Shopify Pricing (2024 Update!): The Complete Guide to Shopify Fees

If you’re confused about Shopify pricing, you’re not alone.

Prices range from $5 for the Starter plan, $39 for the Basic Plan, to $2000+ for the Enterprise plan, with transaction fees on most packages. Notably, all Shopify plans will give you a 25% discount if you choose to be billed annually, rather than paying on a per-month basis.

Plus, if you’re just getting started, you can currently access a three day free trial of Shopify, followed by a one month for only $1.

The answer to the question “How much is Shopify” has changed over the years, and it’s not just the monthly subscription costs you need to consider.

There are various additional Shopify fees to think about too, from payment processing costs to the price of your Shopify POS system.

While Shopify’s plans can seem expensive at first, the company actually offers some great deals when you consider all the functionality you’re going to get.

Here’s your complete guide to Shopify pricing, and some tips on how to choose the right plan for your business.

How Much is Shopify? Key Takeaways

In total, Shopify offers five pricing plans: Shopify Starter, Basic Shopify, Shopify, Shopify Advanced, and Shopify Plus. The Basic to Advanced plans are intended for small to mid-sized businesses.

The Starter plan is intended for influencers and creators who want to sell on social channels, and the Plus plan is intended for enterprise, or large-volume merchants.

• Shopify Starter – $5 / month: Simple sales tools for influencers without an online store.
• Basic Shopify – $32 / month: Ideal for small businesses and solo entrepreneurs.
• Shopify – 105 / month: Great for small teams with extra ecommerce needs.
• Shopify Advanced – $399 / month: Perfect for scaling businesses.
• Shopify Plus – starting at $2000 / month: Aimed at enterprise-level businesses

Are you struggling to figure out how much you’re actually going to pay to run and manage your Shopify store for a month or even for an entire year?

Fortunately, you don’t have to spend hours crunching the numbers, thanks to our new Shopify fee calculator.

2024 Updates to Shopify Pricing Plans

As Shopify continues to evolve, the pricing plans it offers vendors regularly change too. It’s worth keeping up to date with the latest news and updates from Shopify regardless of whether you’re already a Shopify vendor, or you’re planning on signing up for an account. 

In January 2024, Shopify added new features to many of its plans, as well as removing some capabilities from lower-cost plans:

• The $1 trial will soon only last 30 days, instead of giving you the first three months of Shopify Starter or Basic for $1 per month. However, the free trial will still be available for beginners, for three days.
• All plans will now have access to over 60 Shopify reports, including the sales, profit, and marketing reports that previously weren’t available on the Starter and Basic plans.
• The Basic and Starter plans will no longer have access to any additional staff accounts. Previously, the Basic plan gave users 2 accounts. Now, you’ll need at least a Shopify plan if you want to add other admins to your team.
• The number of custom markets (localized markets) you can add to your store has been reduced to 3. If you want to add additional accounts, you’ll need an Advanced Shopify plan, and each market (over 3) will cost $59 per month.
• The Advanced plan now features priority (enhanced) chat support with front of queue routing, so you can access faster responses from the Shopify team.

An Introduction to Shopify

Shopify is one of the world’s most popular ecommerce platforms, supporting millions of vendors in more than 170 countries worldwide. It’s one of the top ecommerce platforms we recommend here at Retailing Summit, and it offers one of the best point of sale systems on the market.

More than just a store builder, Shopify is an all-in-one commerce platform. It supports omnichannel selling, through your own online store, marketplaces, social media channels, and in-person transactions.

The platform includes access to payment processing (Shopify Payments), a world-leading checkout system, automation and marketing tools, and business management features.

There are even specific tools for international selling and customer management. Shopify is SEO friendly, has its own blogging tools, and offers access to a massive app market, so you can integrate your store with a variety of other solutions.

Despite being incredibly feature-rich, Shopify still manages to be one of the most user-friendly platforms on the web too.

However, all of this functionality doesn’t come cheap. The more features you want to access, the more you’ll pay.

Fortunately, there is a way to save on costs. We’ve partnered with Shopify to offer retailers access to Shopify Starter, Basic, Shopify or Advanced for just $1 for the first month.

Click here to get your deal.

How Much Does Shopify Cost? The Pricing Plans

While Shopify offers five plans in total, the Basic, Shopify, and Advanced Shopify plan are the main three options recommended to most ecommerce website owners. Each plan has its own unique benefits and features to consider:

The Basic Shopify Plan: For Solo Entrepreneurs

Pricing: $39 per month or $29 per month (paid annually)

Key features: High-converting checkout, shipping discounts, and standard analytics.

The Shopify Basic plan is ideal for solo entrepreneurs building an online business for the first time. It gives you access to only 1 admin account, but there are collaborator accounts available for developers, designers, and marketing experts.

This plan comes with Shopify’s fully customizable website builder, support for selling unlimited products, and the Shopify payment gateway. You get standard analytical tools, discounts on shipping rates, and support for multiple sales channels.

Plus, you’ll be able to create discount codes and gift cards, use abandoned cart recovery tools, and automate marketing campaigns.

The Shopify Plan: For Small Teams

Pricing: $105 per month or $79 per month (paid annually)

Key features: Staff accounts, extra POS features, and higher shipping discounts.

Shopify’s mid-level plan, simply named “Shopify” is intended for smaller teams who want to work together on building a comprehensive online store.

There aren’t a lot of differences between this plan and the Basic plan. You still get access to multiple sales channels, credit card processing, and access to add-ons and third-party apps through the Shopify marketplace.

However, you’ll also be able to create up to 5 accounts for other users, and access higher shipping discounts, as well as lower transaction rates.

Another benefit is the addition of extra POS solutions, such as the ability to create unlimited staff PINs, and monitor staff hours.

The Advanced Shopify Plan: For Scaling Companies

Pricing: $399 per month or $299 per month (paid annually)

Key features: Advanced support, more staff accounts, and custom reports.

The Shopify Advanced plan builds on the mid-level plan with more features for established and growing companies. You get up to 15 staff accounts, enhanced life chat support, and custom reports and analytics, to help you grow your business faster.

This plan also comes with higher shipping discounts, and lower transaction fees than the previous two plans. You can also manage a higher number of checkout conversions at once, and calculate third-party shipping rates automatically.

Alternative Shopify Solutions: Shopify Plus and Shopify Starter

The Shopify Plus and Shopify Starter Plans are intended for very specific business needs.

Shopify Starter, which costs $5 (plus 5% transaction fees) gives you access to the Shopify sales platform, so you can sell through messenger apps and social media.

You can also add buy buttons and take card payments on other existing website you own (such as a WordPress site). There’s also a similar option (Shopify Lite) for POS sales.

The Shopify Plus plan is intended for enterprise-level customers with a high level of online sales. It adds more customization options to your Shopify website, gives you access to exclusive apps, and bespoke support.

Prices start at $2,300 per month, but you’ll need to contact the sales team to get a quote based on your specific needs.

Shopify Plan Comparison: The Benefits of Each Plan

One of the reasons Shopify offers so many different plans to vendors, is to ensure it can appeal to a diverse range of companies and entrepreneurs with specific needs.

Let’s break down the benefits of each plan, and how they appeal to specific use cases.

The Shopify Starter Plan

Pricing: $5 per month with 5% transaction fees

The Shopify Starter Plan is intended for people who either have an existing website without ecommerce functionality, or want to sell through social media and messaging channels.

Features:

• Unlimited number of product pages
• Secure checkout
• Contact page
• Shopify Inbox
• Linkpop (For featuring links on your social media bio)
• Order management and fulfilment
• Basic analytics

The Use Cases: Shopify’s Starter plan is great if you’re looking for an easy way to start selling online. It’s a low-cost option with full access to Shopify’s excellent checkout capabilities.

However, it doesn’t come with a website builder, so you’ll need a separate solution if you want your own site. We’d recommend this plan to new entrepreneurs, and influencers selling products online.

The Shopify Basic Plan

Pricing: $29-$39 per month

Transaction fees: 2.7% + 0c for offline transactions, or 2.9% + 30c for online transactions.

Third party payment fees: 2%

The Basic Shopify plan is excellent if you want to start a small business as a solo entrepreneur. It includes the fully customizable website builder, unlimited products, abandoned cart recovery, and a range of useful tools for new companies.

Features:

All of the Starter plan features plus:

• Fully customizable website builder
• Unlimited products
• Collaborator accounts
• 24/7 live chat support
• Multiple sales channels
• 1 headless storefront
• Standard analytics
• 10 inventory locations
• Manual order creation
• Standard custom apps
• Discount codes and gift cards
• Abandoned cart recovery
• SSL certificate (free)
• Customer segmentation
• Marketing automation
• Unlimited contacts
• Ecommerce automation
• Shopify POS Lite
• Fraud analysis
• Shopify Marketplace Connect
• Localized selling in 3 custom markets

The Use Cases: The Basic plan is a great option for new companies, but we recommend it mostly to solo entrepreneurs, as you only get a single account.

Plus, it’s better-suited to smaller companies, because the higher transaction fees can eat into your profits if you have high volume sales.

The Shopify Plan

Pricing: $79-$105 per month

Transaction fees: 2.5% + 0c in-person, or 2.6% + 30c online

Third party payment fees: 1%

If your small business is growing rapidly, and you have extra employees, then the Shopify plan is likely the best choice.

It includes better reporting capabilities, access to lower transaction fees, and better shipping discounts, plus up to 5 staff accounts.

Features:

All of the features of the Basic plan, plus:

• 5 staff accounts
• PII access for +$29 per year for custom apps
• Lower transaction and payment fees

The Use cases: Since the features of Shopify are very similar to those of Shopify Basic, this plan makes the most sense for companies who want lower transaction fees, and more staff accounts. If your business is growing, this could be the best initial plan for you.

The Advanced Shopify Plan

Pricing: $299-$399 per month

Transaction fees: 2.4% + 0c in-person, or 2.4% + 30c online

Third party payment fees: 0.5%

The Advanced Shopify plan is an excellent option for scaling businesses who need more insights into their operations, more staff accounts, and enhanced support.

The advanced reporting capabilities make this option particularly useful for larger companies.

Features:

All of the features of the Shopify plan, plus:

• Enhanced customer support
• Advanced and custom reports
• 15 staff accounts
• Faster checkout capacity
• Additional support for active markets

Shopify Plus and Enterprise Solutions

If you’re building a Shopify store as a larger business owner, then the Shopify Plus plan might be the ideal solution for you.

This plan includes all of the features of the standard Shopify plans, from the option to add your own domain name, to currency conversion, and payment processor tools.

However, it also gives you more ways to customize your website.

Ecommerce business owners on the Plus plan get access to unique integrations and Shopify apps on the app store, lower credit card fees, and the ability to alter Shopify website template code.

You can create more advanced automated workflows, and take in-person credit card payments using Shopify POS Pro, instead of the Lite version.

Plus, you’ll have expert support from the Shopify team, in case you need help making any changes to your site.

With a monthly fee starting at $2300, this is the most expensive plan offered by Shopify. The pricing will vary depending on the features you need, and there may be extra costs to consider for things like your domain name, premium templates, and apps.

However, the extra cost could be worth it if you’re a larger business looking to create truly comprehensive online and offline sales strategies.

We’d probably recommend this plan to companies who earn at least $750,000 in annual revenue.

Unique Features of Each Shopify Plan

The Starter Plan and Retail Plans

The Starter, Lite, and Retail plans are the simplest solutions from Shopify, intended for people who don’t need a comprehensive ecommerce site. The Starter plan includes the “LinkPop” service, for featuring links on your social media bio, plus, access to all of the Shopify standard reports.

The Lite plan, intended for offline and online sellers, includes access to basic Point of Sale features from Shopify POS Lite, and the same transaction fees as the Basic plan. This is cheaper than the Starter plan’s 5% transaction fees. 

Shopify’s Retail plan, for POS sellers, includes unlimited POS accounts, professional reports, unlimited registers, customer relationship and inventory management tools. You also get flexible shopping options (like in-store pickup) and the Shopify Spotlight theme; however other customization options and themes are not available. 

Unique features of the Basic Plan

The Shopify Basic Plan is the first that allows users to create an online store, with a custom domain name. You also get:

• Access to Shopify POS Lite
• Shipping label creation and Shipping discounts of up to 77%
• Customer segmentation and 3 custom international markets
• 10,000 emails per month from Shopify email

Unique features of the Shopify Plan

The Shopify plan adds additional accounts (up to 5) to the Basic plan, and includes:

• Competitive transaction fees
• The Analytics page and live view reports
• Shipping discounts of up to 88%

Unique features of the Shopify Advanced Plan

Shopify’s Advanced plan offers the most competitive transaction fees and 15 accounts for staff members, you also get:

• Bonus Shopify POS features
• Carrier-calculated shipping
• 24/7 enhanced support with priority routing
• Custom reports and active predicted values
• Options for add-on localized markets ($49 per month)

Unique Features of Shopify Plus

Shopify’s enterprise plan includes the most unique features such as:

• New channels for B2B, wholesale, Launch Pad, and Shopify QL Notebooks
• Organization settings for multiple stores in one location
• Custom Level 2 PII apps
• Checkout.liquid file access
• REST API support
• Additional permission settings for accounts
• Unlimited staff accounts
• 20 POS locations and 200 store locations
• Tax services with Alvara AvaTax
• Up to 50 international markets
• Nine expansion stores
• Shopify Plus Academy

Overview of Shopify POS Pricing

Aside from the monthly fees you’ll need to pay as a Shopify admin, there are a few additional expenses you might need to consider.

For instance, if you want to combine online credit card processing with in-store selling, you’ll need Shopify POS.

Shopify POS comes in two variations: Shopify POS Lite, and Shopify POS Pro.

The Shopify POS Lite version includes most of the features you need to track transactions in real-time, process various payment methods, automate marketing campaigns, and manage customers and employees.

This option is included on all of the basic Shopify plans, except Starter. If you want to access the POS system without the Shopify website builder, you’ll need the Lite plan for $9 per month.

This combines the features of the Starter plan with Shopify’s basic POS.

The POS Pro option, on the other hand, with more advanced reporting, employee, and customer management solutions, is only included for free on the Shopify Plus plan.

However, you can add it to any existing Shopify Plan for $89 per month, per location.

Notably, if you’re paying for an annual plan for Shopify POS Pro, you’ll also get a discount, bringing the price down to $79 per month, plus the cost of your monthly plan.

Pricing for Third Party Shopify Apps

While there are various apps on the Shopify app marketplace you can access and install for free, many will also include fees for more advanced features.

You may be able to use some apps for free consistently if you only need basic capabilities. Some apps also only require a one-time fee. 

However, it’s worth taking a closer look at all the apps you want to use when you’re calculating your Shopify budget.

You can see whether an app has a free trial or plan on the Shopify app marketplace. This information will be listed next to the app’s star rating.

Clicking onto the app’s page will give you an exact view of what you can expect to pay, with a list of plan options, their pricing, and available features.

Notably, just like Shopify itself offers discounts to customers who pay annually for their plan instead of monthly, you may be able to save money by choosing an annual subscription for an app. 

Keep in mind, while Shopify Plus offers access to more apps on the app store, these plug-ins and add-ons can cost a little more than standard apps. After all, they’re designed for larger, enterprise-level businesses in need of more accounts and advanced features.

Saving Money on Shopify

Although we think Shopify is the best ecommerce platform around for many vendors, and one of the best POS solutions, it can be quite expensive.

The cheapest plan, Shopify Starter, is really only suitable for those who have an existing website, or want to sell through social and messaging channels. However, there are some ways to save money on other plans:

• Use Shopify Payments: If you use Shopify Payments as your payment processor, you can avoid the extra fees (ranging from 2% to 0.5%) for using other solutions like PayPal or Stripe.
• Stick to free tools: Prioritize using free tools, like free themes and apps, rather than their premium alternatives.
• Choose an annual plan: Paying for your subscription annually, instead of monthly, will save you 25% on the total cost of your bill. This is a great choice if you want to stick with Shopify.

Remember, you can also take advantage of the $1 offer for the first month of your Shopify subscription, this means you can use Shopify almost for free for 33 days. For new Shopify customers, this gives you one month of Shopify for $1 after a 3 day free trial, and it works for the Starter or Basic plan.

If you’re an existing Shopify vendor, you can upgrade from the “Starter” plan to the Basic plan using the same deal. However, you won’t get the three day free trial.

Understanding Shopify Pricing

Shopify’s pricing structure can be a little tricky to understand at first. Hopefully, this guide has given you all the information you need to know about Shopify transaction fees, the Shopify features you get on each plan, and the best options for each type of business.

The right plan for you will depend on the size of your business and your unique needs.

If you’re not sure which option to choose, we recommend getting started with the free trial, then using the $1 first month discount to experiment with the Basic plan first.

FAQ