How much does a theme cost on e-commerce platforms?
Self-made e-commerce platforms, known as SaaS eCommerce platforms, have become essential for businesses looking to venture into online sales due to the numerous benefits they offer.
Accessible Management for Everyone…
The most undeniable advantage is ease of management. Being able to add new pages, analytics tools, options to your store, or manage your sales 100% online can be done by anyone in the company. No need to call your web agency or hire an in-house developer anymore.
Costs vs Budget
Unlike custom e-commerce site development by a web agency, where you’ll need a minimum budget of $20,000, and development could take approximately 1-2 months (even more for large projects), SaaS e-commerce platforms allow you to quickly launch into online sales with a simple monthly subscription.
We had written a comparative article on different fees for each platform and online marketplace, allowing you to see the various monthly expenses depending on your turnover. Read it here.
Free and Paid Designs
When considering the costs of launching an online store, the purchase or rental of a template/theme can be a factor.
If you don’t want to pay for your template, platforms offer free ones. Here are details of the free templates offered (in Canada) by four main e-commerce platforms:
Lightspeed
3 free templates
Lightspeed gives you a choice of only 3 free themes, very simple and classic. It is the only one that rents its paid templates; you will have to pay an average of $22.50 monthly in addition to your plan and other fees to enjoy a beautiful design.
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Shopify
8 free templates
Shopify is the global leader in SaaS e-commerce platforms, but that doesn’t make it the most generous in terms of templates. Only 8 templates are free, and the average price of a template is $178 USD.
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BigCommerce
12 free templates
BigCommerce offers more free templates than Shopify with its 12 units, but if you want to get a paid template, you will have to pay an average of $204 USD.
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Panierdachat
9 free templates
Panierdachat is the only platform offering 100% of its templates for free, you won’t pay anything for a beautiful design.
It is also the one that offers the most with its 9 templates, each different from the others to offer the most diversity and cater to all types of businesses.
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Micheal Villeneuve is the President and founder of Laradev. Laradev is certified in Laravel development, specializes in universal application, and offers training and support.