Freelancer, studio or agency: what each one charges to build a Lebanese online store, what the store costs to run, and which card payments actually clear.
A Lebanese online store can cost $500 or $5,000 to build, and both quotes can be honest. Furrsati puts a freelancer's Shopify setup at $500 to $1,500, while Lebanon Development prices multi-vendor builds from $5,000. The gap is not padding. It pays for four things: whose name the accounts sit under, which card payments clear, how the Arabic checkout behaves on a phone, and who answers when an order breaks.
Voxire builds stores through its e-commerce development service in Lebanon, so treat this as a comparison written by one of the bidders. It still prices every option fairly, because the cheapest builder is the right one for some stores. The sections below cover what each type of builder charges, what a store costs to keep running, and the contract terms that protect you.
How much does an eCommerce website cost?
An eCommerce website in Lebanon costs from about $500 to well past $5,000 to build in 2026. The low end is a freelancer's Shopify setup, per Furrsati. omarhalabi.com quotes most WooCommerce or Shopify stores at $1,000 to $2,000 and custom platforms from $3,000. Agencies that integrate a Lebanese card gateway sit higher.
| Builder | Build quote (USD) | Usually included | Main risk |
|---|---|---|---|
| Freelancer on a marketplace | $500 to $1,500 | Shopify setup, theme, product upload | Accounts often opened in their name |
| Solo developer | $1,000 to $2,000 | Design, COD and Whish, delivery zones, training | One person holds all the knowledge |
| Local studio | From $1,500, multi-vendor from $5,000 | Store build, payment setup, optional retainer | Scope varies by package |
| Custom platform | From $3,000 | Workflows built around your operations | Maintenance cost lands on you |
| Voxire | $5,000 to $12,000 with a Lebanese gateway, stores from $3,000 | Fixed-scope proposal, Arabic and English, checkout testing | Higher upfront price |
Source: Furrsati, omarhalabi.com, Lebanon Development, Voxire web design pricing, read 2026-10-20
Read the last column before the second one. A cheap store and an expensive one can look identical on launch day. The difference shows up in month three, when a payment callback fails or the developer stops answering.
Low end of each builder's published quote. Sources: Furrsati, omarhalabi.com, Lebanon Development and Voxire, read 2026-10-20.
How much does it cost to run an eCommerce website?
Running a small Lebanese store costs roughly $30 to $80 a month on Shopify before payment fees, per Furrsati. Shopify's pricing page lists the Basic plan at $27 a month billed monthly, or $19 a month on a yearly plan. WooCommerce has no platform fee, but hosting runs about $5 to $20 a month according to omarhalabi.com.
| Running cost | Shopify store | WooCommerce store |
|---|---|---|
| Platform plan | $19 to $27 a month on Basic | No platform fee |
| Hosting | Included in the plan | $5 to $20 a month |
| Domain | $10 to $20 a year | $10 to $20 a year |
| Paid apps or plugins | $10 to $30 a month each | $10 to $30 a month each |
| Card orders | Gateway fees plus a Shopify surcharge per order | Gateway fees only |
Source: Shopify pricing, omarhalabi.com, Furrsati, read 2026-10-20
The line owners miss is the gateway surcharge. Shopify Payments is not offered in Lebanon, so card orders run through a third-party gateway, and omarhalabi.com notes that Shopify adds a fee on every one of those orders. Ask any builder to put the yearly total in writing, platform plus apps plus fees, before you compare build quotes.
Should you hire a freelancer or an agency for your online store?
Hire a freelancer when the catalogue is small, payments are cash on delivery, and you will run the store yourself after launch. Hire an agency when card payments, a bilingual checkout or stock integrations must work on day one, because those fail in ways one person struggles to test alone.
Bring in more than one person when any of these apply:
- You need card payments at launch, not only cash on delivery.
- The catalogue has hundreds of products with sizes or colours.
- Stock must sync with a shop till or an ERP.
- Arabic and English both have to read correctly on a phone, including addresses.
- You plan to sell to the Gulf as well as Lebanon.
At Voxire, a store project starts with a written scope covering catalogue, languages, payment methods, delivery zones and existing systems. We then propose a fixed USD price. Before launch we test the buying journey on real phones. That test covers failed payments, duplicate callbacks, refunds and order confirmations, because those are the moments a customer decides whether to trust the store.
Which payment gateways work for a Lebanese online store?
Stripe and Shopify Payments do not accept Lebanese-registered businesses, so a Lebanese store needs a local card processor, cash on delivery and a wallet such as Whish. Lebanon is missing from both Stripe's availability list and Shopify's supported countries.
Tap Payments sells online card acceptance in Lebanon, and areeba is the other processor local developers integrate often. Approval sits with the provider, not the developer. Expect company documents and bank details to be checked before any checkout code is useful. Our payment gateway comparison for Lebanon goes through the providers one by one.
The audience is there. DataReportal counts 5.38 million internet users in Lebanon at the end of 2025, or 91.8 percent of the population. What loses them is a checkout that offers a card form they cannot use. If a quote lists Stripe as the card option for a Lebanese company, ask how the money will settle.
Shopify, WooCommerce or custom: which platform fits a Lebanese store?
Shopify fits a small team that wants hosting, security and updates handled for a monthly fee. WooCommerce fits owners already on WordPress who want no platform fee and accept doing their own updates. A custom build fits workflows the first two cannot handle cleanly, and omarhalabi.com prices those from $3,000.
WooCommerce is open source and charges no monthly platform fee, which is why it appeals to owners watching every dollar. The trade is maintenance: plugin updates and security patches become your job or a retainer. Our Shopify vs WooCommerce comparison for Lebanon goes through that trade in detail.
Google results for 'how much does an ecommerce website cost in lebanon', region Lebanon, captured 2026-10-20.
Google's own AI Overview breaks the answer down by platform before it breaks it down by builder. That order is right. Pick the platform first, then find the builder who has shipped stores on it.
What should the contract say about ownership and handover?
The contract should put the domain, the store account and every payment account in your company's name, with the developer added as a staff user. It should also list what you receive at launch: admin logins, theme files, a written guide and a defined support window with a named response time.
Put these in writing:
- Domain registered to a company email, never the developer's.
- Shopify or hosting account owned by you, with the developer as a staff user.
- Merchant and wallet accounts opened in the company's name.
- Purchase tracking set up and shared with you, so you can see which products sell.
- A support window after launch, with the response time stated.
Good freelancers rarely object to any of this. A builder who refuses to register the domain in your name is telling you how the relationship ends.
What should you actually do this week?
Write a one-page brief this week covering product count, languages, payment methods, delivery zones and the systems the store must talk to. Send the same brief to a freelancer, a studio and an agency. Then compare the quotes line by line, including running costs, instead of comparing the totals.
- Count your products and variants, and note which ones need Arabic names.
- Decide whether cards are needed at launch, or whether cash on delivery and Whish cover the first months.
- Ask each bidder whose name the accounts will sit under.
- Ask for the yearly running cost, not only the build price.
- Ask to see a live store they built that takes Lebanese cards.
If you only need a business site without a cart, our website cost guide for Lebanon covers that decision instead. If you sell fashion, our guide to starting a clothing e-commerce store in Lebanon covers the launch steps around the build.
Sources
- Furrsati: How much does an e-commerce website cost in Lebanon, read 2026-10-20
- omarhalabi.com: Ecommerce website cost in Lebanon 2026, read 2026-10-20
- Lebanon Development: Ecommerce development, read 2026-10-20
- Shopify: Pricing, read 2026-10-20
- Shopify Help Center: Supported countries for Shopify Payments, read 2026-10-20
- Stripe: Global availability, read 2026-10-20
- Tap Payments: Lebanon, read 2026-10-20
- WooCommerce: Platform overview, read 2026-10-20
- DataReportal: Digital 2026 Lebanon, read 2026-10-20
Want an online store that takes Lebanese cards on day one?
Send us your product count, the languages you sell in and the payment methods you need. Voxire will scope the build, list every running cost and give you a fixed USD price before work starts. Reach us in Beirut, Lebanon on +961 3 849 744 or at info@voxire.com.
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Voxire
Web Development in Lebanon
Production web development for Lebanese businesses. Next.js and React builds, e-commerce, custom applications, bilingual Arabic and English from the first wireframe, USD pricing with fixed scope, and honest numbers on what a build costs here.
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