Basic $39, Grow $105, Advanced $399, Plus from $2,300 a month: what Shopify costs in the US, which fees come on top of every sale, and what a store really costs in year one.
Shopify costs $39 (Basic), $105 (Grow), or $399 (Advanced) a month in the US, and Shopify Plus starts at $2,300. Billed yearly, the three standard plans drop to $29, $79, and $299 a month. Plus costs $2,500 a month on a 1-year term and $2,300 a month on a 3-year term.
The plan is rarely your biggest cost. Card fees of 2.25% to 2.9% plus 30¢ per online payment, apps with their own monthly fees, and a transaction fee of up to 2% when you use a third-party payment provider make up most of the running costs of a growing store.
Realistic platform costs in year one, before implementation: about $6,500 for a small store doing $150,000 in sales, about $54,000 for a midsize store doing $1.5 million, and about $178,000 for a Plus store doing $5 million, payment fees included.
Shopify’s monthly fee is easy to compare. Per-sale fees, apps, and third-party fees aren’t, and they’re what drives the bill once your store grows. This guide is for founders, store owners, and executives in the US who are planning a Shopify store, reviewing their current plan, or comparing Shopify with Shopware.
After reading, you’ll be able to pick the right plan, calculate your fees per sale, and put together a realistic first-year budget, with or without an agency.
Before we founded solution25, we built our own online store and grew it to more than 500 orders a day. Since 2017 we’ve been building stores for merchants: Shopware as a Platinum Partner, and Shopify for merchants whose requirements fit it. So we know the cost question from both sides.
All figures are US list prices in USD from Shopify’s official pricing and help pages and from the App Store and Theme Store listings, accessed November 2026, before any applicable taxes.
| Cost item | Typical range | When you pay |
|---|---|---|
| Shopify plan | $39 (Basic) to $399 (Advanced) a month, Plus from $2,300 | monthly, or yearly upfront |
| Payment fees (Shopify Payments) | 2.25% to 2.9% + 30¢ per online card payment, plus 1% for international cards | per order |
| Third-party transaction fee | 2% (Basic) to 0.2% (Plus) of the order value, on top of your provider’s own fees | per order |
| Apps | free to $499 a month per app in our examples, billed in USD | monthly |
| Theme | $0 for free themes, $100 to $360 one-time for the paid themes we sampled, custom themes quote-based | one-time |
| Domain and email | about $16 a year for a .com, Google Workspace from $7 per user a month | yearly and monthly |
| Sales tax calculation (Shopify Tax) | free for the first $100,000 in US sales, then 0.35% per order (0.25% on Plus), capped at $0.99 per order | per order |
| Agency implementation | quote-based, driven by theme, data migration, and integrations | one-time |
| Ongoing support | monthly retainer or hourly billing | monthly |
Hosting, SSL, platform updates, and checkout are included in every plan, and there’s no setup fee. That’s why Shopify looks cheaper than a self-hosted platform at first, and it’s also why so many merchants underestimate the per-sale fees.
Shopify bills US merchants in US dollars. The figures below come from the Shopify pricing page for the US, accessed November 2026.
| Plan | Billed monthly | Billed yearly or on a longer term | Online card rate (Shopify Payments) | Third-party transaction fee | Staff accounts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | $39 | $29 a month | 2.9% + 30¢ | 2% | none |
| Grow | $105 | $79 a month | 2.7% + 30¢ | 1% | 5 |
| Advanced | $399 | $299 a month | 2.5% + 30¢ | 0.6% | 15 |
| Plus | $2,500 (1-year term) | $2,300 (3-year term) | 2.25% + 30¢ | 0.2% | unlimited |
The Plus prices come from Shopify’s help page on the Plus plan. Paying yearly saves about 25% on Basic, Grow, and Advanced, but the full year is charged upfront, and plan charges are generally non-refundable according to Shopify’s help center.
Your binding price is the one shown in your Shopify admin under Settings, then Plan.
Basic includes the online store with theme editor, blog, SSL, all reports including custom reports, sales channels, and international selling tools. According to the Shopify help center, two things are missing: staff accounts and third-party carrier-calculated shipping rates.
If you run the store on your own, Basic will carry you a long way. As soon as a second person needs their own login, you’re looking at Grow.
Grow adds five staff accounts, carrier-calculated shipping as an add-on, and a lower card rate of 2.7%. A difference of 0.2 percentage points sounds small, but it covers the $66 monthly price gap once you process about $33,000 in card sales a month (about $25,000 if you pay yearly).
Advanced gives you 15 staff accounts, carrier-calculated shipping, advanced reporting, and a card rate of 2.5%. On fees alone, Advanced only pays off against Grow at around $147,000 in card sales a month, roughly $1.8 million a year. On yearly billing, the break-even drops to about $110,000 a month.
According to Shopify’s help center, Shopify Plus costs $2,500 a month on a 1-year term and $2,300 a month on a 3-year term. It includes unlimited staff accounts, up to 9 expansion stores, up to 200 locations, a fully customizable checkout, unlimited B2B catalogs, 20 POS Pro locations, and 24/7 priority phone and chat support.
Higher-volume businesses may also pay a variable platform fee, which Shopify says depends on revenue and business model and differs for B2B and D2C. Shopify doesn’t publish a threshold, so the actual price comes from its sales team. Plus is booked on a 1-year or 3-year term, and you can cancel once the term commitment expires.
Shopify earns money on every order, either through Shopify Payments fees or through a transaction fee when you use a third-party payment provider. In a growing store, this line item is many times larger than the plan.
Shopify Payments is the built-in payment processor. When it’s your primary provider, the third-party transaction fee doesn’t apply. Rates depend on your plan and are listed on the US pricing page:
Card fees and currency conversion fees aren’t returned to you when you issue a refund.
Here’s an example for a $100 credit card order: you pay $3.20 on Basic, $3.00 on Grow, $2.80 on Advanced, and $2.55 on Plus.
If you process cards through another provider, you pay that provider’s fees plus a fee to Shopify: 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced, and 0.2% on Plus. According to the Shopify help center, no third-party fee applies to Shopify Payments, Shop Pay, Shop Pay Installments, manual methods such as bank transfers or cash on delivery, and PayPal, as long as Shopify Payments is your primary provider.
Two details merchants often miss:
Shopware doesn’t charge this kind of transaction fee at all.
If you sell in other currencies through Shopify Markets, Shopify Payments charges US stores a 1.5% currency conversion fee on payments captured in a non-domestic currency, according to the help center, or 3% if you activate PayPal Wallet through Shopify Payments. The exchange rate itself is the market rate with no markup, and the fee is built into the price your customer pays. You don’t get it back when you issue a refund.
If you collect duties and import taxes at checkout, Shopify charges 0.85% per order with Shopify Payments and 1.5% with other providers. Since February 2, 2025, a temporarily reduced rate of 0.5% applies. Orders shipped within the US are exempt.
For US sales tax, Shopify Tax is free for your first $100,000 in US sales (per calendar year for stores created before May 13, 2026, lifetime for newer stores). After that, it costs 0.35% per order on Basic, Grow, and Advanced and 0.25% on Plus, capped at $0.99 per order, and only in regions where you’ve activated tax collection.
A merchant with $1.2 million in annual sales is on Grow with yearly billing ($948 a year) and processes cards through an outside provider because of an existing contract. This is a worked example using the rates in this section, not a specific client case.
Your payment mix is a bigger lever than your plan here. Before any upgrade, check whether the contract with the outside provider is really necessary.
Shopify leaves a lot of functionality to its App Store, which lists more than 16,000 apps, and almost every useful one charges a monthly fee. A few examples with prices from the Shopify App Store, accessed November 2026:
Ten apps add up fast. App charges are billed in USD, and some developers bill extra charges separately from your Shopify invoice, so check each listing before you install.
Shopify Messaging (formerly Shopify Email) lets you send up to 10,000 emails a month for free. After that, every additional 1,000 emails costs $1. For small stores, that can replace a separate newsletter app.
The Theme Store lists more than 800 free and paid themes. The paid themes we sampled in November 2026 cost between $100 and $360 one-time, with many priced at $320.
Once product pages, configurators, or B2B pricing need to look different from what your theme provides, custom development in Liquid begins, and that’s where budgets grow quickly. Tips on choosing the right theme are in our post How to choose a Shopify theme.
A custom domain isn’t included in any plan. According to Shopify, a .com costs about $16 a year on average, and most domain names run $10 to $30 a year. Shopify doesn’t offer email hosting, only forwarding addresses, so you’ll need a provider such as Google Workspace, which lists Business Starter at $7 per user a month.
The platform gives you hosting and checkout, not the store itself: design, product data, apps, payment methods, store policies, and integrations are still work to be done. The scopes and timelines below are based on our project experience. Budgets depend on the hours involved, so ask for a quote broken down by line item.
| Project type | Scope | Timeline |
|---|---|---|
| Starter store | Purchased theme customized, standard processes, product import via CSV, apps and payment methods set up | 3 to 6 weeks |
| Midsize store | Custom theme in Liquid, app setup, ERP integration, data migration, multiple markets | 2 to 4 months |
| Plus project | Checkout extensions, Shopify Functions, expansion stores, ERP and PIM integration, B2B | 4 to 8 months |
Rates vary widely. Upwork lists a median of $15 to $29 an hour for Shopify developers on its platform, while agencies usually charge more. Compare quotes by hours per line item, not just by the total. The build happens in a development store that the agency sets up through the Shopify Partner Program.
After launch, plan for an ongoing retainer that covers theme changes, app maintenance, conversion optimization, and smaller features. Hosting and platform updates aren’t part of it, because Shopify handles them. You’ll find what we offer on our Shopify services page and under CRO services for Shopware and Shopify. Our US team is based in New York at 60 East 42nd Street, Suite 1201, and you can reach us at +1 929-264-7602.
These examples show how costs split up in typical stores. Sales, order volume, and app stacks are assumptions; plan prices, fees, and app prices are the November 2026 list prices cited above. Keep the limits in mind: payment fees assume every order is paid by domestic credit card through Shopify Payments, so international cards, Shop Pay Installments, or PayPal would push them higher. Agency implementation and ongoing support aren’t included, because they depend on your quote.
| Item | Starter store (Basic) | Midsize store (Advanced) | Plus store |
|---|---|---|---|
| Assumptions | $150,000 in sales, 2,500 orders | $1.5 million in sales, 30,000 orders | $5 million in sales, 80,000 orders |
| Plan per year | $468 ($39 a month) | $4,788 ($399 a month) | $30,000 ($2,500 a month, 1-year term) |
| Payment fees | $5,100 (2.9% + 30¢) | $46,500 (2.5% + 30¢) | $136,500 (2.25% + 30¢) |
| Apps | $480 (Judge.me Awesome, Klaviyo up to 500 profiles) | $2,328 (Judge.me Awesome, ShipStation Standard, Recharge Starter) | $10,368 (Judge.me Awesome, ShipStation Premium, Recharge Scale) |
| Theme, one-time | $320 (paid theme) | part of the project | part of the project |
| Domain and email | $100 (.com, 1 Google Workspace user) | $436 (.com, 5 users) | $1,276 (.com, 15 users) |
| Year one total (without implementation) | $6,468 | $54,052 | $178,144 |
| Each following year | $6,148 | $54,052 | $178,144 |
The app totals don’t include ShipStation usage charges or Recharge’s per-transaction fees, and Shopify Tax fees aren’t included either.
In all three cases, the plan makes up only 8 to 17% of running costs, while payment fees account for 77 to 86%. When you compare Shopify plans, you’re comparing the smallest line item; your payment mix matters a lot more.
Yearly billing saves the starter store $120 a year ($29 instead of $39 a month) and the midsize store $1,200. For the Plus store, the 3-year term saves $2,400 a year but locks you in for three years.
We build on both platforms, so here’s our take without a favorite. Shopify is cheaper to start and faster to launch, because hosting, updates, and security are part of the plan. Shopware’s Community Edition has no license fee, but it needs hosting and someone to install updates, and both add recurring monthly costs.
From year two on, the picture flips for two kinds of merchants: stores that need an outside payment provider and pay transaction fees for it, and stores that need Shopify Plus features such as a fully customizable checkout or multiple stores. Plus costs at least $27,600 a year ($2,300 a month on a 3-year term). For comparison, Shopware lists Rise from €600 a month and Evolve from €2,400 a month on its pricing page, with prices shown in EUR excluding VAT.
Our take: For brands with a manageable catalog, Shopify Payments as their primary provider, and no in-house IT team, we recommend Shopify, because hosting and updates are taken care of and launch is fast. As soon as an outside payment provider becomes mandatory, B2B processes come into play, or Plus features become necessary, we run the numbers on Shopware with our clients.
If you’re thinking about moving off Shopify, you’ll find the process on our page about migrating from Shopify to Shopware 6.
| Situation | Recommendation | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Starting out, one operator, up to about $25,000 in sales a month | Basic, billed yearly | $29 a month, all core features, upgrade any time |
| Team with several logins, $25,000 to $110,000 in sales a month | Grow | 5 staff accounts, carrier-calculated shipping as an add-on, lower card rate pays off from about $25,000 in card sales (yearly billing) |
| From $110,000 in sales a month, or a need for advanced reporting and carrier-calculated shipping | Advanced | 2.5% card rate, 15 staff accounts, advanced reports |
| Custom checkout, unlimited B2B catalogs, multiple stores, more than 15 staff accounts | Plus | Features, not fees: on card rates alone, Plus only pays off at roughly $10 million a year in sales |
| Outside payment provider with more than $660,000 in annual sales | Advanced instead of Grow | The lower transaction fee (0.4 percentage points less) outweighs the $2,640 yearly price difference |
We recommend these KPIs. The thresholds come from the calculations in this post:
In the US, Shopify costs $39 (Basic), $105 (Grow), or $399 (Advanced) when billed monthly, or $29, $79, and $299 a month when billed yearly. Shopify Plus starts at $2,300 a month on a 3-year term and costs $2,500 a month on a 1-year term. On top of that come payment fees per order, apps, and possibly agency costs.
With Shopify Payments, there’s no extra transaction fee; you only pay the card rate of 2.25% to 2.9% plus 30¢ per online payment. With a third-party payment provider, Shopify adds 2% (Basic), 1% (Grow), 0.6% (Advanced), or 0.2% (Plus) of the order value. PayPal is exempt as long as Shopify Payments is your primary provider.
If you build the store yourself with a free theme, a few hundred dollars covers the plan and domain in year one, plus payment fees. With a paid theme and a few apps, a small store doing $150,000 in sales comes to about $6,500 in platform costs in year one, and a midsize store doing $1.5 million to about $54,000, most of it payment fees. Agency implementation comes on top.
When you sell without an in-house IT team, your catalog fits the standard model, and Shopify Payments handles most of your payments. It gets expensive with an outside payment provider, lots of apps, or requirements that only Plus covers.
Basic, Grow, and Advanced for online stores, Shopify Plus for large and complex businesses, and the Agentic plan with no monthly fee for selling through AI channels. For retail stores, POS Pro is available as an add-on at $89 per location a month.
$2,500 a month on a 1-year term and $2,300 a month on a 3-year term, billed in USD for US merchants. High-volume or complex businesses may also pay a variable platform fee, which Shopify quotes individually.
Nothing is hidden, but the costs are spread out: monthly app fees, a 1.5% currency conversion fee on sales in other currencies, the transaction fee for third-party payment providers, the 1.25% premium in mixed provider setups, Shopify Tax fees after your first $100,000 in US sales, card fees that aren’t returned on refunds, and yearly billing that’s charged upfront and generally non-refundable.
Etsy is a marketplace with built-in reach and fees per listing and per sale. Shopify is your own store with a monthly fee and your own customer relationships. For handmade products sold as a side business, Etsy is cheaper; for a brand with its own look and repeat customers, Shopify is the better foundation. You can run both in parallel and feed Etsy from Shopify through an app.
Planning a Shopify store, or wondering whether your current plan and payment mix still make sense? Get in touch or call us at +1 929-264-7602. We’ll run the numbers on plan, fees, apps, and implementation with your data, and we’ll also tell you if Shopware would be the cheaper option.
Already running a store? Our free store audit shows where you’re leaving revenue on the table and which running costs you can cut.
Besar Bilalli is co-founder and Co-CEO of solution25, a Shopware and Shopify agency with an office in New York at 60 East 42nd Street, Suite 1201. Before founding the agency in 2017, he and Besnik Bilalli built their own online store without any startup capital and grew it to more than 500 orders a day. Since then, he has guided merchants through ecommerce projects, from platform selection to day-to-day operations. Questions about this article? He’s happy to answer them personally: get in touch.
Responsible for content and updates: Besar Bilalli. Last updated: November 2026. Next content review: January 2027.
