What an e-commerce website costs in Saudi Arabia
Building an online store in Saudi Arabia realistically costs between 4,000 and 20,000 SAR for something that works and takes real orders. Below that you are usually buying a stock theme you still have to fill in yourself. Above it, you are paying for custom design or integration with systems you already run.
This breaks the number down: what is inside the price, what most quotes quietly leave out, and what you will pay every month afterwards. If you want the figures directly, ours are published on the e-commerce development page.
Why quotes vary so wildly
The number alone tells you nothing, because “a store” covers three very different things:
- A theme, switched on. An account is created, a theme is picked, it is handed over. Two hours of work.
- A store that is set up. Theme configured to your brand, payments connected and tested, shipping live, products uploaded with attributes.
- A store built to order. Custom design, or integration with existing stock and accounting systems, or functionality the platform does not have.
Most cheap quotes sell the first and describe it as the second. One question separates them quickly: how many products will you upload, and who writes the descriptions?
The numbers
| Band | What you get | Timeline |
|---|---|---|
| 4,000 – 6,000 SAR | Salla or Zid store, configured theme, Mada and cards, one shipping carrier, up to 30 products | 2 weeks |
| 8,000 – 12,000 SAR | The above plus Tabby and Tamara, two carriers, up to 150 products with Arabic descriptions written for search | 3 weeks |
| 15,000 – 20,000 SAR | Large catalogue or migration from another platform, category and attribute architecture, product image editing | 4 – 6 weeks |
| 25,000 SAR and up | Custom design, or integration with existing stock and accounting systems | Scope dependent |
These are Saudi market rates in 2026 for competent delivery. The difference between bands is rarely “design quality” — it is how much manual work is left with you after handover.
What most quotes leave out
Every one of these turns up later as an extra invoice:
- Product upload. The biggest hidden line. Two hundred products with attributes, images and descriptions is days of work, not hours.
- Writing descriptions. Copying the supplier’s text means competing with ten other stores using identical wording. None of them rank.
- Testing payments with a real order. A gateway left in test mode looks completely fine until your first genuine customer.
- ZATCA e-invoicing. Configuring the store to issue invoices carrying the fields the authority requires.
- Training. If you cannot add a product or process a refund, you are back to your developer for every change, at their hourly rate.
The monthly cost
The build price is not the end of it:
| Item | Approximate cost |
|---|---|
| Salla or Zid subscription | 100 – 400 SAR monthly by plan |
| Payment gateway percentage | 1% – 2.5% per transaction |
| Tabby or Tamara | A higher percentage, paid by you not the customer |
| Domain | 40 – 80 SAR yearly |
| Maintenance and catalogue management | Optional, 500 – 1,500 SAR monthly |
A small to mid-size store runs at 300 to 1,200 SAR monthly before advertising.
Salla versus Shopify, and what it does to the cost
Salla and Zid are cheaper to run inside Saudi Arabia: local payments, local shipping and invoicing are built in, and you are not paying for apps to fill gaps. Shopify is stronger if you sell across borders or need a specific capability, but the monthly cost climbs because much of that capability arrives as separately-subscribed apps.
For a store selling only inside the Kingdom, Salla or Zid costs less over a year.
How to read a quote before signing it
Four questions will eliminate half the quotes in front of you:
- How many products are included, and what does each additional hundred cost?
- Who writes the product descriptions — you or me?
- Are Tabby and Tamara included, and who chases the provider approval?
- How long is support after launch, and what does it cover?
The answers explain almost every price difference you will see.
The short version
A realistic budget for a store genuinely ready to sell in Saudi Arabia is 8,000 to 12,000 SAR once, plus around 500 SAR monthly to run. Less is possible, but it means the work you did not pay for is work you will do yourself.
Our prices and exactly what each tier includes are published in full on the e-commerce development page, so you can hold them against any other quote you have.