Published: 2026-04-17

Why TCO matters when choosing an e-commerce platform

The platform that looks cheapest on the quote is rarely the cheapest to own. Many e-commerce businesses make platform decisions based on the price tag and only realise a couple of years into the agreement what it has actually cost them. A TCO analysis (total cost of ownership) gives you the real cost picture: what the platform actually costs over the first 3–5 years, including all the items that never show up on a quote.

Summary:

The price on the quote and the total cost of ownership are rarely the same. Hidden costs such as upgrades, integrations and payment fees are often many times higher than the licence fee. At scale, payment fees can become one of your biggest ongoing costs, especially on platforms that charge transaction fees or lock you into their own payment solutions. A complete TCO analysis must also include the cost of migration. Data migration, SEO risks and the implementation project are real cost items that are often left out, but can be significant.

Why is comparing price tags not enough when choosing an e-commerce platform?

Choosing an e-commerce platform is one of the most important decisions you make for your online business, and one of the hardest to reverse. Contract terms, migration costs and built-in dependencies mean that in practice, you live with that decision for 5–7 years. That is why comparing price tags is not enough. You need to understand the total cost.

It is common for the costs added during the first few years to make up the largest share of the total cost. Operations, support, upgrades, payment fees and lost revenue are cost items that rarely appear in the initial calculation, but together can be many times higher than the licence fee.

Fredrik Ottosson, Head of Sales at Viskan, says: "A proper TCO analysis does not just look at the licence fee. It looks at what the platform costs to run, upgrade and integrate over five years, including the need for third-party components. Some platforms have such limited core functionality that they effectively act as integration platforms. That is where the real cost differences often become clear."

What costs should be included in a TCO analysis for e-commerce platforms?

A complete TCO analysis for an e-commerce platform should cover the following cost categories:

Development costs

A large share of the initial cost goes into building and configuring the platform: front-end design, back-end functionality and adaptations for your specific business model. On platforms with limited no-code functionality, you stay dependent on developers for ongoing changes, which means these costs do not stop at launch.

Add-ons and integrations

If your e-commerce business needs functionality that is not included in the core platform, such as industry-specific add-ons, CMS, PIM, OMS or loyalty programmes, you will either face a one-off cost or an ongoing licence fee per service. Some platforms have such limited core functionality that they effectively act as integration platforms, where every add-on adds both cost and complexity. Add up what the actual feature set you need will cost, not just what the base package costs.

Agency and implementation partner

Many e-commerce businesses bring in an external agency or implementation partner to build and launch their site, and that is a cost that easily falls outside the calculation when platforms are being compared. How large it becomes depends on the complexity of the platform and how much needs to be built from scratch. A platform with an intuitive no-code interface and ready-made components reduces the number of hours an agency needs to spend, which directly affects the total project cost. Include agency costs as part of your TCO calculation, not as a separate line item on the side.

Migration costs

A platform migration always involves a one-off cost, and it is often significant. Data migration, SEO risks during the transition, potential downtime and an implementation project involving external resources are cost items that are often left out of the TCO calculation, but should be fully included. With the right planning and partner, the risks can be minimised, but they still need to be part of the calculation.

Infrastructure 

Hosting, domain and security make up your infrastructure cost, and the size of that cost depends on your traffic volume and your requirements for stability and redundancy. An e-commerce business running campaigns with major traffic peaks needs infrastructure that can handle it, and pays for it.

Upgrades and version changes 

Upgrade costs are one of the most underestimated TCO items. Platforms without automatic upgrades often require costly migration projects every time the platform is upgraded to a new version: new code, new testing, new integrations. It is resource-intensive, risky and can take months. With a SaaS platform that includes automatic upgrades, that cost disappears entirely. You are always on the latest version without having to turn it into a project.

Payment fees 

Payment fees are a TCO item that is easy to overlook, but at scale they quickly become one of the heaviest. Shopify Plus, for example, charges a transaction fee on every order, plus an extra fee if you use an external payment solution. If you choose a platform with a similar setup, you pay continuously on every order. The difference in Klarna fees between different platform setups can amount to millions of kronor per year for a high-revenue e-commerce business. Always calculate what your payment cost actually comes to per order and per year, not just what the payment solution itself costs.

Training and staff 

The level of expertise needed to run the platform efficiently is an often underestimated TCO factor. Do you need to recruit, train existing staff, or rely on external consultants for ongoing changes? A platform with strong no-code functionality reduces the need for technical staff and shortens time-to-market for campaigns and content updates.

Marketing and visibility 

Costs for SEO, campaigns and omnichannel marketing are also part of the TCO picture. A technically weak platform with poor performance hits your organic visibility directly, and that cost never appears on an invoice, but it is just as real.

On top of these cost items, you should budget 10–20% for unexpected costs. No matter how carefully you plan, something extra always comes up: more integrations than expected, compatibility issues, more training than anticipated. That is why it is important to have a clear picture of both the initial investment and the ongoing costs tied to the platform. Read more here about what Viskan's e-commerce platform costs. 

How do you carry out a complete TCO analysis before a platform migration?

A platform with a low upfront price can be the most expensive option once you calculate the full period. And a platform with a higher upfront cost can be by far the cheapest once you factor in upgrade costs, payment fees and migration costs.

“A TCO analysis is not a way to find the cheapest platform. It is a way to understand what you are actually buying, and whether the investment delivers the value you need to grow”, Fredrik Ottosson concludes.

That is exactly what a TCO analysis is for: to give you an honest basis for decision-making, not a neatly packaged quote.

Want to build a TCO analysis? Get in touch and we will help you. 

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