shopify agency

Shopify Pricing 2023 - How much does Shopify cost?


   Nic Dunn | CEO - Charle Agency

Last Updated: 22 December 2023

Shopify and Shopify Plus is one of the worlds most popular ecommerce platforms but how much does Shopify cost? Here is our utlimate guide to Shopify pricing to help you to choose a package that is best for you and your business. Not only have we explored Shopify pricing, but delved into the features of Shopify, when to upgrade your Shopify plan and finally some FAQs. Let's get stuck into the Shopify pricing structure, plans & how it compares.
Learn About Our Services


Shopify Pricing Overview



How much does Shopify cost?

How much does Shopify Cost? What are the different Shopify pricing plans?

Shopify pricing works on a tier system to deliver an increased level of features for your online store. There are 5 Shopify pricing plans available, however majority of merchants will require one of the 3 main Shopify pricing tiers. The 5 Shopify pricing tiers include Shopify Starter, Shopify Basic, Shopify, Shopify Advanced and finally Shopify Plus. In this guide, how much does Shopify cost and Shopify pricing, we'll cover the features of each pricing tier. Firstly, it's worth noting Shopify offer 14 days free on their platform prior to having to choose a Shopify plan. Here's our breakdown of each plan and the answers on how much Shopify really does cost. This article will also cover the true value that each plan offers.

Shopify Starter
Subscription Fee - £5 per month

Basic Shopify
Subscription Fee - $29 per month


Shopify
Subscription Fee - $79 per month

Shopify Advanced
Subscription Fee - $299 per month

Shopify Plus
Shopify Plus pricing is based on current revenues however most fall into the following category. Subscription Fee - Approx $2,000 per month
Online Credit Card Rate (can vary by country) - Approx 1.6% + 20p
In Person Credit Card Rate - Approx 1.5%
Third Party Payment Provider Fee - Approx 0.5%

Other Shopify costs to consider include design, developer or agency fees, app fees, software fees & annual domain fees.

shopify pricing table


What are the credit card and transaction fees of Shopify?

Whilst Shopify does charge a monthly fee to access the platform and launch your website, you do also need to keep in mind the transaction fees on debit/credit cards through the platform. Shopify takes a small commission for using it's checkout, using it's payment processor or similarly using a third party payment gateway via the Shopify checkout. Different plans offer different transaction fees and you should consider which plan is best for you by combining both the monthly fee and also transaction fees too. This will enable you to not only understand how much Shopify Costs but also which plan is best for your business.

Basic Shopify
Transaction Fees - 5%

Shopify
Online Credit Card Rate - 2.9% + $0.30
In Person Credit Card Rate - 1.6%
Third Party Payment Provider Fee - 1%

Shopify Advanced
Online Credit Card Rate - 2.6% + $0.30
In Person Credit Card Rate - 1.5%
Third Party Payment Provider Fee - 0.5%

Shopify Plus
Online Credit Card Rate (can vary by country) - Approx 2.15% + $0.30
In Person Credit Card Rate - Approx 1.5%
Third Party Payment Provider Fee - Approx 0.5%

Other Shopify costs to consider include design, developer or agency fees, app fees, software fees & annual domain fees.

shopify transaction fee table


What's included in Shopify pricing plans?

Amongst the Shopify pricing plans is a variety of features ranging from key functionality for small stores all the way to global enterprise busnesses. Here is our round up of what you get within each Shopify plan based on the specific pricing. Learn more about why you should choose shopify.

Shopify Starter
Shopify Starter Shopify Starter is the lowest tier that Shopify offers. It is for small businesses who wish to add Shopify checkout capabilities to their social channels and blogs. Within this package you can use the embed code 'Buy Buttons" and link Facebook Messenger to begin selling online. The idea of this package is to allow brands to sell through other channels rather than having their online store.

It is important to note that the Shopify Starter plan does not give you a full-fledged ecommerce website but instead is aimed towards small businesses who have a website on another platform such as WordPress, Wix and more. The premise works on embedding codes to allow customers to convert non-Shopify stores into a shopping experience. The Buy Now embed codes are not limited to "Buy Now" buttons, but you can embed full collections, product tiles and even a cart. When customers click the checkout button they will then be diverted to Shopify's securely hosted checkout. Note that analytical tracking can be a challenge when you are diverting customers between two different hosts.

If you are also keen to expand your sales to Facebook, Instagram, eBay or other social media channels, then the Shopify Starter plan is great for this! With a few clicks, you can push your products to your Facebook page with Shopify's native Facebook integration. If you require additioanl sales channels such as an online store, dropshipping, youtube video shopping, tiktok and more then this plan is probably not for you.

Shopify's Starter plan even includes Abandoned cart recovery! Historically this was only available on the mid-level Shopify plans however they've since released this feature to all!

Cart abandonment recovery is a tool that will automatically send a follow-up email to customers who have added items to their cart and started the checkout process (and of course entered their email). Cart abandonment recovery is a great way to boost revenue and win back customers that you'd have otherwise lost. This is a great benefit of Shopify as other providers such as BigCommerce or Wix you'll need to be on their mid-tier plans starting from $65.

We also recommend our merchants to consider more advanced abandonment email flows with tools such as Klaviyo. This allows you send your customers more than one email at a time-frequency of your choice. You can also split A/B test between different emails and gain insights from reports to further optimize this proven strategy.

Shopify's Lite plan still comes equipped with 24/7 customer support however please note this is limited to email and live chat only and you cannot use phone support when you are a subscriber of this plan.

Lastly, Shopify Starter merchants still can offer the advanced checkout settings that Shopify has to offer such as cross-country VAT pricing and advanced Shipping settings too.

In summary, if you are looking to convert your current website or blog into a shopping experience or need a way to push products to Facebook or Instagram - Shopify Starter is for you. Most merchants will need a higher plan to run a successful ecommerce business. We are the people who can help you expand your ecommerce business to the next step, get in touch!

Is Shopify Starter for me?
  • Great for one man bands or small businesses that want to sell on an existing blog or Facebook.
  • Sell unlimited products
  • Great for when your getting started!
Shopify Starter Plan

Shopify Basic
This is the lowest tier option to open your very own online store on the Shopify platform. This plan includes all the basics you might need to get selling online. You'll have your store, hosting, SSL certificate and major requirements for your customers to ensure your store is secure and reliable online. From discounts, products, collections, and basic reports plus some awesome features such as abandoned cart emails. Shopify basic and above all include 24/7 support from the Shopify help team so you are never alone.

The main difference between Shopify Lite VS Shopify Basic is that you will gain access to a full-fledged Shopify store hosted on the Shopify platform. You won't need to pay for hosting or security as this is fully included in all Shopify stores. Shopify has a dedicated team for security and testing so you can focus on your business. Shopify Basic is designed for merchants who do not wish to add ecommerce functionality to an existing store but instead run their entire ecommerce business via the platform. Shopify's hosting is completely secure and offers unlimited bandwidth.

Merchants on the Basic plan can set up unlimited numbers of products, and collections of products and similarly accept unlimited numbers of orders and customers to their store. This plan offers 2 staff accounts to access the Shopify dashboard. The Basic plan also includes 24/7 phone, email and live chat support. Shopify's Basic plan comes equipped with all the major ecommerce functionality you'd expect such as discounts and discount codes, gift cards, manual order creation, printing shipping labels & even fraud analysis built in.

The ability to edit your ecommerce is vital to create a visually engaging experience and updating the store with ease to keep it up to date with new campaigns and product launches - stores that are updated regularly are the ones that really standout. Shopify comes equipped with its powerful store editor tool called online store 2.0, which allows you to create new pages, customise elements and update content without the need for a Shopify developer. You can even reuse elements across the website, drag and re-order sections within a page and create entirely new page templates with ease.

Shopify Basic and above all offers internationalisation features to easily launch your store globally and provide the foundations for an international strategy, whether you are starting off here in the United Kingdom or launching a strategy in Canada, it has you covered. Learn about International Pricing.

Shopify Markets is Shopify’s solution to delivering an international strategy allowing merchants to define specific regions and ensure you are providing a localised experience to customers from all around the world.

Shopify Markets comes equipped with market-specific domains and subdomains allowing you to assign custom web addresses to optimise search results and automatically direct customers to the correct domain name.

Currency control and pricing management come natively out of the box with Shopify's basic plans. Not only can you choose to sell your products in different currencies that are most appropriate for a specific market, but you can customize market prices using a manual currency conversion rate, a percentage price point adjustment, or fixed prices for any products. Providing you are using Shopify Payments then you offer regional-specific payment providers too to ensure customers trust the checkout experience.

Shopify Markets also includes the ability to display your store in a different language to ensure customers can understand your store wherever they are shopping from. Not only can you assign languages to specific markets but you can use apps such as Shopify Translate & Adapt or Weglot to offer AI-driven translations and of course the ability to update the translation too! Easilly translate from your base language such as English to all major languages of your choice.

Shopify Basic is also great for merchants who wish to sell in person as it gives you access to Shopify POS. Shopify POS can be downloaded on your smartphone or tablet and process orders directly whether you are using the built-in card reader on your phone or a third-party credit card machine. When orders are processed products are synced from your product database within Shopify and inventory remains tracked. Shopify POS leaves Shopify as the centralized dashboard for your business.

For merchants who are looking for slightly more advanced Shopify POS features then Shopify Pro may be the best option. Whilst it does attract an additional $89 per month, it does offer additional features such as faster workflows, staff permissions and advanced inventory tools.

Shopify Basic and above come equipped with Shopify's native blogging and page creation feature. At the core, Shopify gives you a simple rich editor box which can feel fairly simple - however, if you use Online Store 2.0 to generate your templates, then the content editing opportunity is limitless and you can re-use sections from the wider site. Shopify also allows you to create an unlimited number of blogs and blog posts too, and even apply tag-based filtering too! Whilst Shopify was not built to be a primary blogging platform, it certainly is packed with enough features for month merchants.

Is Shopify Basic for me?
  • Great for when you need an ecommerce store.
  • Sell unlimited products and collections with Shopify.
  • Gain access to Shopify POS for in-store selling
  • Sell internationally
  • Great foundation for new ecommerce stores!


Shopify Basic Plan

Shopify
"Shopify" is the middle tier of the three major plans on the platform. You, of course, get everything that comes with a basic plan to manage your store however the increased investment does offer professional reporting tools to allow you to dig deep into the data and produce additional reports such as sales, retail sales & customer reports. For a growing business, these tools are vital to staying ahead of the competition. You can also have 3 additional (total 5) staff accounts and up to 5 locations of inventory management.

Shopify's middle tier plan provides enhanced reporting giving merchants access to more inventory, behaviour & marketing reports whilst also providing reports on orders, retail, profits and most customer reports too. Of course, you can integrate your store with more advanced reporting suites such as Google Analytics or Triple Whale with easy and native integrations with Shopify. Shopify Flow is the automation tool that allows you to set up automation within the Shopify platform and is available to merchants on the 'Shopify' plan or above! Shopify flow even allows you to connect apps and plugins too. Great examples include automatically replenishing products when inventory levels get low, emailing customers when wishlist items are on sale or rewarding customers with loyalty points when they leave a tip! You simply choose the trigger and the action, ultimate flexibility to make your Shopify more efficient!

The middle tier Shopify plan also offers double the number of staff accounts who can individually access your Shopify store bringing the total allowance to 5 from 2 when compared to the basic plan.

Shopify has location-based inventory management built right into the platform! You can easily assign inventory to retail stores, warehouses, pop-ups, or wherever you store products. Shopify's middle tier plan increases the allowance of locations from 4 to 5 when compared to Shopify's Basic plan!

Is Shopify for me?
  • All the great Shopify features included.
  • Access more detailed reporting.
  • Increased staff accounts and locations.
  • Great for when you need just a little more!


Shopify Advanced
The advanced Shopify plan is for when you are looking to scale up your business and it certainly doesn't disappoint as you grow. The main difference is, you can have up to 15 team members as staff on your Shopify account and also up to 8 locations for inventory. You also have access to advanced reporting. Again, this is for stores that sell a lot of products, and want to generate data for specific collections or types of products. With this plan, you do benefit from lower rates for credit cards too. The final feature that is unique to Shopify Advanced is third-party shipping rates - if you have your account with a shipping carrier, then you can display your negotiated shipping rates from that carrier to customers at checkout.

Whilst the advanced Shopify plan is the most expensive every month when comparing it to the main free Shopify plans, this plan does offer lower credit card rates across all specific transaction fee criteria including credit cards, AMEX, In-Person credit card rates and of course third-party payment gateway fees too. We always advise our merchants to assess the potential savings you'll receive based on the transaction fees compared to the monthly when making your decision. Don't forget all the additional features that you'll benefit from too! It's usually a decision that considers current revenue and sales, features you need and the savings you can make.

Shopify Advanced offers the highest level of reporting available from within the Shopify platform including complete access to customer reports, but also access to entirely custom reports. If your store is on the Advanced Shopify or Shopify Plus plan, then you can modify default reports and create custom reports using Shopify's filtering and editing features. Custom reports look similar to other Shopify reports, but use filters to show the exact data that you need. Use the Shopify report builder to create reports with the things you need, something we feel is a great feature of Shopify advanced on top of everything else you receive. Your store staff can even access all the reports that you modify or create, and they can duplicate and modify those reports.

Third-party real-time carrier shipping discounts & rates are a great feature of Shopify advanced, meaning shipping rates are calculated at checkout by a third-party shipping carrier based on the details of the order. This helps you charge your customers the exact amount that a shipping carrier, such as UPS or FedEx. You'll then be charged by the carrier directly when you purchase a shipping label via the Shopify dashboard.

Finally, with internationalization being a major growth strategy for growing Shopify brands around the world, charging the correct duties and import-taxes at checkout can prevent customers from being faced with very high fees to receive their parcels. Shopify advanced allows you to estimate and collect duties and import taxes at checkout to give customers the likely costs of their order and save any unwanted surprises. As you can see there are some great benefits of Shopify Advanced that you should think twice about!

Is Shopify Advanced for me?
  • Nothing left out of the Shopify advanced plan!
  • Great for single-store international selling.
  • Best for bigger teams and bigger businesses.
  • Improved transaction and payment fees.


Shopify Reporting Graphic

Shopify Plus
Shopify Plus is the enterprise solution for brands exceeding revenue of $ 1 million. Although the platform is not decided by revenue, it does come with a hefty price tag - so isn't right for every business. Shopify Plus comes with a dashboard that is built for large teams so you can effectively manage the store collaboratively. One of the most popular features of Shopify Plus is its ability to have up to 9 additional stores alongside the main store - great if you need to create different stores in different countries whilst running the business from one dashboard. If you sell B2B then you can also utilize the Wholesale Channel to allow your retailers to login with altered tiered prices, order quantity thresholds and unique visibility per customer. Finally, Shopify Plus boasts the ability to automate almost any task to make your team more efficient - you can even schedule changes to the store such as sales and new website launches. Last but not least, Shopify plus includes access to an increased API (back-end technology) and also the code for the checkout page. Shopify Plus is the ultimate solution for large, high-growth businesses. Click here to learn more about Shopify Plus.

Shopify Plus allows users to create up to 9 additional stores alongside their main store - often used to offer unique storefronts based on the location the customer is visiting from and the languages that they speak. Merchants can improve trust and improve sales by offering truly personalized geographic experiences to maximize sales with tailored product suggestions, multi-lingual stores and local currencies. This is great when you need to have linear control over each control content or perhaps you have different product ranges. This is great when your business has different teams managing different stores too!

Shopify Plus Plan

Not only do all Shopify customers have their own named account manager as part of the merchant success program, but you also gain access to priority 24/7 live chat, phone and email customer support to give you advice and peace and mind for your business. In addition to customer service to help you with problems and faqs, resources such as Shopify Plus Academy give tips and help merchants set up their store to the full potential through resources that cover everything from ecommerce best practices to technical integrations. Shopify Plus can handle massive spikes in traffic and transactions from online stores too.

Shopify Plus gives merchants access to the B2B Ecommerce Platform that launched in 2022. This gives you B2B specific features including unique payment options such as an invoice or net-30-day terms, company profiles personalised to the business you are selling to, specific customer price lists, custom theme changes specifically for B2B customers and a self-serve B2B portal where your B2B customers can place and manage their orders online! Additional pricing features can be offered such as quantity-based discounts too for when customers purchase specific volumes and receive a price advantage for doing so.

With unlimited staff accounts & permissions, Shopify Plus offers a powerful enterprise-level interface and admin dashboard to manage all your stores, data analytics dashboard, reports, staff accounts, staff permissions and permission settings, and automation tools (such as Shopify Flow), in one place. This dashboard allows you and your team to have a complete overview of your business, promote teamwork and improve automation. The dashboard is particularly great when you are managing multiple stores in different locations whilst maintaining one central management system.

Shopify Plus also gives you access to Shopify's very own schedling tool called Shopify Launchpad. Launchpad is a scheduling tool that merchants can access within Shopify admin allowing you to schedule product visibility, Shopify Scripts, themes, discounts, and more with a defined start and end time. Select specific products to publish for your sale; update inventory as needed. This can be great when you are about to launch a new campaign and wish to launch a new theme at midnight!

Shopify's checkout is entirely locked down except for the logo and banner image unless you are on Shopify Plus. By upgrading to Shopify Plus you can instruct you development team to access the checkout liquid file and make stylistic customizations. This can be great to add additional elements to the checkout experience, improve the look and ensure it remains branded with custom fonts and colors.

Shopify is usually limited to the standard discount settings that Shopify has to offer, however with Shopify Plus custom checkout scripts can be written by developers to achieve entirely customised discount experiences such as quantity based discounts, unique discounts for customers with a specific tag and more. This is written in a code language called Ruby and will require a developer with specialized knowledge to achieve this.

Shopify Plus does offer unique transaction and credit card fees and the monthly fee starts from $2,000 per month. It may be higher if you revenue exceeds a specific threshold. You can learn more about our Shopify Plus Agency services on our dedicated Shopify Plus page. You should always speak directly to Shopify Plus to receive an accurate Shopify Plus quote. It's not clear whether merchants can recieve reductions as there is no pricing calculator based on your business size.

Is Shopify Plus for me?
  • Best for enterprise-level businesses
  • Great when you need more than one store.
  • Custom checkout & discounts.
  • Improved transaction and payment fees.


Can I get Shopify for free?

Shopify does offer a 14-day free trial on all plans, meaning if you do want to give the platform a try and decide if it is for you then you can before you need to start paying. During the free plan you can set up your store, explore the features, get to grips with the UI of the backend and make the decision if Shopify is for you. If you do not choose a paid plan at the end of your free trial you will loose access to your online store. It is important to note that Shopify does not offer an entirely free plan.


Other Shopify Pricing Considerations.

When should you upgrade your Shopify plan?
If you are just getting started with your business then we recommend the Shopify Basic plan and progress on a feature requirement basis. If you feel you need advanced reports, by all means upgrade etc. We always suggest only upgrading with the growth and scale of your business, for example only spend more money if it will make a big difference to your business and your customers. If you are currently using a different store, definitely consider switching to Shopify - it's cheaper than legacy software and jam packed with powerful features.

Which Shopify plan should I choose?
First and foremost, we recommend to consider the features you need first and then compare what each package includes. You can see a Shopify pricing comparison table here. Another indicator to help making your decision can be on your current revenue. Less than $5,000 per month then stick to Shopify Basis, under $10,000 per month for 'Shopify' and over 10K for Shopify advanced. If your revenue is over 750K - $1million per year - Shopify plus is a great option for you.

Which payment gateway should I use?
For a comprehensive list of the Best Shopify Apps 2022, read our new article. Shopify payments is the most effective option for Shopify store owners. If you choose an alternative payment provider you will be subject to the gateway's fees plus Shopify's additional third-party payment provider fee too. Shopify payment processor fees range from 1.6% - 2% depending on your plan. Now to put into perspective Shopify's very low fees here's how much you'd spend with other gateways - remember Shopify will charge up to an additional 2% on credit card payments / charges through third party providers.

Paypal - 3.4% + 20p
Worldpay - 2.75% + 20p
Sagepay - £19.95/month for up to 350 transactions, £45/month for 500 and bespoke pricing for anything higher.
Amazon Pay - 2.7% + 20p.

Costs of Shopify Apps
Shopify is an ecosystem of merchants, designers, developers and entrepreneurs - although the platform has a lot of built-in functionality there is a huge library of apps to extend the functionality. Visit the Shopify app store and you'll find a large number of free and paid apps. Some apps do attract a monthly cost and often they are at a tiered level based on usage. See the dedicated Shopify apps section of this article to see more. We do recommend exercising caution when using apps and really do your research on the best for your business - get in touch if you need any help.

Buying Another Shopify Store
Shopify's Exchange Marketplace allows you to buy a Shopify store that is already trading. These are vetted by the Shopify team prior to listing and their pricing ranges from a couple of hundred up to millions - all depending on it's revenue and customer base.

Shopify Apps

How much do Shopify apps cost?

The Shopify App Store offers a library of more than 8,000 Shopify approved apps to choose from. The great part of the app store is it is a closed eco-system that only approved and vetted apps can be listed on. This means the apps you are choosing from meet Shopify's stringent app guidelines on site speed, security, the way they are built and from only the best app developers globally. It is true that Shopify allows you to add private applications to your store however they do not come with the same guarantees. The apps range from free, low-cost to enterprise level pricing and many Shopify apps offer different tiers to meet the needs of different business sizes. Whilst it's true that there are thousands of approved Shopify apps there are true leaders in this space for each key element that you may want to add to your store. We are actually partnered with most of the leading Shopify app providers and recommend them to our very own merchants.

The app store can be navigated by the type of app you are looking for such as "Finding Products", "Orders & Shipping" and more! Each app profile explains the app, it's features and a pricing scale too! We tend to recommend the following providers for the following features:

Shopify Templates - How much do Shopify Templates cost?

Buying A Pre-Built Theme
As well as the options of subscribing to one of the five plans of Shopify - you can buy pre-built themes for your store from the themes marketplace on Shopify here. All you need to do is add content and products. You will be limited by design and they can lack a branded feel. We build themes from scratch to have full control over the look, feel and functionality.

Once you are on the Shopify Basic plan or above, you will have access to Shopify's Theme Library. Shopify's Theme Library offers over 100 themes to choose from, which you can then set up yourself without the need for a developer. The themes are all customizable and allow you to use the store editor to create page templates and add content.

11 of the theme options are free of charge and including in your Shopify monthly plan, however there are 100 paid plans that you can choose from which tend to have more features, enhanced design styles. You can browse the theme library with ease and even filter by particular industry-specialised themes. Note if you do wish to customize the theme beyond the way it was built then you will need a development team as Shopify do not support this and only provide troubleshooting support for themes they built themselves. Theme fees range from $180 - $330 which is very cost effective considering building one from the ground up is considerably more.


Shopify POS, Shopify POS Pro and Shopify POS Go.

As discussed earlier in this article, the 3 main Shopify plans offer access to Shopify POS. This means you can sell in-store with the POS platform using a mobile or tablet device. Shopify also sells all the compatible hardware such as receipt printers, cash drawers, card readers and more. We'll now dive into the differences between the Shopify POS offering.

Shopify POS
Shopify POS offers a total in-store experience, with a similar feature set to what selling online has to offer such as unlimited products, collections and multi-location selling. You can assign barcode labels to products for easy scanning too. In addition to this, you can create customer profiles that are synced with your main Shopify account so you always see customer information and previous purchases and order history (both offline and offline). A great benefit is that you can collect emails and contact information in-store meaning that you re-target customers in a way you would do if they visited your online store.

Shopify POS comes equipped with full reporting for retail, cash tracking, cashflow reports, products and more! You can even send a product to cart for a customer so that they can buy online in the future! We feel Shopify's POS is a great way to bridge the gap between online and offline, and benefit from syncing your offline and online operations with one single powerful commerce platform.

Shopify POS Pro
You can upgrade your Shopify POS plan from standard to PRO by paying an additional $89 per month. Note if you are a Shopify Plus customer then you will gain access to Shopify POS Pro free of charge. Shopify POS Pro offers a wealth of additional features. Features include the ability for customers to shop online and then pickup in store, or similar in reverse, buy in store and ship to customer as though they purchased online! Shopify POS Pro also offers extended insights and reporting such as demand forecasting, low stock reports and inventory management tools. However if you need to set limits on staff permissions then Shopify POS Pro allows you to restrict and require approval for actions such as discounts and more! Shopify POS Pro is the enterprise level powerhouse of POS from Shopify!

Shopify POS Go
Shopify released a easy to use handheld POS hardware called POS Go, which allows you to manage your POS directly from your hand. This includes a card reader preventing the need for additional hardware. However Apple launched Tap To Pay meaning iPhone can accept contactless payments without the need for any additional hardware. Learn more here.


Shopify POS



What are the billing cycles on Shopify and how does this affect Shopify Pricing?

Shopify's pricing billing cycles are typically monthly, however should you wish to extend your commitment on your plan beyond monthly then you can receive a discount to the monhtly Shopify pricing tariffs and payments. By committing to one year, two or three you'll see different pricing for Shopify. You do need to pay up front if you opt for a non-monthly pricing plan. See below the 3 main plans price comparison for long term up front commitment:

Basic Shopify
Monthly: £19 per month
Annually: £19 per month, paid upfront.
Every 2 Years: £17 per month, paid upfront.
Every 3 Years: £15 per month, paid upfront.

Shopify
Monthly: £49 per month
Annually: £49 per month, paid upfront.
Every 2 Years: £46 per month, paid upfront.
Every 3 Years: £41 per month, paid upfront.

Shopify Advanced
Monthly: £259 per month
Annually: £259 per month, paid upfront.
Every 2 Years: £176 per month, paid upfront.
Every 3 Years: £154 per month, paid upfront.


How much does headless Shopify cost? How much is Shopify Hydrogen & Oxygen?

Whilst the main plans of Shopify promote the use of themes and Shopify's native online store 2.0 website editor, it's completely possible to launch a headless store that's frontend is entirely headless. Without diving into the depths of what headless ecommerce is, Shopify offers both an opinionated framework React framework on how best to build your Shopify store. This is called Shopify Hydrogen. Shopify Hydrogen is a free of charge code framework publicly available via it's dedicated Github. Shopify also now offers hosting for Hydrogen built headless ecommerce frontends on their specialised hosting offering called Shopify Oxygen. At current, Shopify Oxygen is free of charge but only available to Shopify Plus merchants however they do have plans to release it to other plans in the future - it is not clear whether there will be additional charges for this service for lower plans. You can read more about Shopify Hydrogen & Oxygen on our dedicated headless ecommerce article.


Shopify Hydrogen

How can I save money with Shopify?

The best way to reduce the monthly cost of your Shopify website is to choose a longer billing cycle, whilst you will pay more up front you make savings over time. Whilst Shopify does not offer it's platform for free, you should consider other costs that you have to pay for with other platforms. These include hosting, security and infrarstructure. Generally speaking, Shopify's content management is very advanced and allows you to make updates and changes with ease when compared to other platforms.

We also advise you to really consider the plan you are choosing, whilst the lower plans are cheaper per month, they also attract a higher transaction fee so you could be paying more without even realizing it!

How does Shopify compare to other ecommerce platforms?

When assessing the competitiveness of Shopify pricing, it's important to understand which category of business you are in and which platforms you are comparing it too. For example if you are comparing Shopify to medium-enterprise level platform such as Magento then we believe it's highly competitive to what you get out of the box. Magento Commerce cloud costs anywhere from $22,000 - $200,000 not including your hosting fees, continual need to update patches and other technical set up such as security.

However if we compare Shopify to other more "website builder" style ecommerce platform it does come a little more expensive; see summary below:

Wix
Monthly: £15-27 per month

Squarespace
Monthly: £17-35 per month

Square Online
Monthly: £0-54 per month

BigCommerce
Monthly: £22-216 per month

GoDaddy
Monthly: £13.99 per month

Shopify
Monthly: £19-259 per month

We highly recommend that brands strongly consider many key factors when choosing a platform such as what additional costs for hosting and security you may need, how customizable the website editor is - Shopify comes eqquiped with Shopify Online Store 2.0 website editor, which is very powerful at allow merchants to update their store with ease. Also you need to consider features from other parties you might need and whether these platforms already have a native integration such as reviews, loyalty and payment partners. Shopify offers an app store of thousands of tech partners that can integrate with your store. We also say - remember Shopify is a leader for a reason! Whilst there's lots to consider when comparing Shopify pricing with competitors, always try and consider the full picture!


Summary: How much does Shopify cost?

So in this article, we have walked through how much Shopify costs, the different fees you can expect to pay for the ecommerce platform, managing payments and payment fees, the range of pricing plan for Shopify and also other add ons such as software, apps, hosting, traffic management, POS features and more. Whilst Shopify is not the cheapest, it does offer some very affordable monthly plans for your business. The help and support that comes with Shopify is 24/7 and the community of Shopify agencies, app providers and experts is unrivalled to competition. Brands such as Gymshark, are living evidence of the power that the ecommerce platform brings to some of the worlds fastest growing brands. The features that Shopify offers out of the box for it's lowest main plans is incredibly and gives brands almost everything they need to manage an ecommerce website. If you are looking for reasons on why to choose shopify read our Why Choose Shopify? guide.

Looking for Shopify Experts Agency?

We are are Shopify agency based in London, UK who work with the most ambitious brands to design, develop and optimize ecommerce stores. We build stores with strategies crafted to perform. If you are looking for a web design agency to design, develop and optimize your store. Get in touch!

 

How much does Shopify cost? FAQs

The world of ecommerce can be a confusing one! With a growing number of platforms, price ranges and features it can difficult to know which is best. We hope this article has helped you understand Shopify plans a little more and their pricing. Here are some frequently asked questions about how much Shopify costs.

Is Shopify free?

No. Shopify is not free but you can trial the ecommerce platform for a 14 day free trial where you can access the full platform and even set the store live to your customers. However you cannot make any sales until you've chosen one of the paid plans. Shopify's free trial period is a great opportunity to explore the features and functionality to see if you like it. We are sure you will! It's also important to remember Shopify host your website & keep your website secure so no additional security or hosting fees are needed!

How much does Shopify Cost?

A quick roundup - 5 plans ranging from $9 per month all the way to $2,000 per month depending on your requirements. Shopify does charge transaction fees and processing fees however they are much lower than some of the direct competitors. A subscription to Shopify not only gives you a free secure powerful hosting platform but access to a ecommerce management system that is trusted by some of the worlds biggest ecommerce brands and merchants. You'll be in great company.

How long are Shopify contracts?

Shopify boast their flexible month-to-month rolling contracts - cancel at any time. You can receive a discount of up to 20% if you subscribe for 1 or 2 year commitments with an upfront payment.

Can I upgrade or downgrade my plan?

You can upgrade or downgrade your Shopify tier/plan at any time.

How many staff accounts can I create for my team on Shopify?

Shopify Basic allows up to 2 staff accounts, Shopify allows up to 5 and advanced allows up to 15. Shopify Plus allows an unlimited number of accounts to be made.

Are there any limits to customers, products, sales or site visitors?

Absolutely not. Shopify offer unlimited bandwidth, customers, products and sales on all their plans.

Is Shopify secure?

Level 1 PCI compliant (the highest level). Shopify is far more secure than Magento or Woocommerce as it hosted on their own servers. Shopify have an entire team dedicated to platform security. 82% of website hacks in 2017 were on Magento websites. You will not find this level of security on any other platform as a whole, right now.
Learn More About Us
Ready to grow your business with Shopify?
We specialise in Shopify to deliver ecommerce partnerships that grow your business. We are ready to talk projects, timelines team, whenever you are!
Get In Touch
Technology Partners Second To None
Shopify houses the broadest technology eco-system with it’s app store - giving merchants access to thousands of applications with additional features. We’ve tried and tested the best software from the best technical teams to deliver features in the most cost effient and feature-rich way.
See Our Work
Charle - Shopify & Ecommerce Web Design Agency
Why Choose Shopify Plus
Shopify Plus is an enterprise-level ecommerce platform for fast growing brands designed for high volume. Trusted by leading brands such as Budweiser and Gymshark, Shopify Plus offers a robust and flexible solution to multi-channel sales with both D2C and B2B capability whilst unrivaled control of design and user experience remains intact.
Built To Scale with Unlimited Bandwidth
Internation Stores & Multi-Currency
Wholesale Sub-Stores
Custom Checkout Experience
Schedule Tasks Ahead
24/7 Shopify Support
Learn More About Shopify Plus
Why choose Shopify?
Shopify Guide
What are the benefits of Shopify Plus?
Shopify Plus Guide
>
Shopify VS Shopify Plus
Shopify Guide

Looking for a Shopify Plus Agency?
Upgrade or migrate to Shopify Plus with Charle, a leading Shopify Plus agency.
Upgrade to Shopify Plus with Charle
We are an accredited expert Shopify agency we partner with brands to design, develop, launch, support and grow Shopify & Shopify Plus stores. We are a Shopify agency, ready when you are. Talk to our team about your project.
Get In Touch
We’re an Award-Winning Shopify Partner & Ecommerce Web Design Agency In London & Manchester.
awardwinningecommerce awardwinningecommerce awardwinningecommerce
Stay Up To Date With Ecommerce
Join our newletter to receive free ecommerce guides, tips and tricks.
Charle Agency (Charle London Limited) | London Shopify Plus Agency | Copyright 2020 | Terms & Privacy