Shopify Pricing and Fees 2024 – Which Plan is Right For You?
Are you thinking of launching your Shopify store and wondering which pricing plan is right for you? Keep reading! In this post, we are going to discuss the available plans in depth and help you choose the right one.
By the end of this article, hopefully you will learn everything there is to learn about the five pricing plans namely Basic Shopify, Shopify, Advanced Shopify, Shopify Plus and Shopify Lite. .
Shopify Pricing Comparison: Which Plan Should I Pick?
If you are new to Shopify, you might find Shopify plans a bit confusing. One way to make an informed decision is to compare different plans.
Shopify offers a very easy way to set up and manage your online store. Now it is the fastest-growing ecommerce platform. The platform has outperformed its strong competitors such as Woocommerce and Magento.
Shopify has 5 pricing plans in total. Two of them, Shopify Plus and Shopify Lite, are not prominently highlighted. Each Shopify plan has its distinct features. It is the features that determine the costs. The features are geared toward different types of businesses.
We are going to discuss all 5 pricing plans. Let’s go a bit deeper.
1. The Basic Shopify Plan
Suitable for Stores with Sales under $2,000 per Month
The Basic Shopify Plan costs $29 per month, with 2% transaction fees. It is intended for merchants who have their online stores, but do not need many features that other plans offer.
This entry-level plan comes with limited features. With this plan, you can use your own online store—apart from other platforms such as Facebook and Amazon.
If you have a low budget and are just developing your work ethic, you will find the Basic Shopify Plan very useful.
2. The Shopify Plan
Suitable for Stores with Sales up to $5,000 per Month
This is the most popular Shopify pricing plan. It costs $79 per month, and charges 1% transaction fees. It comes with almost all the features required for running a full-fledged online store.
For many merchants, this is the best starting plan, because it combines a higher monthly fee and a lower transaction fee. Thanks to the lower transaction fee, this plan is actually cheaper than the basic plan in the long run.
If you have a new store and are planning to grow your business, this plan might be a good pick for you.
3. The Advanced Shopify Plan
Suitable for Existing Stores with Sales up to $50,000 per Month
This plan is very popular among established businesses and ambitious startups with stable monthly sales. It costs $299 per month, and the transaction fee is just 0.5%. The Advanced Shopify Plan comes with every feature you need to run an online store.
Once your sales have hit a certain point, you may find it cheaper to upgrade to the Shopify Plus Plan. Merchants like this plan because the pricing structure is simple and clear, and the transaction fee is very low.
If you have already reached your target audience, this plan may help you scale your business quickly.
4. The Shopify Plus Plan
Best Shopify Plan for Large Stores with Sales over 50,000 per Month
For ambitious startups and enterprise-class merchants, this is the best Shopify plan. The Shopify Plus plan is regularly referred to as among the best ecommerce solutions.
It offers plenty of features, additional APIs, and accelerated support. Better yet, the plan comes with 0% transaction fees.
If you are an enterprise class ecommerce merchant looking for a way to scale quickly, you can consider migrating to the Shopify Plus Plan.
Choosing the right pricing plan is of utmost importance, because you do not want to pay more than you have to. Again, the cheapest plan may not be enough for your business; it may not offer the features that are essential for your business to flourish.
The good news is, you can very easily upgrade and downgrade your Shopify plan.
5. The Shopify Lite Plan
Suitable for Merchants without Their Own Stores
This plan costs $9 per month. It is suitable for light merchants without their own online stores. These merchants usually sell via social networking sites, Amazon, WordPress blogs, and other sales channels.
The Lite plan comes with just a few essential features, and the monthly cost is the lowest of all plans.
This plan allows you to sell your products via other channels. For this, you do not have to launch an online store.
This plan can boost your Facebook marketing. If you are selling on Facebook or your WordPress blog, this plan is probably for you.
What Features Do The Different Shopify Plans Include?
In order to choose the right pricing plan, you have to know what features each Shopify plan offers. Now let’s see the features that make one Shopify plan different from another.
Features of the Basic Shopify Plan
This plan comes with more features than the Lite plan, and it allows you to run a fully-hosted online store. Here are the features:
- Unlimited products
- Online store
- Inventory to 4 warehouses
- 2 staff accounts
- Manual order creation
- Multiple sales channels
- Free SSL certificates
- Discount codes
- Gift cards
- Abandoned card recovery
- Shopify POS
- Shopify Shipping
- 2% transaction fees
- 24/7 customer support via phone, live chat and email
Merchants with plenty of products find the Basic Shopify Plan very useful. Another great thing about this plan is that you can use the built-in blogging engine to publish articles and let your customers know about your promotions and events.
The plan comes with an SSL certificate, which in essence is a security protocol. This protocol provides additional security for your customer’s information by establishing a safe connection between a browser and a server.
When you activate SSL certificates, you can encrypt the content of your online store by using HTTPS rather than HTTP. The SSL padlock icon appears in the address bar.
The Basic Shopify plan also allows you to access marketing reports, behavior reports and acquisition reports. With these reports, you can gain insights into your traffic and find more ways to make money online. These reports can help you make important decisions about your business.
Features of the Shopify Plan
The Shopify Plan offers, 5 staff accounts, better payment processing, discounts and shipping, and some other great features. Here are the additional features that make this plan different from the Basic Shopify Plan:
- 5 Staff accounts
- Inventory to 5 warehouse locations
- Shipping rates with better discounts
- Reporting features
- USPS Mail Cubic pricing
- 1% transaction fees
- Discounts on Shopify payments
The built-in professional reports give you better insights into the sales trends. This information enables you to look at your business from your customers’ perspectives and figure out what your customers are actually looking for.
By analyzing the customer buying trends, you can do market research more effectively and organize your store accordingly. This information can help you make informed decisions about your marketing campaigns.
This plan is popular also for its lower transaction fees and credit rates.
Features of the Advanced Shopify Plan
The Advanced Shopify plan comes with some more advanced features, along with the ones offered by the Shopify plan. Here are the notable features:
- 15 staff accounts
- Custom reports
- Inventory to 8 warehouse locations
- Displays shipping rates calculated by third parties
- Shopify shipping with great discounts
- Shopify payments with great discounts
- 0.5% transaction fees
With this plan, you can create custom reports.The feature works more or less like website monitoring services. The feature It also allows you to track sales by Google Ads and other referral sources. You can refine your marketing strategy by analyzing the information.
Calculated carrier shipping is another great feature. It enables you to offer up-to-date shipping rates by integrating with third-party shipping services. It is good for your customers because they have multiple shipping options.
This plan offers you access to reports on your loyal and at-risk customers.
This feature helps you build trust with your customers, because you can provide accurate shipping rates the moment they place orders. You do not have to worry about overcharging your customers.
Features of the Shopify Plus plan
This is an enterprise-level plan suitable for big businesses. It offers advanced features, including better hosting. Stores with this plan receive priority customer support.
This Shopify Plus plan does not have a fixed price tag. The rates depend on the size and needs of the business.
The wholesale channel is a great addition to the features of Shopify Plus. This feature allows users to set custom pricing of their products.
The Shopify Plus plan comes with the following features:
- Unlimited bandwidth
- Sell via more than 20 different channels
- Ability to handle fluctuations in traffic
- B2B and wholesale features
- Automation tools
- Priority customer service
Shopify Plus is a great pricing plan for large wholesalers, enterprise-level operations, and high-volume businesses.
If your goal is to attain real prosperity and you are running a business that requires extensive customization and scalability in sales volume, staff accounts, site speed and sales channels, this plan is the best option for you.
Features of the Shopify Lite Plan
As we have mentioned, this plan is for merchants without stores. You can use Buy Buttons to sell online and accept payments in-person. If your business requires an online store, you will have to upgrade to another plan.
The Shopify Lite Plan allows you to:
- Sell with Buy buttons
- Sell on your Facebook Shop
- Accept payments in person with an Android or iOS device
- Create custom orders
- Get support via live chat and email
One of the best things about this plan is that it allows you to embed a Buy button on your personal blog or website. And to start selling your products, you do not have to maintain an online store.
The Shopify Lite plan is very useful for people who sell their products in person—at a trade show, at a farmer’s market, or at a pop-up store.
Shopify Pricing: Transaction Fees and Credit Card Payments Explained
If you are using the Shopify Payments processor, you will not have to pay processing fees.
But if you are using Authorize.net, PayPal or any other third-party payment processor, be prepared to pay about 3% transaction fees, plus 30¢ for every transaction.
Apart from that, you will have to pay on your turnover, which can be up to 2%.
When it comes to implementing a sales channel to an ecommerce business, credit card rates and transaction rates become really annoying.
It would be nice if all store owners could take high-volume sales without having to pay. But this is not the case. E-commerce platforms including Shopify charge credit card payments and transaction fees.
How much do you have to pay? It depends on what pricing plan you are using. Here are the fees at a glance:
Shopify Lite: This plan is available for $9 per month. The credit card fees are 2.9% plus 30 cents per purchase.
Basic Shopify: The Basic Shopify Plan costs $29 per month, and the transaction fee is 2.9% per month. Additionally, it charges 30 cents for every purchase.
Shopify: This plan costs $79 per month. For every transaction, you have to pay 2.6% plus 30 cents.
Advanced Shopify: For the Advanced package, the monthly charge is $299. However, the package offers the lowest transaction rates—just 2.4%. For every transaction, it charges 30 cents, just like the Basic Shopify and Shopify plans.
Shopify Plus: Pricing for this plan is negotiable, but usually it starts at $2000 per month. Transactions are negotiable.
The transaction fees drop when you pay more for your point of sale solution. So, if you start selling a lot, upgrading to the Advanced Shopify plan is a good idea.
Additional Shopify Costs You Need to Be Aware Of
Shopify App Store
If you want to add features that Shopify does not offer, you can use apps. While some apps are free, others are paid. They will require additional costs. Here are some examples of features that require add-ons:
- Subscription billing
- Product search
- Real-time shipping
- Personalized products
- Upselling and cross-selling
- Reward points
- eBay sync
- Google Trusted Stores
The Revy Upsell App is an upselling app that costs up to $34.99 per month. It offers a 7-day free trial. It monitors your customer’s cart and shows an upsell accordingly.
For recurring billing or subscriptions, ReCharge is a great app. It costs $19.99 per month.
Adding a Customer Support Helpdesk
Depending on the app you choose, it can cost up to $60 per month. To provide your customer’s with the best customer support services, you can add some amazing features. However, these features are not cheap.
Domain Name and Email Hosting
No Shopify plan includes a domain. So, if you need one, you will have to spend $13 per year. If you already have a domain, you can redirect it to your Shopify store.
Shopify plans do not include email accounts. The platform allows you to set up as many email addresses as you want, but you need an email hosting provider to manage the accounts.
Shopify Alternatives: Shopify Pricing Compared to Its Competitors
Apart from Shopify, there are some other great online store building platforms, and some of them offer even more convenient ways to set up online stores. Let’s see some Shopify alternatives.
1. BigCommerce
Best Shopify alternative for fast-growing businesses with large product catalogues
Unlike Shopify, BigCommerce does not charge transaction fees. The prices range from $29.95 to $299.95 per month. To sell your products on this platform, you do not have to use any supporting app.
Many merchants prefer BigCommerce because this platform allows you to sell almost all types of products and services.
BigCommerce is a better pick for businesses that need built-in features but are not willing to install the features separately. The website design tools are very easy to use. If your inventory requires advanced product variant options, do not hesitate to choose BigCommerce
2. Squarespace
Leading Shopify alternative for building online stores
Some merchants prefer Squarespace to Shopify, and there are good reasons why. For showcasing your content, Squarespace is probably better than Shopify, because the former offers elegant ways to showcase your content via image galleries, audio and video clips.
It has four pricing plans, and the lowest price is $12 per month.That means, it is significantly cheaper than Shopify.
Another advantage of using Squarespace is that it offers a very easy way to add product variants. The inventory product management tools are pretty impressive. Squarespace also makes it easy to comply with tax rules and manage tax rates.
3. Wix
Best Shopify alternative in terms of design and customization options
Wix is cheaper than Shopify. The pricing plans start at just $14 per month. And there is no hidden cost. So, if you are on a budget, Wix is probably a better pick for you. However, in terms of built-in features, Shopify beats Wix.
To offer a good user experience, Wix provides easy-to-use tutorials. To use the platform, you do not have to install any app.
Wix has a simple drop-and-drag interface editor which makes creating a storefront very easy. And in terms of mobile responsiveness, Wix is just as good as Shopify. For all these reasons, Wix has emerged as a strong competitor of Shopify.
Regardless of the platform you are using to start your online store, have a clear idea of what you are doing. Read this post to gain some insight into the process.
4. Magento
Leading Shopify alternative for enterprise-level businesses
Unlike Shopify, Magento is self-hosted and therefore it does not have any fixed pricing plans. The costs depend on your requirements. Magento hosting costs at least $50 per month. It also involves some other costs.
If you need to build a medium or large-sized online store and you have some coding skills, Magento is a better pick for you. It offers more creative freedom than Shopify.
The order management function makes inventory management super easy. People who deal in regulated products prefer Magento because this platform allows you to sell regulated products such as CBD and other health products.
But if you need to set up your store in the shortest possible time, Shopify is probably better for you.
5. Volusion
Best Shopify alternative for data-driven businesses
If you have a data-driven business and you do not worry too much about design, you may choose Volusion over Shopify. There is another great thing about Volusion: it does not charge any transaction fee.
Although Volusion does not have as many sales features as Shopify, the former has some great analytics tools that can be used for other purposes, such as creating a sales funnel. Volusion’s themes are mobile-responsive, just like those of Shopify.
Volusion has an app that is compatible with both Android and iOS devices. Thanks to its rich text descriptions and variant pricing features, you do not have to buy any ad-ons. It has 5 pricing plans that start at $15 per month. It also offers a 14-day free trial.
Shopify Pricing FAQ
It is very easy to downgrade or upgrade Shopify plans. Just go to the plan details section and you will find the options. If you are on a free trial, you can upgrade to a plan without losing anything that you have completed during the trial.
Shopify will send you an email letting you know that the billing date has changed. You will no longer be charged for the previous plan. Instead, you will be charged for the new plan.
Here is a list of prohibited products and businesses:
– Age-restricted products such as adult content, alcohol, weapons and tobacco
– Cruise lines, airlines, travel agencies, timeshares, and travel clubs
– Sports forecasting, securities brokers, bankruptcy and bailbonds lawyers
– Chain letters
– Bidding fee auctions
– Wire transfers, check cashing, foreign consulates, currency exchange, virtual currency etc.
– Collection agencies
– Multi-level marketing, scams and deceptive practices
– Mail-order brides, international dating services, escorts, sexually explicit calls, emails, chats etc.
– Fortune tellers
– Flea markets
– Essay mills
– Human hair, hair extensions or fake hair
– Marijuana and related business
– Illegal content
– Pharmaceuticals, pharmacies
– Telemarketing, telecommunications, pre-paid phone calls
– Selling social media activities
You can avoid Shopify transaction fees by using Shopify Payments. It is the company’s own payment system, and you can easily integrate it throughout your online store. Shopify Payments come with some other features such as financial data, sales metrics, and more.
There are some Shopify alternatives that do not charge any transaction fee, such as BigCommerce, and Ecwid. Learn about other eCommerce platforms here.
Shopify Payment is Shopify’s own payment gateway, and it has several advantages over other payment gateways. First, if you use Shopify Payments, you do not have to pay the standard 2.2% transaction fee for using the platform.
The setup process is pretty quick. You just have to fill out a form. Online credit card rates come down. And there is no extra fee or hidden charge. Shopify Payments comes with built-in risk tools that help you identify suspicious orders.
There is no set up fee. Better yet, the procedure is super easy—almost intuitive. Even if you have never used any other ecommerce platform, you will be able to set up your online store on Shopify.
To start a free trial, you do not need a credit card. Shopify offers this free trial to help you get familiar with the service. During this 14-day trial, you can decide whether to continue.
During this period, you can set up the store and make sales preparations. Most people who use the free trial end up getting a payment package.
If you are new to the online business, Shopify Basic is probably the best pricing plan for you. It costs only $29 per month, and it offers almost all the features you need to run an online store.
Once you have got a hang of how it works, you can upgrade to a better pricing plan. The process of upgrading or downgrading is pretty easy.
Next Step: Launch Your Online Store with Shopify
Shopify is a platform suitable for both new and established businesses. Shopify has defeated its competitors in terms of security, flexibility and efficiency. It eases your operational challenges and allows you to manage everything from one place.
So, the only thing you have to do is to launch your online store and start selling. Before you choose a pricing plan, you can start a free trial. Do not aim for perfection. Just get started and you will figure out what else you need to do.
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Anastasia Belyh
Anastasia has been a professional blogger and researcher since 2014. She loves to perform in-depth software reviews to help software buyers make informed decisions when choosing project management software, CRM tools, website builders, and everything around growing a startup business.
Anastasia worked in management consulting and tech startups, so she has lots of experience in helping professionals choosing the right business software.