Shopify Pricing (2024) – Review of Cost, Plans & More

With the diverse Shopify pricing options, you can start your e-commerce venture for as low as $5 per month. Yes! For only $5 a month, you can start selling from your social media and gradually scale.

Shopify has long been my favorite, along with many new e-commerce business owners out there. The ease of setting up a brand new online store with your own website that Shopify offers is second to none!

Using this top e-commerce platform, beginner entrepreneurs of all ages can start and run their Shopify stores successfully. But is Shopify actually affordable as you grow?

Let’s understand what subscription options Shopify offers and if your pockets will be happy.

What is Shopify?

Shopify is one of the top e-commerce platforms where an entrepreneur can start selling their products online. It is known for its ease of setting up and ease of use, where you can start a store from scratch within a few hours. 

This popular ecommerce platform gives you the freedom to design and operate their online portals the way you want. 

To help you design your store, it offers a variety of themes to build an aesthetically appealing store. 

You can either build an online business from scratch, or you can just move your retail store online to create an extra earning source.

To learn more about what Shopify is and how it works, read our brief article here.

Shopify Pricing: Detailed Breakdown

In this section, I have broken down the pricing structure of the Shopify subscription for easy comparison of its features and the amount it will cost you.

Shopify comes with four different pricing options, and they offer a free trial on all of these plans. We have explained every plan in detail below.

Features	Basic Plan	Shopify Plan	Advanced Plan
Monthly Pricing	$39/mo	$105/mo	$399/mo
3-day free trial +1 month at $1	✅	✅	✅
Shopify Sidekick	✅	✅	✅
SSL Certificate	Free	Free	Free
Abandoned Cart Recovery	✓	✓	✓
Unlimited Products	✓	✓	✓
Reports and Analytics	Standard	Standard	Custom
International Pricing	✓	✓	✓
Staff Accounts	❌	5	15
Print Shipping Labels	✓	✓	✓
Shipping Discount	Up to 77%	Up to 88%	Upto 88%
24×7 Support	Via chat	Via chat	with enhanced live chat
Credit Card Fee	2.9% + 30¢	2.6% + 30¢	2.4% + 30¢
Inventory Locations	10	10	10
Manual Order Creations	✓	✓	✓
Third-Party Transaction Fee	2%	1%	0.5%
Multiple Language	✓	✓	✓

Shopify Special Pricing Offer – $1/month

Shopify recently launched a new pricing offer after cutting down their free trial days to three days.

With this special offer, you can try out any Shopify plan for just a dollar for a month with the existing three-day free trial. 

Post completion of 1 month, the pricing plans will go back to the original price as per the plan selected. 

This is a great opportunity for those who want to create an online store on Shopify and start selling but don’t have a lot of money to begin with. 

A beginner can benefit from this as they get to access all the features offered by the selected plan to understand if Shopify is the right fit. 

Note – This offer is only for the new Shopify users.

Shopify Pricing Plans – Evaluated

Here are the four standard Shopify plans for businesses of all types, sizes, and locations. 

1. Shopify Starter – $5 per month

This is the most basic and the most affordable Shopify pricing plan. Aimed at a fresher into the e-commerce business, the Shopify starter plan is ideal for selling products via Instagram, SMS, email, and other social media platforms. 

Every Shopify Starter store is mobile optimized and has a secure checkout, a mobile POS, link pop tool access, Shopify apps access, etc.

This plan is only for people with a smaller customer base who are looking to sell products right away and don’t want to invest much into store and website building. 

2. Shopify Basic – $39 per month

The next tier of Shopify is the Shopify Basic plan, which takes the Shopify experience a notch higher than the Shopify Starter plan with access to a fully customizable store, analytics feature, 24×7 support, abandoned cart recovery, and more!

Priced at $39 per month, this Shopify plan also offers the Shopify POS lite, inventory for 10 locations, and shipping discounts of up to 77%

At 2%, this plan, however, has the highest percentage of third-party transaction fees if you don’t use Shopify payments. The online credit card rates are also at a high of 2.9% + 30¢ USD.

There’s no way to add additional staff accounts, and you will have to upgrade your subscription to do so.

3. Shopify Plan – $105 Per Month

With more than double the price of the previous option, the middle “Shopify” plan offers further features. 

If you already have an online store and your business is starting to grow, then this plan is perfect for you, and will cost you $105/mo.

The third-party transaction fees are 1%, and online credit card rates are 2.6% + 30¢ USD, which is lower than the basic plan. With this plan, you can also add up to 5 staff members to your online store.

The Shopify Plan gives you access to 10 inventory locations, standard analytics and reports, abandoned cart recovery, manual order creation, discount codes, customer segmentation, up to 88% shipping discount, USPS priority mail cubic pricing, Shopify POS pro at just $89/mo, language translation, and so on.

These many features are more than enough to run an existing mid-scale offline business and want to branch out to online operations. 

4. Shopify Advanced – $399 Per Month

If you’ve outgrown the Shopify plan and want to take your business to the next level, the Shopify Advanced plan is the solution for it.

With the best Shopify features, this top-tiered Shopify Subscription is priced at $399 per month. With this plan, you will get all the features of the Shopify plan and more. 

This Shopify Advanced plan has the lowest transaction fees at 0.5 % and also the lowest online credit rates at 2.4% + 30¢ USD

It also maximizes on all the other features. 

You can add up to 15 additional staff members to your online store, 10 inventory locations, advanced reports, third-party calculated shipping rates, up to 88% shipping discount, duties & import taxes calculation. 

Shopify Subscription Plans For Established Businesses

If you are an established business with high-scale operations, then the standard Shopify plans may not be enough for you. 

Here are two plans for users with high volumes of business. 

1. Shopify Plus Plan – Starts at $2000 per month

The Shopify Plus plan is for those businesses that are already in the big league or want to go to the big leagues of selling. 

The starting price of this plan is $2000/mo, and this is just the price that it starts at. The actual monthly charges may get higher as per your needs and variables.

There are a lot of benefits that large organizations can get with the Shopify Plus plan, starting with the time taken to re-platform, which is less than 90 days.

Not just that, as a Shopify Plus user, you get the following:

1. Improved conversion rates by 18% and 60% faster checkouts. 
2. Augmented Reality, video, and 3D media options for your website pages.
3. Checkout customization, advanced discounts, and shipping rates.
4. Unlimited transactions, 99.99% uptime. 

Plus, migrating to Shopify Plus is easy; with Shopify providing potential costs and resources, you will need to migrate by yourself via a Shopify Plus representative.

 2. Shopify POS Pro Pricing (Shopify Retail) – $89 per month 

Every Shopify Plan includes the Shopify POS lite offering basic Point Of Sale features.

To take your Shopify strategy to the next level, you need to start selling offline along with your online store. If you decide to sell offline, you can take advantage of Shopify’s Point Of Sale System, which is specifically designed to help you sell offline. 

The POS system works really well with your eCommerce store and also ensures that you can sell online and offline conveniently.

The POS pro or the Shopify Retail plan allows you to create faster workflows, gain added control over staff permissions, and get detailed inventory reporting for an added $89 per month on your existing Shopify Plan.

Read this Shopify POS review to learn how Shopify POS can offer newer ways to sell your Shopify products! 

Additional Shopify Costs

Apart from the standard subscription costs, there are additional costs that a Shopify user has to bear. These costs, however, vary as per the plan enrolled in. 

Here is a quick overview of additional Shopify costs apart from regular subscription costs:

• Shopify Transaction Fees: On top of the monthly subscription fees, Shopify charges transaction fees on each sale you make online. These include payment processing fees (as high as 2.9% + 30¢ for online credit card payments) and Shopify Payments fees (minimum 2.4% for in-person transactions).
  
• Domain Registration: If you want a custom domain name for your Shopify store, you’ll typically have to pay a domain registration fee ($12-15 per year, based on the domain chosen). Shopify offers domain registration and hosting bundled with plans.
  
• Payment Processing: If you use a third-party payment gateway like Stripe instead of Shopify Payments, you’ll be subject to those processing fees, which may be higher. Shopify Payments has lower fees.
  
• Theme Costs: Shopify has free themes, but most sellers choose a paid theme for more design flexibility and features. These range from $100 for basic themes to $300 per year for premium themes.
  
• App Subscriptions: The Shopify App Store has over 4,000 apps to add advanced functionality, and many charge monthly/annual fees ranging from $9-$99/month. Useful apps abound but increase costs.
  
• Shipping Costs: Unless you include shipping in product costs, you must account for actual shipping expenses when fulfilling orders. Shopify has integrated shipping solutions to reduce these costs potentially.

You can save as much as 25% on your decided Shopify pricing plan. Use our exclusive Shopify Discount code by following the mentioned steps in the linked article. 

Which Plan is Right For You?

Eventually, choosing the right Shopify subscription for your e-commerce store is up to you. Looking at the prices for the plans, there are a lot of things to be considered. 

1. Shopify Starter and Shopify Basic plan – The starter plan for social media sellers with minimal Shopify features. The basic plan is ideal for an entrepreneur whose business is just new and is yet to pick up pace.
   
2. Shopify Plan – This is stage two and is ideal for businesses with a healthy flow of orders and who need additional staff account access, access to PII, and shipping insurance.
   
3. Shopify Advanced – For users who require advanced reporting and analytics to track product patterns, sales, and profits much better. This also has the lowest transaction fees and credit card rates.
   
4. Shopify Plus – The most premium Shopify plan, starting at a premium cost to the user, offers smooth scaling for large businesses to Shopify. 

While Shopify plans offer all the necessary features to kickstart a business’s online journey, as an entrepreneur, you need to consider the cost factor. 

Ensure you select the correct plan as per the size of your business, the transaction fees incurred, and other additional costs mentioned above to make your decision. 

Shopify Alternatives

If Shopify does not interest you, there are other e-commerce platforms that you can consider instead. Here’s how Shopify compares to its other competitors. 

Parameters	Shopify	Squarespace	Wix	WooCommerce
Price (yearly)	$29/mo	$23/mo	$27/mo	$25/mo
Free trial	3 days free trial	14 days	14 days	15 days
Products threshold	Unlimited	Unlimited	Upto 5000	Unlimited
Free SSL certificate	✅	✅	✅	✅
Built-in SEO tools	✅	✅	❌	✅

I have covered side-by-side reviews of Shopify with two of the above alternatives; check out my verdict for these comparisons below:

• Shopify vs Squarespace
• Shopify vs WooCommerce

My Verdict: Is Shopify Plans Worth The Money?

So, that is the way Shopify has priced its subscription plans. Depending on your requirements and the stage that your business is at, you can choose to go ahead with the Shopify plan of your choice. 

Try out any plan for just $1 for a month, and see which Shopify plan fits you and your business well. Before choosing, consider all the additional costs that come with the plans and overall. 

And that’s all the pricing details you need to know to start your e-commerce business with this top e-commerce platform!

As parting thoughts, I would love to know the Shopify plan you selected and why. Let me know in the comments below.

FAQs On Shopify Pricing Plans