design+code
A Shopify brand has three ways to get a storefront: a theme from the Shopify Theme Store, that same theme adapted to your identity, or a theme built for you. The price gap between them is large, so the question is worth asking before the first quote. This is what Shopify says on its own pages (read on 2 November 2026), what our own rates are, and where our opinion starts.
The Theme Store page presents more than 800 free and paid themes. The paid themes visible on that page are priced from $150 to $420, and every theme is described as including developer support and free updates. That range comes from the examples shown on one page, not from the full catalog.
In Shopify's help page on adding themes, a paid theme is licensed only to the store it was bought for, and the purchase is a final sale. You can preview a paid theme in your admin before buying, up to 19 at once, and your customizations are kept if you buy it. During that preview you cannot edit the theme code. Free themes are developed by Shopify, which supports customizations for them.
This is the part that gets overlooked. On Shopify's theme support page, Shopify Support says it does not write custom code or make arbitrary code changes, and does not help with themes that contain significant code changes. Third-party theme developers, the page adds, do not provide customizations, and Shopify points to a Shopify Partner for that work.
In practice, the more you change a theme, the more you own it. That is not a reason to avoid customization. It is a reason to know who maintains the result.
These are our own published rates, not Shopify's, excluding VAT and valid for projects delivered in 2026. The full grid is in how we price web projects.
A theme refit costs €5,500 to €8,500 and takes about 4 weeks. We adapt a strong base theme to your identity, tighten the product pages and fix checkout friction. A custom theme costs €12,000 to €25,000 and takes 8 to 12 weeks. It is bespoke design from the home page to the product page, editorial collection landings, motion where it earns its place, and search and filters tuned to your catalog.
This is our view, not a measured result. A Theme Store theme is enough when your catalog is simple, your product pages follow one pattern, and the layout of the theme already fits your brand. It is also the right call when you need to launch quickly, or when the budget is better spent on photography and product than on the storefront.
A refit fits a brand that has a clear identity and a solid theme close to it. You keep the base, its updates and its structure, and you pay to align typography, product pages and checkout with the brand. It is the middle path, and for many founders it is the sensible one.
Custom pays off when the storefront is part of the product. Fashion brands with editorial collection pages, products that need a specific buying flow, or catalogs where search and filters drive sales are the typical cases. If you can describe what you need in a sentence that no existing theme does, that is the signal.
We have no comparative data on conversion between custom and Theme Store themes, and we do not publish any. The theme prices above are examples visible on one Shopify page on 2 November 2026, and they can change. The support and licensing statements are Shopify's own wording, summarized, and worth rereading before you buy.
If you are weighing the three options for a specific store, send us the brief at bonjour@dellamattia.com. We will tell you which one we would pick, including when the answer is a Theme Store theme.