Last updated: April 2026
If you run a business and you want to launch or scale an online store in Romania, the first question is always the same: what does it cost? The short answer: anywhere from a few dozen euros a month on a subscription platform, or from EUR 3,400 for a custom store with no monthly fee. The full answer is more nuanced - and skipping the details can cost you thousands of euros over three to five years.
This guide breaks down every cost: what you pay upfront, what you pay every month, which costs stay hidden until they hit you, and - most importantly - which option makes sense for the stage your business is at.
The short answer: two ways to pay for a store
There are two broad categories of online store solutions in Romania in 2026:
1. Subscription platforms
You pay a monthly fee to use a ready-built platform. Upfront cost is low or zero, but you keep paying every month whether you sell or not. As the business grows, so does the bill: higher tiers, transaction fees, paid add-ons, limited integrations.
Rough cost: tens to several hundred EUR a month, depending on the plan and your sales volume.
2. Custom store (open source or custom PHP)
You pay once for development and you own the platform. There is no mandatory monthly licence fee. The upfront cost is higher, but at meaningful sales volumes it works out far cheaper over time.
Rough cost: from EUR 3,400 excluding VAT for a working online store built by a specialist agency such as Pronet Design.
What a subscription platform actually costs
Subscription platforms have a simple business model: you pay monthly, they run the infrastructure. On the face of it that looks attractive - no large upfront cost, fast launch, no hosting or technical updates to worry about.
The trouble starts when the business grows.
How the bill grows with you
- Higher plan tiers: the advanced features live in the premium plans, which cost more.
- Transaction fees: many platforms take a cut of every sale - 0.5% to 2% per transaction. At EUR 50,000 in monthly sales, that is EUR 250 to EUR 1,000 a month in fees alone.
- Paid apps and modules: features you would consider standard (abandoned cart recovery, loyalty schemes, ERP connections) are usually separate add-ons with their own subscriptions.
- Integration limits: if you need a specific link to a Romanian accounting system or a local courier, standardised platforms either block it or make it expensive.
- Platform dependency: the code is not yours. If the platform changes its pricing or shuts down, you are exposed.
The typical story of a store that outgrew its platform
Plenty of Romanian business owners started on a subscription platform - a perfectly sensible choice at the time. Two or three years of growth later, the maths turns painful:
- Advanced plan: EUR 150-200/month
- Essential add-ons (invoicing, marketing, stock): EUR 80-120/month
- Transaction fees: EUR 100-300/month
- Extra hosting or CDN: EUR 30-50/month
Total: EUR 360-670 a month - and it keeps climbing with sales volume. At that point the question is no longer "what does a custom store cost?" but "why didn't I do this sooner?"
That is the typical Pronet Design client: someone who has proven the business model, grown, and now wants to own the platform and stop feeding a recurring bill.
Custom store costs: freelancer versus agency
A custom store means you pay once for development and the platform is yours. There are two main routes: a freelancer or a specialist agency.
Freelancer
- Price: EUR 800-3,000 for a basic store
- Upside: lower upfront cost, direct communication
- Risks: limited availability, no long-term support, uneven quality, the risk of a project being abandoned, little or no documentation
For a test shop or a small project, a freelancer can work. For a serious business with complex integrations, the risks outweigh the savings.
Specialist agency
An agency with real eCommerce experience delivers a finished, tested, documented product and stays around to support it.
Pronet Design - more than 160 projects delivered, and six of our clients' stores have won trophies at GPeC, Romania's main eCommerce competition, between 2023 and 2025 - builds online stores from EUR 3,400 excluding VAT, with no monthly licence fee. We work on open source platforms (OpenCart, PrestaShop, Magento) or custom PHP.
What the base price covers:
- Custom design, or implementation on a premium template
- Full platform configuration
- Payment gateway integration
- Courier integration with automatic waybills
- Basic SEO setup
- Admin training
- The source code belongs to you - no lock-in, ever
Total cost of ownership: one year, three years, five years
Total cost of ownership is the only honest way to compare the two routes. Here is a realistic calculation for a mid-sized store:
| Cost item | Subscription platform | Custom Pronet store |
|---|---|---|
| Upfront investment | EUR 0 - 500 | from EUR 3,400 |
| Monthly platform fee | EUR 150 - 400/month | EUR 0 |
| Hosting | included in the plan | EUR 20 - 80/month |
| Extra apps and modules | EUR 50 - 200/month | 0 (included or one-off) |
| Transaction fees | 0.5 - 2% per sale | 0 (gateway only) |
| Maintenance | included in the plan | optional, from RON 300/month |
| Code ownership | NO - the platform owns it | YES - you own it |
| Estimated cost - 1 year | EUR 2,400 - 7,200 | EUR 3,640 - 4,360 |
| Estimated cost - 3 years | EUR 7,200 - 21,600 | EUR 4,120 - 6,280 |
| Estimated cost - 5 years | EUR 12,000 - 36,000 | EUR 4,600 - 8,200 |
Note: the subscription figures include the base plan, essential add-ons and estimated transaction fees at EUR 20,000-50,000 in monthly sales. The custom figures include the upfront build plus hosting, with optional Pronet maintenance (RON 300/month) added in. These are estimates and will vary with each business.
What the table shows: after 18 to 24 months a custom store costs less than a subscription, and the gap widens as sales grow. At the end of it you own a real digital asset.
Hidden costs most people forget
Whichever route you take, some costs rarely make it into the first budget:
1. Domain and SSL certificate
A .ro domain costs EUR 10-20 a year, a .com around EUR 12-15. An SSL certificate is usually bundled with hosting, but check before you buy. Without SSL, Google will not index your store properly.
2. Hosting
Basic shared hosting runs EUR 5-15 a month, but a store with real traffic needs VPS or cloud hosting at EUR 30-100 a month. Slow hosting means slow pages and fewer sales.
3. Payment gateway
Stripe, PayU, Netopia, ePlatesc - every gateway charges a fee. Typically 1.4-2.9% plus EUR 0.25-0.30 per transaction for European cards. At high volumes, negotiating directly with a bank can cut that significantly, and that option is only open to you on a custom platform.
4. Invoicing integration and e-Factura
Electronic invoicing through ANAF, Romania's tax authority, is mandatory: B2B since 2024 and B2C since 2025, with a five working day deadline for submitting each invoice. Connecting your store to an invoicing system such as SmartBill or Oblio is a cost you need to plan for.
5. Professional product photography
A proper photo session costs EUR 200-1,000 depending on how many products you have. Poor photos will sink your conversion rate no matter how good the technical build is.
6. Marketing and SEO
A store with no traffic sells nothing. Budget at least EUR 500-2,000 a month for marketing in the first six to twelve months.
7. Content and copywriting
Product descriptions, category pages, blog articles - all of it takes time or money. Good content drives both search rankings and conversions.
What moves the price of a custom store
Number of products
A shop with 50 simple products is a different job from one with 10,000 products and multiple variants. Importing and structuring a large catalogue takes extra configuration time.
Design: template or built from scratch
Building on a premium template is faster and cheaper. A fully custom design can add EUR 1,500-5,000 to the total, and gives you a visual identity nobody else has.
Integrations with other systems
Every integration adds development time and cost:
- ERP (Saga, WinMentor, Priority, Senior Software, Expert Contab, Nexus): EUR 500-2,000
- Couriers (Fan Courier, DPD, Cargus, GLS, Sameday, Pallex, Dragon Star): EUR 200-500 per courier
- Marketplace (eMAG, Romania's largest online marketplace): EUR 500-1,500
- Invoicing systems (Oblio, SmartBill): EUR 150-250 to build the connector
On a custom Pronet Design platform, any integration is possible - there are no platform-imposed limits. If the service has an API, we can connect it.
Special features
Product configurators, subscription systems, per-client B2B pricing, multi-vendor marketplaces - each one adds development hours and cost.
When each option makes sense
When a subscription platform is the right call
A subscription platform is the sensible choice if:
- You are starting out and want to test quickly whether your product sells online
- Your initial budget is tight
- You sell a small number of simple products with no complex integration needs
- You do not need custom features
When a custom store is the right call
A custom store is the right choice if:
- Your business has grown and the recurring platform bill has reached EUR 300-400 a month or more
- You need specific integrations a standardised platform will not support
- You want to own the source code and depend on nobody
- Transaction fees have turned into a serious line item
- You want to scale without platform limits
Our typical clients started on a subscription platform, proved the business worked, grew, and then ran into the limits and the rising costs. At that point the arithmetic is simple: a custom store pays for itself in 12 to 18 months out of the subscription and commission savings alone.
One more thing that matters: the client owns the source code outright. You can work with any other agency or developer later, with nothing tying you to a single vendor.
Frequently asked questions about online store costs
What does a simple online store cost in Romania in 2026?
A basic store with a few dozen products and standard features starts at EUR 3,400 excluding VAT with a specialist agency, with no monthly licence fee. On a subscription platform you can start for very little, but you will keep paying every month.
Are there mandatory monthly costs with a custom store?
The only mandatory monthly cost is hosting, at EUR 20-80. Maintenance is optional (from RON 300 a month with us). There is no platform fee. We have stores built in 2018 that still run perfectly with no active maintenance contract.
How long does it take to build a custom online store?
A store of average complexity is delivered in four to eight weeks. Complex projects with multiple integrations can take three to six months. Timelines depend on complexity and on how quickly the client supplies content.
Can I move from a subscription platform to a custom store without losing data?
Yes. Products, orders, customers and history can be migrated in the vast majority of cases. We have done dozens of migrations. The process needs careful planning so search rankings survive the move.
Why choose an experienced agency over a cheaper freelancer?
An agency gives you a full team, a contract, long-term support, proper documentation and a track record. Pronet Design has delivered more than 160 projects, and six of our clients' stores have won GPeC trophies. The higher upfront cost pays for itself in build quality and in the expensive technical problems you never have to fix.
