Shopify Pricing: Features, Fees & Hidden Costs (UPDATED 2023)

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Shopify pricing starts at $5 per month going up to $2000+ per month with two other price points in between. In this costs guide we'll break down the pricing and plans Shopify currently offers to online merchants.

Shopify regularly updates its pricing – in fact it's raised its credit card processing rates in just the past six months. Yet it's still our top recommended website builder for online stores, thanks to its handy editing tools and wide range of payment providers.

We've taken a deep-dive into the terms and conditions to break down all of the costs you could want to know about.

We'll look at what you get at each price plan, as well as explaining billing cycles and additional fees.

What's Your Monthly Budget For An Online Store? Choose an Answer to Start Your Free Trial with Shopify

Under $40

Around $300

$2,000+

Shopify Pricing: How Much Does Shopify Cost?

We've created this side-by-side comparison table of costs for Shopify plans. There are four plans available, ranging in price and scale to match the particular needs of your business. Let's take a look at the main features you get at each Shopify price tier.

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Starter	Basic Shopify	Shopify	Advanced Shopify	Shopify Plus

Price (billed annually) $5/month	Price (billed annually) ~~$29/month~~ Get your first three months for $1 each	Price (billed annually) ~~$79/month~~ Get your first three months for $1 each	Price (billed annually) ~~$299/month~~ Get your first three months for $1 each	Price (billed annually) $2,000+/month
Best For Selling on social media	Best For Starting a small online store	Best For Small and medium sized businesses	Best For International sellers	Best For High volume retailers
Key Features Get shoppable links (URLs) Product pages Basic order management Customer support	Key Features Sell an unlimited number of products Up to two users Sell in 33 currencies (1.5% conversion fee) Basic performance reports	Key Features 5 user accounts Improved reports Better shipping discounts Shipping insurance (with Shopify Payments)	Key Features 15 staff accounts Advanced reporting Third-party calculated shipping rates Collect duties and import taxes at checkout	Key Features Faster checkout Automate workflows Security and compliance Priority support
Transaction Fees 5%	Transaction Fees 2%	Transaction Fees 1%	Transaction Fees 0.5%	Transaction Fees 0.15–0.30%
Payment processing fees Online: 5% + $0.30¢	Payment processing fees Online: 2.9% + 30¢ Online international or Amex: 3.9% + 30¢ In person: 2.7% + 0¢	Payment processing fees Online: 2.6% + 30¢ In person: 2.5% + 0¢	Payment processing fees Online: 2.4% + 30¢ Online international or Amex: 3.4% + 30¢ In person: 2.4% + 0¢	Payment processing fees Variable

Shopify offers a free trial of three days so you can test out a price plan to see whether it's the right fit.

If you want to find out about all of Shopify's features (including its point of sale), check out our dedicated Shopify review.

Shopify Starter Pricing Plan

What: Sell products via URLs and a simple landing page
Who: Mobile-first merchants of lower-priced goods
Why: Easy to sell via social media channels
How much: $5 per month – no discounts available for multi-year purchase

Note this plan is only available to new merchants or those on the free trial.

The Shopify Starter plan (formerly called “Lite”) is the cheap option for online sellers to send “shoppable” product links in instant messages over WhatsApp, Instagram, SMS and email. This means your customers click a URL link and buy your product directly or add to a cart and buy some more.

You'll get a really basic online store with product pages, a page with your contact details, and Shopify checkout. You won't be able to do much editing to customize the design, though.

It's aimed at mobile device users because there isn't loads of space for product specs, product videos, lengthy descriptions or customer reviews. A handy new feature is the ability to take mobile payments with your smartphone.

You're encouraged to use Shopify's free landing page app called Linkpop which lets you list products directly for sale. The idea is you can put this landing page link in your social media bio for users to quickly find your products for sale.

It's much simpler (and cheaper) than a full online shop, and much less formal, hence the cheaper subscription price. For this reason you can expect to sell merchandise, homeware, handmade gifts, clothing, accessories and the like.

It's not a platform aimed at expensive or regulated items such as precious jewelry and medical supplies. Reason being it gives a slightly less professional impression, and is likely to generate lower trust from your customer base.

Shopify Starter Features

One user
Unlimited product pages
Customer support inbox
Shopping cart
Order management
Analytics

Shopify Starter Transaction Fees

Transaction fees: 5.0% (if using Shopify Payments)
Online credit card rates: 5% + 25¢

Basic Shopify Pricing Plan

What: Build a website where customers buy your products
Who: Small-scale merchants, independent boutiques and startups
Why: Secure, professional, with decent performance reporting
How much: $29 per month if you pay for one year up front (or $39 month-to-month)

This is the lowest price you can pay to set up your own Shopify webstore. You create your own online shop using the Shopify drag-and-drop website builder and set up payment options in the dashboard view. This means you can display your products, take payments and manage inventory all from one account.

It's not by chance we've named Shopify as our best ecommerce platform for small businesses. The convenience of the Shopify Basic plan is the ability to streamline your order purchase and fulfilment workflow. You'll be able to print shipping labels and track packages through Shopify and pay your shipping costs in the same monthly bill as your subscription.

screenshot of dashboard with lefthand sidebar and dropdown menu of payment providers on the right — You can search for payment providers by the type of card you want to accept.

Basic Shopify Features

Up to two users
Online ecommerce website and blog
Up to 1,000 inventory locations
Unlimited products
Order management

Basic Shopify Transaction Fees

Transaction fees: 2.0%
Credit card rates (online): 2.9% + 30¢
International/Amex credit card rates (online): 3.9% + 30¢
Currency conversion fee: 1.5%

Advanced Shopify Plan

What: Online store website with advanced reporting and more international options
Who: SMBs scaling up
Why: Third-party calculated shipping rates, automated fraud controls and loyalty rewards
How much: $299 per month if you pay for one year up front (or $399 month-to-month)

The Advanced Shopify plan is aimed at international sellers with medium-to-large scale ecommerce businesses. At this tier, you'll benefit from 1.5% duties and import taxes rates (0.85% if you use Shopify's own payment gateway) and country-specific features such as international pricing. The advantage of functions like these is greater pricing control for merchants and better cost transparency for ecommerce customers.

This is the cheapest Shopify price plan at which you can get third-party calculated shipping rates. You may need to connect apps to make this work, though. And you can collect estimated duties and import taxes at the checkout, to avoid stinging your customers with unexpected charges on delivery. Both types of cost transparency are likely to increase customer satisfaction.

Again, there are slight savings to be made on credit card fees but the currency conversion fee remains the same as the other price plans at 1.5%.

Advanced Shopify Features

Up to 15 users
Set variable international price points
Unlimited inventory locations
Advanced report builder
Third-party calculated shipping rates

Advanced Shopify Payment Processing Fees

Although the transaction fee has remained the same, credit card processing fees have increased by around 0.9% + 5¢ since January.

These are the latest rates:

Transaction fee: 0.5%
US credit card rate (online): 2.4% + 30¢
Online international/Amex credit card rates: 3.4% + 30¢
Currency conversion fee: 1.5%
Duties and import taxes: 1.5% (with Shopify Payments: 0.85%)

Does Shopify Have a Free Plan?

Shopify doesn't have a free plan but it does offer a three-day free trial so you can test its ecommerce services free of charge. This is down from 14 days, which it offered last year, and most competitors offer still.

To make it easier to start using Shopify's features without commitment, Shopify won't ask for your payment details until the end of the trial period. At which point you can simply walk away if you're not comfortable signing up.

This is really convenient for those looking to set up an online store and try out the best ecommerce platforms without committing financially at first. You can save your cash until you're absolutely sure which ecommerce provider is best for your particular business.

Shopify Fees and Costs: Billing Cycles, Ongoing Costs and Hidden Fees

Lots of services are included in all Shopify pricing plans including the following:

Website builder
Web hosting
SSL certificate
Unlimited products
Unlimited bandwidth
Web shop analytics

NOTE: Shopify Starter does not come with the website builder

Shopify Billing Cycles

Shopify subscriptions are charged month to month unless you pay in advance for one, two or three years
Cancel your Shopify subscription at any time (however, you won't be refunded that month's fee)
You can downgrade or upgrade your Shopify plan at any time (however, you cannot downgrade to Shopify Starter)

Additional Shopify Website Costs

Domain name that isn't myshopify.com
Themes (template designs) ranging from $170 to $380 each (or choose one of 12 free ones)
Apps for additional website features
Emails: First 10,000 per month are free then $1 per 1,000 emails sent

Additional Shopify Sales Costs

Transaction fees of 2%, 0.5% or 0.15% with the Basic Shopify, Advanced Shopify or Shopify Plus plans respectively
Credit and debit card fees (these vary depending on price plan)
Duties and import taxes rates of 1.5% (applicable for Advanced Shopify)

Shopify Payments Fees

You can avoid the transaction fees by using Shopify Payments, the company's proprietary payment gateway (powered by Stripe).

Either way you'll still pay the following payment processing fees per transaction:

US card (online): 2.9% + 30¢
Amex (online): 3.9% + 30¢
International card (online): 3.9% + 30¢
Additional cost for foreign currency: 1.5%
Chargeback: $15 (may be refunded if appealed)

With Shopify Payments the duties and import taxes rates on Advanced Shopify decreases to 0.85%.

There are no charges for refunds, declined payments or rewards transactions. It's worth noting that the international card fee with Shopify Payments is better than the standard Stripe fee of 4.4%+ 30¢. Yet Shopify charges an extra 0.5% for foreign currency transactions (Stripe only charges 1% as standard).

Shopify Tax Pricing

While it's ultimately your responsibility as a seller to pay the correct taxes on your revenue, Shopify makes it a lot easier with its automated tax calculation. Shopify Tax is available at no extra cost for the first $100,000 in sales per calendar year. Note that this includes all sales connected to Shopify, including social media channels you've chosen to connect.

After that threshold, you'll be charged the following:

0.35% per order (all Shopify plans excluding Plus)
0.25% per order (Shopify plus)

There are two handy maximum caps per year, so you don't have to stress about spiraling tax calculation costs.

You'll pay no more than $5,000 per year and no more than 99¢ per order.

Shopify Pricing Versus Competitors' Pricing

BigCommerce and Square are two main Shopify rivals, as both offer annual subscriptions for plans at $79 per month. However, you'll also get unlimited staff accounts with BigCommerce on all plans, which you won't with Shopify.

Yet your first year with Shopify would be cheaper than a subscription with BigCommerce, thanks to the current deal of your first three months priced at $1 each.

However, you should be aware that BigCommerce, Square, Wix, and WooCommerce don't charge additional transaction fees – unlike Shopify. That could mean you end up paying less with one of these over Shopify, depending on your specific business' sales revenue.

Square Premium ($79 per month) charges 2.6% + 30¢ per transaction for US credit cards online, whereas Shopify Advanced ($79 per month) charges 2.4% + 30¢. Yet you'll need to pay an extra 0.5% on top of that unless you're signed up for Shopify Payments.

To connect a payment provider to Shopify, simply read the account permissions, and log into your account.

If you'd be content with less sophisticated sales features, you'll definitely pay less with Wix than you would with Shopify. Wix price plans range from $16 to $159 per month, which is far cheaper than Shopify's range of $39 to $2,000+.

You'll likely pay less overall using WooCommerce than Shopify, so long as you've got the technical know-how (or you're willing to hire someone with web design skills). WooCommerce only runs on WordPress, meaning you'll need to have a website set up there.

There are no subscription fees at all with WooCommerce; you'll be paying for any add ons you'd need to build the store you really want. However, the same could be said of Shopify, but it also comes with monthly fees.

Expert Verdict

You've got plenty of pricing options with Shopify.

If you pay for a one-year price plan, the monthly cost comes to:

Shopify Starter: $5 per month
Basic Shopify: $29 per month
Advanced Shopify: $299 per month
Shopify Plus: From $2,000+ per month

With a Value For Money score of 3/5, Shopify is in the mid-range of delivering features versus taking your money. As ever, the way to get the most bang for your buck is to pay upfront for two or three years of Shopify. This way you'll benefit from a 20% or 25% discount versus paying month-to-month.

Shopify offers more convenience compared with WooCommerce because of its built-in hosting. However, you'll need to be a self-starter with Shopify because it's business support is a lot more hands-off than a provider like Americommerce, which offers ecommerce consulting and custom product development.

Why You Can Trust Our Research

We have been testing website builders with online payments features for over ten years. We know the priorities of small business leaders like you.

That's why we rate and evaluate providers based on objective criteria including:

How easy the platform is to use
Whether it's good value for money
Design capabilities
Customer support options

Only after putting each platform through over 50 tests do we decide on the best ecommerce platforms for small businesses. More than 30 hours of research goes into deciding the winners, with input from out expert in house research team and focus group users, too.

FAQs

How much does Shopify cost for a month?

You can currently sign up to four different price plans with Shopify: Starter ($5 per month), Basic ($39 per month), Advanced ($399 per month) or Plus (from $2,000 per month, annually). If you are willing to pay for a year in advance, you'll get 25% off Basic, Advanced and Plus plans.

Is Shopify worth it for a small business?

Shopify has raised its credit card processing rates this year (2.9% + 30¢ for online domestic cards with Shopify Payments), so they're much closer to major competitors like BigCommerce (from 2.59% + 49¢).

Whether or not Shopify is worth it for your small business specifically depends on the rate at which you sell products, the average order size, and the amount of revenue you take per month.

Shopify Pricing: Plans, Fees, and Hidden Costs 2023