The subscription is only part of the picture. To know what Shopify really costs, you also need to add up payment fees, apps and your theme.
Shopify starts at $29 a month on the Basic plan billed yearly, or $39 if you pay month to month. Grow costs $79 a month (yearly) and Advanced $299, while Shopify Plus starts at $2,300 a month. But the real cost of a store also depends on the fees on every sale, the apps you install and the theme you choose.
In this guide we walk through each plan with the official US prices, what’s included, how much Shopify takes per sale and how to tell which plan fits what you sell.
Shopify pricing by plan
These are the US prices published on Shopify’s pricing page at the time of writing:
| Plan | Billed yearly | Billed monthly | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | $29/month | $39/month | New stores and solo founders |
| Grow | $79/month | $105/month | Small teams with steady sales |
| Advanced | $299/month | $399/month | High-volume or international stores |
| Plus | From $2,300/month | Enterprise brands |
Paying yearly saves you about 25% on every plan. Shopify also tends to run an introductory offer, typically a short free trial followed by a reduced price for the first few months. Prices and promotions change, so always confirm them on the official page before you sign up.
Keep taxes in mind too: depending on where your business is located, sales tax or VAT may be added to your subscription. If you sell in Mexico, Shopify bills in Mexican pesos with its own price list; we cover it in the Spanish version of this guide.
What each plan includes
Every plan includes the essentials for selling: unlimited products, an online store with hosting and SSL, Shopify Checkout, reports, discounts, Shopify Flow for automations and Sidekick, Shopify’s AI assistant. The differences between plans come down to fees, staff accounts and a few advanced features.
Basic
The plan to start with. It includes everything you need to launch and run a store, but staff accounts are very limited: it’s built for the store owner (you can still give an agency like ours collaborator access at no cost). It’s the plan we recommend to most new stores.
Grow
Adds 5 staff accounts and slightly lower card rates. It makes sense once you have a team that needs its own logins, or when your monthly sales are high enough that the lower fees pay for the plan (more on that below).
Advanced
Moves up to 15 staff accounts, lowers fees again and adds live third-party shipping rates at checkout. It’s built for high-volume stores, more complex operations or selling across several countries.
Plus
Shopify’s enterprise edition. It starts at $2,300 a month and includes unlimited staff accounts, up to 200 inventory locations, unlimited B2B catalogs, more control over checkout and priority support. It’s used by large brands and companies selling in several countries or wholesale. If you’re evaluating Plus, we can help as Shopify Partners.
How much Shopify charges per sale
On top of the subscription, every sale carries a fee. How much you pay depends on how you take payments.
With Shopify Payments
Shopify Payments is Shopify’s own payment processor. With it you pay no extra platform fee, only the card processing rate:
| Plan | Online card rate | In-person card rate |
|---|---|---|
| Basic | 2.9% + 30¢ | 2.6% + 10¢ |
| Grow | 2.7% + 30¢ | 2.5% + 10¢ |
| Advanced | 2.5% + 30¢ | 2.4% + 10¢ |
| Plus | Negotiated | Negotiated |
With a third-party payment provider
You can take payments through other providers such as PayPal or Stripe, but then Shopify adds a transaction fee on every sale, on top of whatever that provider charges:
| Plan | Shopify transaction fee |
|---|---|
| Basic | 2% |
| Grow | 1% |
| Advanced | 0.6% |
| Plus | 0.2% |
That’s why, in most cases, it pays to use Shopify Payments as your main processor and only add others for payment methods your customers specifically ask for.
Other costs to budget for
The subscription and fees aren’t everything. These are the other typical costs of a Shopify store:
- Domain. Your web address (for example, yourstore.com). It’s a yearly fee, and you can buy it through Shopify or another registrar.
- Theme. There are very good free themes. Premium themes on the Theme Store are a one-time purchase, usually a few hundred dollars. At Tebiko we build our clients’ stores on our own theme, Bridge.
- Apps. This is where costs balloon if you’re not careful. Many apps charge monthly and several do similar things. Pick a few good ones; our guide to the best Shopify apps covers the ones we actually recommend.
- Email marketing. Klaviyo, the tool we use most, charges by number of contacts. It’s one of the investments that most reliably pays for itself.
- Design and development. If you hire an agency to design and launch your store, it’s an upfront cost that depends on the scope of the project.
How to choose the right plan
The most common question is whether Grow is worth it over Basic. It comes down to two things: whether your team needs its own accounts, and how much you sell.
If you use Shopify Payments: Grow costs $50 more per month than Basic (billed yearly) and saves you 0.2% per online sale. That means Grow pays for itself at around $25,000 a month in online sales. Below that, the real reason to upgrade is staff accounts.
If you use a third-party provider: the extra fee drops from 2% to 1%. In that case Grow pays for itself at around $5,000 a month in sales processed through that provider.
A practical rule of thumb:
- Basic: you’re starting out, working alone or with an agency, and taking payments mainly through Shopify Payments.
- Grow: your team needs its own logins, or your online sales are past roughly $25,000 a month.
- Advanced: high volume, more staff, or live carrier shipping rates.
- Plus: you’re an enterprise with complex operations, B2B, or multiple brands and countries.
Starting on Basic and upgrading when you need to is a perfectly good strategy. Changing plans in Shopify is instant and doesn’t require migrating anything.
Example: the monthly cost of a new store
To give you an idea, here’s what a small store on the Basic plan selling $5,000 a month through Shopify Payments (around 80 orders) would pay:
| Item | Approximate monthly cost |
|---|---|
| Basic plan (billed yearly) | $29 |
| Card fees (2.9% + 30¢ per order) | $169 |
| Apps (2 to 4 paid apps) | Varies by app |
| Domain (prorated) | Under $2 |
You’d pay card fees on almost any platform and processor, so Shopify’s own cost in this example is the subscription plus apps. Compared with running your own server, security and updates, it’s usually a very reasonable investment. For the full comparison with WordPress, read our Shopify vs WooCommerce guide.
Common mistakes that make your store more expensive
- Installing too many apps. Every app adds a monthly fee and can slow your store down. Review which apps you really use every quarter.
- Running two apps that do the same job. Two review apps, two popup apps or two email tools are more common than you’d think.
- Not checking app pricing tiers. Many apps charge by orders or contacts, and the price climbs as you grow. Check their plans before you install.
- Using a third-party processor when you don’t need to. That 2% fee on Basic adds up fast.
- Paying for Advanced too early. Plenty of stores pay for features they don’t use yet.
The essentials
Shopify starts at $29 a month, and for most stores the Basic plan with Shopify Payments and a handful of well-chosen apps is more than enough. Upgrade when your team or your sales call for it, not before.
If you’d like help choosing a plan, building your store or finding where you’re overspending, we offer Shopify store development and ecommerce audits that include an app and cost review.