Shopify pricing explained: what each plan really costs
Shopify's headline price is the monthly plan, but the real cost of running a store also includes a card processing fee, possibly a transaction fee, your domain and any paid extras. This guide walks through each plan, what yearly billing saves, how the trial works, and what a store costs once everything is counted.
The Shopify plans
| Plan | Billed monthly | Billed yearly (per month) | Third-party gateway fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | $39 | $29 | 2% |
| Grow | $105 | $79 | 1% |
| Advanced | $399 | $299 | 0.6% |
| Plus | from $2,300 | not listed | 0.2% |
All plans list unlimited products, hosting, a custom domain connection and an SSL certificate. Basic is the plan most new sellers start with. Plus is aimed at large businesses. You can check the current prices on Shopify's pricing page.
Monthly versus yearly billing
Yearly billing lowers the monthly price. On Basic, paying monthly costs $468 over twelve months ($39 times 12), while yearly billing works out to $348 ($29 times 12). That is $120 less. On Grow the difference is $312 a year, and on Advanced it is $1,200.
The tradeoff is commitment. Choosing yearly means paying for a longer period up front, and a store that does not take off is a bigger cost to walk away from. If you are not sure yet, start monthly and switch after a few months of steady sales.
The trial
Shopify's page says: try 3 days free, then $1 a month for 3 months. After that, the standard monthly price starts. The three-day trial needs no credit card, per Shopify's page. Three days is short, so plan what you want to test before you sign up: adding products, setting up payments and placing a test order.
The costs that sit outside the plan
- Card processing. With Shopify Payments, online cards on Basic cost 2.9% + 30 cents. Higher plans have lower rates: Grow 2.7%, Advanced 2.5%, Plus 2.25%, each plus 30 cents.
- The third-party fee. If customers pay through a gateway other than Shopify Payments, Shopify adds the percentage in the table above on top of what PayPal or Stripe charges. PayPal is exempt when Shopify Payments is your primary provider. Stripe is not.
- A domain. Connecting your own domain is included, but the domain itself is bought from a registrar.
- Apps. Many extras come from the app store, and apps may carry their own subscriptions. Add them to your budget before you commit.
For a full walk-through of the fee, see Shopify's third-party providers help page.
What a typical first year can look like
Take a small store on Basic with yearly billing that sells $2,000 a month through Stripe, not Shopify Payments.
- Plan: $29 a month, so $348 a year.
- Third-party fee: 2% of $24,000 in sales is $480 a year.
- Platform total: $828 a year, before processing fees and any apps.
If the same store uses Shopify Payments instead, the $480 fee drops away and the plan is $348 a year, with Shopify's own card rate instead of Stripe's. Both setups still pay a card processing fee. On Basic, Shopify Payments charges 2.9% + 30 cents, the same as Stripe's standard rate.
Comparing with a free option
Payly is a free ecommerce platform with hosting built in. There is no monthly fee, no transaction fee and no commission, and every feature is available to every store. Customers pay your own PayPal or Stripe account, and you pay only their standard processing fee. Your store runs on your own free Cloudflare account, which comfortably covers most stores (about 5,000 visitors a day). If a store outgrows it, Cloudflare's paid plan is $5 a month, paid to Cloudflare. Payly stays free either way.
For the same small store, the platform side comes to $0 a year, plus the cost of a domain if you want one (typically about $10 to $20 a year for a .com). Processing fees are the same as on Shopify.
Payly accepts payments only through PayPal and Stripe, and uses one currency per store. If you need more than that, a paid plan can be worth the price. If you mostly need to sell products online with variants, stock, discount codes, shipping zones and subscriptions, see what is included in What does Payly cost? and how to switch.
Questions
Which Shopify plan should I start with?
Most new stores start with Basic. Move up when the fee savings on a higher plan exceed its extra cost.
Can I try Shopify for free?
For three days. After that it is $1 a month for the first three months, then the standard price.
Can I move my Shopify products to another platform?
Yes. Shopify can export products to a CSV file. Payly can import from a Shopify file or from your Shopify store's address. See Move from Shopify.
Prices as published by each company for the US in October 2026. Prices can change; check each company's own pricing page.
