Shopify Plus Pricing 2024 – Latest Rates and Changes

Shopify Plus used to cost $2,000 a month, but the company raised prices in February 2024. If you lock in a three-year deal, prices fall to $2,300/month. Now, I know what you’re thinking: this is a lot! And yep, it is.

But, keep in mind that Shopify Plus was designed for a specific type of user: merchants selling in high volume or B2B companies with a focus on growth and expansion. Of course, there’s a lot more to it, and that’s what we’ll discuss in this piece!

What is Shopify Plus?

Shopify Plus unlocks more features and settings to help high-volume businesses grow their online sales. It offers additional benefits, such as unlimited staff accounts and nine expansion stores to help with internationalization, and a lot more.

Obviously, this is just the tip of the iceberg, so let’s start with the most important question: who is this for?

Who is Shopify Plus for?

If you ask me, Shopify Plus is for businesses that have complex business models, intricate omnichannel strategies, and want more advanced customization options.

It’s for businesses that have an annual revenue exceeding $1 million. Some consumer goods companies using Shopify Plus are Sony and Unilever.

Let me tell you some more examples of businesses that can benefit from Shopify Plus:

• Fast-growing DTC brands: Those that are scaling rapidly and require an ecommerce platform that can accommodate increasing traffic and sales volume.
• Businesses with Complex Product Catalogs: Those that are working with a large number of products with variations, SKUs, and intricate inventory management needs.
• B2B companies: Those that conduct wholesale transactions, require custom pricing structures, and need dedicated features for managing business customers.
• Established brands: Those online brands that seek advanced functionalities to deliver a sophisticated brand experience by way of personalization and effective omnichannel marketing.

At this point, I hope I have helped you figure out if your business needs to switch to Shopify Plus yet or not.

However, if you still have doubts and are confused whether it is worth it to switch from your current Shopify plan to Shopify Plus, I will discuss some key distinctive features that will set Shopify Plus apart from your standard Shopify plan.

How is Shopify Plus Different From the Standard Shopify Plan?

If you want to know some of the main differentiators between the standard Shopify plan and Shopify Plus, here is a brief summary:

• Shopify Plus lifts the order limit of $250,000 per transaction, and allows you to handle large-volume orders without restrictions.
• With Shopify Plus, you can use advanced cart abandonment recovery tools to recapture lost sales opportunities.
• Wholesale features like custom Shopify Plus pricing, quota generation, and dedicated customer accounts help manage B2B transactions efficiently.
• There is 24/7 priority support from dedicated account managers to ensure immediate help and prompt resolution of any issues.

When it comes to the 4 pricing tiers that Shopify offers, you will find that it offers the Basic Plan at $24/month, Shopify Standard Plan at $69/month, Shopify Advanced Plan at $299/month and Shopify Plus at $2300+ per month.

Now that I have briefly discussed some of the reasons you may consider switching to Shopify Plus, I will break down the Shopify Plus pricing structure for you.

Demystifying Shopify Plus Pricing 2024

I will discuss Shopify Plus base plan fees (both monthly minimum fee and revenue-based tier system), and additional costs like transaction fees, app fees, development costs, and migration fees.

Base Plan Fees

• Monthly minimum Shopify Plus license fee: Shopify Plus starts at a fixed monthly fee, ranging from $2300 monthly for a 3-year term, and $2500 monthly for a 1-year term. This fixed, base fee covers core platform functionalities such as product management, order fulfillment, basic reporting, and access to essential features like abandoned cart recovery and basic analytics.
• Revenue-based tier system: The Shopify Plus platform also offers variable fees for more complex business structures. I will give you one example. Let’s say your business grows and exceeds a certain annual revenue threshold – which is typically around $800,000. In this case, you might want to transition to a variable fee structure.

This fee is a percentage of your monthly sales, 0.25%, and ensures scalability as your business flourishes and exceeds $800,000 in monthly revenue. However, if your store or multiple stores earn a revenue of less than $800,000 per month, your Shopify Plus pricing will be $2500 per month.

Based on this, your Shopify Plus pricing will be $24000 per year given your annual revenue is less than $9.6 million per year.

Additional Costs

I would recommend you factor in additional costs into your overall budget. These are costs that the base plan doesn’t cover.

• Transaction fees: Shopify Plus charges you transaction fees as an additional cost. If you have chosen Shopify payments, Shopify charges 2.15% + $0.30 fee per domestic credit card transaction (Visa and Mastercard) and 3.15% + $0.30 per transaction through AMEX card.

For international customers, credit card fee is (3.15% + $0.30) per transaction. For online stores in the UK, the fee is 1.6% of transaction + 0.20p regardless of the card being used. I

f you use another payment provider other than Shopify payments, you will have to pay an additional fee of 0.5% on top of credit card processing fee.

• App fees: The Shopify app store has a vast array of apps to boost your online store’s functionality. You will have to pay monthly subscription fees depending on which app you choose to use. The fee typically ranges from a few dollars to hundreds of dollars depending on the app’s complexity and features.

For e.g. some applications can cost you close to around $500, while some can cost only a few dollars a month. I recommend that you visit the Shopify Plus Certified App Program store to get a fair idea on the prices of individual apps.

• Design and Development costs: You might need to engage developers if you want custom functionalities beyond the platform’s capabilities (for e.g. custom app development, 3rd party integrations), or extensive store customizations with regards to the level of design and development. This will incur additional expenses. Hourly rate for Shopify Plus development typically ranges from $38 to $61 per hour.
• Migration fees: You will not have to pay anything to migrate to Shopify Plus. However, if your setup is complex and you want them to accommodate custom needs then the cost will typically range from $500 to $25000.

This migration cost depends on your business i.e. the size and complexity of your online store and your existing ecommerce platform. Number of customer records,and also the total number of URLs the team has to do 301 redirects for, are some examples that will determine the quote you will get for migration services.

The Benefits and Use Cases of Shopify Plus

I will now discuss some compelling benefits that go beyond the basic ecommerce functionalities offered by the standard Shopify plan. These use cases will help you decide whether investment in Shopify Plus is worth it or not given your online store.

• Scalability and Flexibility: Whether you want to accommodate the increasing traffic, product volumes, complex workflows, and large order volumes, Shopify Plus will seamlessly scale with your ecommerce business growth. It can handle complex data integrations, millions of product variations, and high traffic spikes without compromising your ecommerce store’s performance online.
• Advanced Features and Functionalities: Shopify Plus empowers you to cater to your specific business needs and unlock your growth potential. It offers B2B functionalities like custom pricing and quote generation. There are headless commerce options for greater customization, and you can also benefit from API access for deeper level integrations. I will discuss some of these advanced level features in detail:
• Omnichannel commerce: This functionality is great if you have physical stores and want to integrate those with your online stores to deliver an excellent experience to your customers across different channels.

I highly recommend Shopify Plus in this case because you can offer your customers so many facilities like “buy online and pick up in-store (BOPIS)” or “return online purchases in-store,” or give them the ease to access consistent product information and pricing across all touchpoints.

• B2B functionalities: You can easily manage wholesale orders efficiently with features like custom pricing, tiered discounts, quote generation, dedicated customer accounts, and net terms for qualified businesses.
• Headless commerce: This feature also allows flexibility as you can decouple your storefront from the back-end to avail greater customization and integration with other systems like your CRM, ERP, or PIM.

In this manner you can create and deliver a unique and branded shopping experience while making use of Shopify Plus functionalities for operations like order management, inventory control, and customer data management.

• Marketing and automation tools: These are built-in marketing tools that you can use like abandoned cart recovery, email marketing campaigns, and discount codes to personalize customer interactions, automate workflows, and drive sales. You can boost the performance of your marketing campaigns by leveraging robust analytics and reporting capabilities to gain valuable insights into customer behavior, campaign performance, and identify areas for optimization.
• Advanced security features: With Shopify Plus you can also benefit from enhanced security measures like PCI compliance, fraud prevention tools, and data encryption to protect your online store and customer information.

Besides these features, Shopify Plus also offers:

• Dedicated account manager and priority support: This ensures you get prompt assistance and personalized guidance from Shopify Plus experts who understand the unique needs of high-growth businesses. The 24/7 priority support and a dedicated account manager will change the whole ecommerce business game for you.
• Exclusive resources: Through the Shopify Plus Academy and Shopify Partner Network you can optimize your online store’s performance and cater to enterprise-level demands. The Shopify Plus academy offers extensive training materials and workshops, while the Shopify Partner network connects you with experienced developers and agencies specializing in Shopify Plus implementations.

While there are no apps entirely exclusive to Shopify Plus, there are Plus Certified apps that offer additional features and are designed for larger businesses.

These apps go through rigorous testing and cater to the specific needs of high-volume businesses. They often offer enhanced features, functionalities, and support compared to their standard versions. These enhanced features might also come at a higher cost compared to the standard plans.

If you choose the Shopify Plus plan, I recommend you explore the App Store and filter by “Plus Certified” to see which apps best suit your Shopify plan and business goals.

Total Shopify Plus Pricing

In this section of the blog, I will give you a brief run down of the total price or cost you will incur should you choose to go with Shopify Plus as your preferred ecommerce platform.

If you are on the variable pricing method and are earning less than $800,000 a month as your revenue then you have to pay at least $2000 per month as the Shopify Plus licensing fee. This price totals $24,000 annually.

However, if you are earning more than $800,000 in revenue a month, the variable fee would equal 0.25% of your monthly revenue. But, the plus side is that you will never have to pay more than $40,000 a month or $480,000 a year.

Shopify Plus covers the hosting and security fees so apart from the licensing fee you will need to pay some additional costs such as transaction fee and monthly app subscriptions. I have discussed these additional costs in detail in the earlier section.

Now that I have explained to you the total pricing structure of Shopify Plus, I will compare Shopify Plus with other ecommerce platforms that are available in the market.

For this purpose, I will use a comparison table to highlight the most notable strengths and weaknesses of different popular ecommerce platforms.

How is Shopify Plus as Compared to Its Competitors

Platform	Pricing	Strengths	Weaknesses
Shopify Plus	Starts at $2,300/month + revenue-based tier (1.6% + $0.35)	Scalable, user-friendly, extensive app store, dedicated support	Higher base fee compared to some competitors, limited customization without development
Magento Commerce (Adobe Commerce)	Custom quote required, estimated to start around $5000 to set up a basic online store and around $200,000 + additional costs for a large Adobe Commerce Cloud store	Highly customizable, omnichannel capabilities, enterprise-grade features	Complex setup and maintenance, requires significant technical expertise, high cost of ownership
BigCommerce Enterprise	Starts at $29 monthly for standard plan, $299 monthly for the Pro plan, and custom quote required for enterprise-level plan, typically starting from $1000 to up to $15000 monthly depending on the business size	Scalable, B2B functionalities, built-in marketing tools	Less user-friendly interface compared to Shopify Plus, limited app selection compared to Shopify App Store
WooCommerce Enterprise	Self-hosted, custom pricing based on hosting and development, estimated total cost can range from $5,000 to $30,000 per year and this includes: Hosting: $1,200 – $12,000 per yearDevelopment: $3,000 – $18,000 per yearOngoing maintenance: $1,000 – $5,000 per year	Highly customizable, open-source platform, full control over data	Requires significant technical expertise for setup and maintenance, ongoing hosting and security costs

I would like to mention here that the pricing for Shopify Plus competitors such as Magento Commerce (Adobe Commerce), BigCommerce Enterprise, and Woocommerce Enterprise is mostly custom-quoted based on the size, complexity, and specific needs of your ecommerce store.

However, I have tried my best to give you a rough estimate of their enterprise pricing plans in the table above.

Magento Enterprise licensing costs at least $22,000 a year, while Shopify Plus’ licensing costs at least $24,000. However, Magento might cost more depending on your business’ revenue.

Moreover, with Magento Enterprise, you have to pay for hosting, an SSL certificate, and a domain name as well. You can read my detailed review on how Magento compares with Shopify.

With Woocommerce, the most expensive package costs around $31.99 a month. This makes it a good option for smaller businesses.

When it comes to BigCommerce Enterprise, it costs between $1,000 to $15,000 a month, or you can say $12,000 to $180,000 a year. Both BigCommerce Enterprise and Shopify Plus are reliable and powerful ecommerce platforms that many large online businesses are using these days.

Now that you have an idea of how Shopify Plus compares to the other popular ecommerce platforms, I will guide you on how you can maximize your return on investment (ROI) with Shopify Plus.

How to Maximize Return on Investment with Shopify Plus?

For starters, you can benefit from the $1 a month for the first month of Shopify Plus offer. When I was researching how I can reap the maximum result out of the Shopify Plus plan, I came to know that Shopify’s value for money score has risen from being 3 out of 5 to now 3.6 out of 5. This is an increase of 20%!

Another way to maximize your return on investment is by selecting the most suitable Shopify Plus pricing plan. First, you need to analyze your current revenue and growth projections to understand your potential transition to the revenue-based tier system.

Next, you need to assess the features and functionalities you need and compare them to the features being offered in each plan. This way you will not be overpaying for features that are of no or little use to your online business.

I recommend you optimize your online store for conversions as well. This may include optimizing the user experience (UX) by having a user-friendly and intuitive interface, providing clear and engaging product descriptions, high-quality images, and customer reviews for credibility.

Improve mobile responsiveness with fast loading times and place strategic call to actions (CTAs).

You must also develop a compelling brand identity, prioritize customer service, build trust and credibility, and leverage customer data to personalize marketing messages, product recommendations, and the overall shopping experience.

Conclusion

I would reemphasize the fact that Shopify Plus is a robust eCommerce platform designed for high-growth businesses seeking scalability, advanced features, and dedicated support.

Shopify Plus licensing fee covers essentials like hosting, updates, B2B features, support, point-of-sale integration, and exclusive apps. This is why Shopify Plus pricing is competitive as compared to its competitors. It offers a bundle of services that they don’t cover in their cost.

Moreover, with Shopify Plus, you get up to 9 expansion stores for regional or B2B purposes, with the option to add more for a fee.

While I admit that Shopify Plus is not the least expensive, it is one of the best options on the market.

I would also highlight here that the key to a successful online business or store lies not only in choosing the right platform but also utilizing its features, optimizing your store, and building a strong brand and customer experience.

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