ends up with apps for reviews, email and SMS marketing, subscriptions, product bundles, search, translations for Arabic and English, and shipping or courier integrations. Many apps have a free tier, and paid tiers are usually billed monthly in USD, often rising with your order volume or contact count.
Three habits keep this line under control:
- Check whether Shopify already does the job natively before installing anything.
- Review your app list every quarter and remove anything you are not actively using. Unused apps can still load code on your storefront and slow it down.
- Budget apps as a percentage of revenue, not a fixed number, because many pricing models scale with you.
5. Agency build costs
If you hire an agency, the build is usually the largest single cost. To give you a concrete reference point rather than a vague industry range, here are ConversionsKing’s own published starting prices. Other agencies will price differently, so use these as one benchmark, not the market rate.
Store build packages
- Starter, USD 5,000 (roughly AED 18,350): a custom Shopify theme for new brands, up to 50 products, mobile responsive, basic SEO setup and 30 days of support.
- Growth, USD 15,000 (roughly AED 55,100): custom design and development, unlimited products, conversion optimisation, advanced integrations and 90 days of priority support.
- Enterprise, from USD 30,000 (roughly AED 110,200 and up): Shopify Plus setup, headless commerce, custom checkout, advanced analytics and a 12-month partnership.
Specialist projects
- Custom store design: from USD 24,000, fixed fee, 6 to 10 weeks.
- Migration and launch from another platform: from USD 32,000, fixed fee, 8 to 14 weeks.
- Shopify Plus development: from USD 45,000, fixed fee or time and materials, 8 to 16 weeks.
Whoever you talk to, ask for a written scope that lists the pages, integrations, number of design rounds, who owns the code, and what support looks like after launch. Two quotes with the same headline price can describe very different projects.
6. Ongoing costs after launch
A store is not finished on launch day. Plan for these running costs:
- Platform and apps: your Shopify plan plus app subscriptions every month.
- Payment fees: a percentage of every order, as covered above.
- Domain and email: small annual costs, but do not forget them.
- Content and photography: new product launches need new images and copy, in both Arabic and English if you sell to both audiences.
- Growth work: if you retain an agency, ConversionsKing’s retainers start at USD 6,500 a month for SEO and performance, USD 8,500 a month for conversion optimisation (both with a 90-day minimum) and USD 12,500 a month for growth strategy (6-month minimum).
7. Don’t forget UAE VAT
VAT in the UAE is 5%. According to the Federal Tax Authority, registration is mandatory once your taxable supplies and imports exceed AED 375,000 over the previous 12 months, or are expected to in the next 30 days. Voluntary registration is possible above AED 187,500. Once registered, you need to set up tax collection correctly in Shopify and price your products with VAT in mind. Speak to a UAE tax adviser about your specific situation, especially if you sell across the GCC.
Putting it together: three example budgets
These are illustrative ranges built from the published prices above, not quotes:
- Lean test launch: Basic plan, free or paid theme, a handful of free or low-cost apps, set up yourself. Your main costs are the subscription, a theme of up to roughly AED 1,400 and payment fees.
- Professional launch: Grow plan, a custom-built store from an agency such as a USD 5,000 to USD 15,000 package, a focused app stack and a clear plan for payments.
- Scaling brand: Advanced or Plus, custom design or a migration project, and an ongoing retainer for SEO, performance or conversion work.
The cheapest store is rarely the one that costs least to build. It is the one where the plan, the payment setup and the app stack are chosen together, so you are not paying avoidable fees on every order for years.
Getting a clear number for your store
If you want a scoped estimate for your own catalogue, markets and payment setup, ConversionsKing works with UAE brands from Dubai. You can read more about how we work on our Shopify agency Dubai page, or book a strategy call to talk through your plan, budget and timeline before you commit to anything.
