How long does an online store take to set up?
Last updated: July 2026
For a small shop (around 30 products) on a hosted e-commerce platform, set up by one freelancer: 34 to 64 hours.
In short: a 30-product store on a hosted platform takes 34 to 64 hours, and product data alone runs 15 to 30 minutes per item. Count the products before you quote anything.
The store software is famous for "launch in a day", and that claim is true the same way an empty restaurant is open for business.
The assumptions: a hosted platform (no custom development), around 30 products with client-provided photos and text, standard payments and shipping for one country, a customized theme rather than a custom design.
The task list
The honest range
A 30-product store takes 34 to 64 hours to set up properly. Product data alone takes 15 to 30 minutes per item. The platform is fast, but building the shop takes work.
The hidden mountain: product data
Every store project contains a mountain nobody sees in the demo: titles, descriptions, prices, variants, photos, categories, tags, thirty times over.
At 15 to 30 minutes per product, 30 products is one to two full days of careful work, and 200 products is a different project entirely.
Count the products before quoting, the way a video editor counts raw footage. It is the one question that protects this estimate, and it also gives you the fairest line on the quote: priced per product, transparent for everyone.
What moves the estimate
Up: more products (price per product beyond the included set), product photography or copywriting, multiple countries with different taxes and shipping, migration from an old shop with order history, custom features beyond apps, multilingual stores.
Down: a client with clean product data in a spreadsheet, a platform and theme you set up weekly, a single simple product line.
Price your version
Adjust the lines, total them, and put the number into the calculator. At a mid-range 48 hours and the default $50/h with a 20% buffer, the store quotes around $2,880.
Project price
Missing your floor? Compute your personal minimum first →
About to send it? Run the Quote Check → · Need the document? Build the quote →
Estimated Work
billable hours in this project
Hourly Rate
what your working hour must earn
Scope Buffer
funds revisions and surprises
Drag any blue number to adjust (click it to type). Your inputs carry over to the full tool. Access full tool
The platform launches in a day. The shop takes the other 47 hours.
From task list to full quote
Type your hours, add your buffer, and the calculator builds the quote with expenses and fees included.
Price my projectFree, no signup. For real.
The estimation sheets
Every sheet in this series is built the same way on purpose: one estimation method, applied job by job. Same sheet, different job, your numbers.
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