B2B Online Shop Costs 2026: Ranges & Sample Calculation

A B2B online shop costs €200–500 per month in the simplest case — and in the most elaborate case €100,000 one-time plus ongoing maintenance. Both are real numbers from the same market: a B2B SaaS platform starts at around €250 per month, a custom-built B2B portal quickly reaches six figures. Which number applies to you isn't decided by the price of the software, but by five cost blocks — and we'll work through them here.

The five cost blocks

Whether SaaS, shop system, or agency build: the cost anatomy of a B2B shop is always the same.

Two observations from practice that matter more than the table:

The software is usually the smallest line item. In Shopware projects, license costs account for only 15–25% of total costs according to industry analyses — the rest is agency, operations, and continued development. Anyone comparing only license prices is comparing the tip of the iceberg.

B2B requirements drive the costs. Customer groups with their own prices, tiered pricing, purchasing on invoice, E-Rechnung from 2027 — exactly the features that make a B2B shop are add-ons in generic systems. And add-on means: a more expensive license tier or a stack of plugins.

Common question: Does a B2B shop cost more than a regular online shop? The software doesn't — the tariffs are the same. Operations do: B2B features are often not included in standard tiers and push you into enterprise levels or plugin stacks. The surcharge doesn't come from "B2B" as a label, but from generic systems having to retrofit B2B.

What the four paths cost

Shopify: The list prices sound harmless — Basic around €33, Advanced around €384 per month. For B2B it gets tight: anyone who wants multiple price lists, customer group logic, and a clean B2B checkout ends up at Shopify Plus in practice, from around €2,100 per month. Add app subscriptions for typical B2B requirements and a surcharge of 0.6–2% on payments through external providers. We've broken down the five cost traps of Shopify in B2B use separately.

Shopware: Rise from €600, Evolve from €2,400 per month — and B2B functionality is reserved for the Evolve tier. The Community Edition is free, but since 2025 it's limited to companies with up to €1 million in annual revenue. The real cost argument with Shopware is a different one: hardly anyone runs it without an agency — setup, updates, and operations are agency work. We've broken down the full Shopware costs over three years separately.

Custom development: A simple shop runs €5,000–15,000. A B2B portal with pricing logic, ERP connection, and role concept quickly €30,000–100,000 and more. And after that comes the bill everyone underestimates: maintenance, security updates, continued development — as a retainer or in projects.

The fallacy: license price instead of total cost

In first meetings, merchants almost always ask us: "What does the software cost?" The better question is: what does the shop cost over three years — including setup, apps, agency, and your people's time?

Comparing three-year costs (TCO) means putting all five blocks on one table. The most common finding: the cheapest license model is rarely the cheapest shop. The plugin stack that costs €80 per month in year one is its own cost block by year three, with maintenance, incompatibilities after updates, and downtime.

Sample calculation: 40 business customers, 3,000 orders per year

Scenario: wholesaler, 40 fixed business customers, 3 customer groups, tiered pricing, purchasing on invoice, around 3,000 orders per year.

The spread is the actual result: for the same scenario, costs range by a factor of 5 to 20. And what's co-deciding isn't only price but also risk — what happens when the shop no longer fits after two years?

Which path fits which company size?

Costs alone say little — what matters is which path fits your size, your revenue, and your processes. Rough orientation (not boundaries, just rules of thumb):

Anyone deeply interlocked with SAP or a grown ERP may find a system like Shopware or a custom solution sensible — those companies have the processes, the agency, and the budget for it. But that's long since not the only option: B2B SaaS platforms deliver ERP connections too. Kontorly, for instance, offers ERP integration, custom SLAs, and data migration in the Enterprise plan — deliberately built as an alternative for exactly that transition zone.

For everyone below that zone — from the smallest company into the upper midmarket — the calculation flips: the high one-time costs and the risk of expensive inflexibility disappear entirely.

Clarity instead of ranges

A B2B online shop is a serious investment, and costs vary more strongly than in almost any other software market. Once you've worked through the five blocks, one insight remains: it's not the software that costs you the money, but everything around it — agency, apps, operations, migrations.

That's exactly where Kontorly comes in. Starter €249 per month, Business €449, Enterprise from €1,299 — tiered pricing, customer groups, and E-Rechnungen included in every plan. No agency needed, no plugin stack, no percentage of your revenue. Over three years, Kontorly Business costs €16,164 — less than a single agency project on the other paths. And because it's a subscription, you stay flexible: if your business grows, you move up a tier; if your market changes, you're not locked into a six-figure investment.

For small companies through the upper midmarket, Kontorly is the solution with the clearest cost profile: no high one-time costs, no risk of expensive inflexibility, predictable monthly costs.

Kontorly is a German B2B e-commerce platform (SaaS) for online shops with tiered pricing, customer groups, and direct ordering by business customers. Made in Germany, from Hamburg.

What does your shop cost specifically? That depends on your customers, your prices, and your processes — in a 30-minute demo we'll walk you through the numbers.

FAQ

Can't I just use a free system?

Sure — WooCommerce and the Shopware Community Edition cost €0 in licenses. But B2B features come from plugins or are locked, and operations, updates, and security sit entirely with you. €0 license only means €0 total cost if your time costs nothing. What the WooCommerce plugin bill looks like exactly is calculated here.

What should I budget as a mid-sized company?

As a realistic range: €250–500 per month for a B2B SaaS platform, €600–2,400 monthly license at Shopware plus agency flat fee, from around €2,100 at Shopify Plus. Rule of thumb: budget three times the license as total cost — then you're usually right.

What does a B2B online shop cost per year?

For the same scenario — 40 business customers, 3,000 orders per year: B2B SaaS around €5,400, Shopify Plus around €25,200 plus apps and agency, Shopware Evolve €28,800 plus agency, custom build €50,000–100,000 one-time. The spread is a factor of 5 to 20 — the full calculation is in the sample calculation above.

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Prices as of August 2026: public list prices from Shopify and Shopware; agency ranges from industry analyses (including Qualimero, Ostend Digital). Check current prices before your decision.