How Much Does a Shopify Agency Cost in 2026?
Haniel Singh
Founder, Creative Labs · Published Nov 7, 2026 · 4 min read
Summarize with AI
Shopify agency costs range from $5,000 for a theme-based store to $150,000 or more for a headless Shopify Plus build with custom integrations. The gap is real, and most agencies will not tell you upfront which end of the range your project sits at.
This guide breaks down what you will actually pay at each level — theme builds, custom development, Shopify Plus, migrations, CRO, SEO, and retainers — based on pricing from the 800+ stores Creative Labs has shipped since 2012. No vague "it depends" ranges. Real numbers.
What determines the cost of a Shopify agency?
Four things set the price: project scope, platform tier (Shopify vs Shopify Plus), the level of custom work, and the agency's operating model. A boutique US agency with senior staff costs more per hour than an offshore team, but the total project cost can be lower because fewer hours are wasted on rework.
- •Number of unique page templates — a 5-page site is not the same as a 200-SKU store with custom PDPs, filtered collections, and a mega menu
- •Custom functionality — loyalty programs, B2B portals, subscription logic, or third-party integrations each add scope
- •Migration complexity — moving from WooCommerce, Magento, or BigCommerce with SEO preservation is a project within a project
- •Content and CRO — agencies that build for conversion include UX research, A/B test planning, and SEO architecture in the build
- •Ongoing support — most stores need a retainer for updates, CRO iterations, and technical fixes after launch
Shopify agency pricing by project type
Theme-based Shopify store: $5,000–$15,000
A theme-based build starts from a Shopify 2.0 theme — Dawn, Sense, or a premium theme — and customizes it for your brand. You get homepage design, product pages, collection pages, and basic SEO setup. This is right for new brands launching their first store or DTC brands with under 100 SKUs that need to be live in 4–6 weeks.
Creative Labs prices theme-based builds from $10,000, which includes UX design in Figma, custom sections, SEO architecture, and CRO-optimized product pages — not just a theme install with your logo swapped in.
Custom Shopify development: $15,000–$50,000
A custom build means a fully bespoke theme built from scratch on Shopify's Online Store 2.0 architecture. Nothing is inherited from an existing theme. This is right for established brands doing $500K+ in annual revenue that need a store built around their specific catalog structure, customer journey, and conversion goals.
Shopify Plus store build: $30,000–$150,000+
Shopify Plus adds checkout customization (Checkout Extensibility), B2B wholesale channels, Shopify Functions for custom discounting, multi-market selling with Shopify Markets, and headless architecture options with Hydrogen. A straightforward Plus migration sits at $30K–$50K. A full headless build with Hydrogen or Astro pushes past $100K.
Platform migration: $8,000–$40,000
Migrating from WooCommerce, Magento, or BigCommerce to Shopify is not a data export. It is a rebuild with SEO preservation — 301 redirects for every URL, meta data migration, structured data setup, and a URL architecture that does not lose rankings.
Ongoing SEO and AEO: $2,000–$5,000/month
Creative Labs runs SEO through RankSpark, our managed SEO platform, starting at $2,800/month with a traffic guarantee in writing. Two tiers: Growth ($999/month, 50 keywords) and Scale ($1,799/month, 150 keywords with weekly content and aggressive link building).
CRO services: $2,000–$5,000/month
A 0.5% conversion rate lift on a store doing $1M/year is $50K in additional sales with no extra ad spend. CRO retainers cover A/B testing, heatmap analysis, checkout optimization, PDP redesign, and collection page improvements.
How Creative Labs prices projects
We quote fixed-scope, fixed-price. No hourly billing, no retainer-by-default. You send us your store or requirements, and we send back a short Loom with the three things we would fix first and what it would cost. The audit is free.
Our starting prices: website design and build from $10,000, brand identity sprint $4,200, AI workflows $5,500, and SEO retainers from $2,800/month. Full pricing is on our pricing page.
Next steps
Send us your store URL. Within one business day you get a free audit with specific findings on speed, conversion, and SEO, plus a fixed-price quote. No pitch deck. No hourly surprises.
Written by
Haniel Singh
Founder, Creative Labs
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