All Shopify Plans at a Glance (2026)

Choosing the right Shopify plan in 2026 is one of the most important financial decisions you'll make as an ecommerce seller. Pick too low and you'll overpay in transaction fees. Pick too high and you'll waste hundreds of dollars every month on features you don't need. This guide gives you the real numbers — not Shopify's marketing copy.

Shopify currently offers four main subscription tiers for merchants: Basic Shopify ($39/month), the Shopify Plan ($105/month), Advanced Shopify ($399/month), and Shopify Plus (from $2,300/month). There is also a Starter plan ($5/month) for social selling only — we'll cover that briefly, but it's not suitable for a full online store.

All prices below are for monthly billing. Annual billing saves you approximately 25% across all plans, which is significant at higher tiers. If you're committed to Shopify for at least a year, the annual plan almost always wins on paper.

Feature Basic
$39/mo		 Shopify
$105/mo		 Advanced
$399/mo		 Plus
$2,300/mo
Monthly price (billed monthly) $39 $105 $399 $2,300+
Annual price (per month) $29 $79 $299 $2,000+
Transaction fee (3rd-party gateway) 2.0% 1.0% 0.5% 0.15%
Shopify Payments credit card rate (online) 2.9% + 30¢ 2.6% + 30¢ 2.4% + 30¢ 2.15% + 30¢
Shopify Payments in-person rate 2.6% 2.5% 2.4% Custom
Staff accounts 2 5 15 Unlimited
Inventory locations 10 10 10 200
Advanced report builder ✗ ✗ ✓ ✓
Third-party calculated shipping rates ✗ ✗ ✓ ✓
Checkout extensibility Limited Limited Full Full + custom
Shopify Markets (international) 3 markets 3 markets 3 markets 50 markets
B2B / Wholesale ✗ ✗ ✗ ✓
Shopify Audiences ✗ ✗ ✗ ✓

Note: All prices are USD, billed monthly. UK pricing is billed in GBP at roughly equivalent market rates (Basic £25/mo, Shopify £65/mo, Advanced £244/mo on annual billing). Transaction fees apply when not using Shopify Payments.

Basic Shopify — $39/month

The Basic Shopify plan is the entry-level paid tier and the right starting point for the vast majority of new Shopify sellers. At $39 per month (or $29/month on an annual plan), it gives you a fully functional online store with all the core features you need to start selling.

What Basic Shopify includes

You get an online store with unlimited products, two staff accounts, basic reports, and 10 inventory locations. Shopify Payments is available, which means you can accept credit card payments without a transaction fee. The online card rate with Shopify Payments is 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction — standard for the industry.

If you choose to use a third-party payment gateway (like PayPal, Stripe, or Square) instead of Shopify Payments, Shopify adds a 2% transaction fee on top of whatever your gateway charges. This is the most important cost consideration for new sellers and is the reason most Basic plan users should stick with Shopify Payments unless they have a strong reason not to.

💡 Basic Plan Best For: New sellers, side hustlers, and small stores doing under $5,000–$10,000 per month in revenue. If you're just launching, start here and upgrade when the transaction fee savings justify the higher plan cost.

Basic Shopify — Real monthly cost example

Selling $3,000/month on Basic with Shopify Payments:
— Plan fee: $39
— Card processing (2.9% + 30¢ per order, ~100 orders): ~$117
— Total monthly cost: ~$156

The same store using a third-party gateway adds $60/month in transaction fees (2% × $3,000), making the real cost $216/month — a significant penalty for not using Shopify Payments.

Shopify Plan — $105/month

The Shopify plan at $105/month (or $79/month annually) is the mid-tier option and often the most misunderstood in the lineup. The biggest upgrade is the transaction fee dropping from 2% to 1% for third-party gateways, plus a lower card rate with Shopify Payments (2.6% + 30¢ vs 2.9% + 30¢).

You also get 5 staff accounts instead of 2, and access to professional reports. However, the advanced report builder and third-party calculated shipping rates are still locked behind the Advanced plan. For most growing brands, this plan covers everything they need between $10,000 and $100,000/month in sales.

💡 Shopify Plan Best For: Growing stores doing $5,000–$60,000/month. The card rate improvement and expanded staff seats make it worthwhile at this volume. If you use third-party payments, the break-even versus Basic is around $6,600/month in sales.

When does upgrading from Basic to Shopify pay off?

The price difference between plans is $66/month. With Shopify Payments, the card rate improves from 2.9% to 2.6% — a 0.3% saving. To save $66/month, you need:

$66 ÷ 0.003 = $22,000/month in sales to break even on card fees alone. At lower volumes, the Shopify plan costs more than it saves. However, if you're also using a third-party gateway (1% fee difference × $66 break-even = $6,600/month), the upgrade pencils out sooner.

Advanced Shopify — $399/month

The Advanced Shopify plan at $399/month (or $299/month annually) is designed for high-volume stores that need serious analytics and operational flexibility. It cuts the third-party gateway transaction fee to just 0.5% and the Shopify Payments rate to 2.4% + 30¢.

The two features that genuinely separate Advanced from the lower tiers are the advanced report builder and third-party calculated shipping rates. The report builder lets you create fully custom reports — essential once you're managing thousands of SKUs, multiple warehouses, or complex customer cohorts. Third-party calculated shipping pulls live rates from carriers at checkout, reducing abandoned carts caused by inaccurate shipping estimates.

You also get 15 staff accounts, which matters for teams with dedicated marketing, fulfilment, and customer service roles. The checkout can be more extensively customized through Shopify's Checkout Extensibility platform, including checkout.liquid — a capability that's restricted on lower plans.

💡 Advanced Plan Best For: Stores doing $100,000+/month in sales, merchants with complex shipping needs, or businesses running multiple international markets where custom reporting is essential. The plan fee is steep, but the transaction fee savings can offset it rapidly at this volume.

Advanced plan — break-even calculation

Upgrading from Shopify ($105) to Advanced ($399) costs $294/month more. With Shopify Payments, the card rate drops 0.2% (from 2.6% to 2.4%). To save $294/month in card fees:

$294 ÷ 0.002 = $147,000/month in sales. That's a high bar. However, for merchants using third-party gateways, the 0.5% fee difference versus Shopify plan's 1% means break-even at $294 ÷ 0.005 = $58,800/month.

Shopify Plus — from $2,300/month

Shopify Plus is the enterprise tier, starting at $2,300/month for merchants doing up to $800,000/month in GMV, then scaling to a revenue-based fee of 0.25% of monthly GMV above that threshold. It's designed for brands doing $1 million+ in annual revenue who need enterprise-grade reliability, support, and customization.

The transaction fee on Plus drops to just 0.15% for third-party gateways. For a merchant processing $500,000/month through a non-Shopify gateway, that's $750/month in fees versus $2,500/month on Advanced — a $1,750 saving that almost covers the plan upgrade cost on its own.

What Shopify Plus actually gets you

Beyond fees, Plus unlocks B2B wholesale channels, Shopify Audiences (a first-party audience targeting tool that connects to Meta and Google Ads), up to 50 international markets with localized checkout, dedicated merchant success management, and 99.99% uptime SLAs. For brands at this scale, the platform stability and dedicated support alone are often worth the price.

Shopify Plus also includes access to Launchpad (automated flash sales and campaigns), Flow (no-code automation builder at enterprise scale), Transporter for bulk data migration, and a fully customizable checkout that can be modified at the code level — something that's simply not possible on any lower plan in 2026.

💡 Shopify Plus Best For: Established brands doing $1M+ annually, businesses with B2B or wholesale requirements, international merchants managing multiple storefronts, and any store where custom checkout logic is a business requirement.

Transaction Fee Breakdown by Plan

The transaction fee is where most sellers make or lose money on their Shopify plan choice. Let's put real numbers to this. The table below shows the annual cost of Shopify's transaction fee at different sales volumes, assuming you use a third-party payment gateway.

Monthly Sales Basic (2%) Shopify (1%) Advanced (0.5%) Plus (0.15%)
$1,000 $20/mo $10/mo $5/mo $1.50/mo
$5,000 $100/mo $50/mo $25/mo $7.50/mo
$20,000 $400/mo $200/mo $100/mo $30/mo
$50,000 $1,000/mo $500/mo $250/mo $75/mo
$200,000 $4,000/mo $2,000/mo $1,000/mo $300/mo

Green = likely the right plan at this volume. Red = overpaying significantly. Note: most sellers using Shopify Payments avoid these fees entirely — these apply only to third-party gateways.

The key insight here is that using Shopify Payments eliminates transaction fees on every plan. The table above only applies if you process payments through PayPal, Stripe, or another external provider. If you're based in a country where Shopify Payments is available (US, UK, Canada, Australia, and most of Europe), using it is almost always the right financial decision.

Which Shopify Plan Should You Choose in 2026?

🟩 Basic — $39/mo
$39/month
Best for new stores under $20k/month
  • ✅ Starting out or validating a product idea
  • ✅ Using Shopify Payments (no transaction fee)
  • ✅ Solo operator or 1–2 person team
  • ✅ Under $20k/month sales
  • ❌ Need advanced reporting or calculated shipping
🟢 Shopify — $105/mo Popular
$105/month
Best for growing stores $10k–$100k/month
  • ✅ Growing team needing 5 staff accounts
  • ✅ Using third-party payment gateway at $6k+/month
  • ✅ Need professional reports for business decisions
  • ✅ Scaling toward $50k/month
  • ❌ Need custom shipping rates at checkout
🔷 Advanced — $399/mo
$399/month
Best for high-volume stores $100k+/month
  • ✅ $100k+ monthly sales volume
  • ✅ Complex shipping with carrier-calculated rates
  • ✅ Team of 15+ people
  • ✅ Custom reporting and deep analytics
  • ❌ Don't need B2B or Plus-exclusive automation
⭐ Plus — from $2,300/mo
$2,300/month
Best for enterprise brands $1M+/year
  • ✅ $1M+ annual revenue
  • ✅ Need B2B / wholesale storefronts
  • ✅ Multiple international markets
  • ✅ Custom checkout and enterprise automation
  • ✅ Dedicated merchant success manager

Shopify Payments vs Third-Party Gateways in 2026

The single most important decision affecting your Shopify costs is whether you use Shopify Payments or a third-party payment gateway. Let's look at the real numbers on a $10,000/month store on the Basic plan:

Using Shopify Payments:
Card processing: 2.9% + 30¢ per order (~200 orders at avg $50) = $290 + $60 = $350
Transaction fee: $0
Plan fee: $39
Total: $389/month

Using PayPal or Stripe (third-party):
Stripe processing: 2.9% + 30¢ = $350 (same as above)
Shopify transaction fee (2%): $200
Plan fee: $39
Total: $589/month

That's a $200/month difference — $2,400 per year — simply from the gateway choice on a $10,000/month store. At $50,000/month, the difference is $1,000/month or $12,000/year just in transaction fees.

Shopify Payments is available in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Austria, Switzerland, and Czech Republic as of 2026. If you're in one of these markets, use it.

⚠️ When Third-Party Gateways Make Sense: Some merchants have legitimate reasons to use external gateways — selling in a country where Shopify Payments isn't available, selling high-risk products, needing specific fraud tools, or managing subscriptions through a dedicated billing platform. In these cases, factor the transaction fee into your plan choice and consider upgrading to reduce it.

Hidden Costs of Shopify Most Sellers Miss

The plan fee and transaction fees are obvious. But most Shopify sellers are surprised by how much they spend on top of the base subscription. Here are the costs that don't show up in Shopify's plan comparison pages:

1. Shopify Apps

The average Shopify merchant uses 6–10 apps, and many of the most useful ones aren't free. Email marketing (Klaviyo starts at $45/month), reviews (Judge.me Pro is $15/month), upsells (frequently $20–$50/month), loyalty programs, returns management, subscription billing — these can easily add $100–$500/month to your total cost of running a Shopify store. Always factor this into your plan comparison.

2. Shopify Email

Shopify includes 10,000 free emails per month. After that, you pay $1 per 1,000 emails. If you have a large email list and send frequently, this can add up — or push you toward a third-party email provider, which is typically more cost-effective at scale anyway.

3. Themes

Premium Shopify themes cost $180–$380 as a one-time purchase. Free themes are available but have significant design limitations. Most serious stores invest in a premium theme within the first year.

4. Domain Name

Shopify charges $14–$22/year for domain registration through their platform, which is competitive. However, your existing domain registrar may be cheaper. This is a minor cost but worth noting.

5. Chargeback Fees

Each chargeback costs $15 through Shopify Payments, regardless of whether you win or lose the dispute. On higher-volume stores, chargebacks can become a meaningful monthly cost. Shopify Plus includes Shopify Protect, which covers chargebacks from fraudulent orders automatically — another hidden Plus benefit for high-volume sellers.

6. POS Hardware (if selling in person)

If you sell at markets, pop-ups, or a physical location, the Shopify POS card reader starts at $49. The full POS terminal is $459. These are one-time costs but matter for omnichannel sellers comparing platforms.

When to Upgrade Your Shopify Plan

The right time to upgrade depends almost entirely on which variable is creating the cost pain — transaction fees, feature gaps, or staff limits. Here's a simple decision framework:

Upgrade Basic → Shopify when:

  • You're using a third-party gateway and doing $6,600+/month in sales (the 1% fee saving pays for the upgrade)
  • You need more than 2 staff accounts with individual permissions
  • You want professional reports to understand which products, channels, or customer segments are most profitable
  • Your card-on-file Shopify Payments savings hit $66/month ($22,000+ monthly sales)

Upgrade Shopify → Advanced when:

  • You genuinely need third-party calculated shipping rates at checkout — this alone reduces cart abandonment significantly for stores with variable shipping costs
  • You've outgrown the standard report builder and need custom analytics pipelines
  • Using a third-party gateway at $58,800+/month (0.5% fee saving vs 1% pays for the $294 plan difference)
  • Your team has grown to 10+ staff needing separate Shopify access

Consider Shopify Plus when:

  • You're processing $1M+/year and the $2,300/month fee is less than what you'd spend on Advanced plus the apps it replaces
  • B2B or wholesale is a significant revenue channel requiring dedicated storefronts
  • International expansion into 10+ markets where localized checkout is critical
  • Custom checkout logic is a hard business requirement (subscription flows, age gating, complex discounting rules, etc.)
✅ Rule of Thumb: Start on Basic, use Shopify Payments, and don't upgrade until the math clearly justifies it. Most stores under $20k/month are overpaying if they're on the Shopify plan without a third-party gateway.

Calculate Your Actual Shopify Profit

Use our free Shopify profit calculator — enter your plan, product cost, price, and fees. See your real margin instantly.

🟢 Open Shopify Calculator

Shopify vs Etsy — Which Is More Profitable in 2026?

This is the most common comparison question we get at ProfitCalcu. The short answer is that Etsy and Shopify solve different problems — and the "more profitable" answer depends on where your traffic comes from.

Etsy's built-in traffic is its biggest advantage. If you're selling handmade, vintage, or craft products, Etsy's 90+ million active buyers already come to the platform searching for exactly what you make. You don't need to pay for ads to get your first sales. Etsy charges a 6.5% transaction fee, a $0.20 listing fee per item, and 3% + $0.25 for payment processing — totalling roughly 10–12% of revenue per sale.

Shopify's biggest advantage is fee structure at scale. With Shopify Payments on the Basic plan, you pay 2.9% + 30¢ per order — roughly 3–4% total versus 10–12% on Etsy. On a $50 product, that's a $3.50 difference per sale. Sell 500 units per month and you're keeping $1,750 more on Shopify — but you're also paying $39/month for the plan and, more critically, spending money to drive your own traffic (ads, SEO, social media).

The breakeven between Etsy and Shopify is typically around $3,000–$5,000/month in sales, assuming you're already spending on paid traffic. Below that, Etsy's built-in audience often delivers better ROI. Above it, Shopify's lower fees and brand ownership make it more profitable.

Many successful sellers run both simultaneously — Etsy to capture organic marketplace traffic, Shopify for repeat customers, email marketing, and higher-margin direct sales. Read our full comparison: Etsy vs Shopify — Which Platform Is More Profitable in 2026 →

Frequently Asked Questions — Shopify Plans 2026

Which Shopify plan is best for beginners in 2026?
The Basic Shopify plan at $39/month is ideal for beginners. It includes everything you need to run a full online store — unlimited products, Shopify Payments (no transaction fee), a free SSL certificate, and discount codes. Upgrade only when the math justifies it based on your sales volume and gateway choice.
Does Shopify charge a transaction fee if I use Shopify Payments?
No. Shopify waives the transaction fee entirely if you use Shopify Payments as your payment processor. You only pay the card processing rate (2.9% + 30¢ on Basic, 2.6% + 30¢ on Shopify plan, 2.4% + 30¢ on Advanced). The 2% / 1% / 0.5% transaction fees only apply when using a third-party gateway like PayPal, Stripe, or Square.
Is Shopify's annual plan worth it?
If you're confident you'll run your Shopify store for at least a year, the annual plan saves you roughly 25%. On the Basic plan that's $120/year. On the Shopify plan it's $312/year. On Advanced it's $1,200/year. For established stores, the annual plan is almost always the smarter financial choice.
Can I downgrade my Shopify plan after upgrading?
Yes. You can change your Shopify plan at any time through your admin settings. If you downgrade mid-billing cycle, Shopify will prorate the difference. However, any features that require a higher plan (like the advanced report builder or calculated shipping) will stop working when you downgrade — plan accordingly before making the switch.
What is the cheapest way to sell on Shopify in 2026?
The cheapest full-store option is the Basic annual plan at $29/month effective, using Shopify Payments to avoid transaction fees. If you only need to sell through social media or an existing website (not a full storefront), the Shopify Starter plan at $5/month is even cheaper — but it doesn't include a standalone online store.
Does Shopify charge extra fees for selling internationally?
Shopify doesn't charge extra fees purely for international sales. However, if you accept multiple currencies, Shopify Payments charges a 1.5% currency conversion fee (waived on Shopify Plus). Also note that selling in currencies other than your payout currency means conversion costs on your end — factor this in when pricing international markets.
How much does Shopify take per sale?
With Shopify Payments on the Basic plan, Shopify takes 2.9% + $0.30 per online transaction — approximately 3.5–4% on a typical $30–$50 sale. There are no additional transaction fees on top of that. If you use a third-party gateway, Shopify also charges 0.5%–2% depending on your plan. Read our full guide: Shopify Transaction Fees 2026 — Full Guide →

Bottom Line — Shopify Plan Comparison 2026

Choosing the right Shopify plan comes down to three variables: your monthly sales volume, whether you use Shopify Payments, and which specific features your business actually needs.

For most sellers reading this in 2026, the advice is simple: start on Basic with Shopify Payments. This gives you a fully functional store at the lowest cost, with no transaction fees. As your sales grow, run the numbers before upgrading — the break-even point is higher than most sellers expect, particularly for merchants using Shopify Payments where the card rate difference between plans is small.

If you're using a third-party gateway, upgrading makes financial sense sooner — the 1% fee reduction from Basic to Shopify pays for the $66/month plan difference at just $6,600/month in sales. At higher volumes, Advanced becomes compelling.

And if you're running $1M+ per year, take a hard look at Shopify Plus. The fee structure, B2B tools, and enterprise support can generate real ROI at that scale — but run the numbers carefully before committing to $27,600/year in base plan fees.

Use our free Shopify profit calculator to model your specific numbers — enter your plan, product cost, price, and Shopify fees to see your actual margin per sale before you list.