Shopify is a major e-commerce platform connecting over 4.8 million online stores to 700 million buyers worldwide. The platform’s features and technological tools empower entrepreneurs to build and smoothly manage online businesses of all sizes. However, Shopify is subscription-based, offering tiered Shopify pricing plans ranging from Shopify Starter at $5 to Shopify Plus at $2300+.

Choosing the right Shopify pricing plan is fundamental to a store’s success because it ensures optimal functionality, scalability, and cost-effectiveness. This Shopify plans review helps you pick a plan optimally aligned to your business needs, budget, and growth projections.

What is Shopify?

Shopify is an e-commerce platform for entrepreneurs to build and manage online stores, even without extensive technical expertise. Because of its powerful features and user-friendly interface, Shopify is popular with entrepreneurs of all sizes, from hobbyists working on a side hustle to established businesses.

Shopify offers customizable templates that help businesses build storefronts that best reflect their brand. It also provides tools that help with product inventory management, order fulfillment, and payment processing. Businesses also benefit from Shopify’s built-in marketing tools, such as Shopify email, Shopify forms, automation, segmentations, and Shopify inbox, to help drive sales. In this manner, Shopify comprehensively caters to the needs of online sellers.

Shopify Pricing & Plans: Overview

Managing online stores can sometimes be overwhelming, especially when making key decisions, such as choosing appropriate plans for the business. Shopify, however, offers various plans that would meet the needs of any business.

Whether you are looking for a plan to start your business or upgrade your online store, Shopify has a plan for you.

Tiered Plans and Pricing

Shopify pricing plans are tailored to help entrepreneurs find a plan that fits their needs and budget. Each tier is priced according to its features.

Comparing Shopify Plans

	Shopify Starter	Basic	Shopify	Advanced	Shopify Plus
Best for	Small online business with basic shipping, e.g., side hustles or testing new products	Growing business with inventory management needs	Established stores with multiple locations	Large-scale enterprises with multiple locations and staff administration	Industry titans requiring customized solutions
Online Store	X	Full featured	Full-featured	Full-featured	Full-featured
Unlimited Products	X	✔	✔	✔	✔
Staff accounts	X	2	5	15	Unlimited
Reporting	X	Basic	Standard	Advanced	Advanced

Shopify Fees Details

Plan	Monthly fee	In-person transaction fees	Online transaction fees	Non-Shopify payment fees
Shopify Starter	$5	5%	5% + 30 cents	2%
Basic	$29 (if paid annually)	2.6% + 10 cents	2.9% + 30 cents	2%
Shopify	$79 (if paid annually)	2.5% + 10 cents	2.7% +  30 cents	1%
Advanced	$299 (if paid annually)	2.4% + 10 cents	2.5%+30 cents	0.6%
Shopify Plus	Quote based, but starts at $2300	Based on credit card sales volume	Based on credit card sales volume	0.2%

Alternative Solutions For Your Business

Shopify Starter

Previously called Shopify Lite, the Shopify Starter plan is ideal for startup businesses with small budgets who would like to sell through social media. For $5 monthly, sellers can set up a simple Shopify store with product pages, a contact page, and Shopify’s checkout button.

Moreover, sellers have access to mobile POS for in-person selling, Linkpop, Shopify apps, and the Shopify order management and integrated fulfillment network.

Shopify Retail

The Shopify Retail plan is designed for brick-and-mortar sellers who want an online presence. For $89 a month, the seller gets a limited online store, one POS Pro location with unlimited POS logins, and advanced tools that help them sell online and offline. Non-Shopify payment charges are only 2%.

Shopify Enterprise

The Shopify Enterprise platform is designed for enterprise retailers whose complicated nature can only run off a complex commerce stack with custom and third-party technologies. Typically, these take a long time to develop and change, creating a bottleneck.

Shopify Enterprise offers both Composable and Headless systems to help such companies iterate and quickly deploy a near-limitlessly varied e-commerce stack. This enables greater flexibility, scalability, and cost-effectiveness in how the enterprise creates the customer experience.

Shopify Enterprise is custom-priced, and a quote is available upon inquiry.

Shopify Starter

Shopify Starter is Shopify’s basic offering, designed for small startups with a tiny budget who wish to sell off social media channels. The plan lets sellers design an elemental online store and upload the link to their social media handles.

Here is a Shopify Starter Plan review:

Advantages of Shopify Starter

• Simplicity. Under Shopify Starter, you can set up your store easily and quickly in a few clicks, even with limited technical knowledge.
• Affordability. Shopify Starter costs only $5 monthly, $24 cheaper than the next tier, Basic, which costs $29/month. Even with a tiny budget, a seller can leverage Shopify features to start and run a business.
• Functionality of features. Even with the simplicity and affordability, Shopify Starter’s features, like the limited online store, Mobile POS, and Linkpop, are sufficient to start and run a business at the most elemental level.

Limitations of Shopify Starter

• Shopify Starter Plan does not have the abandoned cart recovery feature, which may lead to sales loss.
• At 5%, Shopify Starter’s transaction fees are inordinately high, especially for a startup that needs to make every cent.
• The Starter plan offers limited store functionalities, which significantly hamper how much you can display and market your products and even fulfill orders.

Who is Shopify Starter Best For?

Shopify Starter is ideal for the following types of entrepreneurs:

• Solopreneur startups with modest sales
• Entrepreneurs who wish to test products first
• Sellers whose customers are mainly on social media
• Sellers with websites or blogs who occasionally sell products
• Sellers with less than $1000 in monthly sales

Shopify Basic

The Basic Shopify pricing plan is one of the core offerings of Shopify pricing that enables a seller to build and customize an online store to showcase their products. Though it costs a modest $29 a month, the plan offers features upon which a business can start or grow. Initially, it was Shopify’s most basic offering, a position ceded to Shopify Starter.

Comparing Shopify Starter vs. Basic, the latter is a step up from the barebones Starter plan, which offers only a very simplified and limited online store and is primarily ideal for sellers with a major social media presence. Also, the Starter plan is incompatible with many third-party tools.

Here are some standout features of the Basic:

• An online store you can create, customize, and change using the built-in Shopify theme editor, which has 180+ themes, 11 of which are free.
• An in-built blogging engine to help you publish articles about your brand and products and engage with your customers.
• SSL certificate that helps sellers encrypt the content on their site and keep customers’ data safe.
• Various reports on finances, product performance, Liveview, acquisitions, inventory, marketing performance, and customer behavior.
• International commerce capabilities that let you customize your store and products for various markets.
• Two staff accounts.

Advantages of Shopify Basic

• The Basic plan offers robust features at an affordable price of $29 a month. Besides, Basic is cheaper than Starter at 2.7% for in-person and 2.9% for online transactions.
• Access to various reports enables the seller to generate insight that helps them run their business better and more profitably.
• The basic plan lets sellers sell on various online and offline channels. It also offers the flexibility to accept payments from multiple gateways with the integrated payment system.
• It is relatively easy to set up and manage a store, even with little technical knowledge. This means a short and inexpensive learning curve and the ability to launch faster.
• The SSL certificate helps make the Shopify store safe for buyers, creating a good and productive customer experience.
• The abandoned cart recovery feature helps increase sales from half-committed customers.

Limitations of Shopify Basic

• Shopify Basic has a limit of two staff accounts, which may be insufficient for a business with a larger team, especially if the revenue has not grown enough to warrant moving to a higher tier.
• Reporting capabilities may be limited when a business has to analyze a lot of data.
• Limited customization capability on most features.

Who is Shopify Basic Best For?

Shopify Basic is ideal if you have just started your business but would benefit from a full-fledged Shopify store or have been offline but want to establish an online store. Needs should be simple enough to be met by the limited tools available.

Shopify Standard

Shopify Standard (or just Shopify) is the Shopify pricing plan designed for businesses undergoing substantial growth for which Basic is inadequate. For $79 a month, the plan offers enhanced functionality appropriate for a business with an expanding inventory, clientele, and team, especially if it is venturing internationally.

Under the Standard plan, the seller gets all the features of Basic and more, including:

• 10 inventory locations
• Five staff accounts
• API PII access to help build an e-commerce stack
• Access to country-specific domain configurations
• Currency converter
• Shipping insurance

Advantages of Shopify Standard over Shopify Basic

• More advanced and extensive reporting capabilities over Basic, which arms merchants with in-depth data from which they can draw insights and optimize their businesses.
• Shopify Standard charges lower transaction fees on Shopify and external payment gateways. Standard charges 2.5% + 10 cents on in-person transaction fees against Basic’s 2.6% + 10 cents and 2.7% + 30 cents on Shopify credit card fees against Basic’s 2.9% + 30 cents. These savings are significant on volume transactions.
• Shopify Standard has features better suited to selling internationally, like advanced shipping options, discounts, and insurance. Further, merchants can access international markets more effectively through country-specific domains and currency conversion.
• By allowing more staff accounts, Standard makes teamwork easier while managing the business.

Limitations of Shopify Standard

• Despite its much higher price, Standard shares many features with Basic, with only a few differences in the number of staff allowed and access to API PII. One must be careful that the anticipated ROI justifies the jump from Basic to Standard.
• Also, Shopify Standard does not support third-party calculated shipping rates, which inconveniences merchants trying to sell more domestically and internationally.

Who is Shopify Standard Best For?

Shopify Standard is ideal for a business experiencing a substantial growth spurt and seeking to exploit the international market. Businesses processing 100,000+ transactions and running a small team would benefit from the extra staff accounts and the deals on shipping.

Shopify Advanced

Shopify Advanced is designed to offer advanced features and capabilities to sustain businesses experiencing exponential growth and wishing to scale even further. Businesses under this plan have access to a comprehensive suite of robust e-commerce tools they can leverage to operate on a large scale efficiently and maintain a superior customer experience.

Competitively priced at $299 a month, Shopify Advanced has all the features of the previous tiers plus the following:

• Custom reports and analytics that are in-depth and the user can filter for relevance
• Up to 15 staff accounts to support large teams necessary to run a large and growing business
• 10x checkout capacity to ensure a quick and seamless customer experience, especially during peak shopping seasons
• Enhanced 24/7 chat support to resolve any emergent issues quickly
• Third-party calculated shipping rates to help with estimating the final price
• Estimation of duty and import taxes to help give customers a more precise estimation of the final price
• Automation of workflows and tasks to enhance efficiency and productivity
• Localized global selling (3 markets) plus additional markets at $59 monthly for each.

Benefits for Buyers on Shopify Advanced

• Superior customer experience. Customer experience tends to deteriorate as businesses grow and struggle to deal with increased customer numbers. Tools and functionalities help companies to maintain the quality of customer experience.
• Advanced reporting functionalities empower merchants to make insight-guided decisions faster, help optimize operations, and ensure competitiveness.
• The lowest transaction fees and credit card charges of Shopify Pricing’s core tiers amount to significant savings on volume.
• Various features make accessing and selling competitively in the international market easier.
• Integrated e-commerce solutions make multichannel selling seamless.

Limitations of Shopify Advanced

• Shopify Advanced has a high price point and locks out many businesses that may need the features. Though it is a powerful driver for scaling, you need to have grown to a certain point before you can afford it.
• Complexity – Shopify Advanced’s wealth of tools, features, and customization options may be overwhelming, leading to a steep learning curve that may increase the risk of expensive mistakes.

Who is Shopify Advanced Best For?

Shopify Advanced is best for businesses experiencing phenomenal growth and whose complexity can benefit from the plan’s suite of e-commerce tools and solutions. Further, the business should have sufficient revenue to make the investment worthwhile, typically between $100,000-$1,000,000.

Shopify Plus

Shopify Plus is a Shopify Pricing plan designed to provide enterprise-level businesses with customizable and extensible e-commerce solutions. Because of the volume of their trade as well as the complexity of organization and operation, enterprises require specialized e-commerce tools to survive and thrive. Building and deploying these tools takes too much time, effort, and expense. Shopify Plus offers tools like the Headless API, which companies can use to create customized solutions in less time and cost.

Shopify Plus is quotation-based, and its cost depends on the components of choice. However, the least a business can spend is $2300.

These are the Shopify Plus features over and above those available under other tiers:

• Unlimited staff accounts
• 25 headless storefronts built with Hydrogen and deployed on Oxygen
• 200 inventory locations
• 40x checkout capacity to enable quick and seamless checkout, however heavy the traffic
• 20 POS Pro locations or 200 locations if you use Shopify payments
• Localized selling with custom markets (50 markets inclusive)
• Priority support with live chat or phone
• 0.2% transaction fees

Shopify Plus also has the following exclusive features:

• Checkout extensibility: customize checkout to motivate customers to spend even more
• B2B on Shopify: integrate wholesale selling and DTC in a single store under one Shopify admin
• Nine free expansion stores under a single brand
• Shopify Plus certified app partners-Shopify experts for guaranteed high-performance apps
• Avalara tax estimation to give accurate and up-to-date tax estimations
• Exclusive API access endpoints to enable complex integrations and extend API call limits up to 500 times higher
• Feature test drives to assure quality and reduce workflow interruptions after launching

Advantages of Shopify Plus

• Unparalleled scalability. Features like automated processes, Launchpad (schedule automated promotions, product releases, and online store updates), unlimited staff accounts, and international market functionalities empower enterprises to manage organizational complexities and substantial sales volumes efficiently and profitably.
• Endless customization capabilities. Shopify Plus’s extensive customization options are enabled by features like APIs and the Shopify App Store to help businesses create unique and immersive shopping experiences.
• Reliability and security. Feature test drives, bot protection, and Avalara tax automation are specific tools that foster reliability. The Shopify Plus servers have an average uptime of 99.98%. Further, Shopify Plus is Level 1 PCI DSS compliant and SOC2 certified, guaranteeing a high level of security.
• Dedicated support. Shopify Plus offers priority support by phone and live chat.

Who is Shopify Plus Best For?

Shopify Plus is best for large businesses in need of specialized e-commerce tools, ideally with revenue of more than $1,000,000.

Additional Costs Associated with Shopify

Besides the subscription costs, users encounter various other costs when they use the Shopify platform. These costs do add up, and users should take them into account when considering a Shopify pricing plan.

Non-Shopify subscription costs include:

1. Transaction Fees or Payment Rates

Transaction fees are a merchant’s cost for transactions made on the Shopify platform. These vary according to the Shopify pricing plan and the payment gateway.

Here is a breakdown of Shopify’s transaction fees:

Shopify Starter – 5% for in-person transactions, 5% + 30 cents for credit card transactions, and 2% for third-party payment gateways.

Shopify Basic – 2.9% for in-person transactions, 2.6% + 30 cents for credit card transactions, and 2% for third-party payments.

Shopify Standard – 2.5% + 10 cents for in-person payments, 2.7% + 30 cents on credit card transactions, and 1% for third-party payments.

Shopify Advanced – 2.4% + 10 cents for in-person payments, 2.5% + 30 cents for credit card transactions, and 0.6% for third-party payments.

Shopify Plus – In-person and online transaction fees depend on credit card volume, while users pay 0.2% for third-party payments.

2. Shopify Apps

The Shopify App Store has over 8,000 + apps that users can use in every aspect of their business. Though some are free, users must consider the cost of apps when calculating how much Shopify will cost. Popular apps include SEOAnt, ParcelPanel, Trustoo.io, Returns, Willdesk, Geolocation, Klaviyo, MailChimp, and DSers- AliExpress Dropshipping.

Merchants pay for apps through subscription, by how much they use, or through a one-time purchase price. Therefore, costs vary significantly. However, costs may average $40-$120 per month.

3. Domain Names

How much a domain costs depends on the following:

• The competitiveness of the keywords you use
• The top-level domain
• The site that sells the domain

Merchants can buy a domain name from Shopify or an external provider. Buying from Shopify gives you convenience and costs about $10 – $15 annually, depending on the TLD. Domain registers may charge less or even be free, like Freenom, but check to confirm there is no catch.

Here is an approximate cost of some popular domain registers:

GoDaddy – From $0.99 for xxx. store TLD to $14.99 for xxxx.net.

Namecheap – From $1.00 for xxx. xyz to $9.98 for xxxx.net.

Porkbun – From $0.98 for .xyz to $10.56 for .net.   

4. Premium Themes

Themes are the building blocks of your store, determining its appeal and functionality and helping communicate your brand. Shopify offers 186 themes, only 11 of which are free. The price for paid Shopify themes ranges from $140 – to $400, depending on design and aesthetics, customization flexibility, functionality, and feature and developer support.

5. Custom Development Fees

Choosing a developer to build your store adds to the cost of Shopify. Shopify recommends expert developers who cost $20 – $95 hourly, depending on the project’s complexity and their expertise. Developing a startup website may cost between $550 and $2000. A medium size store may cost up to $5000, while a large-scale store could easily surpass $35,000.

6. Time

Creating a Shopify store from scratch and managing it takes time. Of course, Shopify offers tools to make the process easier, but you’ll need time to set up the store, add relevant products, customize your themes, and manage it. Time, therefore, remains a valuable aspect of the overall cost of using the platform.

Tips for Choosing the Right Shopify Plan

Though Shopify has many valuable tools and features, they cost money, which eats into your revenue. Besides, not all of them are suitable for your store’s growth stage and may be a costly waste. Consider your business size, sales volume, and unique needs and align them with the features and the cost of various plans. 

Pick the lowest tier with the closest fit to your needs and circumstances. It costs less and ensures you only pay for the features you use. As your business grows and sales increase, move on to the next tier.

Shopify recommends you upgrade when the third-party transaction fees you pay surpass the difference between your plan’s monthly charges and the next tier plan.