Prerequisites
- A product or idea you intend to sell online
- A rough estimate of your expected monthly order volume
"Shopify costs $25 a month" is true and misleading in equal measure. The subscription is the part you see; the fees attached to every order are the part that determines whether your margin survives.
Here's the full picture, with Shopify's own published numbers.
The Plans
| Plan | Paid monthly | Paid yearly | Third-party transaction fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | $25/mo | $19/mo | 2% |
| Grow | $65/mo | $49/mo | 1% |
| Advanced | $399/mo | $299/mo | 0.6% |
| Plus | from $2,300/mo | — | 0.2% |
Shopify also advertises a 3-day free trial, then $1/month for 3 months, which is genuinely useful for testing whether a store idea works before committing.
ℹ️ Good to Know
The annual discount is meaningful — Basic drops from $25 to $19, about $72 a year. But it commits you for twelve months. Take it once you know the store works, not while you're still deciding whether to keep it.
The Fee Most People Miss
Look at the right-hand column again. That third-party transaction fee is charged on top of card processing, on every order, and it applies only if you use a payment provider other than Shopify Payments.
On Basic that's 2% of every sale.
Work it through on a store doing $5,000/month:
| Using Shopify Payments | Using a third-party provider | |
|---|---|---|
| Basic plan | $25 | $25 |
| Third-party fee (2%) | $0 | $100 |
| Extra per month | — | $100 |
| Extra per year | — | $1,200 |
That $1,200 is four times the annual cost of the plan itself. It is easily the most expensive decision in the Shopify pricing table, and it's presented as a footnote.
⚠️ Warning
This fee is why "which payment provider should I use" is not a minor setup detail on Shopify. If Shopify Payments is available in your country and supports your business type, using anything else needs to be a deliberate, costed decision — not a default you drifted into.
What the Plan Price Doesn't Include
Budget for these on top:
Card processing on every sale. Separate from the third-party fee above, and charged regardless of which plan you're on. Rates vary by plan tier and by country, so check Shopify's pricing page for your region rather than trusting a number from any article — including this one.
Apps. The single most underestimated line. Reviews, email, subscriptions, upsells, and inventory tools are mostly paid monthly, and a modest stack of five apps at $15–30 each can quietly exceed your plan cost.
Your domain. Small, but real.
POS Pro, if you sell in person — $89/month per location.
Themes. Free themes are genuinely usable; paid ones are a one-off cost, not recurring.
Choosing a Tier Honestly
Basic suits almost every new store. The higher tiers mainly buy lower transaction fees and more advanced reporting, neither of which matters at low volume.
The upgrade maths is arithmetic, not ambition. Moving from Basic to Grow costs $40/month more and cuts the third-party fee from 2% to 1%. If you're on a third-party provider, that upgrade pays for itself at around $4,000/month in sales. If you use Shopify Payments, the transaction-fee saving is worth nothing to you and you should upgrade only for the features.
💡 Pro Tip
Before upgrading, check which of the two things you're actually buying: lower fees or better features. Store owners routinely upgrade for the fee reduction while on Shopify Payments, where that reduction does not apply to them at all.
Is It Worth It Against the Alternatives?
Depends entirely on what you're selling.
For physical products at volume, Shopify's per-order costs are competitive and the platform does a great deal for you.
For digital downloads, the monthly subscription is hard to justify at low volume. Marketplace and creator platforms take a percentage but charge nothing monthly, so they win until your sales are large enough that a percentage exceeds a flat fee.
For books specifically, a storefront competes with Amazon KDP's distribution rather than its economics — a different calculation, covered in our KDP royalties guide.
The general rule: flat monthly fees beat percentages once volume is high; percentages beat flat fees while you're small. Work out your own crossover point rather than following anyone's recommendation.
✅ Action Step
Before subscribing, add up all of it for your expected volume: plan + card processing + third-party fee if applicable + apps. Compare that against the same sales on a marketplace. Do it at your realistic first-year volume, not the volume you hope for — that's the number that decides whether the store survives long enough to reach the optimistic one.
Where to Verify Any of This
Plan prices and third-party transaction fees above come from Shopify's own pricing page, linked below. Card processing rates differ by plan and country and change periodically, so confirm the current figures for your region on that page before budgeting.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does Shopify cost per month?
Shopify's Basic plan is $25/month paid monthly or $19/month paid annually. Grow is $65/month or $49 annually, Advanced is $399/month or $299 annually, and Plus starts at $2,300/month. Shopify also advertises a 3-day free trial followed by $1/month for 3 months.
What is Shopify's third-party transaction fee?
If you use a payment provider other than Shopify Payments, Shopify charges an extra transaction fee on every order: 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced and 0.2% on Plus. Using Shopify Payments avoids this fee entirely.
Is the annual Shopify plan worth it?
Paying yearly cuts Basic from $25 to $19 a month, which is about $72 a year. The saving is real, but it commits you for twelve months — worth taking only once you know the store works, not on day one.
Does Shopify charge fees on top of the monthly plan?
Yes. Beyond the plan price you pay card processing on every sale, plus the third-party transaction fee if you don't use Shopify Payments, plus any paid apps and your domain. The plan price is rarely the whole bill.
Sources & Further Reading
Every factual claim in this guide is drawn from primary, authoritative sources. Figures reflect the referenced pages at the time of our last review and can change — always confirm current terms on the official site.
- 1Shopify pricing plans — Shopify
- 2Amazon KDP eBook Royalties — Amazon KDP Help
- 3PayPal Merchant Fees (US) — PayPal
- 4The FTC's Endorsement Guides: What People Are Asking — Federal Trade Commission
EarnRoutes Editorial
Researched and fact-checked against primary sources
Compiled from Shopify's published pricing page. Every plan price and third-party transaction fee quoted here is stated by Shopify itself, linked in the source list below. Card processing rates vary by plan and country, so the guide points you to Shopify's own page rather than quoting a figure that may not apply to you.
Last reviewed on September 2, 2026