Shopify Pricing Plans and Fees 2023: Which One is Right for You?

How much does Shopify cost? Starter vs Basic vs Shopify vs Advance - Which Plan Is Best for You?

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Shopify is a popular choice for businesses, but selecting the best pricing plan can be a challenge. Which Shopify pricing plan is best for me?

To start a Shopify store, you can choose from several pricing plans. The Basic Shopify Plan is available for $39 per month, while the Shopify Plan costs $105 per month. The Advanced Shopify plan comes in at $399 per month, and there are also a Starter Plan at $5 per month and an enterprise plan called ‘Shopify Plus.'

Leep reading to learn about the actual costs you can expect when going with Shopify, and view our recommendations for each Shopify pricing plan below.

Shopify Pricing Breakdown

Here's a breakdown of the pricing for each Shopify plan:

The Starter Plan starts at $5 per month and lets you sell on your existing website or social media pages.

Ther Shopify Plus plan, is aimed at large businesses and gives you access to advanced features. Shopify Plus gives you all the tools needed for a large operation. You'll have to contact Shopify in order to establish a custom rate along with whatever additional features you need. Needless to say, this is a highly customized plan so there's no need to cover it. You'll simply have to talk to Shopify if your store demands this type of support.

shopify pricing 2023

See Exactly How Much any Pricing Plan Will Cost You per Month and the Shopify Fees

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Shopify Pricing Plans: Table of contents

Try Shopify with $1 per month for the first 3 months!

Shopify has begun offering a special deal for sellers who sign up for a new Shopify plan. That deal? Pay Shopify $1/month for the first 3 months of full access to the platform!

This offer is is now available on all standard plans: Starter, Basic, Shopify, and Advanced.

Have you Checked our Shopify Video Review?

YouTube video

Shopify Pricing Plans Comparison: How Much Does Shopify Cost?

Before we jump too far into Shopify and its price options, it’s important to note that there are 3 different plans available from Shopify, aside from the free trial option.

If you opt for the yearly Shopify plan, you can take advantage of a generous discount — making your initial year's payment in full instead of monthly gives you 25% off your package.

Since Shopify prices increased in February 2023, for ‘Basic Shopify ‘Shopify’ and ‘Advanced Shopify’ to $39, $105 and $399, paying for a year in advance reduces the monthly costs for the ‘Basic,’ ‘Shopify’ and ‘Advanced’ plans to $24, $69 and $299 respectively.

The three Shopify pricing options are:

  • Basic Shopify costs $39 per month and is the cheapest option available. It comes with all the basics you need to start a new online business, including 2 staff accounts, 24/7 support, unlimited products, an online store with blog, and sales channels. You also get a free SSL certificate, discount codes, manual order creation, and abandoned cart recovery.
  • Shopify: This is the standard, and slightly more expensive option. Shopify, as it’s standard pricing plan, is available for $105 per month. It comes with everything you get in your Basic Shopify plan, including gift cards and professional reports, as well as 5 staff accounts
  • Advanced Shopify costs $399 per month – the most expensive option on the market. The Advanced Shopify plan comes with 15 staff accounts, and everything you get from the Shopify package. You’ll also have access to an advanced report builder and third-party shipping rates.

Each plan from Shopify also comes with different Shopify Payments terms. For instance, your online and credit card rates are:

  • Basic Shopify Plan: 2.2% plus 30 cents
  • Shopify: 2.6% plus 30 cents
  • Advanced Shopify Plan: 2.4% plus 30 cents

Your in-person credit card rates are:

  • Basic Shopify Plan: 2.7%
  • Shopify Plan: 2.4%
  • Advanced Shopify Plan: 2.4%

Additionally, additional fees using all payment providers aside from Shopify payments are 2% for Shopify Basic, 1% for Shopify, and 0.5% for Advanced Shopify.

The Shopify Basic package also comes with just the Shopify POS app and Third-party POS apps, while the Shopify and Advanced Shopify pricing plans come with hardware support, register shifts, staff POS pins and multiple store location options.

Shopify Pricing: Video

In a hurry? Here's a video version of the guide for you. 🙂

YouTube video

The Shopify Starter Plan ($5/month)

The Shopify Starter plan goes for $5 per month and gives you tools for selling on social media, accepting credit card payments and using Buy buttons. It's not exactly a real online store with a shopping cart, but it does the trick for smaller companies. I also like it if you're trying to install a few basic Buy buttons on an existing website, like for your blog or podcast website.

shopify pricing - shopify lite plan

A new addition involves the Facebook Messenger app, which is included with Shopify Starter and allows you to chat with customers through the Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and other social media pages. This is perfect for customer support.

Who is this Shopify Pricing plan best for?

Shopify Starter won’t work just by purchasing a hosting plan – the intent with Shopify Starter is to add ecommerce functionality to something you already have like a blog or information site. Therefore, you need a full website already configured with hosting, a domain and everything. For example, you could install Shopify Starter on a WordPress site.

The Basic Shopify Plan ($39/month)

Shopify pricing - features for basic shopify plan

The Basic Shopify Plan takes it up a notch since you receive a discount code engine, fraud analysis tools and the ability to upload an unlimited number of products to your Shopify store. The primary step up is the fact that you gain a fully functional website and blog through Shopify. Therefore, all of your products and orders are managed through Shopify, and you won't need a separate website to make it work.

Some other perks include a free SSL certificate, manual order creation, shipping labels, unlimited file storage and 24/7 support.

The pricing structure for the Basic plan is set at $39 per month + 2.9% and 30¢ per transaction, which is a bit higher than the Starter Plan, but it gives you the freedom to expand your Shopify store with tons of products.

Who is this Shopify Pricing plan best for?

If you need a beautiful and functional online store, but you don't want to pay for the additional features in the more expensive Shopify plan, this is the sweet spot for you. It's also the plan you go with if you don't already have a website that you can pair with the Starter plan.

The Shopify Plan ($105/month)

shopify pricing - basic features shopify plan

As the most popular Shopify solution, the Shopify Plan goes for $105 per month + 2.6% and 30¢ per transaction, which is quite the jump up from the Basic Shopify Plan, yet you receive pretty much every feature Shopify has to offer.

Create an unlimited amount of products, and take advantage of everything you would get with the Basic Shopify Plan. In addition, you gain access to Shopify POS, gift cards, professional reports and abandoned cart recovery. This abandoned cart recovery tool is one of the main reasons people tend to opt for the Shopify Plan since it's one of the best ways to grab contact information from people who don't finish their orders.

This obviously shows that the person was somewhat interested, so you can contact them later to prompt a purchase. The coolest part is that the abandoned cart tool sends out automated emails based on your own preferences. For example, if user abandons a cart in your shop, you can choose to send them a promo or reminder message within six hours.

shopify pricing - order processing shopify plan

This feature is a huge deal, since on average 67.89% of shoppers abandon their shopping carts, but these abandoners spend 55% more when they are remarketed to. It's imperative to reach out to these customers and figure out why they are leaving early.

Who is this Shopify Pricing plan best for?

The Shopify Plan works nicely for companies that plan on scaling up quick, since the unlimited products and unlimited storage ensure that all of your items fit well into the site. If your site brings in more than $5,000 per month, the Shopify plan is a good idea, since the transaction fees drop due to the volume when using external payment gateways. You also get that coveted abandoned cart recovery tool, which is known to improve sales without much work on your end.

The Advanced Shopify Plan ($399/month)

The Advanced Shopify Plan is priced at $399 per month + 2.4% and 30¢ per transaction, which gives you all the features from the previous plans along with an advanced report builder and third-party calculated shipping rates. Unlimited product uploads are still available, and your transaction percentage fees go down a bit when using external payment gateways.

The best part of the Advanced Shopify pricing plan is that everything is absolutely unlimited, so your storage capabilities are never ending. Feel free to upload as many products as you want, post as many videos and images as needed and bring in all the traffic you require. Abandoned cart recovery also comes with the Advanced package, which ensures that you can reach those sales numbers that make the increased plan pricing worthwhile.

The abandoned cart feature includes a handy area for managing all customers who have left their carts early to see if an email has been sent, and to figure out the reasons for their early departures.

shopify pricing - advanced SHopify plan

Finally, you can give dashboard access to 15 users, and the Shopify shipping discount is the best you can find compared to the other plans.

Who is this Shopify Pricing plan best for?

The Advanced Shopify Plan serves companies that would rather have their shipping handled by a third party. It's also nice for high-revenue companies that crave advanced reports, which allow for testing and projecting. You save a bit of money with the decreased transaction fees and increased Shopify shipping discounts, making it ideal for companies bringing in over $10,000 per month.

Shopify Plus Pricing (starting at $2000/month)

shopify pricing - shopify plus

Shopify Plus is the enterprise level system when you need resources to focus on things like marketing and design, as opposed to order management. Your site is fully hosted, and you don’t incur any transaction fees. The 200 TB of storage is more than enough to handle the most robust stores.

Price: You must contact Shopify to receive a quote, it's going to cost around $2000 per month.

Who is This Shopify Plan Best For?

Huge companies like DodoCase or the Los Angeles Lakers. This doesn’t negate smaller companies, but if you have a large team, and you don’t want to spend too much time on managing your orders, this is the way to automate that. For more info check out our Shopify reviews or Shopify Plus Review.

Shopify Pricing: Monthly vs Annual

There’s a slight discount on all Shopify plans if you choose to pay for an annual plan. Your annual plan will get a 25% discount on all prices per month when paid up front.

Hosting, Domains, and Cancellations

Although Shopify provides domains for a mere $9 per year, I would also recommend checking out places like GoDaddy and NameCheap to shop around and see if any other pricing options are available.

Oh, and an update: unlike before, merchants will no longer need to access OpenSRS to change any information on their Shopify purchased domains; they'll be able to access all the same information from the Domain section itself. Merchants can now from their admin panel:

  • change their A records, CNAME, MX records, TXT records, and AAAA records;
  • more efficiently set up their Zoho and G Suite email accounts;
  • add subdomains; and
  • enable or disable auto-renew.

Shopify presents you with monthly and yearly payment options, and although you can upgrade or downgrade your account at any time for no charge, I would consider going with the monthly plans to start out. This way, you don't get stuck in a yearly cycle if you need to modify the plan or completely stop using Shopify. The yearly plan might be better if you already have an established ecommerce business and you're just migrating over to Shopify, or if you've had a successful first year with Shopify. However, startups and inventors should probably go with the monthly plan in case something happens where you need to shut down.

You can cancel your plan at any point without being charged any fees, but yearly payment is not reimbursed, so that's another reason to stick with a monthly plan to start. Now, let's take a look at the four Shopify pricing plans to see which is ideal for you. The Shopify Starter Plan is a little hidden when you go to the Shopify pricing page.

Shopify's Transaction Fees and Credit Card Rates Explained

Shopify pricing - processing fees

If you utilize the Shopify Payments processor, you don't have to worry about processing fees. However, if you choose an option like PayPal or Authorize.net, you can expect to pay somewhere around 3% + 30¢ per transaction. Not only that, but Shopify charges on your turnover, and this ranges from 0.5% to 2%.

Transaction fees and credit card rates are some of the most annoying parts of implementing any sales channel or point of sale solution into your ecommerce business. Ideally, all store owners would be able to take high volume sales and ramp up their monthly revenue without having to pay a penny. Unfortunately, all checkout tools and ecommerce platforms will charge you at least a basic fee for transactions and credit card payments.

The amount you pay for your transaction fees and other Shopify costs will depend on what your specific plan offers. For instance:

  • Basic Shopify: Available for $39 per month, Shopify’s basic solution for your online store comes with everything you need to launch your business quickly. The Basic plan charges a transaction fee of 2.9% plus 30 cents per purchase. That’s the highest price from Shopify.
  • Shopify: The annual plan from Shopify’s standard account option for $105 per month comes with slightly different credit card rates. To take credit card payments with this plan, you will need to pay 2.6% plus 30 cents for every transaction.
  • Advanced Shopify: Finally, although the monthly Shopify charges for the Advanced package are the highest that the ecommerce brand has to offer, $399 per month, the transaction rates are the lowest. Your transaction fees on the Shopify advanced plan will be around 2.4% plus 30 cents for each transaction.

Essentially, the more you pay for your Shopify app and point of sale solution, the less you’re going to need to pay for your transactions. This means that if you’re worried about paying for everything from shipping rates to credit card rates when you sell a lot on your online store, it might be worth upgrading to the Advanced Shopify plan for your payment processing.

Of course, the Advanced Shopify plan also comes with extra features too, like most customization options for your sales channels, support for high-volume sales, social media integrations, advanced reporting for monthly revenue, and so on.

What Else Might You Spend Money on with Shopify?

Apps come in many different shapes and sizes, and they are all provided in a handy Shopify App Store for you to browse. The apps assist you with everything from email marketing to automated receipts, and many of them are given away for free.

shopify pricing - shopify app store

However, some Shopify apps require payments. For example, S Loyalty runs at $19.99 – $119.19 per month depending on your plan.

As a bit of advice, I'd recommend avoiding the paid apps as much as you can. Most of the time you can locate a solid solution that doesn't require a payment. However, sometimes you stumble upon a paid app that's too good to pass up. In that case, keep the paid apps to a minimum and only select ones that will pay for themselves quickly.

Additional Shopify Costs

There are also additional costs to consider beyond whatever your plan offers, if you want to add more functionality to your Shopify experience.

For instance:

  • Shopify POS (point of sale) hardware and software: From the Shopify POS software to devices like Shopify POS Go, it's possible that your online business needs in-person POS machines to process payments, like at trade shows, craft fairs, or if you also run a retail shop and need direct access to your inventory and payment processing. The Shopify Go + Case bundle sells for $428 + tax, but you can choose from a wide range of other hardware such as stationary terminals, cash drawers, receipt printers, and more. They all range in pricing.
  • Shopify app store costs: Some of the third party app providers in the Shopify app marketplace charge a small fee for you to add other functionality to your ecommerce store. If you want the benefits of extra plugins and apps, like an app that can sign your customers up for memberships for instance, or a plugin that supports dropshipping and Google analytics, you may need to pay for them.
  • Domain name: Your domain name is another cost that you’ll need to consider when you’re using Shopify. You can register your unique domain name directly through Shopify for a price of $14 for a one year registration. There’s also the option to buy your name elsewhere and migrate it into Shopify too.
  • Email hosting: Shopify doesn’t provide email hosting as an internal option, but you can set up email forwarding to your Shopify domain via a third-party hosting service. Usually, you will need to pay for that email hosting service as part of your website hosting package.

Can You Avoid Shopify's Transaction Fees?

Although the fees for Shopify transactions aren’t that bad when you consider the amount of payment processing features your small business gets in return, many companies aren’t happy paying them. To understand why you need to deal with transaction fees at all, let’s take a look at how they work.

Whenever a customer buys a product from your Shopify POS, a transaction fee is charged. The transaction fee changes depending on the kind of Shopify plan you have. Although this seems unfair at first, it takes power and processing bandwidth for Shopify to handle things like your file storage and checkout process. Shopify charges you for the work that it does to keep your business up and running – even when you have thousands of visitors on your site at the same time.

While it’s easy to assume that the monthly plan you pay for with your Shopify store will cover this expense, the truth is that what you’re actually paying for is the sales tools and software. Your monthly fee covers the support for an unlimited number of products on your store, as well as excellent support and real-time hosting for store owners.

If you still think that the transaction fees are unfair, consider the fact that most other companies charge these fees too. For instance:

  • BigCommerce doesn’t charge a fee for every sale that you make. However, if you generate more sales than usual one month, you’re automatically bumped up to higher plans, so you’re forced to pay more for your services. This is something that Shopify doesn’t do.
  • Wix again doesn’t charge you any regular transaction fees, but when you want to sell products through the service, you need to be on the VIP or ecommerce plan. That means that you pay a little more for your service each month. At the same time, you have to pay a percentage for each purchase managed to a payment gateway provider as well.
  • Volusion limits the amount of bandwidth that you have access to each month. This means that you’ll be restricted to how many people can visit your store. On the other hand, Shopify doesn’t put a limit on bandwidth. Though you don’t have to pay transaction fees with Volusion, you don’t necessarily have as many opportunities for sales either.

Of course, if you refuse to deal with the Shopify transaction fees, then you can always switch to Shopify Payments, and Shopify will remove the fees completely. Shopify payments helps you to process payments from your clients and move it into your bank account. If you use this application, then Shopify earns the credit card fees, which means that the transaction fees can be waived. Instead of paying transaction fees plus any credit card fees, you pay just the credit card fees.

This means that Shopify Payments can actually save you a lot of money in the right circumstances. The credit card rates that you pay with Shopify on its own are usually a lot lower than the fees that you’ll get from PayPal. This means that you can keep your costs consistently low.

Is It a Good Idea to Use Shopify Payments?

When you’re looking for a way to upgrade your sales strategy from selling products on Amazon and eBay, Shopify is a great option. It comes with it’s own app store, and a range of delightful Shopify apps to help you customize every transaction. Additionally, Shopify stands out as one of the more reliable and secure solutions in the marketplace today.

However, since you only get to use Shopify free for a very short period of time, you’re going to need to come to terms with the costs before you can start running your business entirely through this platform. If transaction fees are something that you hate, then Shopify Payments could be an excellent way to avoid them. You’ll save more money with Shopify Payments than you would using other ecommerce website builders too!

Thanks to things like unlimited bandwidth, Shopify gives you a way to grow your business flexibly, for as long as you like using their service. What’s more, with Shopify Payments, you can avoid those pesky transaction fees completely. That’s probably why Shopify suggests that around 85% of their users are using Shopify Payments when it’s an available option.

Shopify POS Pricing

If you’re keen to take your Shopify strategy to the next level, you might decide to use the Shopify Point of Sale system too. Shopify POS is the software solution available for today’s offline sellers who want to sell offline, as well as building a presence as an online retailer.

The Shopify POS works alongside your eCommerce system to ensure that you can sell conveniently offline or online. The good news for today’s business owners is that it’s extremely easy to access Shopify POS. The Lite version of the solution comes with all Shopify Plans.

No matter what kind of Shopify package you choose, you’ll have access to Shopify POS Lite, complete with access to mobile and hardware accessories. With Shopify POS Lite, you can use the Shopify customer profiles to manage your sales, and order and product management tools too. There’s also support for in-person credit card rates starting at 1.5%.

For brick and mortar sales at a higher level, you can try Shopify POS Pro. Shopify POS Pro is another expense added to your Shopify subscription. You pay the price you chose for your Shopify package, plus $89 per month for each location you need to serve.

The Shopify POS Pro solution comes with everything you got from Shopify POS Lite, as well as extra features like:

  • Unlimited registers
  • Unlimited store employees
  • Intelligent inventory management
  • Support for staff roles and permissions
  • In-store reporting and analytics
  • Omnichannel selling features

Keep in mind that hardware is also required to run the Shopify POS software. We're talking registers, iPad docks, cash registers, and receipt printers. The most logical and affordable way to configure a physical point of sale infrastructure is to go with the Shopify POS Go, which is a handheld device that gives you access to everything in Shopify POS, including inventory, products, payment processing, and customer data.

This way, retailers can move around the floor and talk to customers with a POS on hand. There's also the potential to bring the Shopify POS Go with you to trade shows, events, and to the curbside to accommodate waiting customers. You can pair the POS Go with other more traditional configurations if you'd like to have a more centralized hub for customers to checkout.

Shopify POS Go device

The pricing for Shopify POS hardware varies, but the Shopify POS Go (plus a case) sells for $428 + tax. You also have the option to only buy the POS Go (without the case) for $399. With support for tap, chip, swipe, and QR code scanning, you can't go wrong with the POS Go.

👉 Read our full Shopify POS review.

How to Choose the Best Shopify Plan for Your Business?

Shopify plans are a lot like stores. They come in a wide variety of sizes. Getting the right package for you means figuring out exactly what you need from your online store.

This sometimes means thinking about what kind of products you plan on selling, how many customers you’re working with, and so on.

Basic Shopify

Basic Shopify is the cheapest entry-level solution for people who want to start off with something small. With this version of Shopify, you get access to support for an unlimited number of products. If you have a wide product range, you’re going to need that flexibility.

Shopify doesn’t limit your file storage or selling solutions with Shopify Basic, which is why it’s so much more appealing than Shopify Starter for people with a growing online presence. Basic Shopify also comes with abandoned cart recovery components, and telephone support. You won’t have access to things like professional analytics or gift cards.

Shopify

This is the standard plan for people who want a great way to continue growing their website and even their offline presence too. Although the pricing gap between Basic and Shopify is quite large, it’s definitely worth the extra cost if your business wants room to scale.

The Shopify plan comes with everything you need to sell in today’s digital world. The rate you have to pay for credit card transactions is 0.3% lower than it is on Basic, and you get professional reports. Analytics make it easier to see where you need to focus to increase your revenue. You can also access things like gift cards through this package. This makes it easier to connect with your customers and keep them coming back for more.

Advanced Shopify

Advanced Shopify is the more expensive plan. The credit card payment is the lowest available, and it provides better shipping conditions for the US too. This plan is the ideal option for anyone who needs to accelerate their sales strategy fast. If you need things like real-time carrier shipping to strengthen your connections with customers, this is the solution for you.

Advanced Shopify has a powerful reporting and analytics system that allows companies to customize their reports according to their needs.

Shopify Plus

This is the enterprise solution for much larger businesses who need to scale at an incredible pace. Most starting businesses won’t need anything close to Shopify Plus, as it’s intended for companies that are bringing in a lot of revenue every month. The pricing difference between Advanced Shopify and Shopify Plus is huge, so be ready to splash out.

Shopify Plus makes sure that teams have what they need to succeed. You’ll have a dedicated support team to help you generate an exciting new launch opportunity. Plus, your developers get more access to the Shopify system for customization, dedicated APIs, and cart scripting. This means that you can make your store more unique to you.

Shopify Starter

In our opinion, is unlikely to be enough for a lot of growing companies. However, if you want to get started with digital sales and you don’t have a lot of budget, then Shopify Starter could help you to move in the right direction. Shopify Starter only allows you to sell on your existing website or through social media.

Shopify Starter also includes a Facebook Messenger app which allows you to communicate with your customers and serve their needs better. Shopify Starter is really only a solution for companies who already have an online presence with social media or a website.

Choosing your best Shopify plan means thinking about not just what you’re trying to accomplish right now, but what you want to do in the future, ask yourself:

  • How many products do I have to sell?
  • What kind of products am I selling? (physical or digital)
  • How big is my team, do I need Shopify access for staff members?
  • How many customers do I have?
  • How much revenue am I creating each month?
  • How much can I afford to spend on transaction fees?
  • How important is it to have additional features like analytics?

Most smaller companies will start with a taster of Shopify through either the Starter package or Shopify Basic. However, as your business grows, it’s likely that you’ll need to upgrade to the options with a higher range of features. Don’t be afraid to take your package to the next level when you need to.

Shopify Pricing: A Quick Video Recap

YouTube video

Shopify Pricing FAQ

That's it for learning which Shopify plan is right for you.

Here are some common questions about Shopify fees and answers from our experts.

How expensive is Shopify?

There are 3 main tiers when it comes to Shopify pricing: Basic Shopify ($39 / mo), Shopify ($105 / mo), Advanced Shopify ($399 / mo). If you sign up for a whole year (or more) upfront, you will get a discount:

  • 10% off when signing up with Shopify for an annual plan
  • 20% off when signing up for 2 years
  • 25% off when signing up for 3 years up front.

Apart from the main fee, there are also separate fees on transactions and credit card processing. See the next question.

Does Shopify have transaction fees? What are the credit card rates and processing fees?

Yes and no. When you use Shopify Payments – Shopify's own payment gateway – there are no fees on transaction processing. When using external payment gateways (such as PayPal or Stripe), you will pay additional fees based on your subscription plan:

  • Basic Shopify Plan – 2% per transaction
  • Shopify Plan – 1% per transaction
  • Advanced Shopify Plan – 0.5% per transaction

Regardless of your payment gateway, you will also be charged credit card processing fees if your customer chooses to use a credit card when making the payment. The specific rate also depends on your subscription plan:

  • Basic Shopify Plan – 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction
  • Shopify Plan – 2.6% + 30c per transaction
  • Advanced Shopify Plan – 2.4% + 30¢ per transaction

What are “Shopify Payments”?

Shopify Payments are Shopify's own payment processing gateway. If you choose to use it, you will not be charged additional per-transaction fees on top of the standard credit card processing fees.

If you choose to use an external payment gateway (such as PayPal or Stripe), you will pay additional fees based on your subscription plan:

  • Basic Shopify Plan – 2% per transaction
  • Shopify Plan – 1% per transaction
  • Advanced Shopify Plan – 0.5% per transaction

Credit card fees (not transaction fees) still apply to those using Shopify Payments. That goes for whether you're processing cards through a Shopify POS Go device, your online store, or a standard retail cash register with Shopify POS.

Read our comprehensive Shopify Payments review.

Are there any Shopify setup fees?

No. There are no additional fees on top of your regular Shopify monthly cost and the per-transaction fees.

Is Shopify free to use?

No, but you can get started with Shopify on their 3-day free trial. During the trial, you can build your store and make it available to the public.

However, in order to receive sales, and after your trial is done, you will have to choose one of the paid plans:

  • Basic Shopify ($39 / mo),
  • Shopify ($105 / mo)
  • Advanced Shopify ($399 / mo).

Shopify doesn't offer a free plan at this point.

Do I need a credit card to start a Shopify trial?

No. Shopify has a 3-day free trial with no strings attached. You can test the system, see how you like it, even build your store and make it visible to the public. You get to do all this without entering your credit card details. It's at the end of your trial when you decide if you want to convert to a paid plan, and enter your credit card then.

Which Shopify plan is the best for a new store?

The Basic Shopify plan is usually the best fit for a small business that's just getting started online. It costs $39 when paid monthly. If you opt to pay for a whole year, up front, you will get a discount of 25%.

There are no setup fees associated with launching your online store. Each transaction you receive can be subject to additional fees. See one of the questions above.

Is Shopify cheaper than WooCommerce?

Generally, no. But you sort of get what you pay for with both setups. For example, launching a new store on Basic Shopify and paying for it annually will cost you $348 / year. Running a similar WooCommerce store will set you back $15 for the domain name and $70-$120 for WordPress hosting. This is indeed cheaper than Shopify, but, with WooCommerce, you also have to be familiar with building websites and ecommerce stores on your own.

With Shopify, all the heavy lifting is done by Shopify itself. This includes setup, maintenance, security, etc., so you can just focus on handling the sales.

Can my whole team work on the store?

Shopify allows you to set up staff accounts, but their number depends on the Shopify plan that you've chosen:

How many products can I sell on Shopify?

Shopify doesn't limit the number of products you can have in your offer in any way. You can sell unlimited products on every Shopify plan.

How much sales and web visitors can I receive?

There are no restrictions or fees associated with how popular your store can get. You can receive unlimited visitors and unlimited orders/sales on all Shopify plans.

Further reading:

Shopify Pricing: Finishing Thoughts

Shopify fees are one of the many things that some business owners can find difficult or challenging when they’re first building their online store. After all, it can be confusing to discover that aside from a monthly fee, you also need to pay transaction fees and credit card costs too.

Still, while the pricing can be difficult to process at first, Shopify continues to be one of the most reliable and most popular hosted ecommerce building tools on the market today. With a huge range of ecommerce tools to choose from, a broad app store, and a wide community of theme designers and experts to take advantage of, Shopify is a great choice for any business owner.

Though Shopify isn’t the cheapest ecommerce solution on the market today, it may be the best option for business owners that are serious about investing in the growth of their store. Shopify prices aren’t outrageously or unreasonably expensive – particularly when you think about the value that you get in return. However, they’re not suitable for the small companies that just don’t have much budget to spend on their online site yet.

On the other hand, if you have enough money to invest in one of the higher tier options from Shopify, or you want to add Shopify Payments to your plan, you can keep your costs relatively low, and access a wide range of functionality and eCommerce features at the same time.

Hopefully, this Shopify prices guide will have given you the extra information that you need to make the right decision about your Shopify experience.

Now it's your turn to contribute, so let us know in the comments section below if you've had a chance to play around with the Shopify selling tools. If so, what would you say is the ideal Shopify pricing plan for your business? Do you find it easy to upgrade or downgrade your site if you would like to change your site capabilities? Share your thoughts below!

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Joe Warnimont

Joe Warnimont is a Chicago-based writer who focuses on eCommerce tools, WordPress, and social media. When not fishing or practicing yoga, he's collecting stamps at national parks (even though that's mainly for children). Check out Joe's portfolio to contact him and view past work.

Comments 85 Responses

  1. Brittany says:

    If I already have a domain/e-commerce site via Shopify, but I use square up in my retail shop is there an easy way to integrate the two without us having to entirely rebrand our site into square up or vis versa having to completely abandon our current POS system?

    1. Bogdan Rancea says:

      Hey Brittany, you will be able to integrate Square Payments and POS with Shopify, but you will have to pay some extra fees. So, you might consider migrating to Shopify Payments and Shopify POS.

  2. sahar says:

    Hi is there any way that I can Enable third-party calculated rates at checkout in my Shopify Lite plan?

  3. J says:

    they quoted us 2.25% transaction fee on plus and we process half a million to a million a month

  4. Bob says:

    Thank you for the calculator! I have been using Shopify for a few years now and was curious about the different plans and what the threshold is for when the Basic plan starts to cost more. I had a hunch that I crossed that threshold and the calculator has confirmed it.

    The only thing I would like to have seen is dual payment gateways. Paypal makes up about 70% of my transactions. It wasn’t hard for me to figure it out. Overall though, a dual payment gateway calculator doesn’t really add to the point of this article but it is something that people need to consider if they do accept paypal.

  5. Azinoosh Rafiei says:

    On Shopify basic plan can I have more than one product categories? for example, health & beauty category & accessories category. Can have sub categories as well to separate men accessories & women accessories?

    1. Bogdan Rancea says:

      Yes, you can have as many categories as you like!

  6. Cathy says:

    Will Shopify handle my customer service or am I responsible for supporting my own customers?

    1. Bogdan Rancea says:

      Hello Cathy,

      You will have to offer support for you customers.

  7. Adam Fitzgibbon says:

    Great article AND comments. Thanks.

    We have two business offices – One in Vietnam and one in Portugal.
    Our current Shopify Basic store is set up in Euro and sells only to the EU.
    Should I set up a new site in $USD to sell to other regions of the world? Or try to integrate all regions into the current site?
    Thanks

    1. Bogdan Rancea says:

      Hello Adam, you can try using a currency converter. There are plenty available in the Shopify App Store.

  8. Jason R. says:

    So I’ve been looking for a platform that’s low price as I’m a newbie to this ecommerce thing.
    My question is the 29.00 plan is it really 29.00 a month or do I have to pay the full year in advance first?
    I tried to sign up with another and the ad said something like 142.97 a yr( monthly 11.91 for 12 months) when I went to pay they tried to take the 142.97 which to me as being very skeptical about all this ecommerce stuff drove me right away from there platform and I will never even consider that company again. When a business pulls a stunt like that I know there’s more lil tricks up their sleeves in the future and they’re obviously not upfront with they’re customers. Can you please tell me what I would need to pay upfront if I did this right now and opened my store what would I need to have as far as all costs is it just the 29.00 for the basic to open and sell on my store no other apps added or whatever else can be added I just want to open and sell can I do this for 29.00 and that is the final cost ???? And will the payment come out today or at the end of the month ex:30days from now?

    1. Bogdan Rancea says:

      Hello Jason,

      The Basic Shopify plan is $29. If you pay for an annual plan you will get a 10% discount. So the price forf the entire year will be $313 instead of $348.

  9. Richard says:

    As a Shopify Plus user, I’ve learned the hard way that even the highest tiers of Shopify just don’t have what you need to run a full fledged store. You’re not going to run a Nordstrom or a Vitacost.com site on Shopify, ever.

    You can’t do a BOGO50 or BOGO30 natively, or any of the other sales strategies most normal stores use everyday. You can’t stack promotions, which drives users INSANE. User “accounts” are meaningless. People can’t even change their own email address, nor can you do it for them. Even at $2k+ per month, it’s ridiculously underpowered. Hundreds or even thousands of dollars of apps don’t improve the condition much, since many are too “hacky” in nature.

    Shopify is a good exercise in minimalism that can help you get a nice looking site up fast and prove a concept. It’s a truly wonderful way to build your dream TODAY, and get it tested. To prove your concept. But when your concept is proven, and you’re going to run it for many years, it’s much easier to run that site on a piece of software or a service that has more features integrated. BigCommerce, Magento, WooCommerce, etc.

    Personally, I’m going to try BigCommerce next, but with a different checkout solution (their so-called “one page” checkout is inferior to Shopify’s). It can save credit card numbers, it can do Amazon like promotions and all types of things Shopify cannot — all before you even add apps.

    That said, I don’t have any answers to what the ultimate cart is. I don’t think there is one, but at least I better understand what Shopify is really good for. It’s useful, but you gotta remember, Tesla and other major brands left Shopify Plus for a reason. Shopify is a nice proving ground, but it’s kind of a headache for shops that are dug in and here to stay. The things Shopify left out are really kind of shocking. Things you’d never think anybody could possibly leave out. It’s truly odd.

  10. ENIOLA SODIQ OLADIPUPO says:

    Can you please explain the meaning of the 2.5% and 30¢ per transaction in Basic Shopify and Shopify plans?
    Thanks .

    1. Bogdan Rancea says:

      Hello Eniola,

      That is the credit card rate you will pay for each transaction.

  11. Kenn says:

    With the Shopify Baic plan do I get to add a custom domain?

    1. Bogdan Rancea says:

      Hey Kenn, the answer is yes 🙂

  12. Joy says:

    Thanks so much for this write up. Please,can the Shopify lite plan be applied on Facebook page for sales?

  13. Moses Agbete says:

    can I install my own plugins, extensions and theme on Shopify to get the desired functionality?

    if I get the basic or any of the higher plan, do they have an API that I can copy and integrate into my own WordPress website?

    1. Bogdan Rancea says:

      Hello Moses, the only way to integrate Shopify with WordPress is by adding the buy button using the Shopify Lite plan. You can install extensions for your Shopify store but only from their App Store.

  14. Judit says:

    Hi, I have two questions. How many domains / stores can you have with the basic plan? And, can you directly advertise on Facebook from your store?
    Thank you
    Judit

    1. Bogdan Rancea says:

      Hello Judith,

      You can have one store with a single domain name. But, you can redirect as many domain names as you want to this primary domain.

      Bogdan – Editor at staging.ecommerce-platforms.com

  15. Graeme H Biddle says:

    Is there anyone out there that can set up a shopify web/account for me? I am not technical at all.

    1. Bogdan Rancea says:

      Hello Graeme,

      Here’s a list of Shopify Setup experts that can help launch your store and assist with basic tasks.

      Hope this helps,


      Bogdan – Editor at staging.ecommerce-platforms.com

  16. Todd says:

    Shopify Plus credit card rates are 2.1% + $0.30, not 1.6%
    The account fee is 0.25% gross merchant sales volume, minimum $2,000 (eg. $800,000/month).
    And there’s a 0.15% transaction fee for non-shopify payment methods.

    1. Bogdan Rancea says:

      Thanks Todd!

  17. Yassine says:

    Thank you for your great article. I have a shop on PrestaShop and would like to migrate to Shopify or Woocommerce. People around me do not advise me to go with woocommerce because I would have more fees to pay for the updates. is it the same with Shopify (if I add extensions)? is there any other fees that I have to consider (design, programming,..)

    1. Bogdan Rancea says:

      Hello Yassine,

      PLease check out our Shopify vs WooCommerce comparison for more info.


      Bogdan – Editor at staging.ecommerce-platforms.com

  18. Monika says:

    Hi…If I were to add the Lite plan to my existing site, is there a catalog page that shows up such as in the 14 day trial? For instance, it shows image selected, Plus either other views of item (artwork in my case) or similar artworks.
    Also can I set up options as in trial. I need various sizes, with various substrate options all at different prices. I also looking at Art Store Fronts as a solution. Thanks

    1. Bogdan Rancea says:

      Hello Monika,

      Please check out our Shopify Lite review for more info.


      Bogdan – Editor at staging.ecommerce-platforms.com

  19. Ernest says:

    I like the article though I have a question. Are there Shopify online stores in Kenya and if so, can I customize to Kenya only?

    1. Bogdan Rancea says:

      Hello Ernest,

      Shopify is available in Kenya. Here you can find a list with payment gateways available in your country.


      Bogdan – Editor at staging.ecommerce-platforms.com

  20. Lorena Silva says:

    Hi!
    I have been using The Basic Plan for the last 2 years with sales of $5000-$6500 a month, which it seems to be the best plan for me since my sales are not that high.
    BUT, I was wondering how much would I be saving on Shipping fees if I move to the next plan? Is there any place to compare the Shipping discounts between plans?
    Thanks in advance for the time you use to help me.

  21. Malou says:

    Hello there,
    You are such a great help!thank you!
    I want to know if the $79 plan includes a website.
    Thanks

    1. Bogdan Rancea says:

      Hello Malou,

      Of course. The same applies for all three plans.

      Cheers!

      Bogdan – Editor at staging.ecommerce-platforms.com

  22. Candra says:

    Hi,
    I live in Indonesia, which shopify payment doesn’t support in my country, and I only market my product just for indonesian customer. So I want to ask you, will I get charge of transaction fees?

    *sorry for my bad english

    1. Bogdan Rancea says:

      Hello Candra,

      When using external payment gateways you will pay a transaction fee, from 0.5% for the Advanced Shopify plan, up to 2% for the Basic Shopify plan.


      Bogdan – Editor at staging.ecommerce-platforms.com

  23. Heather says:

    Is there a revenue limit on the Shopify Advanced Plan?

    1. Bogdan Rancea says:

      Hello, no, there is no limit.

      Cheers!

  24. GG says:

    Thanks for the info. Does shopify have any thanksgiving or cyber monday deals on their pricing?

    1. Bogdan Rancea says:

      I don’t remeber them offering discounts for their Shopify plans but some of the apps from the App Store might be discounted.

      Bogdan – Editor at staging.ecommerce-platforms.com

  25. Suat says:

    Great article.

    1. Bogdan Rancea says:

      Thanks Suat, glad you liked it!

  26. Michael says:

    Hello, great article, I’ve got a question though, what if my website were to use a pay on delivery service, would that be violating any shopify terms and conditions?

    1. Bogdan Rancea says:

      Hello,

      Not at all, manual payment methods (cash on delivery (COD), money orders, and bank transfers) are available to all Shopify plans.

      1. Husam says:

        Bogdan,
        Can you accept COD payments on the lite plan? tried to find info on the shopify website but found nothing.

        1. Bogdan Rancea says:

          Hello Husam,

          Here’s a list of online international payment gateway providers that integrate with Shopify.

          Best.

  27. andrew holcomb says:

    How does the $79 plan’s cart abandonment compare to downloadable apps such as Kit Carts, MailChimp or the likes?

    1. Bogdan Rancea says:

      Using Mailchimp would definitely be an improvement. For more info, check out our Mailchimp review.

  28. Noura Ahmadi says:

    Hi
    I am looking for a solution to have a bilingual page (English and Arabic ) , is there any feature for this?

    Regards

    1. Bogdan Rancea says:

      Hello,

      Using Langify you can provide multilingual storefronts on Shopify.

  29. Jean says:

    Hello, do I need to buy the basic package if i bought $9 lite?

    1. Bogdan Rancea says:

      Not necessarily Jean. You can use only the Shopify Lite plan if you want to sell your products via Messenger or add a buy button on your existing website.

      Cheers!

      Bogdan – Editor at staging.ecommerce-platforms.com

  30. Angelica Cory says:

    Great article…thankfully I found the answer to my question in the comments. I was looking to see if the awesome Facebook messenger app was included with the more expensive plans (basic, shopify, & advanced). I just bought some soap from a local artisan who uses shopify and it was the BEST customer service experience I’ve ever had with an online shop! It sold me on making the switch to Shopify, which I’ve been wanting to do for a few years now but couldn’t justify the cost when I could design my own wix site for less than half of what Shopify costs. Wix is great, but it’s just not robust enough to keep up. Thanks!

    1. Bogdan Rancea says:

      Happy to hear that Angelica 🙂

  31. GENDY says:

    Hello
    We have a shopify store which we love on the ‘Shopify Plan’ but need to now create a solution for wholesaling. We can not justify the $299 for the next level. Would you sugest running a shadow store using ‘Shopify Basic’?
    Please advise.
    Thank you
    Hickory Hill

  32. Alex says:

    Thanks for the article. So if I wanted to use my current payment gateway (Stripe), I would still have to pay Shopify a fee? I get a much better percentage than even the Advanced plan but would really only need the $79 plan. This is stearing me away from moving to Shopify. We currently do about $20 to $30k per month if that helps. I am currently on Prestashop and utilize shopping cart abandonment, mailchimp for mail after purchase emails, etc etc. I would only be moving to Shopify because I love the front end features, especially the checkout process.

    1. Bogdan Rancea says:

      Hello, Shopify Payment is powered by Stripe so you will actually be able to use Stripe and do not pay any extra transaction fees.

  33. Debbie Foote says:

    I have the Shopify plan (the middle plan) and pay the added $20 fee. I am trying to add another shipping option, DHL, but am having trouble integrating it. Is it possible to add 3rd party shipping options to this plan?

      1. Debbie Foote says:

        Hi Bogdan,
        that’s what i’m trying to get onto my site. I have downloaded it but the rates aren’t showing up…this was why i wanted to check whether this version accepts 3rd party live shipping rates. Any ideas? I’ve checked whether any of my current apps are conflicting with it but that doesn’t seem to be the case.

  34. Jaya says:

    With the shopify plan how much (ballpark?) would I need to be prepared to spend up front in order to have a functional site that can conduct transactions, without adding much (paid) customization other than shipping calculator, and using the month to month option?

    1. Bogdan Rancea says:

      Hey Jaya, it all depends. If you have some minimal web design/development skills you’ll have no trouble setting up your store. Otherwise you might have to hire an expert to help you with the initial setup.

  35. Dionysis says:

    Hi! I am going to launch a site selling services. I want to upload daily pages including some information but i want those pages to be visible only to those who have bought my services. Is this possible with shopify and ecommerce platforms in general or i should just start looking elsewhere?

    Thanks in advance.

    1. Bogdan Rancea says:

      hey Dionysis,

      selling digital products or a service is easy on Shopify, check out thisk link for more info: https://www.shopify.com/sell/services


      Bogdan – Editor at staging.ecommerce-platforms.com

  36. Nancy O'Connell says:

    I have 3 questions:
    1. If you use the Shopify Lite, do you get the same functionality for shipping as with the basic? 2. Also, with the Buy Button, can customers buy more than one item? 3. And Last, is Pay Pal the only option with Shopify Lite or is it set up to use all credit cards?

    1. Bogdan Rancea says:

      Hi Nancy,

      With the Shopify Lite plan you can sell as many items you want (on your website, on Facebook and in person). There are more than 70 payment gateways accepted.

  37. Laura says:

    Originally my goal was to conserve money, but having read the perks of some of the higher price plans, it became clear that marketing and future growth are worth an extra $50, or so, per month. Excellent information in a concise, easily digested article. Thank you.

    1. Bogdan Rancea says:

      You’re welcome Laura.

  38. Lew says:

    Can you enter the cost of your product with any of the plans?

    1. Bogdan Rancea says:

      O course, you can set the price for your products no matter what plan you choose.


      Bogdan – Editor at staging.ecommerce-platforms.com

  39. Joyce says:

    I’m comparing Shopify to Big Commerce. BC’s $79.95 plan allows up to $150 online sales per year; $249.95 plan allows up to $1M online sales per year. Do you know if Shopify has a dollar limit of online sales?

    I’m trying to determine if Quickbooks Online is a good fit with Shopify. I read some reviews & most of them were terrible. The reviews for BC integrated with QB Online were pretty good. Any feedback on that?

    Basically, I’m trying to determine which ecommerce platform (online sales), POS (offsite sales) & accting software integrate the best. I have a client who sells her clothing at festivals & also on her Big Cartel website. She wants to change from BIg Cartel to another ecommerce platform.

    Thank you

  40. Carolina says:

    Hi,

    I wanted to start with the basic plan for my new e-commerce website, but I wanted to build and integrate to the system a Facebook Shop (that should be the lite plan). I’m not sure if the basic plan includes the Facebook Shop or do I need to pay + $9 for this service? Also just wanted to make sure that the 2 shops (fb and website) are integrated?
    Thanks

    1. Bogdan Rancea says:

      Hi Carolina,

      The Basic Shopify plan includes all the features from the Lite plan, including the Facebook shop feature.

      Best,

      Bogdan – Editor at staging.ecommerce-platforms.com

  41. Sara says:

    Hi, is there a limitation on the number of products that can be listed for sale with the Lite package?
    Thank you!

    1. Bogdan Rancea says:

      The Lite plan will allow you to sell an unlimited number of products.


      Bogdan – Editor at staging.ecommerce-platforms.com

  42. Barbara Chiles says:

    I still am not sold on which is best for me. It’s either the 1st, 2nd or 3rd. I have a facebook page but don’t sell on it. I have the square which I have been working on my website with that. But, the shipping is a problem. I use USPS XPS but the square web page doesn’t really have options, but it’s free. I had the free trial with Shopify, but didn’t use it not even one day. Other things happened. The $29.00 one, does it calculate shipping costs?

    1. Kanon says:

      Barbara, when going with the Basic Shopify Plan or the Shopify Plan you would have to pay the full-year fee in order to get Calculated Shipping added for free. If you pay month to month, it would be an added $20 fee.

      1. Rotimi says:

        Is then $20 fee per each shipping rate calculation?

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