Of all the eCommerce platforms on the web, Shopify holds true as one of the best year after year. Shopify is one of the most reliable eCommerce platforms on the web, and offers the greatest ease of use.
New eCommerce entrepreneurs and seasoned veterans alike have something to gain from using Shopify, but all of those fantastic features do come at a price. After you’ve exhausted your 14-day free Shopify trial, you’ll need to decide on your monthly plan if you wish to stay with the service.
Fortunately, Shopify offers several pricing plans. Each plan comes with its own set of benefits, and Shopify offers pricing to fit almost every budget.
But which Shopify pricing plan is best for your store? Can you get away with using their least-expensive plan, or should you invest more each month to cover your bases?
We’re taking an in-depth look at Shopify’s pricing model to see which plans are the best deal. The best plan for your brand will depend on your monthly needs, so let’s take a look at which Shopify pricing model is best for you.
Shopify Pricing Plans: Lite, Basic, Professional, Advanced, & Plus
As of the time of writing, Shopify offers five monthly plans: Lite, Basic, Professional, Advanced, and Plus.
Each monthly plan is priced differently according to its features. More fully-featured plans will cost more per month, but many businesses can thrive on Shopify’s entry-level tiers.
The right pricing plan for you will depend on what you’re selling and how many customers and site visitors you have each month. Let’s take a look at each plan’s features, and which types of online sellers they’re best suited for.
Shopify Lite ($9 Per Month)
Shopify Lite is an excellent option for anyone just breaking into eCommerce. At just $9 a month, it’s not a huge financial commitment, but it’s enough to get your store up-and-running. Currently, the Lite plan has been replaced by the Shopify Starter plan with only $5 per month and has almost the same features as Shopify Lite.
What Features Can I Expect?
This entry-level plan isn’t the best option for everyone, but it does come with plenty of useful features:
Sell on Facebook – Shopify Lite let’s you showcase and sell your products directly from your Facebook page, featuring your products on the new Facebook Shop section.
Facebook Messenger Customer Support – Social media customer service is on the rise. With Shopify Lite, you get access to specialized Facebook customer Support features, provided through the Messenger platform.
Sell with Buy Buttons – The Shopify Lite plan let’s you embed your products on any site, allowing shoppers to buy it directly from that location. Using this feature, you can turn any website into an online store.
Accept Credit Cards on Mobile Devices – Using Shopify’s Point-of-Sale mobile app, you can accept credit card payments on your personal or business device anytime, anywhere.
Create Invoices – Create and send invoices to your customers and easily accept payment.
Pros & Cons of Shopify Lite
Pros:
Budget-friendly.
Low-risk.
Enough features to get anyone started.
Cons:
Won’t support larger stores.
Doesn’t come with an online store.
Lacks many features of the Basic Shopify plan.
Who Should Use it?
The Shopify Lite plan is best for eCommerce newcomers on a budget. It doesn’t let you build your own online store like the Shopify Basic plan does, so you’ll need a standalone website to sell your products.
If you already have a website and you want to turn it into an eCommerce store, the Shopify Lite plan is a good place to start. However, the Basic or Professional plan might be better if you need an online store and you already have a large customer base purchasing from your brand.
Shopify Basic ($29 Per Month)
The Shopify Basic plan costs about three times as much as the Lite plan, but its additional features make it worth the extra expenditure. In addition to all of the features in the Lite plan, the Shopify Basic plan let’s you create your own online store using Shopify’s store builder, making it a better option for many brands.
What Features Can I Expect?
In addition to all of the features in the Shopify Lite plan, the Basic plan comes with:
An Online Storefront – Create your very own eCommerce store to represent your brand.
Themes and Theme Editors – Don’t know code? No problem. With the Shopify Basic plan, you get access to themes and theme editors which can help you make your online store look exactly like you want it to.
Built-in Blogging Engine – No online store is complete without a blog. With Shopify Basic, you can get started blogging from your store right away, thanks to their built-in blogging engine.
Upload Unlimited Products – Feature as many products as you wish on your Shopify site with this plan.
Pros & Cons of Shopify Basic
Pros:
Budget-friendly for most brands.
Suitable for most entry-level entrepreneurs, without lacking features.
No coding experience necessary to design an attractive Shopify store.
Comes with 1GB of storage and two staff accounts.
Cons:
Three times as expensive as the Shopify Lite plan.
Lacking many key features found in the Professional and Advanced Shopify plans.
Might not suit some larger brands.
Who Should Use It?
The Shopify Basic Plan is best for entry-level entrepreneurs who haven’t yet built their own eCommerce storefront. It’s also an excellent option for anyone without coding or WordPress experience, as the Shopify themes and website building tools are very straightforward and easy for anyone to use.
Larger brands in need of more advanced features might want to consider one of Shopify’s more advanced plans. While the Basic plan is a great option for small eCommerce brands, bigger businesses will benefit from the additional features of Shopify’s advanced plans.
Shopify Professional ($79 Per Month)
At nearly $80 per month, Shopify Professional is generally reserved for online businesses with significant revenue. This plan comes with all of the features in Shopify’s entry-level plans, but it comes with additional features like abandoned cart recovery and gift cards as well.
What Features Can I Expect?
For $79 per month, the Shopify Professional plan delivers all of the features from the two entry-level packages as well as numerous benefits of its own:
Discounted Credit Card Rate – You’ll pay less in fees to Shopify for each transaction, thanks to the Professional plan’s reduced credit card rate. If you make a lot of sales, these savings can really add up over the course of a month.
Gift Cards – Sell and accept gift cards with the Professional plan.
Abandoned Cart Recovery – Combat cart abandonment with Shopify’s built-in cart recovery tools.
Pros & Cons of Shopify Professional
Pros:
Offers more features than Shopify’s entry-level plans.
Can pay for itself each month, thanks to the reduced credit card rate it offers.
Comes with 5GB of storage and five staff accounts.
Cons:
Costs nearly twice as much as the Shopify Basic plan.
Isn’t suitable for small businesses with few sales.
Lacks some key features found in Shopify’s most advanced plans.
Who Should Use It?
The Shopify Professional plan is best suited for companies with hundreds of sales and lots of products to sell. It’s also a great choice for small businesses scaling quickly, as the reduced credit card rate makes it worth the extra cost each month for businesses scaling quickly enough.
Ultimately, the Professional plan isn’t suitable for small businesses on a tight budget, making relatively few monthly sales. The extra features can be beneficial, but until you’re making enough sales to compensate for the increased monthly fee, the Basic plan is probably enough to suit your store’s needs.
Advanced Shopify ($299 Per Month)
At $299 per month, the Advanced Shopify plan is not for everyone. It offers numerous advanced features you won’t find in the Professional plan, but most of these benefits are only valuable to very large companies.
What Features Can I Expect?
The Advanced Shopify plan offers all of the features of the plans below it, with many others to make it more suitable for large businesses.
Large businesses in need of unlimited storage, advanced reports, and real-time carrier shipping should consider the Shopify Advanced Plan. The goal of this plan is to give large brands the tools they need to roll out new products, manage sales, and optimize their store to the narrowest degree.
With the Shopify Advanced plan, you’ll also have lower credit card fees than the Basic or Professional plans. With time, these reduced fees can cover the extra cost of the plan each month.
Pros & Cons of the Advanced Shopify Plan
Pros:
Features unlimited storage and product uploads.
Very low credit card fees, compared to the other plans.
Offers an advanced report builder.
Cons:
Only features 15 staff accounts.
Requires a much larger budget than the lesser Shopify plans.
Who Should Use It?
The Advanced Shopify plan should be reserved for only the largest brands. Your business should be making enough sales each month to make the reduced credit card rate worth the extra monthly fee you’ll pay for this plan.
Businesses introducing new products on a regular basis might consider the Advanced Shopify plan, thanks to its unlimited storage and product uploads. Unless you’re making hundreds of sales every month and you’re uploading more data than the limits on less plans can provide, you might consider waiting until your brand grows to upgrade to the Advanced Shopify plan.
Shopify Plus (Price Varies)
The Shopify Plus plan is Shopify’s enterprise tier, and it’s reserved for very large businesses with hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue per month.
Most businesses don’t need the features offered by the Shopify Plus plan. With this plan, brands won’t experience any transaction or credit card feeds, and they’ll receive 200TB of storage to host their site – much more data than any small business could use.
This plan isn’t designed with order management in mind, but rather focuses on the marketing and design aspects of eCommerce. With this plan, your site will be fully hosted with Shopify, and they’ll help you manage and set-up your store every step along the way.
While Shopify doesn’t rule out small team for their Shopify Plus plan, they traditionally reserve it for very large businesses because of the resources it requires (the Los Angeles Lakers host their site using the Shopify Plus plan, as a frame of reference). If you think your brand is large enough to warrant the Shopify Plus plan, you’ll want to give them a call to get a pricing quote.
Final Thoughts on Shopify Pricing
It’s unfortunate Shopify can’t be free, but they do offer enough plans to cover entrepreneurs with all budgets.
Don’t feel like you need to select the most expensive Shopify pricing plan because you don’t think the entry-level ones will suit your needs. You can always upgrade your plan when necessary, and Shopify’s entry-level plans are fully-featured enough to support your store until you’re ready to upgrade.
Write down your store’s needs and compare them to each of Shopify’s pricing plans. The best plan for you should meet all of your store’s needs without exceeding your budget.
