Shopware Pricing: What You’ll Actually Pay
Ask ten people what Shopware costs and you’ll get ten answers — from “it’s free” to “six figures a year.” Both are true, which is the problem. The license on the pricing page is the smallest, most predictable part of the bill; everything that makes a store actually run lives off that page. Budget off the headline €600 a month and you’re planning around maybe a fifth of your real spend. Here’s the whole stack.
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Shopware’s official plans at a glance
All prices exclude VAT, and Shopware bills in euros (USD is approximate):
| Edition | Price / month | Support response | Built for |
| Community Edition | €0 (free) | Community forum | Startups, MVPs, developers |
| Ris | from €600 (~$650) | 8 hours, weekdays | Growing B2C / D2C |
| Evolve | from €2,400 (~$2,600) | 4 hours + phone | B2B and scaling brands |
| Beyond | Custom | 1 hour, 24/7 | Enterprise |
Two words do a lot of quiet work here: “from” and “Custom.” They’re why the real price is almost never the listed one.
Also read: Price and Availability Checker: The Easiest First Step for Manufacturers Not Ready for E-commerce
How Shopware actually prices the paid plans
The paid plans aren’t flat fees. Shopware’s own FAQ says pricing is based on your gross merchandise value (GMV) plus “individual factors” — so the more you sell, the more you pay, and the published numbers are the floor, not the ceiling.
Ignore the neat “Rise up to €2M, Evolve up to €5M” tables you’ll see online — those thresholds appear nowhere on Shopware’s page. GMV limits are negotiated per contract, not published. So ask Shopware for your specific ceiling during the quote and get it in writing, because quietly crossing it bumps you up a tier.
Community Edition: “free” with an asterisk
The Community Edition is genuinely free — the open-source, MIT-licensed core, with no revenue cap in the software itself. The asterisk is the Fair Usage Policy (March 2025): cross €1M in annual GMV and you must move to a paid plan to keep using your Shopware Account and the extension store. Your open-source shop keeps running either way — what you’d lose is the official route to buying and updating plugins.
The bigger catch: Community is self-hosted only. You arrange hosting, apply every update, own security, and need a developer for anything custom. “Free” software doesn’t make a free store.
Check out our Custom platforms and Applications services:
What the paid tiers unlock
- Rise (from €600/mo) — the entry commercial plan, right for most B2C. Adds the AI Copilot, 3D products, unlimited sales channels, and the option of SaaS hosting at the same base price. 8-hour support.
- Evolve (from €2,400/mo) — Shopware’s bestseller and the first tier with native B2B Components (company accounts, approval workflows, budgets, quick ordering), plus Advanced Search and 4-hour phone support. Note it’s a fourfold jump from Rise — confirm the B2B use case is real before committing.
- Beyond (Custom) — enterprise tier, priced on GMV. Adds Multi-Inventory, Digital Sales Rooms, customer-specific pricing, Subscriptions, and 24/7 support with a 1-hour SLA. Those last two features are Beyond-only — a jump worth seeing coming.
Also read: Custom Software Vs Off The Shelf: When Custom Applications Make Sense
Cloud vs. self-hosted: same price, different reality
On the paid plans, SaaS costs the same as self-hosted — so it’s a control-vs-convenience call, not a price one. SaaS means Shopware runs the servers, updates and security, but only app-compatible extensions install. Self-hosted means every plugin and customization is possible, but hosting, backups and security are yours.
The costs that aren’t on the pricing page
This is where “what you’ll actually pay” gets real. The license is typically only 15–25% of total cost. The other 75–85% is this:
- Development / agency build — the biggest item. A template build runs ~€5,000–15,000; a custom B2C shop €15,000–60,000; a complex B2B build €40,000–120,000+. Because Shopware is a developer’s toolbox, most merchants bring in a Shopware development team rather than going it alone.
- Hosting (self-hosted only). ~€20–60/mo small, €80–250 mid-sized, €300+/mo for high traffic. Cheap shared hosting is a false economy.
- Plugins. SEO, reviews, shipping and compliance extensions add up to roughly €50–300/mo once update fees are counted.
- Payment fees. Shopware takes zero commission — but your provider (Stripe, PayPal, Klarna) charges ~1.5–3.5% per transaction. On €500K revenue that’s €7,500–17,500 a year, often bigger than the entire Rise license. Run this math early.
- Maintenance. Updates, patches and monitoring run ~€500–2,000/mo. Skipping it is how stores get hacked.
- Migration. Moving from Shopware 5, Magento or WooCommerce costs ~€3,000–30,000 — and wiring the store into your back office through a solid ERP integration is usually the heaviest part.
Also read: When ERP Holds You Hostage: Solving ERP Integration Challenges for Scalable B2B eCommerce
What it adds up to
Three illustrative Year-1 ballparks (not quotes — scope changes everything):
- Small B2C (Community, self-hosted): ~€14,000–20,000. The free license saves nothing on the real cost.
- Mid-sized B2C (Rise, SaaS): ~€85,000–95,000, where payment fees alone dwarf the license.
- B2B mid-market (Evolve, SaaS): ~€170,000–180,000, and even here the license is only about a fifth of the total.
The bottom line
The license runs from €0 to a custom enterprise contract — but it was never the number to stare at. For a serious store, plan for a total cost from the low tens of thousands into six figures a year once hosting, development, plugins, payment fees and maintenance are in. That’s not a knock on Shopware; it’s the cost of a platform built for real complexity. The merchants who struggle budgeted for the license and forgot the rest. Plan for the whole iceberg, not just the tip.
Also read: B2B Portal Design Best Practices: What Actually Works for Manufacturers and Distributors
Know what you’ll pay before you build
The gap between Shopware’s list price and your real cost is exactly where projects blow their budget — or where they get scoped right from day one. As a Shopware Gold Partner, Codup builds and runs stores for merchants who need the platform’s power without the month-six surprises: the right edition for your GMV, honest scoping, and a build shaped around your actual processes.
Planning a Shopware store — or want a straight answer on what yours will really cost? Talk to Codup.
FAQ
Is Shopware free? The Community Edition is genuinely free and open source under the MIT license. But free software doesn’t make a free store — you still pay for hosting, development, plugins and maintenance, which runs from several thousand to tens of thousands a year.
How much does Shopware cost per month? €0 for Community, from €600 for Rise, from €2,400 for Evolve, and custom for Beyond — all excluding VAT and scaling with your GMV. On top come hosting, plugins and maintenance.
Does Shopware charge transaction fees? No. Shopware takes no commission on your sales. Your payment provider charges its own fees — typically ~1.5–3.5% per transaction — but Shopware adds no surcharge on top.
Which plan do I need for B2B? Evolve is the minimum for native B2B Components. But customer-specific pricing and built-in subscriptions are Beyond-only, so an individual-pricing B2B model means budgeting for the enterprise tier.
Explore our Shopware development services, or contact us for a straight answer on what your store will really cost.
