Quick Read on Shopify Pricing: How Much Do I Need? (Updated for 2024!)

Powering over 4 million online stores in 2024, Shopify is the best eCommerce platform to create your store. Since most merchants view Shopify as a trusted website, its plug-and-play format and user-friendly interface ensure that business owners can quickly get up and running with a dashboard that’s easy to use.

Additionally, Shopify has many features allowing users to manage their stores easily. However, the platform’s a-la-carte style pricing for add-ons means that you can easily rack up serious expenses on top of the three preset billing plans if you're not careful. 

As if that’s not enough, as with any payment processor and digital storefront platform, Shopify takes a commission for every sale transaction completed on its platform. Still, the ecommerce platform has various pricing plans catering to businesses with different budgets. Considering a la carte pricing, billing plans, and transaction fees will help business owners determine the true cost of operating a Shopify site. 

Below, we explain Shopify pricing in detail and familiarize you with the different plans and other factors like recurring payments, credit card fees, and the cost of third-party apps.  

Shopify selling fees: How much does Shopify take per sale?

Thankfully, Shopify is very transparent about all fees on their platform. Whether for monthly/annual plans, a la carte services, or transaction fees for payment processing, the brand is very clear about what you can expect to spend. 

Specifically for payment processing transaction fees, the brand has a sliding scale that depends on your subscription plan and whether the customer making the purchase is shopping online or in-store, or using an international card, American Express, or an alternate credit card. 

For instance, with the Basic plan, you'll pay a 2.9% + $0.30 fee per transaction for each online domestic credit card purchase, 3.9% + $0.30 fee for international or American Express cards, and a flat 2.7% for in-store purchases (using Shopify's POS). Meanwhile, if you opt for a third-party payment processor outside of Shopify’s system, there’s a flat 2% fee. 

The mid-tier plan, known as the 'Shopify Plan' charges 2.6% + $0.30 fee per transaction for each domestic credit card, 3.6% + $0.30 for each international or American Express credit card transaction,  and a flat 2.5% for in-store purchases. Third-party payment processing has a 1% fee. 

The most expensive plan, the 'Advanced Plan' charges 2.4% + $0.30 fee per domestic credit card transaction, 3.4% + $0.30 for international and American Express credit card transactions, and a flat 2.4% for in-store purchases. Third-party payment processing has a 0.5% fee.

A breakdown of Shopify pricing plans 

Shopify membership fees vary based on plans ranging from Basic to Advanced. You can select the right plan based on your budget and feature requirements. However, while the brand only offers three plans, each one is full of features that offer robust functionality.

Looking for a Shopify fees calculator? Our friends at Liquify have one worth checking out.

The Shopify payment provider is Stripe — that's how it can power Shopify checkouts.

Shopify Basic Plan — $39 / month (Increased from $29/month)

TShopify Basic plan is ideal for new or smaller eCommerce businesses that are prioritizing online sales. It costs $39/month when paid monthly or  $29/month when paid for annually. 

The Basic plan supports one digital branded eCommerce storefront. Besides a customizable online store, you also get two staff accounts, 24/7 customer support, and unlimited product listings. The plan also offers the following features:

• Free SSL Certificate
• Manual order creation
• Discount codes
• 2 staff accounts
• Inventory tracking for up to 1,000 inventory locations
• Support for multiple sales channels — including listing sync support
• Point of Sale (POS) 
• Tax liability tracking
• Accurate sales tax calculations
• Up to 77% shipping discounts + support for shipping label creating and printing

With the Shopify Basic plan, you can manage your eCommerce store easily. However, reports are limited to basic data and lack support for third-party shipping app integration, don’t include shipping insurance (although you can opt for app add-ons to provide this), or collect duties and import taxes at checkout for international purchases.

Also don’t forget the transaction fees. With the Basic plan, you'll pay a 2.9% + $0.30 fee per domestic credit card transaction, 3.9% + $0.30 fee for international or American Express card sales, and a flat 2.7% for in-store purchases. If you bypass Shopify’s payment processing in favor of a third-party, there’s a flat 2% fee per transaction. 

Shopify Plan — $105 / month 

The most popular plan on Shopify is the Shopify plan. It costs $105/month and offers  features catered to stores that either need to scale or have already started scaling. If you pay annually, the price drops down to $79/month.

This plan offers all the Basic plan features with some additional perks. First,, you get five staff accounts rather than two.

Unlike the Shopify Basic plan, this plan has performance reports, which means you can track your website's loading speed and uptime. These reports come in handy to help you identify potential issues with your store so you can fix them quickly. Some other features include:

• Gift card payment
• Shopify POS
• Up to 88% shipping discount 

Don’t forget that Shopify charges 2.6% + $0.30 fee per domestic credit card transaction, 3.6% + $0.30 for each international or American Express credit card transaction, and a flat 2.5% for in-store purchases. Third-party payment processing has a 1% fee.

Shopify Advanced Plan — $399 / month 

The Advanced plan costs $399 a month and is ideal for larger eCommerce businesses or enterprises. The biggest highlights of this plan is that it offers the lowest transaction fees, offers 15 staff accounts and allows businesses to create customized reports. Paid annually, the price decreases to $299/month.

The Advanced plan has all the features of the Shopify and Basic plans — but with the additional features mentioned above

A notable feature of this plan is that you’ll get access to the third-party calculated shipping, which lets you compare shipping rates from different carriers. As a result, it can help you get the best shipping rates for your customers.

With the Advanced plan, you’ll get the best rates for transaction fees. Shopify charges 2.4% + $0.30 fee per domestic credit card transaction, 3.4% + $0.30 for international and American Express credit card transactions, and a flat 2.4% for in-store purchases. Third-party payment processing has a 0.5% fee.

👉 Looking to outsource your Shopify store? Check out our list of the top Shopify marketing agencies

Shopify Retail, Plus, Enterprise Commerce, and Shopify Starter

Update: Shopify does not offer the Shopify Lite tier anymore. The plan has been replaced with 'Shopify Starter'.  

Besides its major pricing plans, the platform also offers Shopify Retail, Plus, and Enterprise Commerce for more established businesses. True beginners who want to get their feet wet can use Shopify Starter. These plans are slightly different from Shopify's main offerings.

Shopify Starter

The Shopify Starter plan is priced at $5/month. However, it does not let you build a website in this plan. The Starter plan is for people who want to sell through social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok, and give their users a checkout link and a simple storefront.

The per-transaction fee for this plan is 2.4% on card payments and 2% on the third-party payment gateway (if you're not using Shopify Payments).

Shopify Retail

If you’re a business that sells in person more than virtually, Shopify Retail is designed with a brick-and-mortar-first strategy. Like the Starter plan, you can access a simple online store. However, you get two admin accounts, unlimited POS logins, and one POS Pro included.

Meanwhile, the transaction fees are significantly lower than with the Starter plan. With Retail, you’ll pay a flat 2.7% on every in-person transaction and 2.9% + $0.30 for every online sale. The Shopify Retail plan is $89 every month after the first three months which are billed at $1. 

Shopify Plus

Shopify Plus was made for enterprise-level businesses. It is a premium platform with a custom price tag that starts at $2,000 per month.

As you would expect from an enterprise-grade eCommerce platform, Shopify Plus has all of Shopify's features, plus some extras. The best feature of this plan is automation.

You can automate your eCommerce processes, such as order management and shipping. This can save you a lot of time so that you can focus on other aspects of your business.

Shopify also offers 24/7 support for Shopify Plus customers. You will have a dedicated success manager to help you with anything you need, from technical marketing support.

Since this plan has no set costs, you'll have to contact Shopify to get a quote. The plan starts from around $2,000 per month and goes up, depending on your business needs and the number of monthly customers.

Shopify Enterprise Commerce

For enterprise customers that need a custom-designed e-commerce solution, Shopify’s Enterprise Commerce is a 360 product that comes complete with dedicated production and technical account management support. 

Key highlights for this plan are the unlimited retail locations and enhanced scaled infrastructure for direct-to-consumer, wholesale, and retail support. Understandably, a plan that offers complete customization is somewhat shrouded in mystery. To get pricing and a deep dive on available features, you must contact Shopify to schedule an exploratory call. 

Shopify vs Stripe

As briefly touched upon earlier, Shopify entered into a partnership with Stripe to help it power Shopify payments and transfer money to merchants. This long-term partnership has helped both companies significantly ramp up their core value offerings and is a key method of how Shopify works. 

How much do Shopify's transaction fees cost?

If you use Shopify Payments, there's a certain fee per transaction. As you can see, the fees reduce as you go up the plan tiers.
For instance, if Shopify takes 2.9% + $0.30 on every Basic plan transaction, it means that the platform will charge 2.9% of the customer's total bill plus $0.30 as the transaction fee. Keep in mind that this fee is on every transaction and not every item sold.
The transaction fees differ for online and offline transactions as well as domestic credit and debit cards versus international and American Express credit cards. . Moreover, if you use a third-party payment gateway other than Shopify Payments, there is a slightly lower  per-transaction fee of 0.5% to 2%, depending on your plan.

Shopify is integrated with more than 100 payment processors, allowing you to accept credit cards from around the world. You should check their per-transaction fee beforehand if you choose a payment processor other than Shopify Payments.

How much does Shopify make?

Shopify offers different pricing plans depending on a business's needs. The company makes money by charging businesses a monthly subscription fee and taking a percentage of each sale made through the platform. Here's how Shopify makes money.

Subscription Plans

First, Shopify offers subscription plans ranging from $5 per month (Shopify Lite) to $2,000 per month ( Shopify Plus). All of the plans come with a free 14-day trial.

The Advanced Shopify plan generates the most revenue, with enterprises like Netflix, Tupperware, Allbirds, and Heinz using Shopify's services.

Merchant Solutions

Besides subscription plans, Shopify also offers merchant solutions to sellers who have subscribed to the platform's plans. The solutions include shipping, accepting payments, and fulfillment. Here are some merchant solutions the platform offers:

• Shopify Payments: Shopify Payments is the easiest way to accept payments on the platform. All plans except for Shopify Lite come with Shopify Payments, allowing merchants to accept payments through the platform. Shopify Payments has a per-transaction fee of 2.4% to 2.9%.
• Shopify Shipping: This lets sellers ship their products through Shopify's shipping partners, getting Shopify a commission fee from these partners.
• Shopify POS: Shopify lets merchants use the Shopify POS system to sell their products in physical stores. The Shopify POS system has a per-transaction fee of 2% or higher, depending on the merchant's plan.

Shopify earns its profit through different business models, giving it a diversified revenue stream. Doing this has helped the company weather difficult times, like the COVID-19 pandemic. Even during the pandemic, Shopify maintained its profitability and continued growing at a fast pace.

Examples: Shopify's Cuts of Purchases

The best way to understand Shopify pricing is to look at some examples. Suppose you have the Basic plan with a 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction fee.

If a customer purchases products worth $100 from your store, the transaction fee would be $3.20 ($2.90 + $0.30).

Similarly, if a customer buys products worth $1,000 from your store, the transaction fee would be $32. 

The transaction fee is charged on every transaction made through your store, not every item a customer buys. A customer could buy 10 or 100 items, but the transaction fee will be charged on the bill as a whole.

On the Shopify plan, the per-transaction fee is 2.6% + $0.30. Let's say a customer buys products worth $100 from your store. The transaction fee would be $2.90 ($2.60 + $0.30).

If a customer buys products worth $1,000 from your store, the transaction fee would be $29. Again, the transaction fee is charged on the total amount and not for every item in the purchase.

Meanwhile, the per-transaction fee on the Advanced Plan is 2.4% + $0.30 - the lowest of the three plans. If a customer buys products worth $100 from your store, the transaction fee would be $2.70 ($2.40 + $0.30). If a customer buys products worth $1,000 from your store, the transaction fee would be $27.

While Shopify does take a cut out of each purchase made through its platform, it provides support and many features that help businesses grow. The company also offers a 14-day free trial, so businesses can test out the platform before committing to it.

What Is the Money Used For?

Shopify's cut per transaction is used for the maintenance and upkeep of your store. The initial subscription fee Shopify charges for the plan gives you access to the eCommerce platform and the support team. The fees they charge for each transaction allow them to keep improving their software so that your business can continue to grow.

Shopify doesn't run its own payment gateways — Shopify Payments is actually powered by Stripe. This is how you accept credit card payments from customers.

When you sign up for Shopify Payments, you will be charged a small percentage of each sale. The fee goes to cover the cost of processing credit card payments.

If you decide not to use Shopify Payments, you will be charged a higher transaction fee for each sale. That's because Shopify will need to use a third-party payment processor, which costs more money.

How to Keep Costs Low and Maximize Profit

If you want to maximize profit and keep costs low, you need to be strategic about using Shopify.

Select the Right Plan

First, choose the right plan for your business. The Basic Shopify plan might be all you need if you're just starting. As your business grows, you can upgrade to a more expensive plan.

However, the lower-tier plans have higher transaction fees than the more expensive plans. So, if you're making a lot of sales, upgrading to a higher-priced plan might be worth it.

Use Shopify Payments

Second, use Shopify Payments whenever possible. It will help you avoid paying transaction fees on each sale.

You'll be charged a higher transaction fee if you use a third-party payment processor. So, it's best to use Shopify Payments if you can.

Price Your Products Right

When pricing your products, consider the cost of goods sold and the transaction fee. You need to make enough profit to cover both of these costs and still have some leftovers.

If you price your products too low, you won't profit enough to cover your costs. But, on the other hand, you'll miss out on sales if you price them too high. So, it's essential to find a happy medium.

Start by determining your desired profit margin. How much profit do you want to make on each sale?

Then, calculate your cost of goods sold. This is the cost of the product itself, plus any shipping and handling costs.

Finally, add in the transaction fee. This will give you your total cost for each sale.

Once you have your total cost, you can price your product accordingly. For example, suppose your desired profit margin is 30% and your cost of goods sold is $10.

If you add in a 2.9% + $0.30 transaction fee, your total cost would be $10.43. Therefore, to get a 30% profit margin, you need to price your product at $13.90.

Additional Shopify Costs

Besides the standard costs, such as the Shopify plan and Shopify Payments, there are a few other potential costs when using Shopify. Here are some of them.

Building a Website

To be clear, you can build a Shopify website using the brand’s available themes and then customizing it in the built-in widget from the dashboard. However, if you choose to outsource this task to an experienced Shopify web designer who understands the proprietary Liquid software, this represents an added fee., The average cost of hiring a Shopify Expert is $2,000–$5,000.

Domain Name

Part of building a website is acquiring a domain name. Shopify offers a domain name with its plans. However, these are .myshopify names. If you need a custom domain, you will need to buy one from a domain name provider. The cost of a custom domain ranges from $10 to $100 per year.

Shopify Theme

You can find free and paid themes in the Shopify Theme Store. However, many businesses want a completely custom look for their website. This means hiring someone to design a theme specifically.

Alternatively, you can buy one of Shopify's premium themes. These range in price from $150 to $350.

Apps

When you run an online business, you need third-party apps to help you run it. For example, you'll need apps for accounting, marketing, shipping, and other administrative functions.

While many free apps are available in the Shopify App Store, the paid ones can range from $9 to $299 per month.

Professional Photography

If you want high-quality product photos for your website, you will need to hire a professional photographer. Professional product photography costs $100 per hour, according to a general analysis of the market.

How Much Do Third-Party Shopify Apps Cost?

Shopify third-party apps are necessary for many businesses using the eCommerce platform. Here's a run through some of the most popular Shopify apps and how much they cost. Note that they can significantly increase your business’ monthly operating fees depending on which apps you install.

👉 Want to discover more solutions? Read our roundup of the Best Shopify apps 

Landing Page Builders 

These apps help you customize the look and feel of your Shopify store. For example, you may want to shake up your store's branding or design a new landing page for a marketing campaign.

PageFly Landing Page Builder allows you to build responsive landing pages with customized templates and drag and drop functions. It's a well-reviewed app that supercharges your ability to churn out SEO-optimized front end designs. Pagefly has two plans, priced at $24 and $99 each.

SEO: Image Optimizer Page Speed is a paid app that makes the images on your Shopify website load quickly for search engines. It also optimizes image sizes to improve page speed. The paid plan costs $29 per month.

Data Privacy and Compliance Apps

We understand these aren't the fanciest or sexiest apps, unlike your AI video generators and video testimonial tools, but some parts of doing business are boring yet necessary.

Enzuzo Data Privacy helps you build the essential legal policies your store needs, such as shipping and returns, privacy policies, and cookie consent banners. For stores with advanced needs, you can build data subject access requests workflows and go deep with consent management. Enzuzo helps you comply with regulations like GDPR, Quebec Law 25, CCPA, and more.

Enzuzo offers a free plan for stores with smaller needs and affordably-priced paid versions starting at $7/month.   

Productivity Apps

These apps help you with time management and project management. In addition, you can use productivity apps on Shopify to automate certain tasks or get more organized.

For example, Rescue Time is an app that improves productivity and prevents distractions. You get custom pricing based on your team's size.

Asana is another popular productivity app. It offers a free basic plan and paid premium plans, which start from $10.99 per month per user.

Marketing Apps

It's imperative to have a good marketing strategy to increase traffic to your Shopify store and boost sales. Marketing apps can help you with this by, for example, sending out automated emails or retargeting ads.

One of the most popular marketing apps is Loox Product Reviews & Photos, which lets you collect photo and video reviews from your customers for social proof. The plans range from $9.99 per month to $299.99 per month.

Similarly, Feed For Google Shopping enables you to extend your advertising reach by creating a quality product feed for Facebook, Google, and Bing. The plans range from $4.99 per month to $17.99 per month, depending on the number of products in your store.

Membership Apps

Membership apps are a great way for creators to monetize their audience via a recurring fee, and the Shopify app store offers several options for you to build out a membership program.

Among the best membership apps, we like Bold memberships to start off with. This app starts at $9.99/month and allows brands to give exclusive access to products, pages, blog posts, and merch. It's a fantastic app for those looking to build a loyalty program as it has recurring charges built-in.

Another app we like is Govalos. This app ships with a free plan and is a fantastic option for brands looking to sell digital gift cards. Paid plans allow you to build customized member perks, such as personalized gift cards and brand-specific email campaigns. 

How can small businesses deal with these costs?

While large businesses can accommodate the added fees for more expensive apps,  smaller businesses will need to examine costs closely. For a small business, every cent counts toward its bottom line.

Tips to Remedy Shopify Costs

The first step is to understand where these costs are coming from. As we mentioned earlier, Shopify's fees are broken down into two main categories: subscription fees and transaction fees. 

Shopify's monthly subscription fees range from $39 to $399 per month for the core plans. These fees cover the essential features from  Shopify's platform such as payment processing, web hosting, inventory management, and shipping support.

Shopify's transaction fees, on the other hand, are a percentage of the total order value. 

Use Shopify Discounts

When you're buying a plan on Shopify, you can choose three-year, biannual, or annual payments. Opting for annual payments gives you a 10% discount on the plan price.

Meanwhile, there's a 20% discount for biannual payments and a 30% discount for a three-year plan. Thus, if you have the budget for it, we recommend choosing a longer subscription period to take advantage of these discounts.

Choose a Lower-Priced Plan

If increasing your subscription period is not an option, then downgrading your plan is another way to reduce your Shopify costs. For example, if you're on the $399 per month Advanced Shopify plan, you can downgrade to the Shopify plan that’s just $105 per month.

Of course, this will also mean that you'll have to give up some features. However, when you look at the three plans compared side by side, you’ll realize that in truth, the biggest difference comes down to user accounts, shipping discounts, and sliding scale for transaction fees.

Use Shopify Payments

The second significant cost on Shopify is the per-transaction fees. Shopify Payments is Shopify's in-house payment processor. When you use it, you can avoid high transaction fees. Moreover, Shopify Payments has additional features.

• Fraud Protection: If you use Shopify Payments, you're automatically enrolled in Shopify's fraud protection program. This program is designed to protect your business from fraudulent orders.
• Shopify Capital: If you process over a certain amount through Shopify Payments, you may be eligible for a cash advance from Shopify Capital. You can use this cash advance to grow your business.

However, do note that Shopify Payments is not available in all countries.

Prioritize Free Apps

Shopify's app store has a plethora of apps that can help you run your business. And there's good news: many of these apps are free.

While paid plans come with more advanced features, stick to the free plans for now to save on costs. You can always upgrade to a paid plan later when your business is ready to scale.

Use Shopify Shipping

Shopify Shipping is a shipping label service by Shopify. It's available in the US, Canada, UK, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand.

According to Shopify, you can save up to 88% on US shipping costs by using Shopify Shipping. You can get pre-negotiated discounts from the following companies:

• USPS
• UPS
• DHL Express
• Canada Post
• Sendle

Plus, there's no monthly subscription fee. The option for Shopify Shipping is readily available in your Shopify dashboard. You can manage products, shipping, inventory, and customers from the same place.

Use Free Themes

When you first set up your Shopify store, you'll need to choose a theme. A theme is basically a template that determines the layout and design of your store.

Shopify has both free and paid themes. Although paid themes come with more features and better customization options, free themes are good enough to get started.

Plus, you can always upgrade to a paid theme as your business grows and you start getting more revenue.

Shopify Demo Account: Is There an Option to Build a Demo Store?

At this time, Shopify does not offer any demo accounts for merchants where you can experiment with building your own store. The only option is to try Shopify for three days without a credit card or to sign up for a trial with a credit card and pay $1/month for the first two months.

The only way you can create demo stores is if you're a Shopify Partner, building stores for clients. You are not allowed to create such stores for yourself and can only transfer the account to a client.  

Shopify Explained: Recap of Pricing

Shopify has two major cost components: the Shopify plans and the app fees. The standard Shopify plans range from $39 to $399 per month with a Starter plan that’s $5 a month and two enterprise-level plans that start at $2,000 per month.

There are also transaction fees ranging from 0.5% to 2.9% + $0.30, depending on the transaction type and the Shopify plan. In addition, optional apps are available from the Shopify App Store, which range from free to a few hundred dollars per month.

Enzuzo has one such app on the platform that helps you keep your eCommerce store compliant with Shopify terms and conditions. In addition, its Shopify policy generator feature lets you generate a privacy policy for your store. Check out Enzuzo's plans here to choose the best one for your business.