We’re going to jump into the in’s and out’s of all the Shopify plans that are available to merchants.
Whether you’re just getting started, or looking to upgrade your current Shopify membership – here are all the things you need to know about Shopify plans and their *payment methods.
*Disclaimer: All plans include monthly and yearly payment options – so if your budget is on the tight side, or you need flexibility, you can opt for monthly payments to stay more liquid rather than paying on yearly lump sum that may be cheaper but eat away at your reserves.
Shopify Starter Plan Costs
The Shopify Starter plan is the most inexpensive option that Shopify offers. It comes to $5 per month.
It is ideal for businesses who want to get their products online quickly! And when we say quickly, we mean in a matter of minutes! You do not need any code for the setup. It is much more of a ‘add an image and a title and be on your jolly way’ with the Shopify Starter Plan.
You can sell your products on any online portal you can think of, whether it’s through Etsy and LinkedIn or TikTok and WhatsApp. Improve upon how online visitors can shop with you by additionally adding a Linkpop URL to any bio. This is a free tool that can be used to make a shoppable landing page which can be accessed through social media apps.
This plan allows merchants to have access to:
- A simple storefront
- No cap on the number of product pages
- Fast and secure checkout process
- A page for content on customer inquiries
- Linkpop
- Being able to use Shopify apps
- Order management system
- Order fulfillment system
The Shopify Starter Plan is a great way to test your business and see if it has some legs to stand on. Once you are more established and have a customer base that you feel you can rely on, then you can upgrade to the next plan by Shopify, Basic Shopify, which offers more functionality.
Basic Shopify Costs
The Basic Shopify plan comes in at a price point of $29 a month. On top of that, there’s 2% a revenue share, which can be offset by using Shopify payments though, which is an additional revenue related fee on top of the fixed monthly amount.
This is the ideal plan for merchants who have a smaller budget who still want good functionality and like the idea of having many products on their site. Attractive for merchants who work well with email, as the ‘abandoned cart recovery tool’ will give merchants saved contact information of customers who have left their cart without purchasing.
This plan allows merchants to have access to:
- Creating a shopping website with Shopify
- No limit to the number of products online
- Discount codes
- Fraud analysis tools
- Abandoned cart recovery tool
- Free SSL certificate
- Manual order creation
- Shipping labels
- And more
There is 24/7 phone, email and live chat support available in this plan.
If you’re going for the basic plan, you can still solve many things on your own. You might want some basic modifications on your store, though. Your main source for this would be the Shopify app store and Shopify theme store. In some cases, it might even make sense to hire a Shopify expert to do some customization.
Shopify Costs
The Shopify plan makes a small jump now and comes in at $79 a month. There’s again a revenue share, yet it’s just 1%, and it can still be offset by using Shopify payments.
It’s a great option for businesses that have an interest in scaling up quickly and needing a plan with slightly more capabilities to match their growth pace. It is ideal for those who are making a monthly revenue of $5000 per month or more.
This plan allows merchants to have access to:
- All Basic Shopify offers
+ - Create gift cards
- Great insight into business analysis
- Professional reporting
- Multiple employee accounts
- And more
There is 24/7 phone, email and live chat support available in this plan.
At this stage, you probably want to get more out of your Shopify setup. Maybe you even want professional help setting up the store. This is where Shopify experts and agencies come in. They can assist you in any of the customization that you need on your store – whether it’s the tweaking of the layout or improving on the functionality of your store.
Advanced Shopify Costs
The Advanced Shopify plan now makes a considerable jump and is $299 a month. Again, there’s a reduced revenue share of 0.5% that can be offset by using Shopify payments.
If you are a growing company that is doing a decent amount of online business, this plan is suitable for you. The plan allows for third party calculated shipping rates, so you can build more detailed shipping scenarios on it. Combined with the possibility to set different prices for different countries, this truly enables you for international sales. It also comes with advanced reporting features, which will help you track and plan the future in terms of sales and marketing even better. Advanced Shopify is mainly meant for businesses of high expectations or with a monthly turnover of $10 000 a month.
This plan allows merchants to have access to:
- All Shopify offers
+ - Real time calculated shipping rates through third parties
- Advanced report builder
- Unlimited number of products
- Back-end admin access for up to 15 separate users
- And more
There is 24/7 phone, email and live chat support available in this plan.
When you’re on the Advanced Shopify plan, your online store should bring in a sizable amount of revenue. Thus, it makes sense to customize and optimize it to your and your customer's requirements, to get the most out of your setup. You should think about using a custom design and replace any frontend apps that might slow down your store with your own solution. You should definitely consider bringing in a Shopify agency to help you with this more tech heavy customization and any design/functionality changes.
Shopify Plus Costs
This plan will cost you the most, but also give you the most. It starts at $2000 per month and again includes a revenue share, which works differently than with the other plans, though. (If you want to learn more about the details of price calculation with Shopify plus, we invite you to read our post on Shopify Plus pricing.)
A solid, robust, future-proof, engineered plan that is designed for enterprises with high volumes and/or high growth. It is the only Shopify plan you can get into through application only, instead of just signing up through their website.
Shopify Plus is a fantastic option for businesses with a very high budget and monthly revenue of about $100 000 per month or more – so anyone doing big business through their online store. Shopify Plus comes with up to 10 storefronts and an additional wholesale channel (however, it does have some limitations when it comes to more advanced B2B requirements). This plan can handle a lot of traffic, so it’s ideal for businesses with high volumes and the highest expectations.
This plan allows merchants to have access to:
- All Advanced Shopify offers
+ - Easy to implement and migrate information
- Built-in automation tools
- Even more custom fulfillment options
- Features for a global online presence
- Advanced data records
- Even tighter security features
- A dedicated support team
- SaaS power
- Endless employee accounts
- Up to 10 storefronts
- Wholesale channel
- And more
Get the most support with a Merchant Success Manager, Launch Manager There is 24/7 phone, email and live chat support available in this plan.
With a Shopify Plus plan, you can get access to a lot of nifty features that can help you take your business to the next level. With the amount of revenue going through your store on this plan, you need to focus your time on the things that really matter: growing your business. So, we highly recommend hiring a tech team to make the changes your website needs, as any small improvement can have a massive impact on your success. You need to let professionals handle that side of your business, which is exactly where an agency like ours comes in. We can handle the tech side of things and help you build and improve your store.
Furthermore, whilst Shopify Plus may have a wholesale option, it is important to note that certain limitations come with this, as Shopify is built more for B2C in general. Still, many businesses on the Plus plan ask for a B2B option. And there is an ‘Especial’ way around these limitations – Going Headless. This is the process of decoupling your front-end with your back-end and essentially building you a tailor made user interface that can include all the B2B commerce features you need.
Conclusion – Shopify x Especial
Shopify is a phenomenal E-Commerce platform with 5 different plans available to merchants depending on their needs and their budget. It is important to decipher between them and choose one that suits your business best.
Generally, you should consider the larger plans as your business is growing, and you’re making more money from your store. From the advanced plan on, you can highly benefit from customizations to get the most out of Shopify. This is where agencies like ours come in.
We’re honestly best suited to help your business from the advanced plan up, as is where requirements tend to become more detailed and you can really benefit from bespoke solutions. These require a capable tech team, which is exactly what we are – highly capable, highly creative and always ready to answer any tech questions you may have.
We would love to be considered as your agency partner, whether it’s to set up a website on the existing Shopify plus platform or if you’re rather after something more bespoke – either way, we’d love to hear from you. Should you need any consulting when making this decision, please do not hesitate to contact us on hello@especial.digital or contact us through our contact form.
