As with most purchases you make in life, choosing to migrate your store to Shopify might come down to one deciding factor: how much you have to pay.
Thankfully, before you make any commitment, Shopify has a great feature that lets you try before you buy, without so much as a credit card.
Of course, they are expecting you to be so thoroughly satisfied with the 14-day trial that you decide to stick around and purchase a monthly subscription.
In this article, we'll explore the Shopify price structure, covering each of their plans in detail to show you what you get for your money. We'll also see how the Shopify costs stack up against competing ecommerce platforms, giving you everything you need to make the right choice.
Additional Shopify Price Options
How does Shopify’s pricing compare to other ecommerce platforms?
Shopify Pricing for Enterprises: Shopify Plus vs. Magento
How much does Shopify charge per transaction?
Do other ecommerce platforms charge transaction fees?
Are the Shopify Costs worth switching to an Enterprise-level platform?
Shopify pricing plans
In short: Shopify prices vary according to the needs of your online store. The platform offers a tiered structure, where you get more add-on features and functionalities as you rise through the tiers. Of course, the cost increases on each level. A summary of the three main packages is detailed below.
Basic Shopify
- Price: $29 a month
- Staff accounts: 2
- Ability to post unlimited products
With the Basic Shopify Plan, you get a fully-functional ecommerce website and blog—or you can integrate with an existing WordPress blog. The plan also includes unlimited file storage, fraud analysis tools, a discount code engine, a free SSL certificate, shipping labels, and 24/7 support.
You can also upload an unlimited number of products to your Shopify store, so this is great if you have a big inventory but want to keep platform costs low.
Shopify
- Price: $79 a month
- Staff accounts: 5
- Ability to post unlimited products
This plan is the most popular option, and it grants access to all the key features you could want. For example, in addition to everything from the Basic plan, such as the ability to create an unlimited amount of products, you also gain access to Shopify POS, professional reports, gift cards, and the abandoned cart recovery tool.
This tool sends automated emails to people after leaving your site without completing a transaction, which can help convince them to return and complete their purchase.
Advanced Shopify
- Price: $299 a month
- Staff accounts: 15
- Ability to post unlimited products
You get all features from the previous tiers on the advanced plan, plus third-party calculated shipping rates and an advanced report builder. The transaction fees are also at their lowest on this plan (more on that below!)
You have unlimited bandwidth and storage capabilities on this plan, so you can upload unlimited products, images, and videos and still have a high-speed store that can handle mass traffic.
There is no setup fee for any of the Shopify plans, and you can cancel your account at any time. Month-to-month contracts are reflected in the pricing above, but merchants can receive a 10% discount on annual plans and a 20% discount for committing to a two-year plan when the merchant pays all costs upfront.
Additional Shopify Price Options
While the plans above are the most popular, they are not the only options on Shopify. If you’re on a tight budget or feel cautious about committing to any of the plans above, you can try Shopify Lite.
On the other end of the spectrum, your business may have outgrown even the advanced option, and you could now be ready for the enterprise edition, Shopify Plus.
Let’s take a closer look at the Shopify costs for these two options:
Shopify Lite
If you’re just starting to dip your toes in the eCommerce storefront pool, the Shopify Lite plan may be your best choice. For only $9 a month (the free trial is still included), you can start selling and interacting with your customers on social media. You can even hook it up to an existing domain name.
The lite version also incorporates Facebook Messenger by allowing customers to purchase products directly from a chat. The budget-friendly price tag doesn't mean that Shopify Lite skimps on features. Merchants can create invoices and receive payment, access Shopify's support line, and add Buy Buttons to any site to start selling products immediately.
Shopify Plus
Shopify addresses enterprise (big business) solutions with the Shopify Plus platform. This version provides users with a multi-channel platform (16 to be exact) integrated into the merchant's dashboard. This option is geared towards international businesses, as storefronts can be set up to provide content in specific languages and currencies.
Additional benefits of Shopify Plus include:
- Automated campaigns
- Customized storefront checkout options
- Ability to manage your product listing without code
- Provided IT support, which is crucial to merchants that aren’t web designers or coders
With the additional features, Shopify Plus will cost you more; pricing is not a one-size-fits-all approach. Plans are customizable, but you can expect to pay at least $2,000 per month. Because of the cost, additional features, and increased IT support available with this plan, it is mostly used by businesses with high enough sales volume and traffic levels to warrant a need for additional security and protection from site crashes.
How does Shopify’s pricing compare to other ecommerce platforms?
Naturally, you want to know that you’re paying a fair price for what you are getting. You may wonder if there is anything better than Shopify. The two closest competitors are Volusion and BigCommerce. Here’s how they compare:
Volusion Plan Tiering
Mini: $15 a month
- What you get:
- 100 products
- 1GB of bandwidth
- Online support
- Secure checkout.
Plus: $35 a month
- What you get:
- 1,000 products
- 3GB of bandwidth
- Online and phone support
- Secure checkout.
Pro: $75 a month
- What you get:
- 10,000 products
- 10GB of bandwidth
- Priority support
- Secure checkout
Premium: $135 a month
- What you get:
- Unlimited products
- 35GB of bandwidth
- Priority support
- Dedicated Account Manager
- Secure checkout.
BigCommerce Plan Tiering
Standard: $29.95 a month
- What you get:
- Unlimited products, file storage, and bandwidth
- Unlimited staff accounts
- 24/7 live agent support.
Plus: $79.95 a month
- What you get:
- Unlimited products, file storage, and bandwidth
- Unlimited staff accounts
- 24/7 live agent support
- Abandoned cart saver
- Google customer reviews.
Pro: $249.95 a month
- What you get:
- Unlimited products, file storage, and bandwidth
- Unlimited staff accounts
- 24/7 live agent support
- Abandoned cart saver
- Google customer reviews
- Faceted search
- Dedicated SSL
As you can see, while these platforms offer some different features at each level, there’s not a massive difference compared to the Shopify price. With that in mind, choosing the best option for your business may come down to which platform offers the best user experience, customer support, and design options—aspects that Shopify excels in.
So, what happens when you get past the beginner level and have an ecommerce business that can operate at scale? Does the Shopify pricing structure make sense for enterprises?
Shopify Pricing for Enterprises: Shopify Plus vs. Magento
When your ecommerce store reaches enterprise-level, you will probably need to upgrade to a premium service that allows your business to scale. At this point, there are two clear choices for running a larger ecommerce business - Magento and Shopify Plus.
The enterprise version of Magento is called Magento 2 Commerce. This platform gives users a choice between hosted and self-hosted, whereas Shopify Plus websites are all fully hosted.
So, how does the Shopify price compare with Magento at the enterprise level?
To get a clear understanding of the value of both ecommerce platform, we’ll compare four key aspects of the Magento and Shopify Plus pricing:
- Build
- Maintenance
- License
- Hosting
Let’s take a closer look.
Build Costs
Generally speaking, it's cheaper to build projects on Shopify Plus compared to Magento Commerce, especially outside the US and Canada, where Shopify is less established.
The total build costs will vary depending on what functionalities and design features you want, but here are some ballpark figures for a new website build or rebuild project:
- Magento 2 Commerce -You can expect to pay anything between $150-$500k.
- Shopify Plus - It’s unusual for the Shopify price of a new build to be more than $100k.
Many enterprise-level web development agencies charge by the hour, so it’s worthwhile thinking about how you can reduce the time for the build process. Even if an agency advertises its Shopify price at a higher hourly rate, the difference in build time can offset the total cost compared to a Magento Commerce project.
Verdict on Build Costs: Shopify Plus is Better
Shopify Plus builds tend to be cheaper because they involve less backend development and less integration than Magento Commerce websites. Therefore, it's possible to create a Shopify Plus site in a shorter amount of time and with a smaller budget.
Maintenance Costs
One of the great benefits of Shopify Plus is that it is a fully-hosted platform, so maintenance costs like security patches or server fees are included in the Shopify price listed.
The platform's expert staff will take care of bug fixes and updates, ensuring you don't need to pay anything extra or invest any time dealing with advanced maintenance tasks.
On the other hand, if you need extensive backend functions, you may be better off with Magento, where you can pay an agency an hourly rate to maintain the site. That being said, the Shopify app store rivals Magento, giving store owners affordable, easy access to a vast range of third-party apps to enhance the online shopping experience.
Verdict on Maintenance Costs: Shopify Plus is Better
You can do basically everything you need on Shopify Plus and have the support and apps to grow and maintain a thriving online business without high maintenance costs. Aside from major fixes and updates, you can also perform ad hoc changes on the front end or to your plugins to keep your store running at peak performance.
License Costs
You will need to pay a license fee to use either one of these platforms. Magento requires annual payment upfront. If you'd prefer more flexible terms, you can pay the Shopify cost on a monthly basis.
The license fees for both platforms vary according to your revenue. The Shopify price for a license is as follows:
- Starts at $2,000 monthly
- Increases incrementally after reaching $800,000 in monthly revenue
- Capped at $40,000 per month (when the store reaches $16 million of monthly sales)
On Magento, the license costs $22,000 each year, regardless of how much revenue you make. As your revenue grows, the platform takes a smaller percentage to cover the license costs. However, for a large-scale enterprise making over $100 million per year, Magento's total license costs could top $250,000.
Verdict on Licence Costs: Shopify Plus is Better
With the flexibility of monthly payments and the lower threshold for businesses earning less than $800,000, Shopify Plus is a more suitable option for stores that are still growing on a budget.
Ultimately, if your store doesn't generate at least $2,000 profit each month, you should look at one of the cheaper tiers rather than paying these license fees.
Hosting
When it comes to hosting, the $2,000 Shopify price for the license also includes the hosting fee. This cost covers SSL certificates, PCI compliance and takes the hassle or extra costs out of the equation.
By comparison, Magento offers two options:
- Magento Commerce Cloud, where Magento hosts your site directly through their platform. The hosting cost for this option on top of the license will be around $3,300 at a minimum.
- Magento 2 Commerce,where users can select a third-party hosting partner. This option gives you more control and flexibility, as you will work directly with your chosen partner, paying them a monthly fee for hosting. Typically, this cost could average around $1,000 per month (in addition to the $2,000 Magento license fee).
Verdict on Hosting Costs: Shopify Plus is Better
Generally speaking, the larger a Magento enterprise site becomes, the cheaper it is to use a third-party provider. Even so, when you consider that the Shopify price includes the license and hosting together, it’s hard to justify paying anything more.
How to Avoid Shopify Transaction Fees
Shopify transaction fees are another thing you should think about when choosing which package you go with for your online store.
How much does Shopify charge per transaction?
The Shopify cost per transaction varies from one tier to the next:
- Basic Shopify -2.9% + $0.30 per transaction
- Shopify - 2.6% + $0.30 per transaction
- Advanced Shopify - 2.4% + $0.30 per transaction
While there isn’t much difference here, it’s worth learning a little more about transaction fees, so you understand how it factors into the overall Shopify cost.
What is the transaction fee on Shopify for?
Whenever shoppers visit your online store, they don’t buy products immediately. Instead, they take time browsing the different pages, perusing each category, looking at product images, etc. Shopify has to power your website to ensure everything runs smoothly, even if there is high traffic, like on Black Friday.
The transaction fees are a small contribution to Shopify to help it keep your store running at optimal levels.
How do transaction fees work?
Each time a customer purchases from you (a transaction), depending on which Shopify plan you subscribed to, a transaction fee will be charged. The fees are 2% for the Basic Shopify plan, 1% for the Shopify plan, and 0.5% for the Advanced Shopify plan.
Doesn’t the monthly Shopify price cover transaction fees?
The monthly cost covers your hosting and maintenance costs and gives you access to Shopify's platform so you can launch your store and market your products. Transaction fees are only charged when you make sales.
Do other ecommerce platforms charge transaction fees?
If you’re worried about transaction fees imparting the overall Shopify cost, here’s a brief overview of what to expect on other platforms:
-
BigCommerce doesn't charge for every sale. However, when you reach an annual sales threshold, your monthly cost increases as the BigCommerce platform automatically will upgrade you to a higher plan.
- Wix doesn't charge transaction fees, which makes it an excellent option for beginners on a budget. However, you must use the eCommerce or VIP plan to sell products, which have a higher monthly cost. Also, on every transaction, you must pay fees to third-party payment providers. This fee will vary depending on which payment processor you use, such as Stripe or PayPal.
- Volusion limits your store’s bandwidth, which can pose a real problem during high-traffic periods. If you want to ensure your store doesn’t crash, you’ll need to purchase more bandwidth. And here’s the thing - Volusion doesn’t make the cost of more bandwidth readily available, which could cause a nasty surprise when the time comes.
How do I avoid transaction fees on Shopify?
You can remove Shopify’s transaction fees by signing up for Shopify Payments. This service facilitates direct payments from your customers to your bank account. If you use Shopify Payments instead of collecting separate transaction fees, Shopify will claim the credit card rates on each purchase.
Are the Shopify Costs worth switching to an Enterprise-level platform?
The best Shopify plan for each merchant depends on how far they are into their eCommerce journey and where they want to take their store (hobby or career).
While there are plenty of competitors that offer cheaper plans, Shopify has fantastic customer support, great design themes, and a user-friendly platform that takes the hassle out of managing your store. Ultimately, this makes it easier for you to focus on what matters—growing your business and selling more products.
Since you aren't locked into a contract with Shopify, it may be best to start with a smaller package and then upgrade once your sales traffic and production selection increases. When your profit margins and traffic reach a consistently high level, you may be ready to switch to Shopify Plus, so you can take advantage of unique functions and features that help scale your ecommerce business.
Once you make the decision to migrate your store to Shopify, we are here to make the migration process seamless. Contact us to discuss the best Shopify price and plan, and we’ll help you maximise your ROI.