How Much Does an Online Store Cost to Build? | All Costs in the Open

One day rate

• New clients: ¥600/day
• Returning clients: ¥500/day

Deployment, customization, and custom builds are all priced this way. There are no package prices, only different numbers of days. Tax is included and paid in full, and every project comes with a year of free support.

How a 10-day project adds up

Take a list of work that comes to 10 working days:

• New client: 10 × ¥600 = ¥6,000
• Returning client: 10 × ¥500 = ¥5,000

For larger projects, the range I publish is ¥5,000 to ¥8,000. That ¥6,000 sits inside the range. Nothing is tucked away elsewhere.

Why it's a third of a software company's price

For the same 10-day list, a software company charging ¥2,000 a day comes to ¥20,000. ¥600 versus ¥2,000 is more than a threefold gap. Where does the difference go?

Sales. A company has to pay for a sales team, commissions, and ad spend, which take 5% to 30% of a quote. Part of what you pay isn't building your product. It's paying for "how the company found you." The company has to cover that every month, so acquisition cost never goes away. I have no sales team. Clients find me through what I write, so my acquisition cost is close to zero.

Fixed costs. Office space, equipment, and admin run ¥1,500 to ¥3,000 per person per month. A developer on a ¥10,000 monthly salary actually costs the company ¥14,000. Then add management, corporate taxes, and profit. I have none of that: no office, no fixed headcount, no management layer. I'm responsible for the project, so the rate is priced on the person responsible, plus a small share for taxes.

How delivery is financed. Companies often have to front the money, with payment terms of three months, six months, even a year. That's real cash-flow pressure. I don't carry that. Licenses and on-site staff, two things companies pay heavily for, I don't need either.

So it's not cheap work. It's a cheap structure.

AI makes me faster

I use AI every day. Work that used to take a small team a week, I now deliver with AI in two or three days. That's at least 30% more efficient, and I pass that saving on to clients. AI didn't put me out of work. It's part of why my rate can be lower.

AI removes the premium on writing code, not the premium on being responsible. Once the code is generated, someone still has to ask: are the requirements right, is the data safe, is the launch stable, who handles it when something breaks at midnight? AI can't do that. I do, and that's why the rate holds.

When the deadline is tight

On rush projects, I hand one part to people I trust. They're not on the quote, but we do the work together, and I stay the one responsible for delivery and support. The rate doesn't change. You pay me, and I pay the people working with me. The risk and the person responsible on your side are always me.

Websites and mini programs work the same way

The list of work sets the number of days, and the days times the rate set the price. That's how online stores are priced, and the same goes for websites, apps, mini programs, and management systems.