Shopify is a popular e-commerce platform for small businesses and entrepreneurs. It’s easy to use, secure and customisable, but what does it cost? The answer depends on the level of service you need from your store.
You can select what best suits you according to your business and requirements. Shopify pricing plans are based on monthly recurring charges (MRR). You can choose from three different pricing tiers: Basic (£25/mo), Shopify (£65/mo) or Advanced (£344/mo) – note that these are the prices per month, there’s a 25% discount if you pay annually. The higher tiers offer access to advanced features like payment processing, marketing automation tools and more advanced customisation options.
If you own a small business and want to start an online e-commerce site, Shopify might be the best product for you (though take a look at our guides to setting up an Etsy shop or using Amazon Marketplace) and in this article we provide a guide to the plans available.
Shopify Pricing Plans
Following are the Shopify pricing plans
- Shopify Lite
- Basic Shopify
- Shopify
- Advanced Shopify
- Shopify Plus
1. Shopify Lite
It is an excellent option if you’re not looking to spend much money and want to start selling online. Shopify Lite offers all the essential features that small businesses need to start selling online, including credit card processing, inventory management, etc.
Moreover, Shopify Lite is ideal for new or bootstrapped businesses that don’t have much money but still want their business up and running quickly. It costs £7 ($9) per month and offers
- One staff account
- Two store locations
- Discount codes and gift cards
- Invoices
- Reports
- Customer profiles.
However, you have to pay 2.9% and 30 cents as credit card fees in this plan. Shopify is not a complete online store but adds the buy button to make it functional for other blogs or websites.
2. Basic Shopify
The Basic Shopify plan is the most basic plan offered by Shopify. It’s designed for e-commerce stores that sell less than $2000 per month and don’t have transaction fees.
Basic Shopify costs £25 ($29) per month. If you still need to get sales, or if your business has low sales volume, this monthly Shopify plan is ideal. You’ll get all of Shopify Lite’s features and a dedicated customer support team.
You can have the following features with Basic Shopify.
- Two staff accounts
- Four store locations
- 77% max shipping discount
- Discount codes and gift cards
- Abandoned cart recovery
- Multiple sale channels
- Free SSL
- Website Builder
- Free credit card processing (1% fee)
- Free shipping on orders over $50 (2% fee)
However, it also costs 2% and 25pence credit card fees. The next step up from this plan is Professional Shopify ($49 / £65 per month). It includes all of the features of the Standard program plus enhanced customer support and more flexibility in term length (you can choose between one year or two years).
3. Shopify
The Shopify plan is an excellent option for small businesses selling online. They offer a wide range of tools and features, including customisable templates and app creation, which makes it easy to get started.
The company has excellent customer support, so you can expect quick responses from their team if you run into any problems with your account or app. They also offer 30-day free trials on all plans so that you can test out their platform without committing yourself financially.
After those 30 days have passed and things need to be fixed, or if they’re just not what’s advertised, Shopify will refund 100% of your money back in full. You can access the features with Shopify for £65 ($79) per month. Besides being affordable compared to other payment gateways, Shopify offers many other benefits, such as
- Five staff accounts
- Five store locations
- 88% max shipping discount
- 1.7% + 25 pence credit card fees
- Discount codes and gift cards
- Advanced reports and abandoned cart recovery
- Individual product pricing for international sales
- Free returns & exchanges
- Free customer support.
4. Advanced Shopify
Shopify Advanced is the best option for serious ecommerce businesses that need more control over their storefronts. It costs £344 ($299) per month and includes all of the features in Basic Shopify plus additional features that help you customise your store and grow your business.
With Advanced Shopify, you can
- Create custom shipping rules (e.g., only ship within the UK)
- Use pre-built templates to make updates easier
- Set up automatic product images & descriptions (with support for real-time translations)
- Embed video tutorials on different pages of your site so customers can learn how to use them without having to leave their page or click through multiple pages like many other ecommerce platforms do today.
- 15 staff accounts
- Eight store locations
- 1.5% + 25pence credit card fees
- Advanced report builder.
5. Shopify Plus Pricing Plan
Shopify Plus pricing is not a one-size-fits-all solution. It’s essential to understand the features your business needs and then select the plan that best suits your needs, but also remember that they’re all going to cost money.
Shopify Plus starts at $2000 per month, and the price increases with features added. However, you can access the following features with Shopify plus pricing plan.
- Staff accounts and store locations as needed
- Custom Shipping Discount
- Full online store
- Advanced reports and abandoned cart recovery
- Automated third-party shipping rates
- Discount codes and gift cards
- Optimised checkouts
- Built-in media for improved product pages
- Customisation tools
- Localised shopping experiences
The credit card fees vary according to the transactions. If you charge over $10,000 per month, you’ll pay 1.9% of the transaction amount (1.9% + 30 cents (per transaction) = 0.5%) for each sale that exceeds the $10,000 mark (e.g., if you charge $20,000, add a 0.5% fee on top of the non-sale price, or an extra $50 to get your total payment).
Also, the price of Shopify Plus includes free shipping on all orders over USD 100 (or equivalent). If your small business sells expensive or bulky items to ship out of the country (like food), this might not be the best option for you because it doesn’t cover those costs either.
Moreover, suppose your customer is buying more than one item at once from your store and pays with cash or credit card directly via Paypal or Square Wallet payments. In that case, this transaction has no additional fee or surcharge because it happens through third-party platforms like Stripe/Paypal, which already provide this service free of charge.
Extra Features
● Sell Unlimited Products
The first thing to note is that you can sell as many products as you like on this plan. Though Shopify Plus is the most expensive, it offers the most features.
This plan lets you access your storefront code so that you can use apps or edit your theme’s code directly — if you know how to code in HTML and CSS, that is (you’ll need some code skills to do it).
● Gift Cards
Gifts are a great way to increase sales. Moreover, customers can use them to buy products, and you can add them at no additional cost to your store. Gift cards work in any denomination, from $5 off the price of an item to $500 off an entire order.
You may wonder why gift cards are so popular with online shoppers. It is because they’re easy to use and carry around in their wallets or purses. If someone wants something specific from your store, they’ll have one option: buy it with cash (or another form of payment).
But if they have multiple items on their list but only have enough money for one or two things, then using cash won’t work out well because there is no guarantee that these items will fit into their budget either way, so why not just save up some extra cash instead?
● Professional Reports
The Professional Package includes professional reports. These can help you track your sales, analyse what’s working for your business and more. You’ll also get a free theme that you can use to customise the look of your store.
The second option on this list is called Gift Cards. This plan costs $19 per month but includes unlimited products, so there’s no limit to how many items you sell.
If you’re just starting, this might be the best option for your business. It’s also the most affordable option, but it comes with some caveats: Shopify Plus has the highest transaction fees, and its customer support could be better than other plans’ support teams. If those things are essential, then something other than Shopify Plus may suit you.
How to Pick the Best Pricing Plan?
When choosing a pricing plan, you must consider what kind of business and sales projections you have. You might have a simple e-commerce site with just one product selling well or an online store with multiple products. If so, the most suitable plan will be determined by how much each product costs and how much support from Shopify would be required.
If your goal is making more money and growing your brand through increased sales volume, then more expensive plans may be right. However, as long as these requirements are met, there should not be any issues when choosing between different plans since they all provide similar functionality at different prices.
Best Pricing Plan For Small Businesses
When it comes to selecting a Shopify pricing plan, there are three options:
- Shopify Lite: This option is excellent for smaller businesses that don’t need one store and don’t want to pay for extra features like analytics or custom domain names. It’s also the least expensive option, so you can start with this plan and add on as needed later on if your business grows.
- Advanced Shopify. If you have more than one store or need more features than the Lite plan offers, then Advanced Shopify could be right for you. You’ll still get access to all of the basic functionality provided by the other programs and tools, such as e-commerce plugins and an enhanced admin panel (which provides additional functionality like product customization). However, remember that these features aren’t free. They will cost extra per month depending on how much they benefit your business needs.
- Basic Shopify. If none of these options sounds good enough yet, but you still want some basic functionality without spending too much money on them (or if someone else has already paid up), this might be what they need.
Shopify Apps
Shopify Apps are third-party applications that can be added to your store to help you run your business more efficiently. They are like apps on your phone and can help you manage inventory, create shipping labels and process orders.
Some plugins by Shopify are free, whereas you have to pay for the advanced ones. The most popular ones are Facebook & Instagram, Shopify Email, Point Of Sale, Buy Button Channel, Google Channel, Shopify Inbox, Pinterest, DSers, etc.
You can use these apps according to your business and the client’s demands. Shopify staff uses Cohley: Automate & Test Emails, FAVS Wishlist Bar, Omega: Twitter Timeline, etc. The list of their apps is vast, and you can find both free and paid for your business.
Conclusion
If you run a small business and are looking for the best plan, Shopify has got you covered. You can buy Shopify Lite, Basic Shopify, or Advanced Shopify according to the needs of your business. They charge you in dollars per month.
Moreover, other packages, such as Shopify Plus, are great for larger businesses, providing more advanced features and costing you more. However, the basic and advanced plan has all the necessary features to run a successful small business.
This article covers all the details about Shopify pricing plans and how to choose the right one for your small business. It contains information about what each plan includes, as well as tips on how to find the best-suited plan for your needs.
