A Complete Guide On Shopify Price Plans To Help You Choose The Best One for Your Store

Shopify is one of the most desirable eCommerce platforms around, loved by e-merchants big and small. It provides all the tools needed to create, manage and improve online stores. However, with five plans to choose from e-merchants may scratch their head about which Shopify plan is best for their store.

Here, we will break down each Shopify price plan so you can have a better shot at selecting the right one whether you’re new to the eCommerce game or are ready to change your Shopify plan.

Shopify Price Plan Comparison

Shopify offers three main plans for merchants to choose from - Basic Shopify, Shopify, and Advanced Shopify.

(Source: Shopify)

In addition to the main plans, there are two other ones - Shopify Lite which costs $9 per month, and Shopify Plus which starts at $2000/month.

Each plan comes with its own rate for credit card fees so your eCommerce store can accept payments from shoppers using credit cards from major providers like Mastercard and Visa. This is important to consider as it will have a direct impact on your monthly takings. Let’s take a look at these fees per transaction:

• Shopify Lite - 2.9% plus 30 cents
• Basic Shopify - 2.2% plus 30 cents
• Shopify - 2.6% plus 30 cents
• Advanced Shopify - 2.4% plus 30 cents
• Shopify Plus - 2.15%

With these relatively higher fees, you may be tempted to use a third-party provider to attain lower rates. However, this would not be a wise choice at all. When you use a third-party provider for payment, Shopify will impose a surcharge of transaction fees in addition to the third-party provider’s credit card fees. For the Basic plan, the fee is 2%, 1% on the Shopify Plan, and 0.5% with Advanced Shopify. Adding up these 2 costs, it's actually financially better for you to use the Shopify Payment gateway. Instead, you should consider changing or selecting your Shopify Plan based on your store’s monthly income. More on that to follow!

To better enable you to make a savvy decision, you’ll want to know exactly what features are available for each plan. Let’s find out.

What’s Available on all Shopify Plans?

Shopify provides e-merchants with the tools to level up their eCommerce game with a number of useful features. On each plan you can expect to get the following:

• Abandoned cart recovery - to ensure that you do not miss out on a sale, Shopify sends automatic emails to customers who leave your store without completing the checkout process. These can be customized to your liking, and to provide a real pull to return to an abandoned basket, discount codes can easily be included.
• Discount codes - with Shopify you can provide incentives for new customers, social media followers or mailing lists by offering them welcome codes, exclusive money-off codes , and extend thanks to the influential people you partner with.
• Gift cards - e-merchants can offer customized gift cards for existing shoppers’ friends and family to draw new leads. These can be of any price denomination.
• Free SSL certificate - this is a security protocol that makes a secure connection between the server and browsers, so you can rest assured knowing that your customers’ personal data is protected.
• POS solution - want to move from online to in-person selling, perhaps for a pop-up event? Or maybe you’d like to begin accepting credit card payments at your stall. You can do exactly that with Shopify POS. It’s an app that lets you process orders and take payments in person. Compatible on both iOS and Android operating systems with hardware and accessories available.
• Unlimited products - you can sell as many products as you like no matter which plan you go with.
• Finance reports - keep on top of your finances with real-time reports on key information like sales, payments, and pending sales.
• Multi-currency & multi-language - subscribers on all plans can choose from 133 currencies and up to five languages to help your store along with selling internationally.

Core Feature Differences Between Main Shopify Plans

Whilst Shopify does provide a number of useful features on every plan, there are some key differences to be aware of.

Reporting becomes a lot richer in the Shopify and Advanced Shopify plans. E-merchants can access professional reports to gain in-depth insight regarding sales, profits, and customers.

The professional reports on the right give merchants even more insights into customers and their behavior whilst visiting their store. (Shopify)

For instance, reports can be used to reveal sales of a specific product, track product sales over a given time, and provide analysis on customers making purchases. Armed with this valuable information, e-merchants can make better decisions regarding the organization of their store and product choices, as well as plan and prepare for marketing campaigns effectively. Should these reports not quite produce the data store owners are looking for, the advanced plan allows subscribers to create custom reports.

Global selling support also varies between Shopify plans. Support for international selling is pretty limited on the basic plan, only equipping stores with the ability to sell in multiple languages and currencies. Upgrading to the Shopify plan grants e-merchants the capability to set country-specific domains - a great booster for international SEO - and allocate a percentage to increase or decrease depending on countries or regions. The Advanced plan offers greater pricing flexibility as individual product prices can be specified for different international markets.

Other notable disparities between plans include:

• Shipping costs: for US-based merchants the Basic plan comes with a 77% discount on shipping with USPS. This increases to 88% on the Shopify and Advanced plans.
• Staff accounts: the Basic plan has 2 accounts, Shopify gives up to 5 people access, and Advanced Shopify up to 8.
• Inventory locations: up to 3 with Shopify Lite, up to 4 with Basic, up to 5 with Shopify, up to 8 with Advanced and up to 20+ with Shopify Plus.

Now that you have an understanding of the key differences and similarities between the plans, it’s time to dissect each of the Shopify plans to identify what kind of e-merchant they are suitable for.

Breakdown of Each Shopify Plan

Shopify Lite

This is a very stripped-back version of Shopify as it does not come with the ability to create an eCommerce site. It does, however, provide core sales functionality which can turn an existing website into one that accepts online orders. Put simply, it adds Buy buttons to your site. You can also sell through Facebook with Shopify Lite. In this review, we'll provide an in-depth examination of Shopify Lite, covering its features, pricing, advantages, disadvantages, and much more.

Constellation is an independent record label using WordPress together with Shopify. Shopify Lite enables Constellations to present information and blog articles about their artists and sell digital copies of their music. (Source: Constellation)

This is an ideal plan if you already run a website - for instance, a blog or artist portfolio - and would like to sell custom items on this site. The Shopify Lite POS solution makes it a great plan for merchants who have an online presence and would also like to sell in-person here and there, for example, at trade shows.

Basic Shopify

Being one of Shopify’s main plans, the Basic package enables aspiring e-merchants to simply build a customized fully functioning eCommerce website. Additionally, in contrast to the Lite plan, reports concerning the acquisition, customer behavior, and marketing are available, bringing greater insight into online store traffic.

This is a good option for small operations with a modest workforce. With this plan, subscribers can keep on top of up to 4 inventory locations, and allow for two people to manage and edit the site. It’s also a feasible option for e-merchants who wish to sell in just one country as global selling support is minuscule in this plan.

When it comes to finances to get the most bang for your buck, Basic Shopify is optimal for stores with monthly sales transactions that do not exceed $16,333. The differences in the transaction fees between Basic and Shopify cause it to make more economical sense to upgrade your plan once sales go beyond that figure.

Shopify

This is the most popular plan that Shopify offers as it is well suited for mid-sized businesses. Besides gaining additional staff accounts and inventory locations, e-merchants have access to professional reports which will go a long way in helping store owners understand their customer base, and gauge the effectiveness of marketing and product selection.

If you have plans to sell internationally, this plan provides great support for doing so. The only downside when it comes to international selling here is that you are not able to set individual prices for particular products in different markets. It means you have to rely on an automatic exchange rate. This can, however, be rounded as you please with custom rounding rules.

In order not to lose out on cash due to transaction fees, this plan is best for stores with monthly sales reaching over $16,333 but staying below $110,000. If your store generates more than $110,000 you’re better off upgrading to Advanced Shopify.

Advanced Shopify

This plan is excellent for larger or expanding businesses. The greater number of staff accounts and inventory locations makes website management with more inner workings a breeze. Businesses that require greater control over pricing in international markets will also love this plan. Using a CSV file, specific prices for particular products can be set by region or country.

It’s also here in this plan that merchants can utilize calculated shipping. This lets merchants integrate their store with a third-party shipper so, at checkout, customers can see their up-to-date shipping costs. Moreover, shoppers are given greater flexibility over when to receive their goods, choosing from standard, express or one-day delivery.

With advanced reports, e-merchants can track sales by referral, gain insights into their at-risk customers as well as loyal ones, and create custom reports to gather the exact data they’re looking for.

The lower transaction fees make up for the higher price if your store is hitting over $110,000 in monthly sales.

Shopify Plus

This is Shopify’s enterprise solution for eCommerce stores with more complex, higher-volume business structures. Pricing starts at $2000 per month, based on a consultation with a Shopify Plus expert. This price plan is great for businesses needing multiple online stores across the globe as products and content can be tailored to the countries that are being sold to. Plus, it comes with the setup of up to 10 online stores at no extra cost.

Sportswear retailer Gymshark switched to Shopify Plus in order to scale on-demand and move into international markets. A real selling point for the brand was the ability to offer immersive customer experiences with omnichannel, merging the offline world with the online one. (Source: Gymshark)

With such a hefty price tag, you can expect a much more tailored service with a ton of special features. Let’s check them out!

• A dedicated Launch Engineer: they will ensure a solid plan and launch timeline for your Shopify store. They will consult on Shopify Plus merchants’ eCommerce technology stack and advice on how to best leverage the Shopify platform.
• Omnichannel solution: with this eCommerce merchants can provide seamless experiences for their customers as this feature enables the synchronization of multiple shopping and customer experience channels.
• Launchpad Tool: to support complex business structures this plan includes access to a tool which automates routine eCommerce tasks related to promotions and sales. The Launchpad Tool can make price adjustments, set complex rules for discounts, and alter the theme and/or color should you wish to make seasonal design changes with a click of a button.
• Shopify Flow: this is another useful automotive tool that large business owners will relish. Here, you can set up and manage custom workflows to take specific actions based on events that run on your store. For example, you can automatically apply discounts to increase loyalty and retention based on lifetime spend, or even track and tag customers who carried out very specific actions to generate highly segmented reports.
• Shopify Plus Wholesale allows merchants to easily manage operations for their wholesale customers with a dedicated storefront.
• Greater customization: fulfill all your customization needs for your store including creating a bespoke checkout page, something that is not available on other plans.

Is It Time to Upgrade Your Shopify Plan?

What really sets Shopify apart from its competitors is the myriad of plans available to choose from, making the platform accessible to eCommerce merchants of all sizes, budgets, and requirements.

As your business expands there’s sure to be additional features and financial considerations you’ll have in mind. Fortunately, Shopify has got you covered to help propel your eCommerce prowess as your needs and store evolves. It’s also super easy to move from one plan to another. By inspecting each plan with this guide we hope you’re now in a better position to make the right decision for your Shopify store.