Ecommerce Website Price in Kenya
What an ecommerce website really costs in Kenya: build price, platform fees, M-Pesa and card payment charges, delivery and running costs, compared for WooCommerce and Shopify, with notes for Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda.
Ask five Nairobi developers what an online shop costs and you can get five answers from KES 30,000 to KES 1 million. The spread is real, because ecommerce websites differ far more than brochure websites. But the price is also confusing because most quotes only cover the build. The costs that decide whether a shop makes money come afterwards: payment fees, platform subscriptions, apps, delivery, and the marketing that brings buyers.
This guide breaks the total down so you can compare quotes properly, whether you sell in Kenya only or across Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda.
The five cost layers of an online shop
- Build: design, setup, product upload and payment integration.
- Platform: hosting, or a Shopify subscription.
- Payments: a percentage of every sale to the payment provider.
- Operations: delivery, packaging, returns and customer service.
- Marketing: the ads, SEO and social media that bring visitors.
1. Build cost
What drives the build price is not the number of products but the number of different things the shop must do. A shop with 500 phone cases is simpler than a shop with 40 products that need size and colour variants, delivery zones, wholesale pricing and stock synced with a physical till.
| Type of shop | What it includes | Typical price range in Kenya |
|---|---|---|
| Starter shop | Template design, up to about 50 products, M-Pesa and card checkout, basic delivery fees | KES 50,000 to 120,000 |
| Growing business shop | Custom design, variants, delivery zones, coupons, product filters, analytics and Meta pixel | KES 120,000 to 350,000 |
| Complex store | Stock sync with POS or ERP, multiple warehouses, B2B pricing, multi-country or multi-currency | KES 350,000 and above |
These ranges are what we see in quotes across the Nairobi market, not a price list. For reference, our own web design packages are priced by size: KES 50,000 for fewer than 10 pages, KES 80,000 for fewer than 30 and KES 140,000 for fewer than 80. Ecommerce features, such as payment integration and product setup, are scoped in the written quotation.
Watch for quotes that look cheap because product upload is excluded. Photographing, writing and uploading 200 products properly can take longer than the design itself.
2. Platform: WooCommerce or Shopify
The two platforms most Kenyan shops use charge in very different ways.
WooCommerce is free software running on WordPress. You pay for hosting, a domain, and any paid plugins. Good Kenyan or international hosting for a small shop typically costs a few thousand shillings a month. You own everything and can change developers freely, but you are responsible for updates and security.
Shopify is a monthly subscription. Its Basic plan is listed at USD 39 a month, or about USD 29 a month billed yearly, in US pricing, and prices vary by country. Shopify handles hosting and security. The catch for Kenya is payments: Shopify’s own payment service is not offered here, so shops use third-party gateways, and Shopify adds its own transaction fee on top, 2% on the Basic plan. On KES 500,000 of monthly sales, that is KES 10,000 a month before the gateway’s own fee.
We compare the two in detail in our upcoming guide to Shopify vs WooCommerce in Kenya. For most Kenyan small businesses selling mainly by M-Pesa, WooCommerce works out cheaper over two or three years.
3. Payment fees
Kenyan buyers expect to pay by M-Pesa, and many will also pay by card. Paystack, which is live for Kenyan merchants, publishes these standard rates:
- M-Pesa: 1.5% per transaction
- Local cards: 2.9%
- International cards and Apple Pay: 3.8%
There are no setup or monthly fees on the standard plan. Other options include Pesapal, Flutterwave, and connecting directly to Safaricom’s Daraja API for M-Pesa Express (STK push). Going direct is cheaper at high volume but needs more development work and a registered Paybill or Till number. Direct integration and gateways each have trade-offs, which we cover in a separate guide.
Many small shops also accept pay on delivery, especially outside Nairobi. It increases orders but adds failed deliveries and cash handling, which are real costs.
4. Delivery and operations
Delivery is often the cost that decides profit. Within Nairobi, riders and courier apps charge per trip. Upcountry delivery through parcel services, matatu Saccos or courier companies costs more and takes longer. Price these before launch and decide whether to charge customers at checkout, offer free delivery above a basket size, or build it into prices. A shop that offers free delivery to Kisumu on a KES 1,500 order can lose money on every sale.
5. Marketing
A new shop gets almost no visitors on its own. Budget for at least one paid channel from launch, usually Meta ads for fashion, beauty and lifestyle products, and Google Shopping or Search for products people search for by name. SEO builds category and product traffic over months. Our article on Google Ads costs in Kenya shows how to work out an ad budget from the number of orders you need.
A worked example: year-one cost
A Nairobi skincare brand with 80 products, selling KES 400,000 a month online, 70% by M-Pesa and 30% by card, on WooCommerce:
| Item | Year one |
|---|---|
| Build (growing business shop) | KES 180,000 |
| Hosting, domain, premium plugins | KES 50,000 |
| Payment fees (1.5% on KES 3.36m M-Pesa, 2.9% on KES 1.44m cards) | KES 92,160 |
| Marketing at KES 60,000 a month | KES 720,000 |
| Total before delivery and stock | KES 1,042,160 |
The website build is less than a fifth of the first-year cost. That is normal, and it is why choosing the cheapest build and leaving no money for marketing is the most common reason Kenyan online shops stall.
Selling into Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda
Each market has its own mobile money: M-Pesa Tanzania (Vodacom), Tigo Pesa and Airtel Money in Tanzania; MTN Mobile Money and Airtel Money in Uganda; MTN MoMo and Airtel Money in Rwanda. A Kenyan gateway’s M-Pesa channel does not cover them, so selling regionally usually means a gateway with multi-country mobile money support, such as Flutterwave or Pesapal, and prices shown in local currency. Customs and cross-border delivery also need planning before you advertise outside Kenya. Many brands start with one market and add others once fulfilment is proven.
Questions to ask before you sign a quote
- Is product upload included, and how many products?
- Which payment methods are included, and who opens the merchant accounts?
- Will I own the hosting, domain and admin accounts?
- Are analytics, the Meta pixel and Google Ads conversion tracking set up?
- What does support cost after launch?
For broader website pricing, see website design costs in Kenya, and if your current site is not selling, read whether your business needs a new website.
Frequently asked questions
How much is a simple ecommerce website in Kenya?
A starter shop with a template, a few dozen products and M-Pesa checkout typically costs KES 50,000 to 120,000 to build, plus hosting and payment fees.
Can I accept M-Pesa on my online shop?
Yes. Gateways such as Paystack and Pesapal include M-Pesa, or a developer can connect Safaricom’s Daraja API directly with your Paybill or Till number.
Is Shopify available in Kenya?
Yes, you can run a Shopify store from Kenya. Its own payments service is not available here, so you use a third-party gateway and pay Shopify’s extra transaction fee.
How long does it take to build an online shop?
Four to eight weeks for most small and medium shops, depending mainly on how quickly products, photos and content are ready.
