The WooCommerce plugin is genuinely free – open-source, no licence fee, no per-sale cut. But a working store has real costs the plugin doesn’t:
Hosting is the main one – from around $20/month on entry plans to $300+/month for stores that need real speed and scale. Premium extensions (subscriptions, bookings, advanced shipping) and a theme add one-off or annual costs. And development or maintenance – setup, customisation, updates, security – is the largest line for most serious stores.
Where WooCommerce wins on cost is what it doesn’t charge: no per-transaction platform fee. Shopify and similar hosted platforms take a cut of every sale unless you use their own payments. At volume, that difference dwarfs hosting.
So the honest framing: WooCommerce is free software, not a free store. Budget for hosting, extensions and expertise – and in return you keep full ownership and pay no platform tax on your sales.