Based on aggregated data, a bathtub replacement costs $1,500 to $8,000 installed and a shower installation costs $1,000 to $8,000. The two ranges overlap almost exactly, which is why the question “is a tub or a shower cheaper” has no single answer — and why the genre answers it as a lifestyle question instead.
It is a cost question, and it has four dimensions rather than one:
- The install, where the ranking flips twice across the tiers.
- The switch, which is a different price in each direction — and the shower-to-tub direction is the one almost nobody prices.
- The ownership, which is where grout, glass and water live, and where the two fixtures diverge by a factor of four.
- The space, which is usually the real constraint and is a cost question in disguise: an alcove is 60 inches, and changing that is a framing job.
This page prices all four from the same data, and states no resale percentage anywhere, because there is no sourced figure to state.
Cost at a Glance
| Bathtub | Shower | |
|---|---|---|
| Entry install | $1,500 (basic tub replacement) | $1,000 (prefab unit) |
| Typical install | $2,500 | $3,500 |
| High install | $8,000 (replacement ceiling) | $20,000 (walk-in, tiled and glazed) |
| Materials (typical) | $1,000 | $1,500 |
| Labor (typical) | $1,500 | $2,000 |
| Typical duration | 1–3 days | 2–4 days |
| Recurring grout cost | None on a molded surround | $300–$2,000 per regrout on tile |
| 20-year ownership (typical) | ~$2,900 | ~$3,900 prefab / ~$12,000 tiled |
| Space needed | 60 in × 30–32 in alcove | 32 in × 32 in and up |
| Switch cost, from the other | $3,200–$15,900 | $3,000–$10,000 |
Two lines in that table carry the whole page. A tub is cheapest in the middle and has a ceiling. A shower is cheapest at the very bottom and has no ceiling at all.
Install Cost, Head to Head
A bathtub is a manufactured object. It arrives finished, it is set into an existing alcove, and there is a limit to what one costs — the ceiling on a bathtub replacement across the bathroom remodeling data is $8,000, and reaching it takes a cast-iron or premium soaking tub. A shower is not an object; above the prefab tier it is an assembly — a pan, waterproofing, tile, grout, a valve and glass — and every one of those lines scales independently.
| Tier | Tub side | Range | Shower side | Range |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Entry | Basic tub replacement, acrylic unit + surround | $1,500–$2,500 | Prefabricated one-piece or three-piece unit | $1,000–$2,000 |
| Mid | Standard or soaking tub, replacement in place | $2,500 typical | Tiled shower assembled from its parts | $5,525 typical |
| Mid | — | — | Shower remodel (existing footprint) | $1,500–$15,000 |
| High | Premium soaking or cast-iron tub | up to $8,000 | Walk-in shower, tiled, glass enclosure | $4,000–$20,000 |
| Accessibility | Walk-in tub | $4,000–$22,000 | Walk-in / curbless shower | $4,000–$20,000 |
The mid-tier shower figure is not a quoted number — it is the sum of the components a tiled shower is actually built from, each priced on its own:
| Component | Low | Typical | High |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shower pan | $500 | $1,400 | $3,500 |
| Tile shower (walls, setting, grout) | $1,200 | $2,700 | $7,000 |
| Shower door / glass enclosure | $400 | $1,000 | $3,000 |
| Shower valve | $200 | $425 | $900 |
| Assembled tiled shower | $2,300 | $5,525 | $14,400 |
That stack is the reason the ranking inverts. At the entry tier a prefab shower is a single molded unit and is the cheapest fixture in the bathroom at $1,000. At the mid tier the tub is cheaper — $2,500 against a $5,525 tiled shower — because the tub replaced the entire stack with one delivered object. At the top the shower runs away: tile area, tile price, a second body spray, a bench, a curbless pan and frameless glass all add cost, and none of them hit a wall. The tub’s own high end is a different product, not a more expensive version of the same one.
Individual pieces are priced on their own pages — shower pan installation, tile shower installation, shower door installation and shower valve replacement — and the packaged versions on bathtub replacement, shower installation and shower remodel.
Tub Types and Shower Types, Priced
Neither side is one product.
| Tub type | What it is | Where it lands in the range |
|---|---|---|
| Alcove | Three walls, one finished apron; the default 60-inch tub | Bottom of the $1,500–$8,000 band |
| Drop-in | Shell dropped into a built deck; the deck is a carpentry line | Middle, plus the deck |
| Soaking | Deeper alcove or freestanding shell | Middle to upper |
| Freestanding | Sets on the floor, needs a floor-mounted or wall filler | Upper — the tub is the cheap part, the filler and its rough-in are not |
| Walk-in | Door-sealed tub with a seat, $4,000–$22,000 | A separate category; see walk-in tub cost |
| Shower type | What it is | Where it lands |
|---|---|---|
| Prefabricated | One-piece or three-piece molded unit | $1,000–$2,000 — the floor of the whole comparison |
| Tiled | Pan + tile + door + valve, assembled | $2,300–$14,400 |
| Walk-in | Low or no curb, larger footprint, usually glass | $4,000–$20,000; see walk-in shower cost |
| Wet room | The whole room is waterproofed and drained | The top of the walk-in band and above, because the waterproofing is not a pan, it is the floor |
The material decision inside the shower side — a molded acrylic surround against tile — is priced on its own in acrylic vs tile shower cost. It is the single largest lever on both the install cost and the ownership cost below.
Regional Cost: What Moves and What Does Not
Materials are broadly national. Labor is not — it tracks local trade wages, so the labor line of each fixture is scaled by the metro’s factor and the material line stays flat. Typical install, both fixtures:
| City | Labor factor | Bathtub replacement | Shower installation | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chicago, IL | 1.33 | $2,995 | $4,160 | $1,165 |
| New York, NY | 1.23 | $2,845 | $3,960 | $1,115 |
| Seattle, WA | 1.29 | $2,935 | $4,080 | $1,145 |
| Atlanta, GA | 0.92 | $2,380 | $3,340 | $960 |
| Houston, TX | 0.93 | $2,395 | $3,360 | $965 |
Labor adjustment factors are derived from BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (May 2025): the median ratio of local to national hourly wages across the trades that do this work. How this is calculated.
The gap between the two fixtures widens in expensive-labor metros, because the shower carries more hours than the tub at the same tier — and it widens further the more of the shower is tiled, since tile is the most labor-weighted line in the bathroom. Chicago carries the highest trade-labor factor in this data set, ahead of New York and Seattle. The derivation is on the methodology page.
The Switch, in Both Directions
These are not the same job run backwards, and they are not the same price.
Tub to shower — the well-defined direction
A tub-to-shower conversion runs $3,000 to $10,000, typically near $6,000 — $800 to $4,000 in materials, $2,000 to $5,500 in labor, 3 to 7 days. It is the cheaper direction for a structural reason: the alcove, the drain and the supply lines are already where the shower needs them. The tub is pulled and a pan, walls, valve and door go into the same 60-inch footprint. The detail is on tub-to-shower conversion cost.
Shower to tub — the direction nobody prices
There is no packaged product for this, so it is priced as the components that change:
| Line | What changes | Range |
|---|---|---|
| Tub unit, set and connected | The fixture itself | $1,500–$8,000 |
| Wall surround or tile to the tub deck | A tub needs a 60-inch surround; a 36-inch shower’s walls do not reach | $1,500–$7,000 |
| Valve and trim | A shower valve becomes a tub-and-shower valve with a diverter and a spout | $200–$900 |
| Component stack | $3,200–$15,900 |
Three things drive it above the reverse conversion, and each one is a fact about the room rather than about the fixture:
- Footprint. A standard tub needs a 60-inch run of wall. A neo-angle or 36-by-36-inch shower does not have one. Where the wall has to move, the job stops being a fixture swap and enters small bathroom remodel territory at $3,000 to $15,000.
- Drain position. A shower drain sits at or near the centre of the pan. A tub drain sits at one end, against the wall. Moving it is a floor-opening job and is part of the bathroom plumbing rough-in, not the fixture install.
- Floor load. A filled tub with a bather in it is a concentrated static load in a way an empty shower pan is not — which is why the framing under it is a line in this direction and not in the other.
The city table below prices the two directions side by side. The shower-to-tub stack is the more labor-weighted of the two, so it is the one that swings harder by metro:
| City | Labor factor | Tub → shower (conversion) | Shower → tub (component stack) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chicago, IL | 1.33 | $6,655 | $7,505 |
| Seattle, WA | 1.29 | $6,515 | $7,350 |
| Houston, TX | 0.93 | $5,255 | $5,945 |
| San Antonio, TX | 0.85 | $4,975 | $5,635 |
Labor adjustment factors are derived from BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (May 2025): the median ratio of local to national hourly wages across the trades that do this work. How this is calculated.
Cost of Ownership: 20 Years, Not One Day
The install is the number every comparison prints. It is not the number the household pays. The tub and the shower diverge far more in ownership than they do at purchase, and the reason is not the fixture — it is grout and glass.
| Line | Alcove tub + acrylic surround | Prefab shower | Tiled walk-in shower |
|---|---|---|---|
| Install (typical) | $2,500 | $3,500 | $9,000 |
| Regrout cycles over 20 years | $0 — a molded surround has no grout | $0 | $1,600 (2 × $800) |
| Glass door replacement | $0 (curtain) | $0 (curtain or included door) | $1,000 (1 × typical) |
| Valve replacement (1 in 20 years) | $425 | $425 | $425 |
| 20-year total | ~$2,925 | ~$3,925 | ~$12,025 |
| Cost per year of service | ~$146 | ~$196 | ~$601 |
Shower regrouting runs $300 to $2,000 and is a recurring line on any tiled wet wall — grout is a consumable, not a finish. A molded acrylic or fiberglass tub surround has no grout joints at all, which removes that line permanently. That single structural difference, not the purchase price, is why the tiled shower costs roughly four times what the tub does to own.
The rest of the ownership picture:
- Water per use. The federal maximum showerhead flow rate is 2.5 gallons per minute, and a WaterSense-labeled head is 2.0 gallons per minute or less. An 8-minute shower is therefore roughly 16 to 20 gallons. A 60-by-30-inch alcove tub filled to a normal depth holds roughly 30 to 40 gallons of mixed water once the sloped shell and the bather’s displacement are taken off. The crossover sits around 10 to 15 minutes of shower time: a short shower uses less water than a bath, a long one uses more. Freestanding and soaking tubs sit above the alcove figure, because depth is the point of them.
- Water-heater load. A tub is a single large draw. A 40-gallon tank asked for 30 to 40 gallons of mixed water is being asked for most of what it holds, and recovery — not the fixture — becomes the constraint on the second bath. A shower draws the same total more slowly, which is why two showers back to back are less of a problem for a small tank than two baths.
- Cleaning. Grout lines and glass are the labor. A molded surround is a wipe. This is not a dollar line for most households; it is the reason the tiled shower’s regrout cycle arrives on schedule.
- The valve is common to both. A shower valve replacement is $200 to $900 whichever fixture it feeds.
Space: the 60-Inch Alcove Decides Most of This
The alcove is the unit of American bathroom design, and it is 60 inches.
| Fixture | Footprint needed |
|---|---|
| Standard alcove bathtub | 60 in × 30–32 in |
| Prefab shower, same alcove | 60 in × 30–32 in |
| Prefab shower, square | 32 in × 32 in or 36 in × 36 in |
| Prefab shower, rectangular | 48 in × 34 in |
| Neo-angle / corner shower | 36–42 in on each leg |
| Walk-in / curbless shower | 36 in × 36 in interior and up, plus door swing or open entry |
| Freestanding tub | Its own footprint plus clearance on all four sides |
Two consequences fall straight out of this:
A shower fits where a tub cannot. That is the whole reason the tub-to-shower direction dominates in small bathrooms and half-conversions — a 36-inch square shower frees 24 inches of floor that a tub was occupying.
Enlarging an alcove is a framing job, not a fixture job. Anything that moves a wall to make room for a longer tub or a wider shower leaves the fixture budget and enters a remodel budget: small bathroom remodel at $3,000 to $15,000, or full bathroom remodel at $10,000 to $30,000. This is the most common way a “$4,000 shower” becomes a $12,000 project, and it is a decision about the wall, not about the fixture.
Accessibility: Both Sides Have a High-Cost Answer
Accessibility is the one place where both fixtures have a purpose-built product and the prices converge at the top.
| Option | Range | What the money buys |
|---|---|---|
| Walk-in tub | $4,000–$22,000 | A sealed door, a seat, and a fill-and-drain wait on both ends of the bath |
| Walk-in / curbless shower | $4,000–$20,000 | No threshold to step over, room for a seat, room for a helper |
| Accessibility bathroom remodel | $5,500–$20,000 | Grab bars, clearances, door widths, the room around the fixture |
The costs are the topic of walk-in tub cost and walk-in shower cost and are not duplicated here. The one figure worth carrying across: at the accessible tier, the fixture is no longer the cheaper half of the project — the room around it is.
Resale and the One-Tub House
There is no ROI percentage on this page. The figures circulating on this topic — a fixed percentage of home value said to be lost by removing the last tub — are not traceable to a source this site can verify, and an unverifiable number is worse than none.
What is verifiable is the mechanism, and it is a fact about the floor plan:
- A home with a second bathroom that keeps a tub still has a tub after a conversion. The conversion changes one bathroom, not the house.
- A single-bathroom home that converts its only tub to a shower has no tub in the house. Buyers who bathe small children, or who want a bath at all, are then choosing among the houses that have one.
- The reverse holds too: a house with three tubs and no walk-in shower is the mirror image of the same constraint.
The cost of undoing the decision is the number that matters, and it is on this page: $3,000 to $10,000 to go tub to shower, and $3,200 to $15,900 in components to go back. Whether a bathroom remodel returns its cost at sale is a separate question, covered on does a bathroom remodel increase home value.
Six Cost Factors That Move Either Number
- Whether the plumbing stays where it is. A fixture swap inside the existing footprint is the cheap case on both sides. The moment the drain or the supply moves, the floor or the wall opens and the bathroom plumbing rough-in becomes its own line rather than a connection at the end of the job.
- Tile area. Tile is the most labor-weighted surface in a bathroom: bathroom tile installation runs $1,500 to $7,000, with $500 to $3,000 in materials against $900 to $3,800 in labor. A tub takes a three-wall surround. A walk-in shower can take a full-height wrap plus a bench plus a niche — the same tile, three times the area.
- Glass. A curtain is a rod. A framed door is $400 to $1,000. Frameless glass reaches $3,000 on the shower door line alone, and it is the single largest optional item on the shower side.
- The tub material. Acrylic and fiberglass sit at the bottom of the $400 to $4,000 material band; enameled steel is next; cast iron is at the top and brings a second cost with it, because it takes more people to carry it and a floor that will hold it.
- The pan. A shower pan is $500 to $3,500 — a prefab acrylic base at the bottom, a mortar-bed or curbless tiled pan at the top. Curbless is the expensive word in that sentence, because the floor has to be recessed or the whole room re-sloped.
- The rest of the room coming with it. A fixture rarely changes alone. A vanity at $500 to $3,000, a toilet, a sink at $280 to $1,400 and new tile turn a fixture budget into a small bathroom remodel at $3,000 to $15,000. Ways to hold that down are on low-cost bathroom remodel, and the schedule is on how long a bathroom remodel takes.
DIY vs Pro on Both Sides
| Job | Materials | Labor | What DIY removes | The line that does not go away |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bathtub replacement | $400–$4,000 | $500–$3,500 | The labor | Supply and drain connections; getting a cast-iron tub up a staircase |
| Prefab shower install | $400–$4,000 | $600–$4,000 | The labor | The same connections, plus squaring the unit to an out-of-plumb alcove |
| Tiled shower | $400–$3,000 | $800–$4,000 | Less than it looks | Pan waterproofing — a failure here is invisible until it reaches the framing |
| Shower door | $200–$2,400 | $200–$600 | ~$200–$600 | Little; the glass is the cost, not the fitting |
| Shower valve | $20–$350 | $150–$550 | ~$150–$550 | Opening the wall; the valve is behind it |
The split is the point. On a tub, labor is roughly half the job and the materials arrive as one object — the DIY saving is real and bounded. On a tiled shower, the labor is a larger share than the materials, which makes it look like the better DIY target and makes it the worse one: the waterproofing under the tile is the part that fails, and it fails silently. The wider picture is on DIY bathroom remodel cost and bathroom remodel labor cost.
What the Numbers Say
- At the bottom, the shower is cheaper. A $1,000 prefab unit is the cheapest fixture in the room, below the $1,500 floor of a tub replacement.
- In the middle, the tub is cheaper — $2,500 against $5,525 for a tiled shower assembled from its parts — because a tub is one manufactured object and a tiled shower is four trades.
- At the top, the shower is far more expensive, and has no ceiling: $20,000 for a walk-in against $8,000 for the most expensive standard tub replacement.
- Over 20 years the tub is cheaper to own by roughly four to one against a tiled shower — about $146 a year against about $601 — and the difference is grout and glass, not the fixture.
- A shower fits where a tub does not, and moving a wall to change that costs more than either fixture.
Neither of those is a recommendation. They are the four numbers the decision actually turns on.
Related Costs
- Bathtub replacement cost and shower installation cost — the two head-to-head figures
- Tub-to-shower conversion cost — the switch, in the well-defined direction
- Acrylic vs tile shower cost — the material decision inside the shower side
- Bathtub reglazing cost — $350 to $1,200 where the tub is sound and only the surface is the objection, roughly a fifth of a $2,500 replacement for 10 to 15 years
- Bathtub liner cost — $1,200 to $7,000 for a moulded shell over the existing tub and its walls, fitted in one to two days without demolition
- Tile shower installation, shower pan installation and shower door installation — the components of the assembled stack
- Shower regrouting cost — the recurring line in the ownership table
- Walk-in tub cost and walk-in shower cost — the accessible tier
- Small bathroom remodel cost and full bathroom remodel cost — where a moved wall sends the budget
- All bathroom remodeling costs · Cost calculator · Methodology