Shopify is one of the best website builders for building an online store, according to our in-depth, hands-on research. It offer robust sales tools for ecommerce businesses of any size, a huge selection of third party integrations, and advanced features for enterprise-level companies like a built-in fulfillment network.
Shopify is an ecommerce-exclusive website builder, though, so if you’re looking to build anything other than an online store, you should look for another solution. That said, because of its focus on ecommerce, Shopify provided us with an unmatched online store building experience, even if it is a bit expensive, with a starting price of $29 per month.
In this review, you’ll learn about the features, pricing, and other important information about Shopify, so you can make the right choice for your budding online store.
Key Takeaways
- Sales features – Shopify offers a wide range of advanced sales features, like the Shopify Markets tool that can track international selling across multiple countries in different currencies.
- Pricing – Shopify pricing starts at $29 per month, which is a bit more expensive than the industry average of about $15 per month.
- Third-party integrations – Shopify offers a massive app store, providing access to more than 8,000 third party integrations for your online store.
- Support: Shopify offers 24/7 customer support via email and live chatbot for customers on all of its plans.
- Ease of use: Shopify interface is a little clunkier and not as intuitive as its rivals Wix and Squarespace, making it less ideal for beginners or teams with limited tech skills.
Why Should You Trust Us? Our Research Methodology
After conducting an initial exploration to identify the most relevant, popular, and established ecommerce website builders in the market, we put 12 website builder services to the test across 283 areas of investigation.
Based on years of market and user needs research, we’ve established an ecommerce website builder testing methodology that scores each product in seven main categories of investigation and 33 subcategories; this covers everything from customer feedback to design, ease of use, and more.
This data is then used by our human writers to research and write these in-depth reviews of ecommerce website builders like Shopify.
What Makes Shopify a Good Ecommerce Website Builder?
We found that Shopify is a good ecommerce website builder because it prioritizes building an online store for its users. Below, we’ve outlined some of the unique features we used to create an online store with Shopify that make it such an attractive option for businesses.
- International selling – Shopify is the best website builder for selling internationally thanks to the Shopify Markets features, which allowed us to manage sales across different countries with different currencies from a single hub.
- Third party integrations – Shopify offers the largest third party app store across our research, providing us with more than 8,000 compatible integrations that made our online stores even more functional.
- Fulfillment Network – Shopify has its own logistics and warehousing service that will pack and ship your items for you to streamline your entire operation.
- POS compatibility – Shopify POS is a point-of-sale system that integrates with the Shopify platform, which gave us a complete overview of our in-store and online business, including inventory, sales, and customer data.
- B2B sales – Shopify also has a dedicated B2B sales platform with custom features for the industry, like custom pricing and payment terms.
We were able to effectively track our inventory with Shopify’s more advanced sales features. Source: Tech.co testing
Can I build an online store with AI on Shopify?
Yes, like other website builders, Shopify does provide an AI store builder that can generate an online store for you.
All we had to do was provide a simple natural language prompt, like “build me a store that sells bananas,” and we were provided with different template options to get started. Even better, we didn’t even need to be a paying customer or even logged in to Shopify to get a full preview of what our site would look like.
Beyond that, Shopify also offers AI features within the platform once your site is built. Shopify Magic generated content, edited images, and generally improved our online store with AI-powered suggestions.
There’s also Shopify Sidekick, a 24/7 chatbot expert that helped us navigate the ecommerce website builder and necessary accomplish tasks, like setting up inventory and payment options.
Check out our guide to the best AI website builders to learn more
The Shopify AI store builder took a natural language prompt and created an online store for us in seconds. Source: Tech.co testing
Is it easy to switch to Shopify?
It is possible to switch from a different website builder to Shopify, but we wouldn’t say it’s necessarily easy, particularly if you’re a larger store with a lot of inventory.
Shopify provided us with the means to migrate data like customer profiles and product pages through CSV file transfers. There are also some specialized apps that helped us streamline the process like Matrixify.
This will get you started, but the more detailed aspects of building your page, like category assignment, theme choices, and SEO tools, will likely need to be manually set up if you switch to Shopify.
Pros
- Add unlimited products with your own CSV
- Customizable member areas
- Intuitive product-adding experience for beginners
- AI site builder can have you live in seconds
Cons
- Monthly fees for POS system integration
- Scheduling and booking requires add-on
- No tutorials for setup, so tough for beginners
- Limited SEO settings available
- Basic Plan: $29/month
- Grow Plan: $79/month
- Advanced Plan: $299/month
What Are the Limitations of Shopify?
Shopify is excellent for ecommerce businesses that need to build a website, but it does have some downsides that could get in the way, depending on your particular needs. Here are some of the limitations of Shopify when it comes to building a website.
- Design – Shopify templates are more rigid than other popular website builders, which prevented us from adding and moving elements wherever we wanted. For more design flexibility, Squarespace is an excellent choice.
- Non-ecommerce tools – Shopify’s non-ecommerce website elements are lacking. With blogging tools, for example, we weren’t able to make as many layout changes. For more features outside of your online store, Wix is our top pick.
- Ease of use – Shopify provides robust ecommerce functionality, which made the platform harder to use, especially for beginners. For an easy-to-use website builder, we found Squarespace to be a good option.
- Price – Shopify is more expensive than the industry average, with a starting price of $29 per month and an enterprise solution for $299 per month. For a more affordable website builder, we’d recommend checking out Hostinger.
Check out our Shopify vs Wix guide to learn more
The more granular website building features on Shopify, like customizable discount codes, can make it a bit harder to use for beginners that other more simple solutions. Source: Tech.co testing
How Much Does Shopify Cost?
Shopify’s pricing starts with three standard pricing options for those trying to build an online store: Basic, Grow, and Advanced. Here’s how much they cost:
| Plan | Price (billed every 12 months) | Price (billed every month) |
|---|---|---|
| Basic | $29/month | $39/month |
| Grow | $79/month | $105/month |
| Advanced | $299/month | $399/month |
Shopify also offers an enterprise-level solution called the Plus plan for large online stores. It costs $2,300 per month, and you have to sign up for a minimum contract of three years.
Is Shopify a good value?
Compared to other website builders, Shopify is on the more expensive end of the spectrum, with a starting price of $29 per month, which is well above the industry average of about $15 per month. However, Shopify provides ecommerce features on all of its pricing plans, while providers like Wix tend not to.
Shopify also provides some of the most robust sales features across the ecommerce website builder market, like first-party hardware compatibility and international selling dashboards, which means that, even if it is a bit more expensive, you’re absolutely getting what you pay for.
Shopify allowed us to build an online store on its Basic plan, which many website builders only allow on mid-tier plans. Source: Tech.co testing
Does Shopify have a free plan?
No, Shopify doesn’t offer a free website builder plan. However, for users wanting to test out the service before committing, Shopify does offer a limited 3-day free trial. After that, you can pay just $1 per month for the first three months, so you can still get a feel for the platform without a big financial commitment.
What are the transaction fees with Shopify?
Shopify’s transaction fees vary depending on what pricing plan you’ve signed up for and what kind of transactions you’re taking. Below, we’ve included a breakdown of how much transaction fees will cost your business:
| Plan | Online | In Person | Third party Payment provider |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | 2.9% + 30¢ | 2.6% + 10¢ | 2% |
| Grow | 2.7% + 30¢ | 2.5% + 10¢ | 1% |
| Advanced | 2.5% + 30¢ | 2.4% + 10¢ | 0.6% |
Shopify basic transaction fees are right in line with the rest of the industry, with Wix, Squarespace, and most other website builders sporting fees that range between 2% and 3% and between 10¢ and 30¢ for online and in-person sales.
However, Shopify is considered more expensive, because it’s one of the only ecommerce website builders that chargers extra for third-party payment processing, with Wix and Squarespace both providing this at 0%.
If you opt to use Shopify Payments — the native payment gateway for all Shopify users — instead of a third-party payment provider, you will be able to completely avoid additional transaction fees.
Tech.co takes our research very seriously, with our team getting hours of hands-on experience with these platforms before sitting down to review them. Our main testing categories for ecommerce website builders are:
- Website Functionality: the capabilities and features offered by a website builder, e.g. blog functionality, SEO capability, and marketing capacity.
- Sales Features: the sales-focused tools a builder offers, including payment features, POS integrations, AR & VR integrations, check-out options, and more.
- Design Features: the aesthetic appeal and visual layout of a website created using a website builder. It encompasses aspects such as page templates and customizable themes.
- Reputation: external customer opinion. This is the feedback and ratings given by customers who have used a particular website builder – the market position and reputation a website builder holds.
- User Experience: how user-friendly and intuitive a website builder is for people with varying levels of technical expertise.
- Pricing and Value for Money: the balance between the cost of a website builder and the benefits it provides. It considers factors such as pricing plans, subscription models, and available features.
- Help and Support: the assistance and resources available to users when they encounter issues or need guidance while using a website builder.
Verdict: Is Shopify a Good Choice?
If you’re trying to build an online store, there is a good chance that Shopify will be a solid website builder for your business. It provides robust sales tools — like a built in fulfillment network and international selling dashboard — for online stores of all sizes, as well as a massive app library to integrate services into your platform.
Shopify can be a bit harder to use for beginners because of this functionality, though, and its exclusive focus on building online stores means that non-ecommerce elements are not as impressive and its layouts are more rigid.
Still, we found Shopify to be one of the best ecommerce website builders available for building an online store, even if the starting price of $29 per month is a bit higher than average.
Now, all Shopify stores with all of their active items from the Online Store sales channel are available in this app, because of this new update.
On the one hand, this update can increase your store and brand visibility, as more customers engage with it via the app. It also streamlinees the checkout process for your customers by offering a “one-click” option, making it easier for them to make a purchase straightaway.
The primary focus should be on providing high-quality and detailed content that answers specific user queries, rather than simply describing the features of a product. This can even be done through FAQs. Content should also be written in the style of natural language prompts, mimicking the way users interact with AI services like ChatGPT.
Likewise, it’s important that you update your store regularly to reflect any changes to pricing or product information. Utilizing keywords specific to your page and optimizing imagery will also make it more valuable to AI search.
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