How much does an online store cost in Argentina in 2026?

You want to sell online and you run into two completely different price worlds: someone offers you a small monthly fee "and you are done" and someone else quotes a build that costs many times more. Both can be right, because they are different things. The real question is not just how much it costs, but what type of store your business needs. Let us separate it properly.

Path 1: platforms (Tiendanube, Shopify)

E-commerce platforms give you a ready-made store you customize with templates. Tiendanube and Shopify run on a monthly subscription (from cheap plans to more expensive ones depending on features and sales) plus per-sale commissions. The upside is you start fast and cheap. The downside: you look like thousands of other stores, customization has limits, and as you sell more, commissions and higher-tier plans add up. It is ideal to start or for standard catalogs.

Path 2: custom e-commerce

A custom store is built specifically for your business: your design, your business rules, no platform commissions, and no customization limits. What it costs depends on catalog size, variants (sizes, colors), payment and shipping methods, whether you need advanced inventory management or complex filters, and whether it connects to your billing system. It costs more upfront, but you do not pay a monthly platform fee or per-sale commissions, so at a certain volume it ends up being more convenient. If you are not sure whether you need a store or a regular site is enough, compare website types in how much a website costs in Argentina.

The recurring costs almost nobody explains

Whether you use a platform or a custom build, there are costs that come back every month or every year: the domain (yearly), hosting if it is custom (depending on traffic and catalog size), and above all the payment processor commissions. Mercado Pago charges a percentage on every sale (it varies by payout timing), and that hits your margin directly. Before choosing, do the math with your estimated sales volume: sometimes the "cheap" subscription is expensive in commissions.

Which one is right for you?

If you are just starting, sell few products, or want to validate whether your product sells online, a platform is the logical choice: low upfront cost and fast. If you already sell at volume, need your own buying experience, want to stop paying platform commissions, or your operation has particular rules (wholesale, per-customer pricing, warehouse integration), custom development pays for itself. The key is not to pay for a complex store before you need it, nor to fall short once your business has grown.