Which path is cheapest?

Short term, a hosted platform's entry plan. But total cost is set by themes, add-ons, plan upgrades and your own time — not the entry price. Small catalogue plus plenty of time: use a platform. If lost sales cost you real money, professional setup ends up cheaper.

Can I move from a platform to a custom site later?

Product data moves; SEO history and site layout mostly don't. If you're serious about growth, your domain and data should be in your name from day one.

Do you open the iyzico account for me?

No — the payment account must legally be in your name, so you apply; we guide you step by step and build the integration after approval. Approval time is up to iyzico.

What if I have more than 100 products?

E1 covers up to 100 active products. For bigger catalogues or a second language we scope first, then quote; clean CSV import for up to 100 extra products is 4,900 TL.

Do you guarantee sales?

No — and nobody honestly can. We guarantee the infrastructure, measurement and speed; sales come from your product and marketing together. Avoid any vendor promising revenue.

Building an E-Commerce Store: The Real Cost in 2026 (Platform vs Custom Site)

Everyone searching "how to build an online store" is really asking one thing: what will this actually cost me? This guide breaks down the real cost of the three paths — hosted platform, open source, custom store — including the line items nobody advertises. At the end we publish our own price, because trust isn't built by hiding numbers.

Three paths, all of them "work"

In Türkiye you can sell from your own site three ways. Hosted platforms (ikas, Ticimax, IdeaSoft, or Shopify globally): you rent a monthly plan and open a store from a panel. Open source (usually WordPress + WooCommerce): the software is free, setup and maintenance are yours. Custom store: built on your own domain, for you — that's the model we sell. All three work; the difference is where the cost hides.

Hosted platforms: the entry price is not the staying price

The advertised number is the entry plan, and it rarely covers real needs. In practice you add: a professional theme (usually paid), extra apps for features that should be basic (returns, bundles, advanced filters), payment integration differences and — most importantly — forced plan upgrades as you grow. Doubling your first-year cost isn't the exception; it's the design.

One more line item appears only when you try to leave: migration. On a hosted platform your store lives on their infrastructure. You can export products, but the site, its SEO history and layout stay behind. That's the difference between renting and owning.

Open source: free software, expensive labour

With WooCommerce you don't pay for software — but hosting, SSL, themes, payment plugins and security updates are on you. The real cost of open source isn't money, it's responsibility: stores that delay updates are the most attacked group, and when a payment plugin breaks after an update, sales stop until you find a developer. If you have a technical person (or genuinely want to learn), this path works; otherwise "free" software becomes a maintenance subscription billed in your evenings.

The invisible line item: your time

A realistic self-build budget: choosing and learning a platform, adjusting a theme, entering products one by one (for 100 products — photos, copy, variants — that's days), the payment application and testing, legal texts. Weeks of evenings while you also run your business. An owner's hour has a price; any "cheap" path that ignores it is expensive.

Commissions and payments: whose account does the money land in?

On marketplaces you pay commission on every sale and the customer belongs to the marketplace. On your own site there's only the payment provider's single-digit percentage, and money lands directly in your own account. One rule matters here: the payment account must be in YOUR name. Avoid setups where an agency routes your revenue through their account — you'd be handing over control of your turnover on day one.

When to build it yourself

Honest answer: build it yourself when all three are true — (1) your catalogue is small and rarely changes, (2) you have weeks of evenings and the appetite for it, (3) a technical outage costs you patience, not real sales. If that's you, start with a hosted platform's entry plan; you'll return to the rest of this guide when you grow.

When to have it built

If your catalogue is settled, lost sales are lost money, and your job isn't running a website — have it built. And demand three things in writing: the price published upfront (a "get a quote" wall means negotiation), the payment account and domain in your name, and everything staying with you if you leave.

Our number — in the open

Here's how we sell it: the E1 Store package is 39,900 TL setup + 3,900 TL/month. Scope is published: a store for up to 100 products (list, detail, cart, checkout), integration with your approved iyzico account — payments go directly to you, no commission to us —, an order panel, email notifications, legal text templates, domain + hosting + SSL, GA4 + Pixel, CSV import, a real test order and training. The monthly fee covers hosting, security updates, backups and small fixes. What's not included is also published: store operations, marketplace integrations, shipping APIs, product photography. No lock-in; if you leave, everything stays yours.

Questions? Our WhatsApp line is open — tell us what you sell and how many products you have, and we'll scope it together. The number is already above; no surprises.