Shopify Pricing: Plans, Fees, and Hidden Costs 2023

Shopify Pricing: How Much Does Shopify Cost?

We've created this side-by-side comparison table of costs for Shopify plans. There are five 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.

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. It's not a full online store and you'll need your own social media channels or website to post the links on. It's aimed at mobile device users because there isn't loads of space for product specs, product videos, lengthy descriptions or customer reviews.

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 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 jewellery and medical supplies.

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 gain access to Shopify's ecommerce platform. This means you can display your products, take payments and manage order fulfilment all from one place.

It's not by chance we've named Shopify as one of our best ecommerce platforms 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.

Shopify's mid-tier price plan doesn't have a name, it's simply called “Shopify”. But we've given it the nickname “Shopify Main” to make things a bit clearer because all of the price plans are named “Shopify” in some form or another.

Shopify's main plan includes all the features you get with lower-priced tiers, including an ecommerce website with social media channel integration so you can sell across several platforms. This is really handy because you save on the individual costs of a website such as hosting and a security certificate.

Now, the main new benefit you get with this plan compared with Basic Shopify is ecommerce automations. These features equip leaders of growing online stores to build workflows and save time on manual tasks, making it well worth the investment.

Although the price of this tier goes up significantly compared with the Shopify Basic plan, you won't make big savings on credit card fees: the charge for online credit cards is just 0. 3% lower compared with the Basic plan. However, transaction fees are 1% which is a decent saving compared with 2% on the Basic plan. To save real money here you'd need to be selling in far greater quantities than you would be on the Basic plan.

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. Unlike the three cheaper Shopify price plans, Advanced Shopify lets you set specific price points for products in various international locations. 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 2%.

Does Shopify Have a Free Plan?

Shopify doesn't have a free plan but it does offer a 14-day free trial so you can test its ecommerce services free of charge. This is on par with its competitors, most of whom also offer a two-week trial period at no cost. 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 two-week 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 Pricing Versus Competitors' Pricing

According to our independent research, Shopify is middle-of-the-road when it comes to Value For Money, scoring 3 out of a possible 5. This puts it on exactly the same level as BigCommerce, Americommerce and Pinacle Cart.

Competitors Which Scored Higher than Shopify in Value for Money:

Shopify was not the top-scoring ecommerce platform provider when our researchers looked into its value for money. The following providers are better value for money, according to our in-depth testing:

1. Square: 4.7/5
2. WooCommerce: 4.3/5
3. Squarespace: 4.2/5
4. Wix: 4.2/5

When you're working out which ecommerce platform provider is best for your particular business needs, you should be aware that BigCommerce, unlike Shopify, doesn't charge any transaction fees. Feel free to check out our complete guide to the best ecommerce platforms for small businesses if Shopify looks like the wrong fit for your strategic goals.