Shopify is a hosted commerce platform covering storefronts, checkout, payments, inventory, orders and retail point of sale. It removed most of the technical work from selling online, and its checkout conversion and app ecosystem are the two reasons merchants stay once they have outgrown the entry plans.
Shopify: the short answer
Every line below is drawn from facts verified on 9 August 2026.
- What it is
- The default platform for running an online store without running infrastructure
- Best for
- Direct-to-consumer brands selling physical products
- Starts at
- From $29/month (Basic, billed yearly) or $39 monthly
- Free option
- No free plan, 3 days free, then $1/month for 3 months trial
- Biggest strength
- Checkout is the best converting in mainstream commerce
- Biggest drawback
- Extra transaction fee if you do not use Shopify Payments
- Closest alternative
- WooCommerce - Cheaper and fully controllable if you already run WordPress and can maintain it
- True annual cost
- from $348 a year at the cheapest paid tier
Shopify at a glance
| Best for | Direct-to-consumer brands selling physical products, Merchants who want checkout and payments handled for them, Businesses selling online and in person from one inventory |
|---|---|
| Category | Ecommerce, Marketing, Sales |
| Starting price | From $29/month (Basic, billed yearly) or $39 monthly |
| Free plan | No |
| Free trial | 3 days free, then $1/month for 3 months |
| Pricing model | subscription |
| Company | Shopify Inc. |
| Founded | 2006 |
| Headquarters | Ottawa, Ontario, Canada |
| Founders | Tobias Lütke, Daniel Weinand, Scott Lake |
| Platforms | Web, iOS, Android |
| Public API | Yes |
| Browser extension | No |
| Mobile apps | iOS + Android |
| Self-hosting | No |
| Affiliate programme | Affiliate programme pays a fixed bounty per referred merchant; rates vary by region |
| Data source | Vendor pricing page and public records |
| Last checked | August 2026 |
Shopify pricing
Prices below were read from the vendor's own pricing page on 9 August 2026. Pricing model: subscription. Free trial: 3 days free, then $1/month for 3 months.
| Plan | Price | Billing | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | $29 | per month | Billed yearly, or $39 paying monthly. Card rates from 2.9% + 30 cents |
| Grow | $89 | per month | Billed yearly, or $105 paying monthly. Card rates from 2.7% + 30 cents |
| Advanced | $359 | per month | Billed yearly, or $399 paying monthly. Card rates from 2.5% + 30 cents |
| Plus | From $2,300 | per month | Enterprise tier. Card rates from 2.25% + 30 cents |
| POS Pro | $89 | per month | Add-on per retail location |
What Shopify actually costs over a year
A monthly price is not the same thing as a monthly contract. These are the plans above multiplied out to twelve months, per seat or unit where the plan is charged that way.
| Plan | Monthly | Over 12 months |
|---|---|---|
| Basic | $29 | $348 |
| Grow | $89 | $1068 |
| Advanced | $359 | $4308 |
| Plus | $2300 | $27600 |
| POS Pro | $89 | $1068 |
Which Shopify plan should you buy?
| Your situation | Recommended | Why |
|---|---|---|
| You are launching a store | Basic | $29 billed yearly, or $39 monthly, with card rates from 2.9% + 30 cents. The processing rate matters as much as the plan fee. |
| You are doing meaningful volume | Grow | $89 billed yearly, and card rates drop to 2.7%, which can offset the increase by itself. |
| Your card volume is high | Compare plan fee against processing savings | Advanced at $359 cuts rates to 2.5%. Work out the crossover from your own monthly card volume rather than the feature list. |
| You sell in person as well as online | Add POS Pro | $89 per retail location, on top of your plan. |
| You need custom checkout logic | Plus, or reconsider | Checkout customisation is largely gated to Plus from $2,300 a month. This surprises people planning bespoke flows. |
| Your shop is a small part of a content site | Consider WooCommerce instead | WordPress plus Woo fits a content-led site better, and takes no revenue share. |
Verdict by who you are
Direct-to-consumer brandYes
Hosting, security, PCI and checkout handled for a predictable fee. The checkout converts, and that is the product.
Merchant selling online and in storeYes
One inventory across both channels, which is genuinely hard to assemble otherwise.
High-volume merchant using an external gatewayCompare first
Third-party gateway fees apply on top. Model the total, because it can outweigh the plan difference.
Content-led business with a few productsNo
WooCommerce takes no revenue share and fits a content site better.
Merchant needing bespoke checkout below PlusNo
The customisation you want is gated to a much higher tier.
Should you buy Shopify?
Buy Shopify if…
- Direct-to-consumer brands selling physical products
- Merchants who want checkout and payments handled for them
- Businesses selling online and in person from one inventory
Do not buy Shopify if…
- Content-led sites where the shop is a small secondary feature
- Merchants needing deep custom checkout logic below Plus
- Anyone unwilling to pay transaction fees on external gateways
Key features
- Hosted storefront with themes and a visual editor
- Highly optimised checkout, including Shop Pay accelerated checkout
- Shopify Payments with integrated card processing
- Inventory, orders and fulfilment across channels
- Shopify POS for physical retail on the same inventory
- App Store with tens of thousands of extensions
- Multi-channel selling into marketplaces and social
- Liquid templating plus Hydrogen for headless builds
Integrations
- Meta and Google sales channels
- Klaviyo and Mailchimp
- Xero and QuickBooks
- ShipStation and major 3PLs
- Shopify Admin GraphQL and REST APIs
- Zapier
Shopify screenshots
Captured by us in August 2026 at 1440px, unedited. Interfaces change, so these show the product as it looked on the date we verified this profile. Vendors localise pricing by visitor region, so a pricing screenshot may display a different currency to the USD figures recorded above.
Our assessment
Shopify is the correct default for most people selling physical products online, and the reason is checkout rather than storefronts. Conversion on Shop Pay, the reliability of the hosted stack and the depth of the app ecosystem are genuinely hard to replicate. The costs are structural: card rates improve as you move up the plans, which quietly pushes growing merchants upward, and using a payment provider other than Shopify Payments adds a transaction fee on top of what your gateway already charges. Model total cost as subscription plus card rate plus apps, because the subscription is usually the smallest of the three.
What works in Shopify
- Checkout is the best converting in mainstream commerce
- Hosted, so there is no infrastructure, patching or scaling work
- Enormous app ecosystem covering almost any commerce requirement
- One inventory across online, marketplace and physical retail
What doesn't
- Extra transaction fee if you do not use Shopify Payments
- App subscriptions compound and often exceed the platform fee
- Checkout is only deeply customisable on Plus
- Content and blogging tools are weak next to a real CMS
EveryAny Decision Score
Scored by dimension rather than averaged into one number, because the trade-offs are the useful part. 2 of these 7 dimensions are calculated from verified facts by published formula; the rest are editorial judgement, labelled as such. How each score is calculated.
- Portability5/10
derivedpublic API
- Subscription flexibility6/10
derivedfree trial, subscription, monthly billing
- Feature depth9/10
editorialeditorial judgement, reviewed at last check
- Ease of learning8/10
editorialeditorial judgement, reviewed at last check
- Collaboration7/10
editorialeditorial judgement, reviewed at last check
- AI capability7/10
editorialeditorial judgement, reviewed at last check
- Professional adoption10/10
editorialeditorial judgement, reviewed at last check
What leaving Shopify would cost
moderate lock-in
Calculated as 10 minus a portability score of 5, built from four signals (self-hosting, a public API, open-source licensing and a documented export path) . Shopify scores on: public API. Formula.
Shopify competitors and alternatives
| Alternative | Why you might pick it instead |
|---|---|
| WooCommerce | Cheaper and fully controllable if you already run WordPress and can maintain it. |
| BigCommerce | No transaction fees on external gateways, with a smaller app ecosystem. |
| Squarespace Commerce | Better when the site matters more than the store. |
The subscription is the small number
A merchant on Basic at $29 a month who processes $50,000 pays roughly $1,450 in card fees over the same period. Add three or four apps at $20 to $50 each and the platform fee is comfortably the smallest line on the invoice. When comparing Shopify against alternatives, compare card rates and app costs first; the headline plan price rarely decides anything.
Why the plans are really tiered
Moving from Basic to Grow to Advanced buys a lower card rate as much as it buys features: 2.9% to 2.7% to 2.5%, plus 30 cents per transaction. There is a crossover volume at which the higher subscription pays for itself purely on processing. Work out where that point is for your revenue rather than upgrading on feature envy.
The transaction fee that catches people
If you use an external payment gateway instead of Shopify Payments, Shopify charges an additional transaction fee on top of your gateway’s own cut. In markets where Shopify Payments is unavailable, this is an unavoidable cost that merchants frequently discover after launching.
Where Shopify is the wrong tool
If the shop is a small part of a content-led site, a hosted store is overkill and a lighter commerce plug-in on your existing CMS will serve better. If you need genuinely bespoke checkout logic, that capability lives on Plus at a very different price point. And if you sell purely digital products, several cheaper platforms handle licensing and delivery more gracefully.
Shopify questions, answered
- Is Shopify worth it?
- Shopify is the correct default for most people selling physical products online, and the reason is checkout rather than storefronts.
- How much does Shopify cost?
- From $29/month (Basic, billed yearly) or $39 monthly. The cheapest paid tier we recorded works out at $29 a month, or $348 over a year. Verified against the vendor's pricing page.
- Does Shopify have a free plan or free trial?
- Shopify has no free plan. A free trial is available: 3 days free, then $1/month for 3 months.
- What is the best Shopify alternative?
- It depends on the job. WooCommerce: Cheaper and fully controllable if you already run WordPress and can maintain it. BigCommerce: No transaction fees on external gateways, with a smaller app ecosystem. Squarespace Commerce: Better when the site matters more than the store.
- Can I self-host Shopify?
- No. Shopify is a hosted service only, so your data lives on the vendor's infrastructure.
Provenance and freshness
When each fact was last checked
- Pricing ·
- Plans ·
- Free trial
- Features
- Platforms
- Integrations
- Affiliate programme
- Company details
What has changed
-
August 2026
- Plan pricing and card processing rates verified, annual and monthly
- Added plan picker and verdicts
Sources & verification
Facts on this page were read from the sources below on the dates shown. Where a vendor does not publish a figure, we record it as not disclosed rather than estimating it.
- Shopify pricing - checked 9 August 2026
Spotted something out of date? Email [email protected] and we will re-check it. Corrections are logged on the page.
