What does a free online store cost to run?

A free online store removes one possible cost: the base software licence. It does not remove the infrastructure, payment processing or practical work needed to sell. The best budget separates those items so you can see what is due once, what repeats and what changes with every order.

Start with three cost categories

A long list of possible expenses becomes easier to understand when each item has a place. Avoid putting everything into a single monthly figure: that can conceal a large launch payment or overlook a fee that grows with sales.

Marketing and product procurement belong in your wider business budget too. They are not part of the technical base-cost calculation below. A store being available online does not create a guaranteed number of customers or orders.

What the setup fee pays for

AWA’s A$999 setup fee, plus GST, pays for the agreed configuration and launch work. That includes applying your supplied brand assets, initial entry of 20 supplied products, the agreed domain and provider connections, a test order and handover.

Good source material makes that work more straightforward. A spreadsheet with consistent names, prices, variants and image references is more useful than a folder of mixed screenshots. If your current catalogue needs extensive cleaning or migration, identify that before the project is quoted.

The product-entry allowance is not a technical product limit. A hosting plan’s capacity and the time spent entering products are different things. Likewise, the standard setup does not silently include every custom integration your business may need later.

Hosting and domain are real operating costs

Your shop needs a technical environment and an address customers can reach. Hosting should fit the actual store, so AWA provides a separate offer rather than presenting an assumed monthly amount as a universal tariff.

Ask what is included: capacity, backups, restoration, updates and the process when something breaks. These responsibilities should be clear even if a single provider performs several of them.

For the domain, record both the first registration cost and the renewal price. A promotional first year may not be the right number for year two. Keep the registrar account, renewal date and responsible person in your operating notes.

Calculate year one and year two

Let H be monthly hosting and D the annual domain charge, both in Australian dollars before GST. For twelve full months of hosting and one domain year, the technical base cost is:

For a hypothetical example, use A$20 per month for hosting and A$12 per year for the domain. The first-year total is A$1,251 before GST: A$999 + A$240 + A$12. At unchanged rates, the following year is A$252 before GST.

Those hosting and domain figures are made-up examples, not AWA prices. Replace them with your actual quote. The campaign page’s calculator lets you change both values and see the arithmetic.

This calculation excludes payment processing, delivery, marketing, optional care, content work and additional integrations. It also assumes unchanged hosting and domain prices. The one-time launch setup does not repeat each year for an unchanged store, but a new project can have its own fee.

Then add the costs of each order

A payment provider may charge a percentage, a fixed fee or a combination. Shipping may depend on parcel size, weight and destination. Work with the terms in your own contracts rather than borrowing a generic rate from another business.

A useful worksheet has one row per expected order type. Include the selling price, payment fee, shipping charged to the customer, delivery expense and packaging cost. If returns or special handling are common in your market, plan those separately too.

No Neocart platform commission means the base platform does not take an additional share of your sales under this offer. It does not make an external processor, courier or packaging supplier free.

A yearly total is not a payment schedule

Two plans can have a similar annual total and different cash-flow requirements. One may bill hosting monthly while another bills a year in advance. Domain renewals and project milestones may fall on different dates.

Ask for a payment schedule alongside the scope. Keep currency and GST treatment explicit, especially when comparing tools priced in different currencies. This AWA setup offer is A$999 plus GST; do not compare it to a tax-inclusive total without accounting for the difference.

If the quote includes optional support, distinguish that from the minimum infrastructure needed to run the store. Choose the service level deliberately rather than assuming every maintenance activity is already included.

A useful quote answers the next question

A good quote describes not only the launch price but also what happens next. Who can update a product? Who restores a backup? What is included if you add another provider? What data is available if you later change systems?

Use our guide to free-store business models when comparing offers. Once the budget is clear, the launch preparation guide helps turn that quote into a practical list of tasks.

Common budget questions

Editorial starting point: CONEN Digital’s guide on this topic (18 October 2026). Independently written for AWA’s English-language audience and offer. Updated 19 October 2026. Your agreed quote defines the final scope and costs.