Shopify Pricing: How Much Does Shopify Cost?

Shopify is one of the biggest and best ecommerce builders on the market, allowing you to create and manage an online store and loads of different sales channels. But what do the Shopify pricing plans look like?

Obviously, this level of quality doesn’t come cheap. But, reassuringly, Shopify has some good-value plans perfectly suited to a smaller ecommerce store. Shopify can be as cheap as $26 per month (paid annually in advance). However, this rises steeply to as much as $299 per month for huge scale online stores. You can have three months of Shopify for free, however, thanks to a zero-cost 90-day free trial that Shopify currently offers.

Shopify’s plans might seem expensive, but we think they’re worth it given that you’ll be making a return on the investment.

In this guide we’ll run through each pricing plan, what features they give you, which pricing plan is right for your business, and how Shopify compares to its competition.

• Shopify Pricing Plans Explained – Which plan is the best for you?
• Shopify Basic Plan – The best plan to start with
• Shopify Plan – The best plan for growing businesses
• Shopify Advanced Plan – The best plan for large businesses
• Shopify Lite Plan – Ideal for side hustles
• Shopify Plus Plan – Bespoke plans for the largest businesses
• Shopify Hosting Costs – How much does hosting cost for a Shopify-powered site?
• Shopify Alternatives – We look at how BigCommerce and other ecommerce platforms compare
• Shopify FAQs – We answer all your burning questions about Shopify quickly and easily

The Advanced Shopify Plan

Designed for big businesses

$299 per month, $3,192 per year

While the jump from $79 per month to $299 per month might seem excessive, the Advanced Shopify plan is designed for seriously established on- and offline businesses.

As such, the big improvements from the Shopify plan are to be found in the post-sale area. You'll get access to Shopify's advanced report builder, which gives you all the tools to seriously understand your customers and improve the sales journey. You'll also be able to save any custom reports you build, making it great to track individual marketing campaigns, for example.

Benefits for buyers on Advanced Shopify

Third-party calculated shipping rates become available, meaning that customers will be able to see how much it will cost them to get your delightful products delivered. This can be a huge trust signal for potential buyers and will almost definitely prevent customers from dropping off at the last hurdle.

Credit card processing rates drop again. Online transactions cost 2.4% plus 30¢, while in-person rates drop to 2.4%. You'll also be able to open up to eight store locations.

The Shopify Lite Plan

A decent choice for sole traders

$9 per month

Shopify Lite is the cheapest plan offered by Shopify, but it doesn’t offer access to the Shopify online store platform.

Instead, you can use the Shopify sales platform to sell on Facebook and communicate with your customers using Messenger. You can also use Shopify Lite to sell products on another website you already own. For example, if you use WordPress, Squarespace or Tumblr, you can add Buy Buttons for each of your products and turn your existing site into an online store.

The Shopify Plus Plan

Bespoke plans for the biggest businesses

$POA

Shopify Plus is the plan designed for enterprise level businesses and very high-volume merchants. There’s no set price, as you have to call up and get a quote direct from Shopify. This plan is aimed at businesses with more than $750,000 in annual revenue and prices typically start from $1,500 per month, so you'll need to be in with the high rollers to make this plan worth it.

Already know the right plan for your business? Get started with Shopify today.

Squarespace for Ecommerce

Squarespace can't quite match Shopify for large on- and offline businesses. However, it is a brilliant choice for small boutique online stores.

As a website builder first and foremost, Squarespace can make creating an online store incredibly easy. Its powerful editor makes adding design elements or ecommerce tools straightforward — even for first-timers.

Plus, Squarespace has been adding a range of new features to make it better as an ecommerce product. For example, you it has dedicated tools for tracking and analysing sales performance and an exceptional range of ecommerce templates..

Squarespace is also very strong when it comes to online marketing. For example, there's a built-in email campaign manager and you can add tools such as chatbots to help shoppers find what they need.

Squarespace is cheaper than Shopify, as well. Ecommerce prices range from $26 per month to $40 per month, which makes it a great choice for smaller businesses.

BigCommerce

BigCommerce is Shopify's, erm, biggest rival when it comes to large on- and offline businesses.

It provides a very similar range of accounting and reporting tools to Shopify, plus you'll be able to integrate loads of sales channels into BigCommerce's platform.

One important advantage that BigCommerce has over Shopify is that it doesn't charge transaction fees on the sales you make. Plus, you're able to use third-party payment processors without incurring a penalty. However, BigCommerce does place a limit on the amount you can make monthly depending on which plan you choose.

BigCommerce also can't quite match Shopify for online store customization. BigCommerce's designs don't look bad per se, but they're not quite as nice as Shopify's.

Check out our Best Ecommerce Website Builders guide for more information on Shopify's rivals

Shopify Pricing FAQs

We answer all of your most pressing questions about Shopify's pricing plans in one quick and easy section.

Is Shopify free to use?

Shopify normally offers 14-day free trial but no free plan. Due to the coronavirus pandemic currently happening around the globle, Shopify has launched a special deal: A 90-day free trial period.

How expensive is Shopify?

Shopify's cheapest plan, Basic, starts from $29 per month. This plan includes your domain and all of Shopify's excellent accounting, tax, and inventory tools. In fact, it's easier to say what you don't get with the Basic plan rather than list everything you do. You won't be able to issue gift cards for your store and it doesn't include hardware peripheral support — this is essential if you want to run a bricks-and-mortar store as well as a website. You'll also find that credit card processing rates are slightly more expensive than on Shopify's other plans.

The next plan up is simply called Shopify. It costs $79 per month, which might seem like a big jump but you're getting a lot more bang for your buck. You get access to gift cards and hardware peripheral support — both of which could easily cover the $50 per month price bump. It's important to remember when choosing an ecommerce platform that you will be making money as a result of using the service so it pays to think of Shopify and its rivals as overhead business costs rather than unecessary services.

Shopify's final plan is Shopify Advanced and it costs $299 per month. Again, this is a big jump from the $79 per month Shopify plan. However, if you're investing in this plan its likely that your business will have several employees — you really don't need it if you're just starting out. You'll be able to set up 15 staff accounts and you'll get access to an advanced report building tool which can be useful for optimizing sales performance.

There's also the Shopify Lite plan which costs $9 per month. This restricts you to selling on Facebook and using Facebook Messenger to communicate with customers. There's also the Shopify Plus plan — a bespoke pricing tier for large, enterprise level businesses. You'll have to go to Shopify directly for a quote.

Does Shopify charge a transaction fee?

The first thing to know about Shopify's transaction fees is that you will be charged unless you use its Shopify Payments processing system. Shopify Payments does away with the need to set up a third-party payment provider or a merchant account.

If you don't choose to use Shopify Payments, you'll have to set-up with a third-party payment provider. This third-party company will charge Shopify a fee for managing payments, and Shopify will pass this cost onto you — fees vary by payment provider so make sure you size-up your options before committing.

Does Shopify pay instantly?

Nope, and you'll be hard-pressed to find an ecommerce platform that does. There are simply too many steps for the process of selling, collecting the payment, processing the payment, etc. to be completed in one business day.

If you're using Shopify Payments, the time it takes for you to get paid varies from country-to-country. If you're in the US or Australia, you'll get paid in two business days. If you're in other countries you might paid within three to four days. You can find out how long it'll take you here.

If you're not using Shopify Payments, the time it takes you to get paid will vary according to your payment provider.

How often does Shopify payout?

With Shopify payments, you'll get paid every time a transaction happens. It might take a little while – don't expect instant money transfers – but you will reliably get paid per transaction.

Can you use PayPal with Shopify?

You bet. In fact, PayPal is one of Shopify's default payment providers. As soon as you open a store, you're given a PayPal Express Checkout account linked with the email you used to sign up for Shopify. If you use PayPal as your payment provider, rather than Shopify Payments, you will be charged transaction fees sadly.

Customers will still be able to check out using PayPal regardless of which payment provider you use, as long as you have it set up as an option.

What are the benefits of using Shopify?

Shopify is one of the easiest ecommerce platforms to set up and use for businesses of any size. It's slick, simple UI makes setting up an online store super easy for novice or experienced entrepreneurs alike. Plus, its platform allows you to sell your wares across an unrivalled number of sales channels ranging from Instagram to eBay and Amazon. You can even set Shopify up to work with your bricks-and-mortar store, as well.

Shopify also has some of the best back-end functions of any ecommerce platform. Its accounting and reporting tools, for example, are powerful but extremely easy to use.

Shopify has excellent support options, including 24/7 phone and live chat support. Plus, it has a huge knowledge base and forums to help users fix their own problems quickly and easily.

It might be a touch more expensive than some of its rivals, but we think that Shopify's quality more than makes up for its slightly more expensive plans.

What is the cheapest Shopify plan?

Shopify's cheapest plan is technically the Shopify Lite plan. It costs $9 per month but you'll need an existing website to sell products through — this means you (and your customers) won't get access to the full Shopify online store experience.

Shopify's cheapest plan that we would seriously consider is Shopify Basic. It costs $29 per month and gives you a full online store, a free website domain, and gives you access to the Shopify point-of-sale app for in-person selling. The Shopify Basic plan is comparable in price to many of its ecommerce competitors but we think Shopify has the edge when it comes to features and ease of use.

Which Shopify plan is best?

We would say the best Shopify plan is the cheapest plan: Shopify Basic.

It gives you all the features you'll need to start an online store and grow your ecommerce business. You could opt for the middling Shopify plan straight away, however we feel that most small businesses won't be able to make the most of the extra features on offer — initially, at least.