How much do Shopify themes cost?
Free themes work. Premium themes are $200-$400 one-time. Custom themes are $5-$18K. The right answer depends on what your conversion data says is missing.
Free themes are good now
Dawn, Sense, Crave, Origin — Shopify's free themes ship clean and fast. They beat 90% of paid 2018-era themes on Core Web Vitals. The reason to upgrade isn't quality, it's specific features (sticky add-to-cart, product bundling UI, multi-image PDPs).
Premium themes ($200-$400 one-time)
Impulse, Symmetry, Prestige, Pipeline, Avenue. One-time fee, lifetime updates on that theme. Adds the conversion-focused features free themes lack. Most brands' best ROI move is a premium theme + page builder.
Custom themes ($5K-$18K)
A freelance Shopify dev builds a custom theme in 60-120 hours at $80-$150/hr. Worth it only when you've identified specific conversion-test wins that off-the-shelf themes can't deliver.
The tools worth comparing
- Shopify — Platform requirement for most AI ad tools — they integrate Shopify first.
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