Pricing guide
How much does a Shopify store cost in the UAE?
By the ProLab teamPublished Updated 6 min read
Short answer
A Shopify store in the UAE has three costs: the one-time build, Shopify's own monthly subscription, and a fee on each card payment. ProLab publishes its build prices: Starter AED 3,999, Professional AED 8,999 and Premium Growth AED 9,999, one-time, live in 3 days, in Arabic and English. The subscription and payment fees are paid to Shopify and your payment provider, not to the agency.
Key facts
- ProLab Starter
- AED 3,999, one-time
- ProLab Professional
- AED 8,999, one-time
- ProLab Premium Growth
- AED 9,999, one-time
- Delivery
- Live in 3 days
- Paid separately
- Shopify subscription, payment fees, domain, any paid apps
What are the three costs of a Shopify store?
People ask for one number and get surprised later, because a store has a build cost, a platform cost and a payment cost, and they are paid to three different companies.
| Cost | Paid to | How often | What sets the amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| Store build | Your agency | Once | The package or scope you agree |
| Shopify subscription | Shopify | Monthly or yearly | The Shopify plan you choose |
| Payment processing | Your payment provider | Per order | A percentage of each card payment |
What does the build cost?
ProLab builds Shopify stores at three published one-time prices, each live in 3 days, in Arabic and English, with 24/7 support after launch. The three packages do different jobs, so the price follows what the store has to do, not only how many products it holds.
| Package | Price | Built for | What it adds |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | AED 3,999 one-time | A first store, ready to take orders | Up to 30 products, a Shopify theme in your brand, card payments and cash on delivery, UAE delivery rates, your domain |
| Professional | AED 8,999 one-time | A business that already sells | Up to 150 products, a home page designed for your brand, Tabby or Tamara, ad tracking, product feeds to Google and Meta, a live training session |
| Premium Growth | AED 9,999 one-time | A store that should keep selling by itself | Up to 300 products, an AI chatbot, WhatsApp order updates and abandoned-cart reminders, email flows, 30 days of changes after launch |
Premium Growth costs AED 1,000 more than Professional. That gap buys the AI chatbot, the WhatsApp and email automation and a month of changes, which is why it is the package ProLab recommends to a business that is choosing between the two.
The three days are a fixed sequence: day one is structure and products, day two is design and payments, day three is QA and launch. The 3-day launch checklist lists what you need to have ready.
You know the price before we start. Published packages are fixed; systems and agents are scoped.
Start on WhatsAppHow do UAE stores take payments on Shopify?
Shopify Payments, Shopify's own card processing, is supported in the United Arab Emirates. Stores can also connect a third-party payment provider, or offer cash on delivery as a manual payment method.
Whichever provider you choose will ask for business documents before it lets you take live payments. That approval runs on the provider's timeline, so start the application before the build, not after it.
Which costs do people forget?
- Domain name. A yearly fee to a registrar. Register it in your company's name.
- Paid apps. Reviews, subscriptions, bundles and loyalty apps are usually monthly. Each one you add is a recurring cost.
- Pay-later and WhatsApp fees. Tabby and Tamara take a fee on each order they finance, and Meta charges for business messages on WhatsApp, such as order updates. Both are paid to those companies.
- Theme. Shopify offers free themes, and a new store can launch on one. Paid themes in the Shopify Theme Store are a one-time purchase.
- Product photography and copy. Often the largest real cost, and the one that decides whether the store sells.
- Delivery. Courier rates, cash on delivery handling and returns.
- Advertising. A store with no traffic sells nothing. Keep budget for the first month of ads.
Shopify or a custom-built store?
For most businesses starting to sell online in the UAE, Shopify is the faster and safer choice: hosting, security, checkout and updates are handled by the platform, and you can be live in days. A custom-built store earns its cost only when you need something a platform cannot do.
| Row | Shopify store | Custom-built store |
|---|---|---|
| Time to launch | Days | Weeks to months |
| Checkout, hosting, security | Handled by Shopify | Yours to build and maintain |
| Monthly platform fee | Yes, to Shopify | No platform fee, but hosting and maintenance |
| Best for | Selling products online now | Unusual business rules, marketplaces, deep ERP links |
When a store outgrows its tools, the usual next step is not a rebuild. It is connecting the store to AI automation or an AI-powered CRM and ERP so orders, stock and customer messages run themselves.