PrestaShop is a great platform not only for beginners that are just starting but also, for huge enterprise e-commerce businesses.
PrestaShop is entirely open source, so you will only pay for any external things you would want to use (hosting, images, themes, plugins, staff). But you will not pay any subscription or any other fee for PrestaShop itself.
External things are usually hosting, plugins and themes. With almost ten years in the PrestaShop business, I will share the most popular tools used in the PrestaShop ecosystem and how much they usually cost.
In this article, I will explore the following:
- How much does PrestaShop hosting cost
- How much do PrestaShop plugins cost?
- How much do PrestaShop themes cost?
How much does PrestaShop hosting cost
The internet is a sea of sponsored links, and it can be hard to tell which articles are genuinely helpful. But in this post, I will share with you an honest opinion without affiliate links.
You need PHP (programming language) and Mysql (database) support for hosting.
PrestaShop can be hosted on any hosting service that supports WordPress, Magento, or Drupal. These systems use the same technologies.
What would be the best hosting to start? Cheapest one!
PrestaShop Hosting costs money. That can be something from 2 USD to something like 25 USD each month. Setting up the PrestaShop store for the first business month can take a month or two. So going for the cheapest option sounds smart – you can upgrade later.
Moving PrestaShop from one hosting to another is not that hard. But I discourage you from doing so if you try to “optimize” your spending from 5 USD hosting to 2 USD. Moving will cost you more (your time = money).
Only change hosting if you are experiencing problems with it – for example, Google Pagespeed reports that it is too slow. Or there are not enough resources anymore to hold your inventory (images or other files).
Try out hostings like SiteGround, BlueHost, and A2 Hosting.
How much do PrestaShop plugins cost?
If you are starting your business – don’t install any plugins you think you might need. Instead, focus on essentials – PrestaShop has already covered you with the best defaults.
Free PrestaShop plugins are not that popular compared to other platforms like WordPress, where you most likely can find a free alternative for any paid add-on. Unfortunately, that is not the case for PrestaShop.
Typically plugins in PrestaShop are going from 30 USD if you shop outside the official PrestaShop Marketplace. In the official marketplace, they are 50-200 USD.
I always advised my clients to reach particular success and then explore additional equipment to purchase. For example, if you have 1k products, you might want to start exploring some plugins to improve your store navigation (Megamenu, administration, and marketing plugins).
Most popular PrestaShop plugins you don’t need
There are a few plugins you probably will see every internet is talking about and present them as must-have ones.
These are usually starting from One Page Checkout. That is a great addon to have because it will improve your checkout conversions by about 20%. But if you have no conversions at all (no unique users and no pageviews), then you don’t need to spend 30-100 USD for this addon. It can wait.
Megamenu PrestaShop addon – you don’t need a super menu if you don’t own 1k or more products. Only when you reach that limit – should you buy it. Again, it will cost you something like 50-100 USD.
Same for any Advanced Search plugins – only if you are like 500 or more than 1k products store. That is again 50-100 USD.
Plugins are not cheap, yes.
But if you are not starting – don’t buy anything.
Do not install cracked PrestaShop addons from torrents – they all contain malware, usually to access your store and to add ads to your pages.
PrestaShop plugins you might want to buy
If there would be an add-on to choose as a must-have – that would be any Clean URLs addon for PrestaShop.
Google respects sites with clean URLs not having any encrypted and useless numbers in the URLs like example.org/category/subcategory/some-product-1234.
It would be best to have a URL like example.org/subcategory/some-product or even example.org/some-product.
That is not only for Google but for user experience in general.
But Clean URLs modules are costly, and they are usually about 100-150 USD.
If you are starting – don’t buy this too. But if you reach 500 products or decent traffic – buy one and configure redirect rules for old URLs.
How much do PrestaShop themes cost?
The theme is a tricky topic because design “feeling” is tough to describe.
One might like one color scheme, and one might prefer another.
You might like a classic look, and your users might love a modern look better.
Google (and the entire internet) says you have to spend time on mobile-first experience, but that is not always the case. It highly depends on what you are selling.
Some products can’t be properly sold/delivered from a mobile experience.
So you decide about PrestaShop theme purchase. But there are tons of “PrestaShop free themes” available on Google search to choose.
Do not use the default PrestaShop theme – it is well recognized, and for those who know PrestaShop, your store might not look as finished or in a working state. Be professional – any free PrestaShop theme with a mobile design will work for now.